Outside interest: cookery blogging
Q. When did you start writing your blog?
A. Last September I was looking through books of diet recipes and they were mostly plain and boring. I started the blog to record the recipes that I decided to create which are enjoyable to eat. I started off blogging on the Weightwatchers site but now have my own Wordpress site.
Q. How many people read the blog?
A. I have more than 1,000 followers with 100 recipes. I get more than 150 hits a day, and 50 people a week contact me to tell me how much they enjoy it. I am also on Facebook and Instagram.
Q. Where do you get your recipes from?
A. It is a combination. Some are where I take a recipe from somewhere else and adapt it. My most recent one is a Jamie Oliver one which I changed – I always credit the original source. Most of them I have made up myself, though.
Q. Do you get contacted by food firms looking for you to promote their products?
A. Some bloggers do it as a full time job and spend time on marketing and PR. I just do it because I love to cook and prepare evening meals. I have a full time job and can’t spend as much time doing it. However, recently a low fat meat company sent me some free products.
Q. How much time does the blog take up?
A. I try to write about two recipes a week. It probably takes about one day a weekend and two evenings a week. I work between Newcastle and Manchester, which means I have limited time to do it.
Q. Are there any similarities between cooking and town planning?
A. I do the blog to relax after work by getting creative – it is nice to have a change of scene after working at a computer all day. But there are some similarities. I think I bring the methodology of writing planning documents to the structure and organisation of how I explain my recipes.
Visit Laura’s blog at www.skinnykitchensecrets.com