A Word on Ads

Blackberry Macaroons

So here's the thing. I don't write this blog for the money, and I don't write it for you. I write it for me. Yes, down the line, it would be great if ad revenue was a more substantial part of our household budget, but I'm not planning on quitting my day job any time soon (well, some days I think about it, but that's a different story). Currently, Short & Sweets makes $1-$2 per day from ads. It's not a lot, but it's more than it used to be, and I'm 100% ok with it.

If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed a few more ads on the side than there used to be. If, at any time, you find that an ad is offensive or gets in your way, please, please let me know, and I will work to get rid of it. I don't want the ads to do either of those things. I have some categories of BlogHer ads excluded, and I also can control ads from specific brands/websites if they ever become a problem. I've chosen to increase the number of ads on the side, and there are sometimes ad links in a recipe, but I've made the decision not to use in-text ads (the ones where "reader" might be a link to a bookseller's site, for example) or ads on top of my photos. Those are real options which I think are just too intrusive. The ad links that sometimes appear at the end of a list of ingredients are on probation. I haven't decided yet how I feel about them, so please let me know if you have a strong opinion.

Oatmeal Molasses Whoopie Pies

I have a few different types of ads right now. Some of them pay me when you click on them, and some of the pay me simply when you view the website. I also have some Amazon ads. Amazon ads work a little bit differently. They are what are called "affiliate ads." They don't pay me when you view my blog, and they don't pay me if you click on them. Amazon ads pay me only if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my ads or links. So for example, I have a couple Amazon widgets under the "I'm Craving" headline on the right. If one of those items catches your eye, you click on it, and purchase it, I get a small percentage of your purchase price. You are not charged anything extra, and you won't even see it on your receipt. If, however, you click on something from a widget or from my recommended list of cookbooks (under "I Recommend"), go to Amazon, but ultimately choose to buy a different item, I will still receive a small percentage of your purchase price because you got to Amazon through one of my links.

To be clear, I'm Craving items are not necessarily items that I have or am familiar with. They are simply things that caught my eye. The list of cookbooks under I Recommend are books that grace my own bookshelf and which I like. There is also a banner ad for an Amazon Prime free trial. We have Prime and it's worked well for us.

What does all this mean to you and why am I telling you? Well, I'm mainly telling you so that you know, and so that you know that you should contact me (KatesShortandSweets at gmail dot com) if you ever see an offensive or overly intrusive ad.

But.

I'm also telling you so that you can make the choice to support me, my writing, my recipes, and my contribution to the internet by making Amazon purchases through my links. There's this unwritten feeling that bloggers shouldn't ask for money. But I'm asking - if you like what you read, if you come here to find inspiration and ideas, if one of my recipes has gone into your regular rotation - please support my work without spending an extra cent. If November is the start of the holiday season, it's also the start of the buying season, and so I'm asking you to think about making your dollars go further.

Gingerbread Ice Cream

Food Bloggers of the World, Unite!

Last night, I came across this thought-provoking article via Running to the Kitchen. In her article, Jamie Schler articulates thoughts that I've had, but haven't done much to share.

Schler is 100% right:

Beautifully photographed recipes, which I tend to consider not so much recipes as arts & crafts' instructions, are rampant: meals made from cans and prepackaged sauces, desserts based on boxed cake and brownie mixes, canned frosting, jars of marshmallow fluff and then stuffed or topped with industrial marshmallows and chopped candy bars. Layers of gaudy, day-glo snacks and desserts on more than one high-trafficked, well-known blog feature Twinkies or Oreos as the main ingredient, seemingly now a widespread trend. Call me a food snob, if you will, but I don't get it. Haven't we moved on? Don't we in the food blogging world have the desire and the goal to achieve something healthier, tastier, slightly more elevated than what my own parents made 40 years ago when all of this boxed and packaged stuff was new and exciting? We have knowledge and information at our fingertips, we have time and all the necessary technology so why not use it all towards something a tad more noble?

She's also correct that these so-called recipes are oh-so-alluring. Let's face it: if you browse sites like Tastespotting or FoodGawker, the photos that jump out to catch your eye are often cupcakes and cookies. I click on a lot of dessert submissions, and even though I've admitted to occasionally succumbing to the ease of boxed cake or brownie mix, I always close the tab disgustedly when Cake Batter Truffles turn out to be made from a box of cake mix. I look to cookbooks and food blogs for Real Food. 

Real Food, to me, is created by a person with ingredients that are actually food, rather than modified corn or soy stuff, and, ideally, with foods that are both local and seasonal. Some of the recipes you find here do stretch this definition- these are generally dessert recipes that use vegan butter. I understand there's a trade off for dairy-free butter, so I try not to use it all the time. Cakes made with olive oil are just as good.

As a food blogger, however, and now one that has ads (sorry, folks, I need some income to help support this baking habit!), one goal is to get a lot of visitors, or hits, to my blog. And desserts do that. The recipe posts that got the most traffic last week were Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, Chewy Brownies, and Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes. If I look at the past month, Romesco Sauce breaks into position #2, but all-time stats are right back to sugar: Gingerbread Ice Cream, Valentine Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Applesauce Cookies. What I (humbly) think are some of the best recipes here, like Oatmeal Bread and Avocado Sandwiches, don't even produce a blip.

So the moral of the story, I suppose, is that one of the harder aspects of food blogging, and one that is talked about the least, is the balance between producing simply popular content and producing truly good content. 

So fellow food bloggers, I challenge you to publish more photographs and more recipes for Real Food. Recently, I've been talking more about savory dinners, salads, and bread. I've found it both challenging and satisfying, and I urge you to do the same. 

Readers, what do you think? How do you respond to faux "recipes"? Do you like blogs that have a balanced collection of recipes? Or am I just making a mountain of a molehill? 

(*Like me, do you see "Food Bloggers of the World, Unite" and think of that tshirt with "Bad Spellers of the World, Untie"?)

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want

Although the blogiversary passed this year without much fanfare (unlike last year), I didn't forget about it. I was homeless at the time, which sort of cut down on my ability to celebrate with a new recipe or a giveaway. However, I do want to take a short moment to thank all of you for reading and encouraging me to try new recipes. It's like experimenting in science class, except now I am allowed to eat the results.

As part of my continuing effort to make this blog better and you, dear readers, happier and more satisfied, I've put together a super short survey that I would love for you to take. It's only 10 questions! The definition of short and sweet! You can do it!

Hearing from you about what you think and what you want will help me out. merci beaucoup.

Also, since today is my birthday (weeeeeeeee!), you can consider it part of your present to me. And really, it's Friday: do you seriously want to be doing work?

Soundtrack: Wannabe

It's All a Facade

I, and I suspect many other food bloggers out there, want you, the reader, to believe that I always make my own bread, cinnamon buns, and cake. We want you to trust our authority, make you feel like you can do it all (sometimes feel like you should do it all), believe that the recipes we share with you aren't one time things. They are part of our normal, day-to-day lives, and, gosh darn it, we love it.

But there's a dirty little secret in the world of blogging (or at least my world). Sometimes, we make cupcakes from a mix. {insert astonished intake of breath}

It's shocking, I know.

I'm not super-woman, and sometimes I just want a cupcake. Like now. With very little effort.

Enter: the box.

I do admit to helping the box a little, though. This time I added some almost-ready-to-be-done raspberries and blackberries to my batter. Fruit + cupcake = healthy breakfast. Right? Any type of berries will work, as will chocolate chips, syrups, chopped nuts, and lots of other things your cabinets already hold.

So, please, know that you don't always have to make cupcakes from scratch, and when you do use a mix, dress it up a little and then call it your own, because naming rights are half the battle.