Hi friends!
Today I just wanted to pop in a share a few words about a topic that’s been on my heart lately. Although I know I have a lot of readers who are also bloggers, but this post is mainly for my “regular readers”. All you amazing people out there who don’t blog yourselves, but take the time to read my blog posts, make my recipes, etc.
Sometimes the world of blogging and social media can be tough. There are a lot of bloggers out there and a lot of social media platforms, all of which have constantly-changing algorithms that are hard to figure out and keep up with. It can be hard to get your work seen. And there’s nothing more frustrating than when you work really hard developing and testing a recipe, taking photos and putting it out there, only have people not see it because social media platforms decide not to show it to them.
So I wanted to take a few minutes and let you guys know about some easy ways you can show your appreciation for the bloggers you love. Not just me…but any blogger who you regularly follow and enjoy! It feels a little weird to write this post and I don’t want it to come across in any way as unappreciative or negative. But after thinking about it for a while, I realized that if you’re not in the blogging space, you might just not know exactly how much of a positive impact some of these things can have on the blogs you follow. These are simple things you can do as a reader to help us get our content seen by more people and trust me when I say we appreciate it so much:
Leave a comment. If you make one of our recipes, leave a quick comment on the post! This not only lets us know that people are trying our recipes, but it’s a great place to share substitutions you might have made, how they turned out, how the recipe turned out in general, etc. The feedback is helpful for us, but it’s also great for other readers who might come across the recipe later and have questions about similar substitutions or results. For example, someone made my Carrot Oat Bars the other day and turned them into muffins and said they turned out great. If they left that info in the comments, other people could read it if, perhaps, they were planning to try that as well and wondering if it would work. Or if you try freezing a certain recipe and it comes out great, leave a comment and let us know! We can edit our posts to include all that feedback from readers and help more people in the future!
Rate the recipe! If there’s an option to rate a recipe (ie give it 5 stars) on the blog, do it! It helps show us you liked the recipe and helps show other readers that people are making the recipe and loving it!
Tag and share! If you make one of our recipes or crafts or DIY projects or whatever, share a photo on Instagram and tag us! This helps direct other people, who may follow you, but not us, to our social media platforms and blogs so they can try the recipes and projects for themselves. Or share the link on your Facebook page so your friends can follow the link and check it out!
Engage with new posts! Follow us on social media and when you see our new posts, like them, share them, comment on them! The more people interact with our posts, the more people the social media networks show them to. Similarly, platforms like Instagram have algorithms to show you the content they THINK you want to see. So the more you interact with us, the more likely they are to show you our future content so you don’t miss anything! We love interacting with you guys, love to hear when you try our recipes or are excited to try them and are always happy to answer your questions! Your engagement makes us happy and also helps more people see our content. Win-win!
Use the share buttons. If you’re on Pinterest, pin our photos! Pinterest has become a huge search engine and even if you don’t have thousands of followers, it still helps us a lot when you pin our content and help get it into the mix for others to see! Or you could tweet a recipe or share it on FB! Most of us try to make it really easy by putting share buttons throughout our posts.
Added bonus: sign up for our email lists! If we write a post or recipe you really love, hit forward and send it to a few of your friends to check out.
Blogging takes a lot of work. Yes, some of us make money working with brands, running ads, etc….but we also put a lot of money back into our blogs, just like any businesses owner does! It’s hard to constantly adapt, stay afloat and be seen. We love what we do…and couldn’t do what we do without you guys, the readers. You taking the time to share our posts means the world to us, and also helps ensure we can keep providing the kind of content you love to see from us!
As always, thank you guys so much for your support over the years! I love you all.
–Lindsay–
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Thank you, Lindsay, for going with your gut and writing this post. I am a food blogger “fan girl” for many great food blogs but admit that I don’t do enough to engage with those bloggers or share their work with others.
thanks so much for reading!
Thank yo so much for this post. I have been following you since before squish was born and have made many of your recipes. I was unaware of the ways to support you and your blog and this definitely has me more informed..
Advertisers, this blogger is awesome and worth your investment. 🙂
Thank you for sharing real life and truly attainable, fun and tasty nutrition for our families.
thanks for reading!
Until a couple years ago, I didn’t quite realize that bloggers are PEOPLE… As in individuals, not big corporations (I also didn’t read many blogs so that’s my excuse.) It took me a while to find the RD-mom corner of the internet but I finally did and it’s great. Thanks for the ideas here, it’s good to know what really helps you all!
this whole blogging thing has changed so much and it really breaks my heart 🙁 getting comments or an email is such a rare occurrence anymore so i really treasure that.
Hey Lindsay! How do I rate your recipes? I tried to rate the ones I’ve made: at the top of the recipe, I can see that there are more stars highlighted as I move my cursor from left to right across the stars, but when I click it doesn’t seem to “register” my rating..? Thanks
Thanks Lindsay. & what a great post! I often do not post a comment especially when I try the recipe & make changes for fear of offending. I will from now on.
you definitely won’t offend me!
This is a great post, and one I hope other bloggers will share. We have to all share the love and support those who help us get great ideas for food!
thank you! we appreciate it!
I love this! It makes me sad that commenting on blogs both by bloggers and readers is few and far between. In fact, more people send me an email to ask a question about a recipe these days than leaving a comment. That actually is unfortunate because other people may have the same exact question. Leaving comments and sharing content is helping other people, not just you!
Love this! I was thinking about writing a “women supporting women” post for next week and this one came into my feed. I absolutely love it!
As a follower of several blogs that I love this is so good to know! Thanks for sharing
Very well said! I just started following your blog (after finding one of your recipes on Pinterest) and definitely want to support you (and all my other blogger fav’s). Keep up the great work and looking forward to trying many of your recipes and meal planning ideas soon!
Thanks so much! we appreciate it!
Hi Lindsay! I love this post! Blogging is such an amazing thing — being able to reach people and connect with them. And I think it’s so cool you’ve let readers know what they can do to show some love back to the bloggers they follow. I always wish people would comment on my blog rather than email me questions, but they often say they do email instead for privacy reasons — which I totally get. But then I end up answering questions more than once. Nonetheless, I will share this post! 🙂 Thanks for writing it!
I’m torn on this post. On one hand I see encouraging more reader-blogger interaction. On the other hand, since your blog is your income, it comes across as asking for more likes/shares so you get more sponsored posts. I don’t believe that is your intention but as a reader it does turn me off a little bit. I don’t comment often because I’ve had people attack me (not on your site) for asking questions / having a differing opinion. You seem to have an open mind so I wanted to share my opinion – which is not meant in a mean/judging way.
thanks for sharing your opinion! Like I said, I was torn on writing the post because I didn’t want it to come off that way. I understand where you’re coming from…but at the same time, I decided that there wasn’t anything wrong with educating my readers a little bit about how the blog world works. I’ve been blogging a long time now and have actually cut way back on sponsored posts…I think I’ve only done 2 this year…but I do work hard to provide good (free) content to my readers and also earn an income to provide for my family. If you don’t feel compelled to share in the ways I suggested, that’s totally fine! I just wanted to put it out there for people who may be looking for little things they can do. Thanks for reading!
I guess I knew most of these things but it’s a good reminder! I’ll definitely let you know more often when I’ve made one of your recipes again 🙂 Keep up the good work! I love getting a glimpse into your life and getting some dinner idea’s at the same time!! (PS. actually, one of the reasons I really like your blog is that you post “real” dinner recipes so regularly, not just snacks or pretty looking baked goods!).
haha thank you! would love to hear what you’ve been making. I do have some pretty-looking blueberry beet muffins coming tomorrow but I also have some pizza meatballs coming up!! 🙂
We really enjoyed the BBQ sauce sheet pan meatballs and the chocolate freezer PB cups, and I make the sweet potato & black bean burgers on a regular basis (although I usually tweak the recipe a bit). Sometimes I just get stuck in a bit of a rut with what I make and I’m looking for inspiration (rather than a full recipe to follow). So based on your blog I’ve also started to make crumbed chicken tenders, shrimp curry’s, cooking with chicken mince more etc.! I also just love reading about your day-to-day life with the kids! 🙂
Thank you for all the work you put into this blog Lindsay! I love your recipes and share them with friends all the time.
thank you so much! i appreciate it!
Thank you so much for posting this. I have really done a terrible job of supporting the bloggers that I follow. There are so many awesome food bloggers out there like yourself that there is almost no need to buy a cookbook. Today most of my cooking is done from recipes I save to either Plan to Eat or Pinterest from the bloggers I follow. After reading your article I have started going back to the recipes I have made most recently commenting on the post and pinning it, if it wasn’t already pinned by me. I will be a better blog supporter!
awesome! i’m sure they will appreciate the comments and pins so much!