A Three-eee Blog Tour ... The webby started getting rough, the mighty net was lost ...

A little something I'm working on. You'll read about it later.

If not for the courage of our fearless blogs, the food world would be lost.

So ... if you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Stop thinking that I'm drinking while blogging. Because I'm not. Really.

If you do know what I'm referring to, Professor, read on as I offer a tour of a few blogs I think you might like.

This whole adventure started when my friend Linda asked me to join a blog tour.

The concept is simple. First, she writes about me and two other blogs. Then, we three pick three more blogs. And they pick three blogs.

And pretty soon everyone knows everyone else, and world peace is achieved.

Linda blogs at Seasons to Seasonings, and she wrote nice stuff about me here. I first met her at ... uh ... uh ... hmmm ... somewhere online. There wasn't an actual AHA moment where we were introduced, or not that I can recall. We just sort of moved in the same currents and bumped into each other now and then, like icebergs in the night.

Or something nautical like that. And then, like strangers at a cocktail party, we started chatting. One of the really fun Facebook groups that Linda and I belong to is 37 Cooks. I'll bet you'll never guess how many people are in the group.

It's really hard, right?

So, Linda and I and the other 35 people have a group blog called ... you'll never guess! It's called 37 Cooks! Wow, it's like ... numbers. Math. Scary stuff.

Boo!

So, now I'm supposed to answer questions about myself. Let's see how this goes...

What am I working on?

Well, I'm done writing my book, and I'm gearing up for promoting it, beginning in October and November. I'm thinking about a new book. Seriously thinking. It will not, however, be a sequel called Bake a Head Bread: 100 recipes for breads that look like famous beheaded people.

In my spare time, I started a new blog that focuses on cooking tools, gadgets, cookware, small appliances, and all sorts of whatnot that isn't recipes. And I'm doing giveaways. Lots and lots of giveaways. So if you want free stuff, you might want to subscribe over there, to make sure you get notified when something new goes up for grabs.

The impetus for starting the new blog was that my Gadgets blog over on Serious Eats got morphed into something different, but I decided I loved the gadget reviews too much to stop doing them.

Seriously, some people think these reviews are great because I get a lot of stuff I can use. Which is sometimes true. But really, I just like playing with new stuff. It's fun to see if it works, how it works, and if I can break it.

So I decided that the gadget reviews had to LIVE. So I started a blog to hold all of them.

What's one more blog to write? Easy peasy. Crazy daisy. Whatever.

How does my work differ than others of its genre?

It's a food gadget. Really.

Um ... I don't really study other blogs or writers. I read them randomly and sporadically, but I tend not to read a lot of one all at once, or I tend to become a sponge and pick up other people's styles. So it's much better for me to leap about like a drop of water on a hot cast iron pan. Ouch!

So I guess I really don't know why I'm different, except that I'm me. I write what I want to write because it interests me, or it amuses me, or it's fun, or I'm hungry and this is what I had for lunch.

And ... the gadget thing is just ... me playing with toys. Pure, unadulterated fun.

So, I like bread baking a lot, and I like baking sweets a lot more than I like eating sweet baked goods. I love salads but don't write about them as much as I eat them. I make a lot of ice cream in the summer and a lot of soup in the winter. And I'm really bad at taking photos of meat loaf.

That's really all you need to know about me, right? Oh. Wait. There are more questions. Sigh.

Why do I write what I do?

Did I mention fun? Yeah, that's pretty much it.

How does my writing process work?

Never store the predator cookies with the prey cookies.

I don't know if it actually does work. Some days are all about cooking, and making a huge mess in the kitchen.

Other days are all about writing. I get started and I don't stop and suddenly it's 2 a.m.

Some days it's cook-and-write.

Some days the light is just right and I take photos of everything. Other days, I wait for the light to get perfect, and I barely have time to snap a few shots I absolutely need.

Most mornings are email and a lot of evenings are spent looking at photos, cropping and adjusting.

Mostly, it's chaos.

I managed to write a cookbook while mostly keeping up with my blog, and being the editor of a monthly newspaper, and writing a couple columns for other people. So apparently things get done. Somehow.

Fairy dust and magic wands may or may not be involved.

I can guarantee that sometimes lack of sleep is very much involved.

Drumroll, please!

Thankfully, this is not all about me, so it's about to get less boring.

The three bloggers (and their blogs) I chose to tell you about are about as different from each other as you can imagine: Dana from The Kitchen Witch, Janet from From Cupcakes to Caviar and Ramona from Curry and Comfort.

The Kitchen Witch

Oddball Tomato Salad from The Kitchen Witch

I knew Dana on Facebook before I knew she lived in my neighborhood. And I know this is going to sound daft, but it took me a while to connect her Facebook self with her blog self. I knew both of them, but I just didn't tie the knot for the longest time. Just call me dafty duck.

Honestly, I don't even have a clue how I first met Dana on Facebook; she probably said some smart-aleck thing in response to something I posted, and the next thing you know, she's on my friends list. And then when my husband was in the hospital and she invited me out to lunch, I was like, uh ... you live near me? Why have we never met?

And then later, she invited poor, sad, lonely me to her house for Thanksgiving dinner, where I suddenly became some kind of sixteenth-cousin, twice removed. It was like I belonged there. Or at least I didn't smell funny and they let me stay and have some food.

Dana's blog is funny as heck, peppered with crazy stuff about her family, recipes, kids, funny recipe titles, the swear jar, tidbits of this and that. And she's a damned good writer who has absolutely no problem making fun of herself, in so many different ways. I think that's what I like best about her.

And, although she's not a baker, she's got a recipe for a stunning chocolate cake on her site. Okay, she stole it from an exchange student who came to visit. But it's French cake, people. It's got to be good!

It's worth a read. Go, see.

From Cupcakes to Caviar

Lemon/Lime Pudding Cake from From Cupcakes to Caviar

Janet ... ah, Janet. She's another one that crept up on me stealthily. I knew her through mutual friends, but it took a while before we got around to talking about food blogs. It was like ... we liked the same stuff, she has a wicked sense of humor, and she kept showing up in different groups I'm in.

Just popping in here and there. Whack-a-Janet. Whoops, she's over there now!

After chatting on Facebook for nearly forever, I found out that Janet was a blogger. I mean, there are some people (like me) who are all over the place with their blog, talking about what they made, the photos they took, they food they ate, the things the blew up in the kitchen.

Janet is a lot more ... normal ... on Facebook. I mean, she talks about stuff like her kids.

But eventually, I found out she was a blogger. Then I found out she was a food blogger ... which sort of explained why she kept showing up in food blogger groups. And, she has a non-food blog, too, called You Have How Many Kids? (Wow, a non-food blog ... what other incredible things could there be on the Internet? The mind boggles.)

Janet's food blog is called From Cupcakes to Caviar. Which is a totally cool name, despite the fact that there don't seem to be any caviar cupcakes at all. But she does have Salted Caramel Cheesecake Brownies, so I guess that makes up for ... well, just about everything.

Curry and Comfort

Mini cheesecakes with strawberries from Curry and Comfort

I can tell you exactly where I "met" Ramona. Maybe not when, but I met her in one singular place - a Facebook group for people who are in the blogger program for Good Cook. Although we're both food bloggers, we never really bumped into each other except in that one group.

Which seems crazy. Although there are bazillions of people on Facebook, it seems like people flow in tides (ooh, more nautical references!) and swim together in flocks. (Flocks?! Herds...? Gaggles .... Googles ...? Whatever...)

But the thing is that I tend to see the same people I know show up here and there in different places. In a food blog group, or a cookbook group, or a random food-related group, or a photography group, or a vaguely food-oriented group. If I know someone in one group, chances are that they'll show up in at least one other group.

But thus far, either Ramona's been very quiet online, or we've only docked together in that one single Facebook group. But every time I see her, I think, "Wow, that's a really nice blog you have there!"

And just for the record, I didn't choose Ramona for this because her blog name (sort of) has my last name in it. I chose her because her photos are always pretty and her recipes are interesting. Based on her blog's name, you might think she writes a lot about curries (the food, not my family) but she doesn't.

Instead, Ramona's blog is pretty eclectic, and you won't find things that are on everyone else's blog. That's probably what I like best - it's unique, and interesting, and ... off the beaten path (outside the usual river road? ... nah, too much of a stretch) and always something I'd want to eat.

I really liked the idea of the lasagna-stuffed bell peppers that Ramona made recently. You can't tell me that's something you've seen on 1001 blog this week, right? And they look really good!

So that wraps it up. Check out these blogs, and see who they choose to feature. I'm sure you'll find someone new and interesting!

Yum

Resolving Issues with #SocialPower

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Social Power. All opinions are 100% mine.

Social networking has great power - but sometimes it has no teeth.

There's a new concept that might change that, and it's called Social Power. The idea is that you can post an issue that you're passionate about, and if 1000 people agree that your issue is important, Social Power will work to resolve the issue.

Here's how it works:

I think this is could be a game-changer for bloggers. I see the same issues raised in the blogging community over and over. But since it's one blogger at a time, the issues never get enough traction to get the attention of the entities who could help to solve the problems.

Most of these things aren't interesting to our readers. They aren't important to our readers. So we talk amongst ourselves - and maybe there are a lot of us talking - but we don't have the influence or the resources or the knowledge to get our problems solved. And we don't all have the same concerns at the same time.

But on Social Power, everyone doesn't need to get onboard at the same time. Those 1000 people agreeing don't have to band together. They don't need to do anything except agree that there is a problem. They don't need to write emails, send letters, or congregate in one place. They can make a difference simply by agreeing that a problem exists.

Just to see how this works, I created my own issue on Social Power about copyright violations on Facebook. Recently it's become a big issue in the food blogging community. It's not an unsolveable problem, but individual bloggers don't have a lot of influence when knocking on Facebook's door.

Perhaps Social Power is the answer. At least it's worth a try.

But it's not all about bloggers and our problems. Not at all. The issues posted so far range from local issues about public transportation, to getting certain fast-food restaurants to deliver, to addressing expired foods at grocery stores. Anyone can post an issue and try to drum up support.

Maybe you care about copyright violations on Facebook, or maybe you don't, but if you enjoy the blogs you read and you'd like to see your favorite bloggers spending productive time creating recipes, taking photos, and writing new posts instead of filing DMCA forms on Facebook, then "like" my issue and let's see if we can get this resolved.

We don't want to stop people from sharing our recipes on Facebook, we just want people to share in a way that's legal. And polite. And that benefits everyone involved.

And while you're over at Social Power, take a look at the other issues. Like the ones you support, or create your own issue. We've all got gripes. Maybe yours will be the first one that gets solved.

We all have issues. Some of us have subscriptions.

Let's give social networking some teeth, and see what can get done.

Yum

Can we talk about SHARING?

Please don't steal my dog.

Sharing is always good, right?

You're probably not aware of it, but there's been a bit of a kerfluffle on Facebook regarding some pages that are sharing recipes from food blogs.

When conversations arise on these sites about why these sorts of shares are not right, people will often jump into the fray and say, "Didn't your mother teach you that sharing is good!?"

Well, yes, but ...

Imagine this scenario. Your child looks out the window and sees that the little girl next door has a lot of people in the back yard, laughing, playing on swings, and having a good old time. Your child asks if he can go over there.

Well, sure, honey, if you're invited.

The gate is wide open, and your child is welcomed. When he comes home that evening he says that the little girl next door baked cupcakes and invited everyone over to share the cupcakes. And she's going to be making more cupcakes tomorrow and the next day.

Photo courtesy of Rachel Cooks.

And he says, "Can, I do that, too, mom?"

Well, sure.

So the next day, your son goes next door - the gate is open, remember, and the cupcakes are being freely shared - and he brings all the freshly-baked cupcakes home and invites a whole bunch of people over to enjoy the cupcakes.

You have a crowd in your back yard, and your son is very happy. He makes plans for future parties that will be even better.

But now the little girl is looking out her window and wondering why no one is coming over to visit. She looks sad. She sees the crowd in your back yard and climbs the fence. "These look like my cupcakes," she says.

"No, they're not your cupcakes any more," your son says. "You shared them with me and now I'm sharing them with all these people. They don't have to come visit you any more because I have your cupcakes, and I have lemonade from the stand on the corner and I have cookies from that kid three doors down, and later on I will get hot dogs and hamburgers from the guy across the street who is always grilling."

And then to sweeten the pot, he has moved a swing set and pool into your back yard, and there is a brand new basketball hoop out front and a whole array of balls, bats, mitts, hockey sticks, and roller skates in a big pile.

Would you be pleased?

Probably not.

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Days.

So you have a conversation with your son, and he says, "I'm not really good at baking, but I'm really good at sharing. All these kids wanted their food shared with the neighborhood, and moms are always telling us to share our toys, so I'm helping all these kids share!"

And all around the neighborhood, children are looking out their windows, wondering where their cupcakes and cookies and toys went to, and they why no one is in their back yard any more.

The guy who lost his hot dogs and hamburgers is just all-out angry and stalking though the neighborhood with a barbecue fork in his hand looking for the culprit.

And when the children go to school, they hear other kids talking about these great cookies and lemonade and cupcakes, but no one thanks them for making the cupcakes and cookies and lemonade because all the kids are talking about the little boy who gave them the food. What a great guy he is!

Do you see how unfair that is?

Wouldn't it have been better if the little boy didn't steal all the food and toys, but instead he organized a tour of the neighborhood, where he brought friends over to the cupcake girl and introduced them, and then he showed them where the lemonade stand was and where the cookie-baker lived?

She will share Tiger, but you can't take him home.

Maybe the guy with the burgers doesn't want to share at all, but there's nothing wrong with knocking on the door and asking politely.

See, that's what was going on with the pages on Facebook. They were publishing photos and recipes from a great number of blogs without asking permission.

Since the recipes were published in full, there was no reason for anyone to visit the original bloggers. Sometimes there would be a link to the original blog, but often there would be no acknowledgement at all.

Bloggers stumbled upon these Facebook sites when they saw their own recipes coming through their news feed from unknown sources. Or friends notified them.

Then a lot of bloggers got mad. Some left messages on those Facebook pages, some filed DMCA reports, and some just curled up in a ball of hurt.

There were some people who thought the bloggers were jealous, whiny troublemakers. Some honestly didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

There are always arguments that a link is good enough, even if a recipe is published in full because, "if I see something I like, I'd go to your blog to see what else you have."

Photo courtesy of Vintage Kitchen.

As bloggers, we know that is not true for the vast majority of people. Most people will see one recipe on a page, then move on to the next recipe on the same page, and then the next. They won't click to see the original blog, because there are plenty of recipes to look without ever leaving that one Facebook page.

It's good for the page, but not for the bloggers who created the recipes.

On some of those Facebook pages, there were recipes that had been shared hundreds-of-thousands of times. One very popular recipe had been shared over 900,000 times on Facebook, but the blogger saw no increase in blog traffic.

We bloggers are not greedy or selfish. We open our doors and invite you in and give you our recipes that you can use, print, or copy for your own use. We invite you to share links. We don't want to lock down our blogs with copy-deterrent software that will make it difficult for our fans.

But we do not expect you to walk out with the silverware and the mixer and the dog.

Photo courtesy of From Cupcakes to Caviar.

If you want to SHARE a recipe, please do not publish the whole recipe. Tweet a link on Twitter, pin a photo on Pinterest, stumble a post, link or like on Facebook, put links on message boards - we LOVE that sort of sharing.

Please note that some bloggers do not want their images shared without explicit permission. Personally, I'm fine with having an image shared if you link to the blog post it came from.

But when you republish an entire recipe, there is no reason for anyone to come and visit us in our own home. We like meeting new friends and sharing with them. We get lonely when our visitors go away.

We bloggers get very frustrated when we work hard on recipes and it seems like no one stops by to see them or leave comments, particularly when we see those recipes becoming popular without us. We get hungry when someone has stolen all of our cupcakes. And the dog would have a hard time adjusting to a new home.

It doesn't hurt anyone to share correctly. YOU still look like a genius for finding a great recipe, and WE get to make new friends.

Sharing my cupcakes.

I know that someone out there is forming the argument that cupcakes have a value that is lost when the cupcakes are stolen from the owner, but republishing recipes from blogs does not harm the owner financially.

But in many cases it does.

Many bloggers have ads on their sites which pay the blogger a teeny amount for every person who visits the site.

One less visit isn't a big deal, but in the case of a recipe that is shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook - well, those visits to a blog could be a significant payment for a blogger.

Or at least enough to buy some fancy new ingredients to blog about.

And some bloggers aspire to work with big-name brands or maybe even write a cookbook some day. Those brands and publishers want to work with bloggers who are popular. They don't care if a recipe has been shared on Facebook a biz-quintillion times. They want to know how many people visited the blog.

Every visit that is funneled away from a blog and captured by another site is money or opportunity lost for that blogger. Meanwhile, other sites are profiting from the work done by bloggers.

Please share responsibly.

Even bloggers who don't have financial motives are losing out when recipes are shared in full. We read comments on those sites that say, "Oh, your macaroni strudel meatloaf pie is amazing! We LOVE YOU!!! Post more of YOUR yummy recipes!"

We feel sad and hurt because the person who posted our full recipe is getting the accolades and we're not even getting a nod in the hallway for creating the recipe, writing the blog post, and taking the pretty photos.

There are legal reasons why you shouldn't share full recipes, which I've already discussed here and here. I just wanted you to know why we get sad and hurt and angry when we see someone else publishing our work. Please share a link to this post, if you feel it's appropriate. And visit the bloggers who graciously allowed me to use their cupcake photos.

More reading: http://diannej.com/blog/2013/04/food-bloggers-fight-firestorm-of-abusive-facebook-pages

Yum

Reviews, sponsored posts, and why it matters

Reviews, recipe development, sponsored posts ... as a blogger, I get offers for all sorts of opportunities. As a reader, do you know what the differences are?

Does it matter?

I think it does matter. Reviews and sponsored posts are very different things, at least to me. Other people might have different ideas. And that's fine, too.

I have to admit it's good to make some money from this blog. But I don't take every opportunity that comes along. If it doesn't seem right, I refuse it. And I get a lot of offers that are just plain wrong.

Reviews

Reviews are ... well, they're reviews of products. In the world of print, reviewers get products from the publications they write for and have no contact with the company they're writing about. That way, the review is as unbiased as possible. Bloggers don't have that same setup. The reviewer is the publication, so there is a relationship with company. It's a little harder to be completely unbiased.

I try really hard to be unbiased in my reviews. I don't take money from a company for writing a review of their product, but I often get the product for free. And I disclose that in my review.

When products arrive here for review, I have the option of writing about them, or not. I am not obligated to write nice things. However, I tend not to write negative reviews, simply because I don't agree to accept things that I know I wouldn't like. If someone offered me a lifetime supply of coconut, I'd refuse. If someone offered a lifetime supply of chocolate, I'd write about it. A lot.

That's not to say that all of my reviews are positive. Most of them include pros and cons, because most products do have cons. And some reviews, like this one, are mostly not-good - I think the photos tell the tale best. I gave my opinions, but I know that some people might love the product, so that's what I said.

Some of my reviews - many of them, in fact - are republished from other sources who pay me for my work, just like in the olden days of print publications.

Mike and Ike: A Review

One of the most recent items I got for review was some Mike and Ike candy - the Lem and Mel version and the Cherri and Bubb. Both of those are retro, brought back for a short period of time.

To be honest, I don't remember either of them.

Lem and Mel is lemon and watermelon. Lemon was as expected. Lemony. Not super-tart, but also not crazy sweet. Watermelon ... hmmm ... I don't think I would have picked it out as watermelon. I liked it, though. I mean, it's candy, not gourmet food.

Cherry was pretty good. I like cherry-flavored candy. Ah, but the bubblegum! I don't chew much gum, so the bubblegum flavor made me happy. I had the flavor without all the chewing. No bubbles, though. But that's okay.

I've been munching on these things since they arrived. They're pretty addictive, but one or two is enough of a little flavor burst and then I move on. And that makes me happy, too.

Recipe Development

Sometimes a company will say, "we want you to write some recipes for us," and I receive something for this service. Money is nice. When I am doing recipe development, I am not reviewing the products in question, nor am I endorsing them. I'm simply using them to create a recipe.

In many cases, the recipe could easily be made with a different brand. In some cases, the product is unique.

My posts for Fooducopia are all about recipe development.

Sponsored Posts

A sponsored post means that a company is offering me something in exchange for writing a post. Often that "something" is cash, but it might also be products. Sponsored posts can contain elements of other categories. For example, some sponsors might require a recipe.

Since a sponsor is giving me something in exchange for my posts, and I'm obligated to post, I wouldn't take a sponsorship for a product I didn't like. And I'm perfectly willing to give pros and cons of products, because none of them are perfect, and my posts are my opinion.

In this sponsored post, I pointed out that one item was a little too sweet for my taste, but that's the one my husband liked best. I'd never tell you that I loved a product if I didn't.

Some sponsored posts aren't looking for talk about the product itself, but are looking for posts about concepts like memories or mood. This one, for example, was more about memories than the product itself.

Blogger Programs & Brand Ambassadors

Blogger programs (sometimes referred to as brand ambassadorships) are somewhat like sponsored posts, except that the relationship is long-term. A sponsored post is a one-time thing, but a blogger program might last six months or a year, with multiple posts over that period of time.

The benefits of being in a long-term program is that the blogger really gets to know the brand and its products. The details of what a blogger gets and what the brand expects vary a lot, depending on the program, and just like any other relationship, that should be disclosed* within the post or at the end.

If I'm going to sign on to do something like that, for sure I'm going to be selective and only work with products I love, because we're going to be in a relationship for quite some time.

The Republic of Tea: I'm on the TEAm! (A blogger program)

Recently, I got an offer to become part of The Republic of Tea TEAm, which means I'll get getting a lot of tea products from The Republic of Tea, and I'll be posting about tea. Over the next six months, there will be four required posts, including some recipes.

*The disclosure here is: "I'll get getting a lot of tea products from The Republic of Tea..."

The first box I got included four different teas, plus some tea tongs - little bamboo tongs meant for removing a teabag from a hot cup of tea. It also included some instructions for how to brew different types of tea. So that's good. My posts will be a little bit educational. And I also plan on doing some recipes.

It's gonna be pretty awesome. Look for the first of the sponsored posts coming soon.

The benefit to you (besides a bunch of tea talk) is that The Republic of Tea will have special offers for my readers each month. Through March 8, you can receive a complimentary Cheerful Cuppa tea mug when you make a purchase from The Republic of Tea when you use the promo code #COOKISTRY.

Paid Endorsements

Product endorsements are probably not something you'll see from me. Those are things like having your photo on the front of the Wheaties box. Some day, I'd like to endorse a new car. But I doubt that's gonna happen any time soon.

Other Free Bloggy Stuff

Sometimes bloggers get little gifts that have little or nothing to do with the products they're writing about. Spatulas, aprons, key chains, magnets ... those sometimes show up. Just for fun. Awwww.

Like the creamers, above. I had an agreement to do a sponsored post for International Delights Iced Coffee, and it was written and ready to go when these creamers appeared here as a little extra something. (It has since been posted, here.)

Sometimes swag gets handed out at events. Bloggers aren't expected to (or obligated to) write about such things, but often they do. And companies know that. I mean, we're bloggers. We're looking for things to write about. If a product falls in our lap, there's a good chance we'll write about it sooner or later.

Bloggers are new media - expect them to be different

Bloggers are not print media, and they don't operate by the same rules. I'm fine with that. I like the idea that if there's a product I'm curious about, I can write to the company, and maybe they'll send it to me. I don't have to risk my own money on something that I might not like.

On the other hand, I'll admit that it's hard to be completely objective. I've gotten to know some company reps and PR people, and I like them. We're not exactly hanging out together and having beers at the pub, but we're friendly. I don't want to be mean to their products. That's why I don't accept anything that I don't think I'll like.

Sometimes the lines between sponsored posts and reviews gets a little blurred. I'm okay with that, too, because blogging is a new media, at least compared to print. And the rules are still being written. I can't speak for other bloggers, but I try very very hard to not be swayed by the freebies, the million-dollar checks (hahaha - I think I just sprained something from laughing so hard) and the really nice products that I receive. Because no matter what a company sends, I want to be honest with my readers. You guys deserve that.

How many is too many?

I've seen some criticism of bloggers who do "too many" sponsored posts. I'm not sure what constitutes too many, but I think that's up to the individual blogger. There are some blogs that are nothing but sponsored posts, and they're quite popular. Other blogger never do sponsored posts and they're also popular..

I like sponsored posts. And it's not just the money or the freebies. I like being on the "inside track" with food and media companies. I like being one of the first to hear about new products. I like to test and sample and write about things that haven't been written about by every blogger on the planet.

And yes, the income is nice. It helps pay bills and it puts food on the table.

*Disclosures

When bloggers are working with companies, the blogger is supposed to disclose that information. Sometimes you'll see that disclosure at the end of a post, and sometimes it will be within the post itself. Either way is legal, as long as it's clear.

If a blogger says, "I got some cheese," it's not clear whether the blogger bought the cheese with their own money or whether the cheese was shipped to them by the company. That's not a good disclosure. It should say, "The company sent me coupons to purchase the cheese," or "The company sent me cheese to work with," or some other wording that makes it clear that the blogger didn't pay for the product.

The blogger doesn't have to disclose the value of the exchange, just that it occurred. So that cheese could be a quarter-pound or it could be a whole wheel. I often do disclose exactly what I got from a company, sometimes by showing photos of the products as in the photo of the products from The Republic of Tea or this post where I showed the cheese products I received. But that detail isn't required.

Some companies provide the language for the disclosure while others rely on the blogger to do the right thing.

While I think disclosures are a great thing, I think most readers are smart enough to spot when writers aren't being genuine. So if a post sounds like it was copied verbatim from a press release and a disclosure at the bottom says, "All opinions are my own," I think most people would spot that a mile away. With or without a formal disclosure, the content is supposed to be truthful. The disclosure is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You can't say your opinions are your own while copying a press release that talks about the deliciousness of the product.

Some bloggers like to hide their disclosures in teeny-tiny print or they say things in ways that make it unclear whether a meal might have been free or not. I really don't see why they're shy about that. Thus far, no one has offered me a kazillion dollars to write about their product, but if they did, I'm pretty sure my post would say, "Oh, wow, look at this suitcase full of money that I got for writing about this product!"

As far as readers go, recently I've read some conversations where some people said they prefer to see the disclosure near the beginning of the post, so they know as soon as they start reading that the blogger received a product, a meal, a free trip, or a bundle of cash.

I often put my disclosure within the posts (where it fits naturally in the flow of the article), saying that I received a product or was given a free meal as part of a blogger group - whatever is appropriate for the situation. If a company requires a specific disclosure or it makes more sense in terms of the flow of the post, I'll put a disclosure at the end. Sometimes it's in both places.

But no matter where the disclosure is, my opinions are MY opinions, and not something that's been fed to me by a company. I might quote from their fact sheet for nutritional information, but my likes and dislikes are all my own.

It's good for you, too!

If I can write about new products, it allows my readers to find out about them, too. When I sample them and I describe them (using words other than "yummalicous") maybe you'll get an idea of whether you'll like the product or not. I don't like overly sweet things, but maybe you do. I like spicy foods, but maybe you don't. Even when I'm giving an opinion, I try to include a useful description so you can decide for yourself.

Because my opinion is my own. Yours may be different.

Another reason my relationship with companies is good for you is that quite often they offer things to my readers. Maybe it's a giveaway, maybe it's a discount or a special offer of some kind. Or maybe it's a recipe or a new technique or some inside information. And those things are all good, too.

The bottom line

A lot of bloggers these days are getting offers and freebies and sponsorships from companies. And the one rule we all have to follow is that we have to disclose our "relationship" with the company. When you see a disclosure, it's up to you to decide whether you think the blogger has been influenced or not. And it's up to us bloggers to try as hard as we can to remain un-influenced.

The BOTTOM bottom line

Thanks for supporting me and supporting Cookistry. You guys are why I do this.

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Blogger Tip - get rid of the weird formatting!

I don't usually post "for Blogger bloggers only" things, but I have to make an exception for this one, because it's something that was driving me batty for the longest time. And I know it's something that affects other Blogger-using bloggers as well.

Have you ever copied and pasted from an email or from a Word document or (with permission) from another blog, and ended up with something that didn't match your blog at all? Or, if it looked okay, as soon as you tried to move a paragraph or add something, it all went wonky? Or it looked okay in compost mode, but the spacing changed when you published the post?

That's because Blogger copies the formatting from the original document. You can see what it looks like if you click the HTML button, where you can see the coding that works behind the scenes. If you've copied from another source, there's a LOT of coding, and you don't need most of it.

Click the HTML button on your own Blogger blog to see what the formatting looks like

It's even worse when your source uses special colors or font that doesn't match what's on your blog. Or if someone uses a background color that doesn't match your blog..

AND, that extra formatting can cause other problems. Sometimes it makes it look funny in particular browsers, or on mobile devices.

You could go into HTML mode and strip out all that extra formatting by hand, but that's pretty tedious.

My usual method of fixing the coding was to copy the text and paste it into Notepad, then copy from Notepad and paste that into Compose mode in Blogger. That works just fine, except that it strips out any hyperlinks in the text as well as all the formatting code. If there are one or two links that need to be replaced, it's not such a big deal. But if there are a lot if links, it's annoying and time consuming to put in a bunch of links and then test to make sure you got them right.

Oh, if only there was a way to strip out the formatting, but leave the links!

BUT ... there is!

I don't know why I didn't notice it before, but there's a button that removes all the formatting for you, but leaves in the hyperlinks. So you have to go back and put in bold and italic, if you want it, and you'd have to resize fonts for headlines or subheads, if you do that. And if you want some text centered, you'd have to change that as well. But you end up with a MUCH cleaner post in the background, without any coding that Blogger doesn't understand.

Even better, if you ever need to go into the HTML and change something, YOU don't have any extra formatting that you don't understand.

How do you work this magic? All you do is highlight the text where you want to remove the formatting and click the Remove Formatting button.

Voila, you have plain, unformatted text, but the hyperlinks remain.

See, wasn't that easy?

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