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Do you have a food blog? Or do you own a food business and want to launch a blog?
If so, you may have seen the movie “Julie & Julia” and are jealous of the success of Julie Powell’s food blog.
Are you trying to find THE brilliant idea which will make you as famous as she became?
If so, you’re not alone. I am convinced that lots of people have the same dream. But with millions of food bloggers around the world, those success stories are few. There are probably more stories of enthusiastic bloggers who end up abandoning their blog, disappointed by the lack of audience and impact!
So, why was SHE so successful?
After all, publishers tried to replicate the success of her book by signing book deals with other bloggers – without success -.
In my opinion, here are 10 KEYS to her food blog success:
- Suspense: I genuinely believe that one of the most important reasons for her success is the fact that her readers were all wondering how the story would end. Was she going to succeed? Will she be able to make 524 recipes in 365 days?
- Defined time: 365 days. Millions of people write blogs, many write well, many are funny, so none of us cannot read thousands of blogs every day! But can we keep up with the suspense of the “Julie/Julia Project” for 365 days? Sure, we can! And that is part of the attractiveness of her blog, I believe.
- Popular topic: Do you have more cooking books at home than you need? Of course! We all do! Cooking is one of those life fascinations. A passion for many, it is part of all our lives at a very emotional level. So there is no doubt that cooking can attract a broad audience and lots of blog readers!
- Power of ‘Julia Child’s’ brand: Certainly, Julie’s blog would not have been as popular if she had chosen to imitate a person less famous than Julia Child. Selecting Julia Child’s book made the challenge more fascinating, and maybe some of her web traffic even came from people searching for Julia Child’s recipes or cooking books.
- Originality: Popularity is not enough; you need to be different! Lots of people write about food, but Julie’s blog WAS unique. She was not discussing recipes or products. She was experimenting, testing every recipe from a famous cookbook writer – one day at a time!
- Human connection and vulnerability: Can you relate to Julie? Does she have weaknesses like all of us? Failures? Breakdowns? Doubts? Imperfections? Of course! Does she cook perfectly? Is she a chef? Of course not! And the way we can relate so well to Julie is key to our interest in reading her blog.
- Visibility: Despite all this, Julie’s blog did not get seriously noticed before the New York Times had a feature article about it. If you want your blog to be successful, sitting down and writing is not enough. Get out there and make yourself known! It’s vital. Maybe write a guest blog on an established blog or on Medium.
- Writing skills: Julie is a writer. Many people would say that it is the reason for her success. I am sure it helped her, but I don’t believe it’s enough. Many people probably write better than she does and don’t have her success!
- Perseverance: Perseverance is a must. Don’t give up too soon! Overnight success won’t happen. Julie was successful because she stuck with it!
- Timing: Julie wrote her popular blog in 2002. With millions of food blogs online since 2002, I am not sure that she could be quite as successful today. Having the right timing helps!
So, if you are thinking about launching a food blog as part of your online marketing tactics, I hope that this blog post gave you some ideas of “things to explore.”
Don’t hesitate to share with us your thoughts about Julie & Julia or your own blogging experience in the comments below.
To buy the book, visit Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
For the video, visit Julie & Julia