Darcy of artofdrink.com, wrote up a post about the death of cocktail blogging. At least, he meant, the golden times are gone.
The reasons are, that google changed its algorithms- hence it is more difficult to get a first page search hit for smaller websites. Well - I don't want to mirror here Darcy's argumentation. Please feel free to get over to his website and read the whole, well written piece.
Honestly, for me, I can't complain about less readers. As I decided before, that my idea of a blog is more important than the SEO qualities [however was later forced to change this platform] - I always focussed on readers, who are particularly looking for my blog.
And since my blog is now on blogger.com, the numbers exploded - I am still far away of the times of artofdrink.com [Darcy mentioned, that he got 5000 hits per day - I am running on good days around 5% of it] - but I am happy, how things turned out.
If it comes to the stagnation of mixology blogs, I would say, there is one point, which IMHO especially is liable: sustainability and quality. In more than half a decade I am following blogs and blogging myself, I found a lot of blogs trying to be fancy, but lost the real stoney but rewarding path of bartending.
This is not only applying to blogging, but how should the audience choose for a small blog, if it is blogging the same topics as the big platforms as cocktails.about.com?
Fruit martinis? Check. Dessert cocktails? Also. Abundance of vodka drinks? Definitely.
There is one thing more: some popular blogs became much less active, due to the jobs and busy lives of the bloggers, like Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Jamie Boudreau...
I hate to say that, but cocktail blogs became a mirror to the cocktail book sector: you already need to have serious knowledge, to separate the few good blogs from a lot of not so good ones...
I always believed in the reduction and concentration in bartending.
Why do you always need to offer a Long Island Iced Tea and have a mango margarita?
And why is everyone raving about Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, if it is so easy to make something better [and cheaper] yourself?
Anyway - Darcy also mentioned, the "buy-out" of cocktail bloggers and he is right. I got very less offers, because I guess, that producers and marketers are fearing of an honest review...
Overall I try not to review too much "given" stuff, as it clouds your objectivity.
There are two more components: twitter and facebook.
I think tweets cannot really weigh up against a good blog post. It is like SMS, which cannot really live up to an email or a conversation. Maybe I am just not understanding twitter enough, but I was never that interested and found it always very difficult to follow. I linked my website with twitter and facebook, for those, who really like those social "apps"... but for me, I rarely read the twitter feeds.
Facebook - a whole different thing. Felix who initiated the Dubai Bartender Group, convinced me, that it is possible to blog and post a lot of stuff, which you would rather post in your blog. And it is much more communicative.
Still for me it is not the perfect solution, but I have to admit, that it is good.
What are your takes on "the cocktail blog is dead" - do you think, that it will be reanimated - or do you think, that the glory days will never come back?
Comment below!
The reasons are, that google changed its algorithms- hence it is more difficult to get a first page search hit for smaller websites. Well - I don't want to mirror here Darcy's argumentation. Please feel free to get over to his website and read the whole, well written piece.
Honestly, for me, I can't complain about less readers. As I decided before, that my idea of a blog is more important than the SEO qualities [however was later forced to change this platform] - I always focussed on readers, who are particularly looking for my blog.
And since my blog is now on blogger.com, the numbers exploded - I am still far away of the times of artofdrink.com [Darcy mentioned, that he got 5000 hits per day - I am running on good days around 5% of it] - but I am happy, how things turned out.
If it comes to the stagnation of mixology blogs, I would say, there is one point, which IMHO especially is liable: sustainability and quality. In more than half a decade I am following blogs and blogging myself, I found a lot of blogs trying to be fancy, but lost the real stoney but rewarding path of bartending.
This is not only applying to blogging, but how should the audience choose for a small blog, if it is blogging the same topics as the big platforms as cocktails.about.com?
Fruit martinis? Check. Dessert cocktails? Also. Abundance of vodka drinks? Definitely.
There is one thing more: some popular blogs became much less active, due to the jobs and busy lives of the bloggers, like Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Jamie Boudreau...
I hate to say that, but cocktail blogs became a mirror to the cocktail book sector: you already need to have serious knowledge, to separate the few good blogs from a lot of not so good ones...
I always believed in the reduction and concentration in bartending.
Why do you always need to offer a Long Island Iced Tea and have a mango margarita?
And why is everyone raving about Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, if it is so easy to make something better [and cheaper] yourself?
Anyway - Darcy also mentioned, the "buy-out" of cocktail bloggers and he is right. I got very less offers, because I guess, that producers and marketers are fearing of an honest review...
Overall I try not to review too much "given" stuff, as it clouds your objectivity.
There are two more components: twitter and facebook.
I think tweets cannot really weigh up against a good blog post. It is like SMS, which cannot really live up to an email or a conversation. Maybe I am just not understanding twitter enough, but I was never that interested and found it always very difficult to follow. I linked my website with twitter and facebook, for those, who really like those social "apps"... but for me, I rarely read the twitter feeds.
Facebook - a whole different thing. Felix who initiated the Dubai Bartender Group, convinced me, that it is possible to blog and post a lot of stuff, which you would rather post in your blog. And it is much more communicative.
Still for me it is not the perfect solution, but I have to admit, that it is good.
What are your takes on "the cocktail blog is dead" - do you think, that it will be reanimated - or do you think, that the glory days will never come back?
Comment below!
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