Thursday, January 13, 2011

One Year Old

On this day a year ago I created this food blog. One year later I have posted 103 entries and have had over 7600 pageviews.


When I started this blog I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do with it. I enjoyed reading other peoples food blogs so I though why not start my own as a way to record recipes that I cooked and share them. The best feedback that I have received has been when friends tell me that they have been inspired to cook some of the recipes on my blog.



I had no idea who or how many people actually read my blog but a few months ago blogspot install a stats feature and it was nice to know that I have had quite a few hits. According to my blogspot stats, the majority of the people who read my blog are from Australia, followed closely by America, and the 5 most viewed pages are - 


Paella and Spanish Flavour
Confusion of Fusion Food – Vietnamese Spaghetti Bolognese 
Canh Chua – Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup 
Xintiandi on Francis Street 
Comfort Food #2 – Rice Congee and Pressure Cooking 


In May I tried to start another food blog called Stuff Foodies Like. Between May and June I blogged 14 points and then sort of plateaued….I came to the realisation that food blogging takes a lot of my time and it’s a lot of work trying to keep up two but in 2011 I will try to update Stuff Foodies Like a bit more.



In July I went on a holiday to Japan for 3 weeks, during our trip I took photos of almost every meal we had. I think that over 70% of my photos from Japan were of food. When I got back home I tried to organise all my photos into blog entries, here are some of my favourites –


Nara temples and local cuisine 
Okada, Chicken, Ocean and Mountain (best meal in Japan!) 
Weddings, parties, anything… 
Western inspired concoctions 
Useful signage 


(All my Japan blog posts can be found under the ‘Other’ tab)



When I first started blogging, a friend recommended that I create a twitter account and use it as a way to promote my blog. I was pretty adverse to this idea at first. I already had a defunct myspace account and a love-hate relationship with Facebook. Did I really need to become sucked into another social networking vortex? I didn’t really ‘get’ twitter either. After a long while I came around to the idea of twitter and in August I started a twitter account http://twitter.com/blueapocalypse so that whenever I blogged I could tweet it too. My blog stats reveal that Twitter drives a lot of traffic to my blog. Twitter has also been a great way to connect with other Perth food bloggers and find out the latest food news as I follow many chefs and food publications.


In November 2010, I got a bit more serious and bought my own domain name www.blueapocalypse.com


(If you want to know why I am called the Blue Apocalypse. Read the 'About Me' section.)


As well as posting recipes I have tried to incorporate some of my other interests into food blogging. I studied politics and economics and wanted to somehow include some economic and political ideas into food and cooking. From time to time I have found a way to make it work, I have also incorporated some scientific theories.


Donkey voting and burgers 
Occam’s Razor and Pasta 
The law of diminishing marginal utility and umami 
Chaos Theory and macarons 
The Harm principle and Pho service 



I studied game theory at uni and have been trying to think of ways to incorporate it into my food blogging. Maybe this year I will find my Nash equilibrium.


Looking back over the past year I can’t believe how much I have kept up with this blog. Food blogging has become a part of my life, I have become one of those annoying people that take pictures of food all the time… “No you can’t eat anything until I have taken a picture of it.”


If you are reading Food Endeavours of the Blue Apocalypse, thanks :)


All I ever really wanted was an opportunity to tell people to stop bastardising stir fries





5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on this milestone, I hope you've eaten some cake in celebration :)

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  2. Thanks! Hmm...I haven't thought about cake, I think I will get some ice cream instead :)

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  3. happy birthday blog!

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  4. Cool round-up of your first year :) Have to agree that one of the most rewarding things about blogging is having your friends refer to it and try your recipes. I never imagined that would happen!
    Love your Japan section. Sigh... please give me a ticket to Tokyo?

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  5. Thanks Monica.

    I loved Japan, I can't wait to go back. So much to do and the food is AMAZING!

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