Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A new years brings...more

This is a big year and like every other new day and start of the year, I like to look back at what I have done and also what is in store for the new year here of 2013.  First of all, last year I had written 107 articles or blog entries.  Thanks to all of you for reading them and thanks to those of you who have passed this site on.  In the past full 3 years of articles, I have a total of 343 posts and over 32,000 views.  I could safely say that it is about 10,000 views per year.  Also, of note, is that the all-time most viewed post from last year, 2012, was my review of the Coconut Energy drink; http://tasty-magazine.blogspot.com/2012/02/coconut-energy-drink.html  by Rockstar energy drinks.  That page alone has had 689 views since it was posted on February 12th.

Writing for this is hard work.  I donate at least 2 posts a week, on a Tuesday and Thursday and finding time and money to go to a new restaurant once a week is difficult.  I have to say that last year is when I was asked by insidestl to be there food writer and while I have received some good feedback, most of the comments have been negative.  Some people complaining about my grammar and spelling which is awesome because they probably don't know how to write correctly, themselves.  I did start to gather more attention and finally had restaurants contacting me and offering reduced cost on meals so that I could afford to write about them.  Insidestl.com didn't have a food writer until I came along and with luck, I'd like to stay with them.  (I am doing this for free for them anyway.)  But try paying for normal stuff on the average salary of residents of St. Louis and then finding an extra $50 at least a week to eat someplace.  I understand that some restaurants can't afford to give me and my family a free meal or even a discounted, but any help would be appreciated.

I've also had a lot of good feedback on my food writings.  Whether I wrote about a random happening involving food or a recipe, I get people interested and people seem to like those as well.  This way, it seems I can cover all my bases as I can review restaurants and write about food stuff.

As a neutral post, for this past Christmas, with gifted money, I purchased a new camera.  While the camera is not edible and has nothing to do with food, this now allows me to take better pictures of food and maybe even restaurants, if they allow me to bring it in.  I used to have a Panasonic digital point and shoot camera and while it was nice, it was starting to lose its practical uses.  Except for taking pictures of my family at places, it wasn't that good for any real use.  What my wife talked me into getting, was a Nikkon D1500.  I'm happy for this purchase.  I finally have a professional level camera and the pictures of food should get better looking.

As the new year, I'd like to write about more things.  I want to write about every topic of food I can think of.    I think that if it is something that is not offensive, I will write about it.  After all, I don't get paid to write this stuff so I can write about what I want.  As such, I have branched out and asked others to guest write.  I did ask someone, a professional chef who has worked at the MGM casino in Las Vegas and is in charge of the food at two casinos here in St. Louis.  So, if everything works out fine, within this month, we should get an article by him up and maybe about 1-2 a month afterwards.

If there is anything you wish me to do, recipe attempts, restaurant reviews or do some research on a food, please let me know.  Thanks for hanging on to tasty-magazine.com

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