Happy New Year from us (Rachel and Dan) at Simple Seasonal! I (Rachel) worked this weekend, so you’ll have to forgive me for being a few days late in wishing you a great 2016. I still mean it from my heart. Those of you who frequent this blog are the reason I keep it up week in and week out!
Dan and I have high hopes for this blog in the upcoming year, but first I thought it would be great fun to look back on 2015. Think of this post as a little peek behind the curtain, so to speak.
2015 was the year we got serious about food blogging. Our goal was, and still is, to create stellar content with high quality photos as well as useful, engaging posts about cooking local and seasonal foods. Looking back to January of 2015 we were only 2 1/2 months into blogging and we had no clue what we were doing. Many days I still think we don’t know what we’re doing… But then I look back on what we’ve accomplished over the past year and I realize just how far we’ve come. Learning and growing pains, for sure, but that has been part of the fun of the experience.
What we learned
- The technical side of writing a blog is pretty involved. Thank goodness there’s two of us working on this! Dan’s the tech guy.
- We figured out our niche about halfway through the year. Since then we’ve purposefully stuck with it and have seen increased growth.
- The importance of good photography can’t be overstated. There’s always room for me to improve my photography skills.
- In addition to good photography, offering value to readers needs to be the primary focus. A professional blog isn’t a personal diary; it’s about the people who read it and what they take away.
- Self-marketing is a pain, but to go from a hobby blogger to a professional blogger, it realistically takes more than half of our time.
- The blogging community is full of wonderful people who want to help each other succeed. If you’re a blogger reading this, you’re awesome!
Top Posts
Our Best Performing Posts in 2015
2. Sweet Coconut Cauliflower Rice
4. Grilled Personal Pattypan Pizza
7. How To Cut and Tie a Pork Loin for Stuffing
10. Crock Pot Cold Buster Soup with a Kick
Our Personal Favorites from 2015
Rachel
- Pesto Orzo Stuffed Squash Bowls
- Apple Cider Pork Chops
- Thanksgiving Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash
- No Fuss Apple Wrapper Pie
- Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Pine Nut
- Crab, Okra, and Gouda Flatbread
- Warm Summer Garden Salad with Salmon
- Chocolate Orange Cocktail
- Sunshine Chard and Carrot Salad
- Chicken Livers with Leeks and Kale
Dan
- Cherry Orchard Baguette
- Maple Apple Glazed Pork and Leek Burgers
- Crock Pot Quinoa Curry
- Sour Cherry Absinthe Cocktail
- Ginger Snap Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
- Zesty Potato and Pepper Hash
- Blushing Rutabaga Noodles
- Resham Lamb Kebabs
- Blueberry Maple Sazerac
- Last Harvest Garden Salsa
Our goals for 2016
- Continue writing posts that are focused on our niche. We’ve committed to writing whole-food, simple, approachable recipes for the local and seasonal eating crowd and plan on sticking to it. With the locavore crowd in mind, at the end of December we launched a new section of our blog where we devote an entire post to talk about individual strange and unusual vegetables. So if you find a crazy veg on your kitchen counter, we want to help you know what the heck to do with it. Over the next year, I plan on exploring two unusual vegetables a month. If you come across any crazy veggies that can be grown in North America and you’d like to recommend them for this section, let us know! Check out the first post here.
- To continue developing our branding, photography and the use of multimedia on Simple Seasonal. When readers visit Simple Seasonal, we want them to experience and feel something about eating local and seasonal foods. We always love to hear about your experience. Feel free to send us an e-mail at any time or comment at the bottom of any of our posts!
- 2015 was all about learning how to seriously write a food blog and 2016 will be about learning how to seriously monetize our food blog. Wouldn’t it be crazy awesome if we turned this into a full time job someday?!
In addition to the goals above, Rachel will be contributing posts on another, more established, and frankly awesome blog this year. More on that next week!
In closing – Have you ever wanted to try something, but thought that you couldn’t do it? Maybe you think there’s too much you would have to learn, the workload is too big, you don’t know where to begin, or you don’t have what it takes. Those are feelings that Dan and I grappled with over the past year (and still do from time-to-time). But the biggest thing we can take away from 2015 is that by trying, being open to learning, and exercising a little tenacity, a person can really surprise themselves. We, in turn, wish you a wonderful year of surprising yourself and endless possibilities!
Nice post, it speaks my own mind in several points. And I put the chicken livers with kale on my list, I love chicken livers, but I eat them very rarely because nobody else in the house does… it will be a nice lunch for me and my best friend. 🙂
Yeah for one year full calendar year of blogging behind us! What a journey!
Chicken livers are one of those things that people love or hate…Normally Dan is pretty resistant to eating them, but this particular recipe he actually ate. I told that I wouldn’t offended if he had something else for dinner, but he “actually liked the taste of this dish.” His only complaint was that “the liver had a liver texture.”
🙂 🙂 🙂 That’s a good one, that the liver had a liver texture, could come from my husband as well. 🙂
Great post! I’m so motivated to grow my blog this year too. I’m really bumping up my social media efforts (link parties, tumblr, FB recipe sharing groups) and it’s helping, little by little. I remember back in August (only two months after I started taking my blog seriously) I got over 1,000 page views in a day because of a buzzfeed feature. This week, I got 1.3k on Tuesday for no specific reason–I didn’t even post that day! It’s still small potatoes compared to some, but this is a Marathon not a sprint. And fortunately I love to run 🙂 Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see your new content!
It really is a marathon! Dan works at an e-mail marketing company and he keeps telling me that if we keep producing good content over the course of 2-3 years this things should work. Some days (those high traffic days) I’m like, “oh yeah, definitely.” Other days I unfairly doubt him, but than again, we just made it through our first calendar year of blogging and we’re growing. Super exciting stuff! It’s been a lot of fun going through the new blogger experience with Turnip the Oven 😉 Love your blog!
Rachel & Dan,
Excellent job, I look forward to more from you in 2016!
Thanks Kirsten! Wishing the same for Farm Fresh Feasts! I love all your seasonal, local ingredients!
Great post, Rachel & Dan! What a great year for you!! I am excited for you and all the new things coming to your blog! It’s hard to grow a blog and it sounds like you have done an amazing job!
The Apple Cider pork chops are on my To Cook list since you first published them. Can’t wait to try that recipe!
Thanks Neli! It’s sooo much work growing a blog! But it’s (mostly) fun work. Wish Delicious Meets Healthy a fabulous 2016! I’m heading over there now to see if you cooked-up and new yummy recipe. I love your food photos! 🙂
This is such an awesome post and I can relate to so much! Good luck this year!
Thanks Christine. Best of luck to you too this year!
Dear Rachel and Dan – Super job on a beautiful blog. I’ve so enjoyed following your blog and popping in here and there to see what’s cookin’! It’s interesting to note that we are at almost the exact same timeline on our blogs, mine started November ’14. Cheers to another excellent blogging year ahead and wishing you both the best year ever!
Hey Allie! You, along with a few other bloggers, I consider to be part of our food blogging cohort so to speak. We started around the same time and have shared a lot of the same struggles and challenges as we attempt to grow our businesses! And of course we’ll always help each other along 😉 I hope you have a fabulous 2016!
Congratulations on a great year! Seems to me that you are doing a great job with your blog, I love the photography and you two seem to be a great team. Cheers to a fabulous 2016!
Thanks Sharon! I love your blog. It’s such a awesome resource for people with nut allergies. By day I’m a visiting nurse, so I’ll be sure to keep your site in mind as a resource for patients with food allergies. 🙂
what a beautiful feeling you’ve created. i love the simplicity of your photography, of course that ties in to your brand, doesn’t it?
i’m like you, in planning to become more focused this year … in fact that’s my word of 2016 – Focus.
thanks for sharing your accomplishments and your goals.
pinned, because i think it’s good blogging advice and because i want to come back to look at your lovely recipes
Thanks Noel! I was just checking out your blog and your compliments mean a lot, as it looks like you’ve been food blogging for a number of years now! I just love how you review and sell vintage cookbooks on your site. It makes me want to grow my own library!
Happy New Year and congrats on your success so far! I loved seeing you and Dan’s top 10! Looking forward to seeing what is to come for Simple Seasonal!
Cherie
Thanks for stopping by Cherie! You’re such a superfriend, superfan!;);)
Love this post from you both! 🙂 This past year was my first year blogging and I’m making my own little list of improvements and goals for this year! 🙂 I totally agree that photography is a HUGE party of food blogging! (I’m learning everyday!) I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with this year!
Thanks Ariel! Who knew there was such much involved with writing a food blog? Best of luck this year!
Happy new year, Rachel and Dan! I love your niche, and will keep coming back for more. One of my goals this year is to get to know new vegetables and learn to cook with them. Being from another continent means there’s a lot for me to discover. You may not believe this but I just started eating fennel last year and had my first parsnip a few days ago. I love it so much I have been eating it almost every other day! I’d like to learn about kohlrabi if you are entertaining requests. 🙂
Hey Christine! Happy New Years a little late! I actually replied to your comment last week and just noticed that for some reason it didn’t saved. 🙁
I love your niche too. Your blog is totally one one the ones I’m crushing on at the moment, and I love sharing your content to my fans on social media 😉 If you’re looking for some kohlrabi recipe I do have one on my blog for Kohlrabi Apple Salad. I love adding it to salad because it adds a nice crunch. It’s also yummy in a stir fry. A few weeks ago I spiralized and lightly cooked it in what would be similar seasonings as Singapore noodles and it was sooo good! Hope that helps! Thanks for the reminder that the next time I come across kohlrabi, I need to work a recipe into the blog!
Very insightful post! I’m drooling over all these delicious recipes!
Thanks Sherri! Your blog has a similar affect on me!
Excited to see what 2016 brings and we bring to it! Cheers and I’m happy to have stumbling across your food blog here.
Thanks Kevin. I’ll be sure to stumble over to your blog too!
Great post! I am sure that you will have good things happen to your blog in 2016.
Thanks Dawn! I wish the best for you too in 2016!