Website related things

Hi guys! We need to have a chitty-chat about the website.  Grab some coffee or whatever.  I’ll wait.

Okay, settled?  I wanted to run a few things past you and get some feedback on thoughts.  Will you help?  Awesome! :D

When I first had inklings of starting this blog it was to post recipes and maybe have some food related discussions and that was about the extent of it.  You all know I was introduced into the food blogging world and what an amazing experience that has been.  Because of that my site and ambition for the site has sort of changed.

I love my daily eats section.  I cannot even tell you how much I love talking about little random stuff about my day (which might be boring to some, but it’s a fun thing for me) and about exercise.  Love it!  And I want to bump that up a little more and start doing some fun things and adding in more fitness related discussion.  My heart lies with running and I want to talk about it more.

I also love posting tips and product reviews.  I love tips because it’s fun to learn, isn’t it?  And we can all learn from each other and help make our lives that much easier.  I also love doing food reviews!  That’s probably the most fun for me.  I love trying new products and I feel like my reviews are entertaining but also helpful by providing an honest opinion.  Plus I get to do even more reviews by helping out Cheaplander, double score!  Tips and Reviews will not go away.

Cooking will always and forever be something I do.  And I will not stop posting recipes because that’s why this site got launched.  However, I have found trying to keep a schedule and posting recipes to fit the season/holiday/celebration/whatever stresses me out like you cannot even imagine.  Because I don’t function that way.  I would rather post stuff as I make it (if it’s something that worked! :p ).  I tend to just make whatever floats my boat that day and what fits with our meal plan (as our days sort of go meat/veggie/meat/veggie…).  Right now I feel like I’m in a situation where I’ve made something, but hold off on posting it because maybe it fits summer grilling season better.  Or there’s this dish we eat and it really fits some other occasion so I’ll make it then! Which leaves me feeling like I have to make something just so I can post about it for that specific occasion. And I don’t like feeling forced to have to make and eat something just because.  That leaves me a little cranky and this blog is about fun and food, crankiness should not be involved at all.

To sum up, nothing is going to go away.  But pump up other areas and post recipes as I go along.  What do you all think of that?  Are you cool with more fitness and fun related posts?  Are you cool with me posting recipes whenever?

And another thing. ;)  I try to make my site as user friendly as possible because that’s how I like sites to be.  But sometimes I wonder since my Daily Eats section is a whole other area entirely, if people are just not seeing it.  I have links to it all over the place but it tends to get overlooked and I want people to be able to see all this site has to offer.  I’m working on a site redesign but that is going to be a little while before I feel it’s ready to use (plus I need a logo!).  For the time being should I move my Daily Eats stuff to the front page?  Would that make the site a little more user friendly?

10 thoughts on “Website related things

  1. I think your site is great. I think you should post the recipes as you make them don’t worry if they aren’t in season/holiday. I love the tips and the reviews. I tried a JOY of COOKING item last night. I read the daily eats everyday – and if I can find it anyone can!!

  2. The site already seems pretty nice to me, but you could integrate the Daily Eats into the home page flow if you wanted. I can see how it could get overlooked (I only started reading all of them after I subscribed to your feed which pulls in all the posts no matter what). I would just post recipes whenever and whatever to keep your sanity. But, you should do what YOU want to do.

  3. Your daily eats is pulled into Google Reader for me, just like the other posts — though I admit that I just often don’t have as much to comment on those ones. I’d say post things whenever you want or have the time, particularly if there are search capabilities on your blog and people can go back to it. I tend to just remember the fact that you offered baked chicken wings, though I don’t save the recipe as a I read it — I go back to the site when I’m ready to try them.

  4. I like the way your web site is, but I know what you mean about the daily eats. Sometimes I’ll click on that month’s archives if I miss a couple posts, like “January archives” so that I can just scroll through everthing, but I ususually read your blog everyday so I’m cool with whatever. I would love for you to talk about running more! I also think you will look back and love reading details about how you felt when you started running. You could do “running thoughts” or something like that, maybe?

  5. I usually pull in Daily Eats first cos it’s kind of fun.

    As to the recipes? Please don’t make your posting seasonal. As far as I’m concerned, grilling is about the only seasonal cooking method and that’s only if you use a charcoal grill.

    Just a thought, but maybe a monthly focus on an ingredient or technique–not an everyday thing, but maybe an emphasis on recipes, methods or tips during different months… say casseroles, or a particular herb or cooking methods like roasting or braising.

  6. I think your blog looks good but I don’t think it’s at it’s highest potential for ease to get around. ;) One food blog I’ve been at has a calendar for her daily postings on the left hand side and you can just click on the day to get to the daily post (although she doesn’t post every day). When I get busy I can’t come here every day but I like to catch up when I can. It’s not a huge deal but if you are more than a couple of days behind you have to go to the archives and then click etc.

    And definitely a search engine if you can. As your recipes section gets bigger that might be something that will add a lot to the site. And I really like the recipe section! I wouldn’t worry about keeping things seasonal. Who cares? Just post them as you make them or think of them.

    I think all your sections are great. I like the reviews even if I can’t get the stuff here. :( And of course the tips.

    I would also (just to throw this out there) be interested in cooking techniques or whatever. Just because – as you know! – my knowledge is limited and sometimes I read a recipe but I don’t understand it very well. So I ask my friend Andie. ;)

    Anyhow that’s just some feedback for now. I’ll add more if I think of them.

  7. I enjoy your site and am always happy to see more exercise info on any blog. I would pull your Daily Eats to a more up front spot. I haven’t been reading for long and tend to miss it. Thanks for the great posts!

  8. thanks for bringing daily eats to my attention. I guess I thought the stuff on the side bar was previous menus and I never even checked it. I just came in here to see what you had. Sorry!! Now I got a chance to see what you are up to!! I know…I’m a dumbass.

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