The golden rules of tagging: blue is me

• Link to the person who tagged you Howard at eatshowandtell.com
• Post the rules on the blog posted
• Write six random things about yourself ok on to that now
• Tag six people at the end of your post just six?
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
• Let the tagger know when your entry is published sure

Six random things about kang

1. I used to be a pc, now I’m a mac.
2. I love pets and used to have two dogs called doe and bird, after their breed the ‘doberman’ and I also had three terrapins. One somehow managed to climb out from his turtle tank and fell from roughly a height of about six feet (from his humble & comfy aquarium to the cement floor) and effectively ran away from home. Think prison break… but replace Michael Scofield with a turtle the size of a 50p coin. The other two layed eggs.
3. My favourite basketball player is Dwyane Wade and grew up wanting to fly like Mike. Never did manage it so I started a foodblog instead.
4. Moleskine is my notebook of choice and I have currently have three: one for my blog , one as my diary and the other for my dayjob…. did i mention Im a mad for moleskines?
5. My surname ’Leong’ roughly translates to gentle, while my first name ‘Kang’ when combined with ‘Kent’ (ie: Kent-Kang) means health(y) . Incidentally I have a brother who goes by the name of Kent. Thanks mum.
6. I have a black belt in karate.

Tag! You’re it.

I came across some new foodblogs while surfing foodbuzz and have decided that it’s only appropriate for me to tag them:

• newcastlecentric the latest and greatest in tyneside nightlife up north.
• adventures of kitchen girl is run by bubbly Jo who lives, loves and cooks, latest is a tipsy eggnog, yum!
• dirty south twitis a twitter meetup (tweetup) in south london. I’m tagging because I want to bring west london heat.
• no recipescooks with no recipes. supercool , go read it.
• food by mark is quite literally food by mark.. oh! cumulus tag cloud too
• londonelicious finally, Krista has been eating her way through london alot longer than me.

Extra, extra

Anybody interested in guest blogging on London Eater? Naturally, I’m available for guest blogging too if you think I’m not going to ruin your street cred. Do let me know if you’re interested folks!

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A timeout from the usual eating to talk about site stats. After about 53 posts in 2.5 months, I think it’s a good time to stop, wonder and analyse the past in order to find the way forward. I’m following Krista’s lead, one of my favorite London food blogs, Londonelicious, and publishing my traffic numbers here.

The raw numbers

I think it’s actually quite nice to be able to look back at how many people are reading my stuff and it gives me an indication of what works and what doesn’t. I use a number of other programs such as sitemeter and also the built-in wordpress stats program, but analytics has been there since day one.

Let’s start with a breakdown of the last three months:

Hardly any visitors in the first month, understandable really as I was mostly spending the time tweaking the site and changing things up. In fact, if you go through my august posts, nearly all of them are about site construction.

Construction continued well into september and it wasn’t really until mid-september that I started posting on a regular basis and get all my pages up and running. Joined Foodbuzz, started my stint at Metrotwin and also started a presence on stumbleupon. Interestingly, I actually started London Eater while I was away on assignment in Wales. Spent two months in Wales and returned to London in early october.

Just in time for the ramping up. The majority of visitors read my eating in the dark post and there is a good spread of visitors reading all my other stuff too.

To date, I’ve had 70,000 pageviews, with just under 60% bounce rate and an average site time of 1:22 minutes. I’m not really sure what benchmarks to compare these numbers against to be honest, but I’ve always said to myself that if I have at least 100 readers per day, I would be quite satisfied.

Content Drilldown

This is probably the most useful stat to a blogger, it tells me what you really like when you come to this site. And 45% of you tell me that you want more of the eating in the dark post. That’s a staggering stat line which I don’t think I can replicate again. I mean, I can only eat in the dark so many times right? Joke. Cue Laugh?

The next two leaders are my visit to ciao gelato & my first burger visit to burger shack. And then after that, it’s starts dwindling.

Let’s break that down a little bit. The top post is about 1400 words , while the next two are around 500 words long. Most of my reviews are at least 1500 words I think, but they are hardly breaking into the top ten. I’ve always thought that my wine posts would be second best to my restaurant reviews, but clearly the reverse is true. Number 5 , 7 and 9 are wine and only a visit to Barrafina is in the top ten. There is one common theme with all these posts – their headlines. Incidentally, these posts are the ones in which their headlines I have spent the most time constructing. And it looks like that’s time well spent.

Discounting my eating in the dark post, I’m getting about 500 views for all my other posts.

Content Structuring

Top bloggers always say that the recipe for a great blog is content, content and more content. And dash of blogging mojo.

I follow some sort of formula here when writing my posts and rarely stray from food. I keep my personal musings to a minimum, then again it’s not really difficult since I think about food all the time

I broke my posts down into categories:

• Reviews 37.78%
• Personal Musings 22.22%
• Just food 17.78%
• Wine 17.78%
• Sweets 4.44%

Being that this is a restaurant review site, I spent almost 40% eating; 20% rambling about everything else and the rest of the time is an almost equal split between food & wine. That’s not too bad really, I think the ‘pillar’ posts are quite well established, especially now that I’ve settled into a rhythm of posting every other day. Perhaps now is a good time to start branching out a little?

Is it a masterplan?

Who knows.

I do know that I want to keep creating new & exciting content that is both digestible and delicious. That’s always been the priority. I can reveal some of my more imminent plans for the immediate future:

1. Start Twittering. Already started this, you can follow me here.
2. Start a bi-weekly newsletter. I’ve even got a name for it ‘London Eater presents… Digest’. Been toying with the idea of a bi-weekly food/guide to london e-zine. Don’t know how it’s going to work, will let you know when its first published and throw in a free gift so make sure you subscribe
3. Branch out my writing. One word: Opinion. To date I’ve not written any editorials, maybe it’s a good time to start squeezing some in, you can be the judge of whether it works or not.
4. Site upgrades: Im fairly happy with the site design so far to be honest, but there’s always room for improvement. I have some ideas about sidebar mods, like adding twitter for example, or maybe a photostream of some sort.
5. Great British Exposure. I’ve started to farm out links at Urbanspoon and Dine-Online, which can hopefully increase my exposure to the UK eating world. I really would like to catch more UK readers since right now, they only make up about 20% of traffic. Funny stat really, I always thought the majority of readers would be local, but it doesn’t appear so.
6. Increase subscription numbers. Apparently an important stat to blogs. I think the major issue with this is advertising it correctly, ie , making it clear what RSS actually is. The newsletter’s main aim is to increase this number really. Although, I still believe that longevity is based on truly great content.
7. Site Tour/Landing Page. I’m working on this one as I was speaking with one of my mates who suggested he wanted to ‘see everything on my site in two minutes’ . I suppose it’s a great idea, will give new readers a cushioned entry into the world of london eating. Chomp.

Last but not least, Your feedback

Firstly, thank you all for reading London Eater, it fills me with all kinds of fuzzy feelings knowing that you enjoy reading my stuff, I will strive to keep content fresh & exciting, so please do keep coming back.

I’ll appreciate any feedback you offer, although I particularly want to know what you think of a newsletter arriving in your mailbox every other week, will be short and concise, containing a few pictures of sumptuous food, a short editorial and a few dates/events coming up in the next few weeks – would you subscribe to something like that?

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I’ve noticed that foodbloggers (in addition to loving food) all share one other trait: They love life. Its solidified my belief that foodies are as such because it’s part and parcel of the wonderful colours and vibrancy that makes life… alive.

I think places like foodbuzz are great because it creates that community, like a camaraderie and that we are truly not alone… because as you can tell from my stumble post, there are so many foodlovers out there. In addition to getting connected on stumbleupon, I’m posting here to give everybody a little highlight and shout out. The blogosphere is such a wonderful thing, the more connected we become, the more popular we become – well and truly the information age.   One of my favourite blogs is worldfoodieguide. Helen replies to every single comment, go on her site and check it out. It is just such a nice feeling when the reader gets acknowledged by the blogger. Her blog just turned one, so go check her out guys. So following in her foodsteps, I’m going to try and reply each and every comment as best I can. I may miss out a couple but if you don’t hear from me, nudge me again, and I’m sure you’ll catch me the 2nd time round.

So here’s a shout out to my new foodie friends both on foodbuzz and stumbleupon:

• Megan’s Munchies

Megan, that is one umami charged potato chowder recipe. Did I mention I love potato chowder? Megan for stumbleupon, try adding more friends, then navigate to your blog post you want, then click ‘Send To’ on the stumble toolbar and send it to your friends and ask them to stumble it. The more people stumbling it, the more traffic you should see, Try that!

• Zesty Cook

Cory, I want a chewy brownie too!

• Hey I can eat that!

I am a firm believer of trying all kinds of food, food is an adventure and it really can be so much fun! I tried scorpions and fried ants once…. though I won’t go there again

• Bentoism

I love your website and I love bentos. I get mine at a place in London called Japan Centre, especially the spicy cod with rice, half boiled egg on the side is so nice.

• Chicago Dining Examiner

Emily the Chicago Eater! You know, based on your blog, I think I might have to pay chicago a culinary visit!

• Tasty New England

The big E in new england is AWESOME. I wish I was there!

• Cajun Chef Ryan

Ryan, your recipes are pretty mouth-watering, just reading about this hearty breakfast casserole, wow, potatoes, eggs, saugages, garlic, pastry. Im happy just reading it.

• Red Cook

Kian, the mid autumn festival looks great! Infusing chinese style with harlem, wow, that is just so unique! Im sure it tastes as good as it looks! Guys, this is a chinese foodblog, chinese food is a very rich and diverse cuisine, lots of interesting and tasty dishes. It’s part of my heritage so its got a special place in my heart. Go read it foodlovers, you’ll like it.

• Over the hill and on a roll

3 tips to the best french toast recipe ever. I love toast and i love eggs, mixed together is something lilke, ummm, food heaven

• The Hungry Engineer

On this post, she’s talking about the canning process, its actually quite an interesting read! By the way, I love your blogname, engineering is quite dear to my heart too.

• The Top Floor Flat

Meaghan, your travel blog is really cool, and spoonfed, the website startup she works for is really cool too, check out both guys.

• Kittens in the Kitchen

Kittie, you’ve been stumbled and your recipes are nice chocolate banana cakes. mmmm..Its about 9pm here, but I’m running out to get some cupcakes after reading it.

• Flavors of Italy

I didnt know foodbuzz sends free gifts?! I’m just signing my fp contract now and sending it off, hope i get some free aprons too! you have been stumbled!

• Eat. Show and Tell

Your blog is so tastefully designed, I particularly like the clean layout and the feature post at the top. very nice, I love sydney by the way, I was there 2 years ago and my mates took me to the fish market for fresh lobsters. I was also at a place called makoto, what great sushi! I also ventured out to the vineyards in hunter valley. Sydney’s great, keep writing, I’m a faraway fan.

• The Pink Peppercorn

Gail, That is some nice food photographs! Are you a nikon or a canon girl?

• Dirty Kitchen Secrets

‘Lick your plate clean’ Tantalising Bethany! I’m loving the food pictures on your site! Konofa rich, creamy, cheesy, crunchy, sweet and savory desert … sounds like my kind of food

• La Fleurau Cacao

Hey this is a nice recipe, couscous is one of my favourite foods. I’m always under the impression that coucous are is one of those rare healthy foods that manages to taste great too.

• Fig and Cherry

We both love hummus bros … except her banner is sooooo nice. the bokeh in the background is so nice. Your photos are great, I wish I could take pictures like some of the blogs here, are you nikon or canon? I’m nikon d40, still learning about the golden triangle of aperture/shutter speed/exposure

• The Hungry Mouse

Jessie, thanks for linking me on your website, its much appreciated :), I’ve added you to my blogroll too! Say hello to the barking sous chef for me, I’d buy him a special treat if he ever comes to london!

• Endless Simmer

You’ve got a cool blogname, love it! and again, great pictures, wow. fan fan fan.

• James Starmer

Waffles look so great and the pictures nikon d300, I knew it! That’s like my ultimate dream camera for now, well aside from maybe the D900, pictures are too nice. You must give me tips. fledging food photography i am.

• Simmer till done

Marilyn, you being a pastry chef….your husband is a lucky man! I can picture him coming home from work and you’ve just been experimenting with 10 different puddings and he has to taste them all! Heaven.

If I missed out anybody, let me know and I’ll update this post to reflect it. You know I got into foodblogging because I love reading foodblogs and now I’m discovering there is a world of great foodblogs out there which are yet to be discovered by the general public, hopefully this can help rectify that, I hope you all keep posting guys, I’m a fan first, blogger second.

Finally, anybody need a stumble or a foodfriend, you know what to do.

How to get 1000 per day?

I’ll admit now its not my idea at all, but rather, an excellent post on how to grow a young blog on problogger. To cut a long story short, here’s what you do:

1. Open an account on StumbleUpon
2. Download the stumble toolbar for your browser
3. Gather 25 foodie friends on stumbleupon, if you need a foodie, my username is londoneater (shameless I know).
4. Once installed, the toolbar will appear at the top of the browser, navigate to the page you want to stumble (ie, a post you just wrote that you want people to see), click ‘send to’ and ask (very kindly) your foodie friends to stumble your blog. You can include a message too, so be nice.
5. And in return, help stumble your foodie friend’s blogs, so it’s a win-win situation.

Skellie, who wrote this post, claims that if you have at least 25 friends helping to stumble your blog, then it can drive thousands and thousands to your webby every day! The full post is here and I really recommend reading through it.

My plea to fellow foodies

We should go on stumbleupon, become friends, start a group, add me as a friend on stumbleupon and send me your blog, I’ll review it and stumble it for you! And please also help me do the same, and hopefully together, we can help get more people to come and discuss about food…and convert new foodies along the way :D

Ah yes the beauty of web 2.0, the more we network, the merrier it is…It’s really that simple!

What are you waiting for? You can stumble me just on the bottom left hand corner under ‘share and enjoy’.

Thanks in advance and happy fooding