Sounds + Food 'n' Retail

Over the years (I've been actively blogging for about two), I must have read around 50 blogposts advising me how to blog. I won't bore you with details, but it all starts with a good title, a good picture tells a 1000 words, and if you can use 5 words instead of 10 to explain something, use 5. That's all true (note that in this post, I'll ignore all of this advice). In addition to that, there are ways to game Google, ways to monetize blogs, ways to draw in crowds, etc. etc.

But really, blogging is nothing new, it's just the word that was new, 5+ years ago. What all this advice, I read about, is for, is copywriting. For that purpose, I'd like to refer people who want to find out how to copywrite, to a blog called "copyblogger," because that one seems to capture most of the essentials. I like their latest post on blogging.

Now, for myself, why do I write? I'll make no pretences, I don't necessarily write for others. http://foodandretail.blogspot.com is the first serious attempt I made at blogging—everything before and during has been and is just for fun. But to me S+FnR is more of an information-system being built, instead of a "copyblog" for others. Sure, it's important to (learn to) write for an audience. I would call it an essential skill, as better writers are also better at a number of things, like debating, analysing, logic, etc.

But what really motivates me is to engage my brain, learn more about how businesses in my sector of choice work, work in that industry, and start my own business there. Over the last year, we've had a lot of discussions on the value of comments over at Tech IT Easy, a sister-blog on technology. The general consensus was that comments are great if they add value. A community is great. But what we wanted over there was to primarily create a group of intelligent contributors, who could maybe teach each other something. I think we have succeeded, though the Tech IT Easy roadmap is long.

For S+FnR, the roadmap is long also, and somewhat mapped out in stages, but mainly a way to grow for me, and hopefully my readers… though the value for them depends entirely on their level of development (mine is low) and their areas of interest.

S+FnR is nearly two months old now, meaning another monthly recap will be posted soon. And I will continue to post a lot of stuff that I find interesting and potentially relevant to this industry, whether it be on marketing, strategy, innovation, finance, logistics, tech, design, food, merchandising, career-choices, music, other media, and whatever else could fit.

I'll also try to post daily, which I started because I thought it might be good for readers, but I also began to get addicted to, not to mention learn more in less time. Of course this is entirely dependant on my time and energy to post!

What else… blogging? Forget about it! This is an information-system which I'm updating 1 day at a time, which you can always comment on/add to, and which will hopefully someday, become a valuable resource for other like-minded people.

P.S. there is of course another, slightly more subtle, motive. The more drawings I create and post on my blog, the closer I come to reaching my goal of becoming the next Vincent van… Gogh… hahahahaha (evil laugh)! The above was a copy I made of this one.