Why a Good Blogger is Like a Top Restaurant
4 Weeks ago I read a post by Chris Garrett on why a good blogger is like a Top Chef and the other day I was thinking of that post again. When I initially read it, I thought yeah cool, I can so relate to that, having been a chef for years and studied Hotel and Catering Business.
But now, a month later, my thoughts have changed a bit. I still believe that in order to be a good blogger, you have to love blogging, just like you have to be in love with food in order to be a good chef. However I feel the comparison isn’t all that great as I felt in the beginning, I think we should take it a step further.
But blogging isn’t just writing good content (or at least trying to), but so much more than that. In order to get interesting posts online, you need to do at least some planning on what your post is going to be about. You have to do research to make sure your facts are straight, read and reread the text to make sure it flows nicely, run a spell check and then recheck again before hitting that publish button. Plus you might like to find some nice picture in order to complete the presentation of your text, the finishing touch.
Much of this is completely comparable to the work of a Top Chef, going out to find great ingredients (doing the research), planning (the mis-en-place/prepwork), putting it all together (the cooking process), checking and rechecking (final tasting to see if the taste is 100%) and completing the presentation; preparing the plate before it goes out into the dining-room.
Truth is that even the best Top Chef will have little success if his dishes don’t reach his customers, so I feel we need to go a bit further than that initial comparison.
He needs a whole team around him in order to really be a success. The restaurant itself, the entourage you can compare in many ways with the theme and layout of your blog. It is the first impression the customer has of the place and even though it isn’t the only reason people will leave or stick around; initially it is of great importance.
The functionality of the furniture is also important. If a customer in a restaurant is really uncomfortable in his chair, feeling a draught, annoyed by the noise, he is not likely going to spend more time than the absolute necessary to finish what he came for.
Same goes for a blog. Having a lot of flashy content, colours that shout in your face, hard to read posts, no navigation system, a lot of unfinished bits and pieces, will have your reader run off without ever coming back.
And then there are the waiters who not only serve you but are also there for the PR, making you feel at home and trying to advice you on your choices or highlighting the “specialties of the day”. Their goal is to make your stay as pleasant as possible, elongating it in order to sell more and try to make you come back, without having you feel you are pushed around.
They are giving the customer what they came for and ideally a bit more.
So by now, blogging is certainly becoming a multitask activity, where it is not just about the content anymore, but where all other aspects of a complete Top Restaurant have to be taken in account in order to make it a success. If one of these aspects fails, it has an impact on the success of the whole blog.
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My name is Mirjam and I welcome you to my blog about personal growth and the things I think about. I´m on a journey of improving my life and I hope you will drop in often and participate. Thanks for visiting!
Mizz Crystal’s last blog post..Is it so wrong?
Hi Mizz Crystal, welcome to my blog!
You totally point out my initial thoughts… having it look good just isn´t enough… the food isn´t enough no matter how good it tastes if there is nobody to come and enjoy all the flavors… that is where all the waiters step in, doing the service and pr part
Thanks for the comment!
Nice. I like the comparison. I know for me the menu is too vast to control which will be my downfall. For em I write whatever I might be thinking about at the time which can go to some weird places. It makes it difficult for people to follow. Of course I write more for me and my entertainment and if others are entertained it’s a bonus. I guess the closest way to describe is being the Andy Kaufman of blogging. As always I dig your stuff. Have a good one.
Jim - Just a Guy’s last blog post..The Greatest American Hero
Cool Jim or should I say Andy
Gonna have a look at your American Hero 
Hi Mirjam,
I didn’t know you were a chef!
I’m a self-made-home-celebrity-chef myself! We should exchange dishes sometime.
Did you figure out that IE6 problem from this morning?
Cheers,
Alex.
Alex at Net-Entrepreneur.com’s last blog post..Passive Income Here I Come
… yep … long long time ago I got my hotel and catering business degrees… but choose a different career path
Still love to cook though!
…. IE6 problem… I am afraid not
thanks for pointing it out to me!
What a wonderful comparison here! I think you are spot-on in comparing blogging to an audience like the whole restaurant! Having a 5 star chef won’t bring in customers if you don’t have the atmosphere, wait staff and tableware to create the right setting for the meal!
Yours is one of the few blogs I’ve come across lately where grammar and spelling are even considered as a factor of good blogging. I commend you on that!
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Margaret’s last blog post..Did the Earth Move for You?
Hi Margaret, welcome to my blog. I am glad you liked the post. About the grammar… trying my hardest to keep that to an acceptable level
Thank you for leaving a comment!
I really like the analogy
And it’s true - so many people overlook the ‘ambiance’ of their blog sometimes!
Keira’s last blog post..Starting an Indie Game Company
I am glad you enjoyed the read Keira, thank you
Wow good analogy… I never quite thought about myself as a restaurant but you make some very good points.
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Wow, Mirjam. This is without a doubt one of the top blogs I have come across. I stumbled upon you from a comment you made on another post.(See comments work) I have just started blogging and I know I ramble on. I need to get shorter and will try to do so here also
In the interest of brevity, I just want to sayI’m signing up for your feed and If you don’t mind I’m going to use your blog set up as a tutorial for me on my paid hosting site.
Hi Mark,
sorry for taking a bit longer to respond than usual, rambling can be a good thing so don´t worry about that. As far as using my blog set up as a tutorial… I was a bit shocked to see that bit, since I don´t feel this blog is in any ways perfect, needing a lot of twitching and improvement. Anyways, I wish you all the best, hope you check back in!
Wow, I’m impressed by how thorough this post is! You really fleshed out the metaphor and clearly illustrated some things I need to improve on for my own blogs.
This article might come in handy when I have to explain what blogs are to my mom again
I like the premises of these posts, they’re really catchy.
We try to keep teamwork an integral thing at our blog, making sure everybody has a role to play regarding the structure and variety of its content.
I was wondering if you were planning on having guest posts on your blog?
Vice versa, you could maybe collaborate with us one day.
Cheers.
Damien Van Vroenhoven’s last blog post..10 Sources of Inspiration to Get You Blogging Now!
Hi Damien, thank you for taking the time to comment, I am glad you like the post
I never really seriously thought about having a guest poster but I would certainly not be opposed to it as long as it goes along the same lines of this blog, although, looking at yours I am sure that would not be a problem.
Just let me know what you would like to post, ok?
cheers!
I love good analogies! I remember when I worked in a restaurant one of the boring tasks was sidework - filling up ketchup bottles, for example. That’s like the work I do to maintain my blog infrastructure like updating plugins, etc.
Peter Answers’s last blog post..Tarot Cards - The Two of Cups