Its been over 15 years since I started my food blog, and I don't think I've ever actually told you how this came to be.
In the Fall of 2005, I was interning at an ad agency in downtown Toronto. At the time, the company had hired a bunch of us but unfortunately didn't really have enough work to keep us busy. So we were told that as long as we didn't leave early or played video games or watched movies online, we could do whatever we wanted and not seem idle.
For some unknown reason, I found myself immersed in the wonderful world of blogging. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was reading Food Blogs like they were the next Dan Brown novel. It didn't take long for me to jump into the bandwagon and signup for my very own tiny space online. As far as I can remember, I had always wanted to be a writer. I had also just recently gotten married and was enjoying cooking new meals and experimenting with new flavours. It seemed to be the perfect way to combine my two passions at the time. You can read my first ever post here - makes me smile at how naive and driven I was!
For the next 6 months, I diligently poured content onto the blog - recipes I was excited to share with a snippet of my daily mundane life in every post. The readers kept coming, the comments kept flowing and soon I was starting to get noticed in both the Indian and Canadian food blog circles. It helped that at the time there were very few of us. Then on Valentine's Day 2006, Hubby Dear surprised me by signing me up for my very own domain with Bluehost.
To this day, I still say it's been one of the best gifts anyone's ever given me. It's what has made me what I am today, given me all the wonderful opportunities - not ONE, but TWO cookbooks, loads of sponsorships and partnerships with some fabulous companies, and the immense love and support I get from my readers. Signing up for your own domain and moving your blog from a free space to a self-hosted one is as simple as snapping your fingers. I did it on my own - not knowing anything about digital media or coding at the time.
I plan to make this a series on Food Blogging, detailing the various aspects and processes that go into running a successful Food Blog. So follow along if you're interested and eager to learn more!
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