The first of the food blog sites I visited was “Appetite for China”. It instantly appealed to me especially due to the fact that I have always loved Chinese food. Starting from the caption “1.3 billion people must be eating something right” on top of the page to the interesting pictures, everything about this site was impressive. As the title suggests, this is a site based on Chinese food from various regions of China as well as various regions from around the world. The writer of this blog – Diana Kuan – has always been obsessed with Chinese food mainly because of her family. She seems to be well recognized in the field of food. Other than the blog she has written several food publications such as “Food & Wine”. She also teaches Chinese cooking in Beijing.
The site is well organized and is very easy to navigate. The articles are based on very personal experiences and never tend to be boring. They are short, precise and to the point. The food in the pictures look delicious even though they might not be in reality. Hence it creates a lasting impression on the viewers. The space around the page is utilized perfectly with adequate space for ads on the right side of the page. Overall it’s a very professional piece of work and has been featured in shows such as “BBC Good Food”, “Blogher”, “Serious Eats”.
The other food blog site I visited – Organic to be – was rather boring and uninteresting. It lacked the creativity displayed in “Appetite for China”. The page was an endless sequence of words and facts. I must agree that the title on top of the page was a good start but the exciting factor faded as I scanned through the rest of the page. This site is mainly about organic food, farming skills and has a scientific point of view to it. The font size is extremely small and the site lacks pictures which usually attracts viewers. On both sides of the main text, ads have been added ineffectively because none of the text can be distinguished from the other. I think the main objective of this site is to raise awareness concerning food and farming. Overall the lack of colour and interesting topics prove to be the site’s undoing and readers would immediately become uninterested after the first few sentences.
I strongly disagree with your analysis. Appetite for China is about Chinese food whereas Organictobe is about Farm/Gardening Skills and organic recipes... so if you're not into farming, you might find Organictobe very boring.
ReplyDeleteOrganictobe is quite funny and packed with humor. Once you get over the daunting prospect of reading all that text, it becomes quite enjoyable.
I'm guessing you didn't read more than a couple of articles.
Actually, I think that's Sayan's point about Organictobe: because the reader loses interest quickly; because the reader has to face what you term "the daunting prospect of reading all that text", the site's effectiveness is weakened.
ReplyDeleteIf the Organictobe bloggers want to pull in a greater following than those who already share the same passion for organic food and farming, then they have to make themselves more accessible to those who might have just come across the site while web-surfing as well.
Dr. Tiff