BLOGGERS: Lee Frank (Managing Editor) & Rachel Anderson (Senior Correspondent)

FEATURED BLOG(S): NachosNY

TWITTER:

@NachosNY

@LeeMFrank

FACEBOOK: NachosNY on Facebook

FLICKR: NachosNY on Flickr

12 Steps To Building a Better Blog

(or a Delicious Plate of Nachos)

Rachel, Esther and Lee at Outside.in

This week we sat down with roommates Lee Frank and Rachel Anderson of the hyperlocal blog NachosNY. We took the liberty of using the knowledge and experience they shared with us to create a 12-step program for building a better blog as if you were building a plate of delicious nachos. Buen provecho!

1. CHIPS : CONTENT

Ultimately, the test of a great plate of nachos comes down to the chips: are the chips high quality (good enough to get noticed and keep people coming back for more)? Are they fresh and plentiful? Do the chips hold up under all the toppings, or do they get soggy? Just as all of these factors matter with chips, they matter with blog content. Are your posts innovative, interesting, compelling? Do you post often enough to keep your blog fresh? These are all questions you should ask yourself as a blogger (and especially as a local blogger). NachosNY, for example, finds that their blogging niche — the quest for the best nachos in New York City — provides them with a deep well (a veritable all-you-can-eat nacho buffet!) of quality story ideas to draw from :

LEE: My favorite spot is El Maguey y La Tuna, it’s on East Houston and Attorney. They have like 8 different kinds of nachos, even nachos with broccoli, which are awesome. They also have a really awesome jalapeno margarita. Nobody else likes it, because it’s a little painful – but that’s why I like it. But we’ve also eaten these bad nachos so you don’t have to go and eat them. New York is NOT known for its Mexican food by any means, but in New York you can still find all kinds of great food all over the place. I know there are places that we haven’t uncovered that that probably have really great nachos that we just haven’t gotten to yet.

RACHEL: After a nacho crawl we’ll stop for a couple of days – but we’ll never be finished.

2. MEAT & BEANS : PASSION

Meat and beans (think ground beef, grilled chicken, black beans or refried pintos) are what make nachos into a meal: the protein packs a real energy punch. The same is true of passion and blogging – passion is what gives bloggers their initial jolt of energy, as well as the fortitude and staying power to keep on bloggin’:

LEE: I love nachos. I used to talk about nachos so much that the girl I was dating at the time made me a ‘I <3 Nachos,’ T-shirt. I wasn’t even in New York yet. I was living in China, and I was blogging there about the city I was in. When I came back I wanted to start another blog because I really enjoyed it – and my friend was telling me how it had to be niche, how I had to find something I knew and liked. Nachos was, like, the first thing I could think of – I love nachos.

RACHEL: Learn to be confident in what you’re doing, whether it’s nachos or a cause or something – you have to be able to talk about it and be proud of what you’re doing.

3. SOUR CREAM : MERCHANDISE & SIGNATURE EVENTS

Sour cream can only make nachos cooler, right? The same goes with signature events and merchandise sold on your blog, particularly if they’re conceived and branded just for your blog and its audience (making some extra money on the side? Super cool, especially if you can spend it on… more nachos!):

LEE: We have the merchandise, we have three T-shirts that we sell. They do pretty well, especially at the events – we’ll do nacho crawls and then we just had the Guactacular, which was completely sold out – 370 people showed up. This year’s Guactacular was our first successful event, money-wise.

4. CHEESE & SALSA : COMMUNITY

Salsa and cheese are the elements on your nachos that really tie the whole nacho experience together. The same can be said of your blog’s readership: nearly every blogger we’ve spoken to has said their blog’s community is what ties the whole blogging experience together for them and gives it meaning. Blog communities are as varied and diverse as types of salsa, but the best of them are always fresh, lively and full of local flavor — though of course there’s also nothing like a blog community that has ripened and matured, like a beautifully aged cheddar:

LEE: We like how it’s a shareable thing: there are so many people we can meet and so many people we can talk to about nachos. I actually really like getting emails from people where they’re like, ‘um, my family, like, really likes nachos that are made with Doritos. Do you know where we can find some of those in New York?’ and at first I’m, like, flinching, because, you know, that sounds gross— but then I try to figure it out. I like getting emails like that, or tweets about things like that.

RACHEL: I want more people to feel more comfortable commenting and being more involved in the process. We’re really interested in seeing what other people have to say and getting formal nacho reviews from other people, or just interacting with others on Twitter, trying to get more of a solid community.

LEE: … You should come eat nachos with us.

5. GUACAMOLE : CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

Guacamole: the luscious, buttery dip made from avocados, joy, and a few other ingredients (usually onions, tomatoes, lime juice, salt and perhaps some spices). We think guacamole is mostly joy, though — and the same can be said of corporate sponsorships for your blog and/or blogging-related events. NachosNY was certainly joyful upon securing an amazing corporate sponsorship for this year’s Guactacular:

LEE: There’s a company called Avocados From Mexico. One of the people that was competing [in the Guactacular] works at Ketchum PR, and they represent Avocados From Mexico, and they were really interested in the event, so they approached us and gave us all 720 avocados. Every avocado used in the event was from them. So it really came in handy.

6. CHILI: NEW SKILLS

Chili is a magical dish: you find it all over the culinary map: beans, no beans, meat, no meat, red, white, you name it. You can make chili however you like it, and when you do you may notice that your particular chili recipe is pretty special — kinda like the new skills you’ll learn as a blogger. Not every blogger will learn the same skills — whether you’re mastering HTML, video blogging, podcasting or photography, you’re making your own unique brand of chili, and it will only improve your blog, and ultimately your skill set as an individual. Plus, even if you’re not crazy about chili on your nachos, if you eat ‘em often enough you’ll find that chili can’t always be avoided — just as every blogger will inevitably pick up new skills, whether they were intending to or not:

RACHEL: I have my undergrad in Gender Studies, so it’s kind of not really focused on any sort of career path, but now I work at a women’s non-profit and I do web design and IT and I’m in charge of all of their social media. I’ve been able to kind of tailor my blog experience to my job now.

7. PEPPERS & HOT SAUCE : THE HUMAN CONNECTION

Just as chili peppers and hot sauce add heat to your nachos, human connections made via blogging adventures will add heat to your life and fuel your passion for blogging. In fact, the effect can be life-changing. Real friendships, business contacts, even romantic relationships are forged every day via blogging adventures:

LEE: I met my girlfriend at the last Guactactular, a year ago. The night of the event she was there, and we were closing down the event, and we, like, just made eye contact and it’s been a fairytale ever since.

8. ONIONS : SOCIAL MEDIA

Ah, onions. Some of us almost can’t live without them – they’re in the base of so many cuisines (mirepoix, sofrito – it seems like every holy trinity has ‘em). I won’t go so far as to say that every great dish of nachos must contain onions, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that many of the best nachos wouldn’t be nearly as delicious if they weren’t flavored by onions in some way. Whether they’re found in the salsa, in the seasoning of the meat, or as a simple topping, onions of all types can be found in nachos the world over. The same can be said of social media tools: not all of the best bloggers use them, but most do – and for most, they’re indispensable:

RACHEL: Twitter has been really great for us – we love interacting with readers on Twitter.

LEE: I have a Google Alert that I have for ‘nachos’ that I get every day and I’m like, “oh, that’s a funny tweet to send out.”

9. OLIVES : MOBILE BLOGGING

Not everyone loves olives on their nachos, but those of us that do also know that they’re a pretty great snack in a pinch. You’ll often find them in a martini or as a snack at the bar, plus you can always pack them up for a picnic. They may not be the MOST portable snack, but they’re pretty good — a lot like mobile blogging tools (such as the iPad, cleverly compared to nachos here). Blogging on-the-go isn’t ideal, but for some of us, it’s really useful:

RACHEL: The WordPress iPhone App is actually kind of awesome. I use that now, whenever I eat at a restaurant, I try to do it on the subway on the way home, because you can just do it and save the draft to your iPhone, and then I publish it later.

10. CILANTRO & LETTUCE: CONTROVERSIAL CONTENT

Some of us love cilantro with an undying passion, while for others, cilantro is as repulsive as a mouthful of soap (literally). The same kind of gulf exists between the lettuce/no lettuce schools of thought in the nacho world. That said, it must be pointed out that even if some of your readers may disagree with you vehemently, one sure way to engage your readership is to experiment with controversial content. NachosNY does this annually on St. Patrick’s Day with their Irish Nachos. Sometimes it works and others… not so much:

RACHEL: [Irish Nachos are] supposed to be some sort of potato product, cheese and bacon. The first year was actually thick slices of potato – it wasn’t even fries or anything, you had to eat it with a knife – and it was gouda and bacon and sour cream.

LEE: It was delicious.

RACHEL: And then this year was really kind of gross – it was loaded cheese fries.

LEE: Disgusting.

11. LIME JUICE : INNOVATIVE EVENTS

The acidity of lime juice balances the richness of the cheese, sour cream, meat and other delicious ingredients that give your nachos heft. Think of new, innovative events as the thing that can give your blog that extra squeeze of freshness that it needs from time to time. NachosNY peppers their calendar with events throughout the year, and they’re always trying zesty new things:

RACHEL: July 19, 2010 is actually our first Guactac Boat Cruise. We’re doing a boat cruise through Rocks Off Concert Cruises. We just finalized that last week, so we’re making plans and booking bands for that right now. We’re hoping to put on a great concert and have good food on a fun boat cruise. We’re also going to hopefully do a Salsa Slam competition in September.

12. BACON : BLOG + TUMBLR

Bacon is that little something extra on your nachos that might seem counter-intuitive to some of us, but when we finally give it a try, we realize it’s actually a pretty nice addition (as bacon tends to be). NachosNY‘s is thinking of creating a Tumblr to supplement their already-popular WordPress blog [JULY 2010 UPDATE: Nachos Nation is here!]. The idea sounds overindulgent, but — like bacon on barbacoa nachos — it could turn out to be a welcome topping:

LEE: We like hearing from people, so one of the things I want to start is a Tumblr to go along with the blog that would be more of a nationwide thing so people could send us a picture of the nachos they just ate and what was on it or why they liked it, or whatever. We never wanted to say that we’re the best people to be doing this: everybody can be eating nachos and telling us about it. If more people were talking about it, everybody would find the best ones even quicker.

P.S.: Local bloggers, don’t forget to register your blog here. It’s quick, simple, and will help drive traffic to your blog.

P.P.S.: If you’d like to be featured in our ‘Bloggers We Love’ series (or you’d like to nominate your favorite local blogger(s) for inclusion), we’d love to hear from you! Simply send an email to esther@outside.in