1. What originally attracted you to the IZEA/SocialSpark community and how did you find out about it?
I found out about SocialSpark when I saw a post on another blogger’s site. When I looked into it, it seemed like a great way to connect with quality brands.
2. Describe your blog in 140 characters or less…
Fresh, healthy recipes that taste great and are easy to make.
3. What inspires you to blog?
I love sharing my recipes with people – nothing makes me happier than when someone tells me that they made one of them and that it was a huge hit!
4. Do you ever get stumped for what to write? How do you overcome this?
All the time! There are only so many ways to say “this is delicious, you should make it!” When I get stuck for words I like to step away from the computer and take a walk – it helps me clear my head. Switching to pencil and paper also helps a lot.
5. Do you have a favorite type of brand or product review to work with?
Since I almost always post recipes, the best campaigns for me are ones with raw ingredients – avocados, pizza dough, salad dressing. When I don’t have a specific thing to focus on, I can get a little overwhelmed and tend to fall back to classic dishes; working with a specific ingredient helps rein me in. I always try to find new, unusual ways to feature the product. Some of my most creative (and delicious) recipes have been sponsored posts.
6. We all know maintaining a quality blog can be quite time consuming. How do you balance keeping up your blog and being a wife and mother?
I actually don’t have kids (I have no idea how I would manage if I did!) but I do have a pretty time-consuming job in addition to blogging, and it can be tough to juggle it all sometimes.
Since I write about food, there’s a lot that my husband and I can do together – he helps me brainstorm recipe ideas and he’s my chief taste-tester. Sometimes he even does the dishes for me!
I try to do most of my writing when he’s busy with work too, so that we can spend the rest of our time together. I also cut down on posts a lot. I used to blog every day, but it was just too time consuming. I aim for 3 times a week now.
7. What has been your favorite SocialSpark campaign?
I just did a campaign for Avocados from Mexico that was a lot of fun. They have some great stuff going on over on their Facebook page, and the campaign was pretty interactive. I love avocados so it was fun to come up with a new recipe featuring them too. I wanted to break out of the Mexican/guacamole box and ended up making a citrus salad with them. It was fabulous, and a great pick-me-up in the gloomy weather. It’s become my go to for a simple side dish, and it even works for breakfast!
8. How do you actively stay engaged with your audience?
I love social media, so readers can always find me on Facebook and Twitter. I also try to make sure I answer any questions that people leave for me in the comments section of my blog. A lot of my audience actually isn’t super tech-savvy though, so I get a lot of emails too.
9. What’s one word of advice you’d give to bloggers who are looking to increase the quality of their content?
Less is more! When I was blogging every day, the quality really suffered and it was easy to feel burned out. Since I cut back a little, I’m able to pay more attention to each post and make sure every one is worthy of being front and center.
10. Complete this thought: If I could, I would…
Feed the world!
Congratulations, Lauren! Read her blog, Healthy. Delicious.
