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Nice to meet you! Interview with a Blogger

This month, we’re delighted to hear from Sasa of Sasasunakku. (“sunakku” is how a Japanese person would pronounce “snack” and I’m half Japanese).

Tell us about your blog in five words: Stories, recipes and fighting hangrrr (anger that comes from hunger ;P)

Where do you find inspiration for your blog?
In the food I make – often ideas for stories are evoked by the recipes or ingredients. For example, where I learned to make something or where I first ate something. Also, other bloggers, especially those whose writing I love or who post unusual recipes that catch my eye and lastly how I’m feeling/what is happening in my life at the time.

Three blogs you can’t stop visiting right now:
3! Can I say more? There are so many…

And I bet I’ve missed some too.

The best thing about blogging is…
Meeting lovely people from around the world – I thought I had a pretty international set of friends because I’ve lived in so many countries but I’ve met so many more – I’ve made some firm friends in the U.K, the U.S and Berlin among other places already, and I’ve been blogging less than a year. Food bloggers have a real sense of community and I’ve had so many people reach out to me. I’m actually meeting 4 Kiwi blogging friends for the first time when I come home.

Also, it’s been instrumental in getting previously un-techy me a bit savvier; I’m lucky to have a good friend who helps me but I’ve done all the backend stuff myself and learned a lot as I did it.

The worst thing about blogging is…
Um…Spammy Viagra sites leaving comments? Akismet does a great job of separating the spam from comments but I still check manually in case it does bin something from a real person. Also, while most PRs are lovely and polite, I’ve had a few who send emails asking me to promote their product without even checking my name! The emails start “Hi there…” I’m not sure why anyone would want to promote their product without thoroughly checking out the ethos of a site in the first place actually. I’m certainly not opposed to advertising or anything, I just haven’t found anything I like enough to promote yet and I don’t want to bore my readers with something they wouldn’t care about.

Top three tips for happy blogging:
Heh, I have four, what can I say, I’m a blabbermouth eldest child.

Find a subject you care about or a good reason or you’ll get bored and give up; I started Sasasunakku because I wanted something that would help me be disciplined about writing – I have always loved writing but I’m a master procrastinator. Knowing there are people who want to read my work is a great motivator.
Even if you don’t like an aspect of blogging, keep at it and you might surprise yourself – I hated taking photos at first but I knew they were an integral part of a food blog and now, while I’m far from being a good photographer, I quite enjoy puttering around with a camera and props.
Keep challenging yourself – videos and interviews are some of the things I’ve incorporated and I was so pleased with the response.
Also I think it’s really important to reach out to others in your niche – it’s easy to feel “Oh, my stuff’s not as good as theirs” etc. but unless you engage in the community I feel you may as well keep an diary; the rewards are so great.

Experiences you’d like to share from your blogging career?
I’ve got to interview and/or been in touch with a couple of my food blogging heroes and I often get lovely packages in the mail from other sweet bloggers – homemade jam, cookies, Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and sweets. Even though we’re all online a lot, many bloggers treasure snailmail as a way to keep contact real and I love sending and receiving packages so it’s a lovely bonus.

Thanks so much Sasa! Click here to visit Sasasunakku.