Thursday, August 16, 2012

What Makes a Post Freshly Press-able? A Recipe For Attention | The ...

Every day, 19 WordPressers are featured on the Freshly Pressed section of WordPress.com. And every day, many more wonder, ?What do I have to do to get Freshly Pressed??

Well, it?s time to reveal what the folks who push the launch button are thinking. Each week, a member of our editorial team will do a close-up on one post and why we thought it was Press-worthy. We hope we can provide insight into the process and give you tips and tools to make your blog the best it can be.
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Yesterday on Freshly Pressed we ran this recipe for Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Lemon, from Jen and her blog Lattes and Leggings. We love to read food blogs and we browse dozens each week. Here is why this one made the cut:

The recipe was unique and interesting.

The brussels sprout is one of those vegetables that is mostly hated and only loved by a dedicated few. It has some of the same traits as cabbage: swampy green, easily made mushy, and a tendency toward a sulfurous taste. But Jen made it look and sound delicious, instilling a brightness and freshness when paired with the other ingredients.

Generally when it comes to recipes, we look for something that stands out, using foods we don?t often see or in ways that are not typical. It can be about foods that are healthy and make eating right easy, or on the other hand, dishes that are so decadent and rich that our eyes get hungry just looking at them. Of course, it takes more than the food to catch our eye, as the next item shows.

It got personal.

Jen gave us more than a look at a recipe. She gave a look into her life. She talked about the Met, finding restaurants, and anecdotes about Italy. She just shares herself:

We stumbled upon Cotta Osteria in the Upper West Side. I?ve walked past it a million times, but never thought to try it. As soon as I walked in the door I knew this was going to become my new favorite wine bar.

She tells a tale, which leads to her love of brussels sprouts, which segues into the actual veggie recipe. It is wonderfully done and an enticing read. I plan to actually try making this myself later this week. With extra lemon.

The images were large and colorful.

Images help to break up text and make an article easier to read. With posts about food and eating it can be especially crucial: The visual of a prepared dish is important to enticing the reader, to make them imagine both the flavors and the experience of devouring it. And for a recipe, images illustrating each step help the readability of the post.

Jen also used large photos so a reader can easily see the details and not have to stop and squint to make things out. The ability to click through the images to even larger versions is also a wonderful feature. Of course, the design that Jen?s blog uses allows images of such large size.

Overall, the post was easy to read and so you just enjoy the content itself?the lines and photos of the food.

So what did you think of this pick? Of this recipe?

For more on our Freshly Pressed content, check out last week?s Freshly Press-able post, the roundup of July?s top 10 posts, or read So You Want to Be Freshly Pressed?

Source: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/what-makes-a-post-freshly-press-able-a-recipe-for-attention/

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