Hello, Readers!
I am so glad you are a part of The Cookie Writer. From the beginning my goal has been to provide readers, inspiring cooks, and food fanatics with recipes that my family loves, showing that anything is possible!
While The Cookie Writer began as a hobby, it has definitely transformed into a full-time job, yielding me an income that helps me with day-to-day activities and expenses. That being said, I am fully behind providing you with the best recipes in a fun, but professional manner.
So, if I am remaining professional and fun, what do I expect from YOU, the readers?
Passion, professionalism, and kindness. The New Year has brought new goals, and with those goals comes change. No more rude and unnecessary comments. They don’t help me, or other cooks when it comes to preparing a recipe. If I see a recipe with 100 positive comments, and two very negative or non-descriptive comments on someone else’s blog, I immediately disregard those nay-sayers. “The recipe did not work,” and “too many ads; get a real job,” are not helpful. If anything, they are downright unnecessary and beginning January 1st, 2017, I will personally ignore all comments that are deemed thoughtless.
Does that mean I am disregarding all negative comments? Of course not! We need those, as sometimes a recipe step is misprinted or confusing. However, “the recipe did not work,” is not a valid response. Why did it not work? Did you follow the recipe exactly? Let’s work together on fixing the issue! My personal favourite is “well, I changed the all-purpose flour to gluten-free flour, and substituted applesauce in for eggs, and no sugar was added, but after all these changes, the recipe did not work so I am deeming this meal garbage.”
WHAT?! Bloggers all over the world deal with this. We provide a recipe for a reason: because it worked. Sure, changing ingredients and steps are encouraged, but transforming the recipe completely is not helping anyone (especially if you are wondering why it did not work out…) That is no longer MY recipe that I provided, so how can you review a recipe when you did not follow the instructions? I am all about creativity, but people must remember that baking is a science: gluten-free flour CANNOT be substituted one-for-one for all-purpose flour. Same goes for random “healthy” flours and ingredients.
Now, the same can be said for positive comments. I LOVE comments! It means people have tried my recipes and have come back to share their feedback. I want to say 95% of my readers say WHY they loved the recipe. Whether it was the flavours, ease of creation, or just something unique. But try and say why it was something you loved 🙂
The Cookie Writer means the world to me, and I want positive vibes all around! Criticism and comments are welcome! Don’t take this “rant” as a deterrent. It is like writing a novel: pointers, tips, suggestions, you name it, they are needed. Just remember that there is a person behind this blog who treats this as her full-time job (and works A LOT harder than you think.) Think positive, remain happy, and enjoy my recipes!
PS: As much as ads are seen as terrible and gruesome, they are my source of income. I try to limit them as much as possible. That being said, if there is an intrusive ad, please let me know!! I try to stay away from pop-ups (no pop-up subscription boxes or e-book sign-ups on my site,) but sometimes, something slips through. Do you expect to work 10 hour days and not be paid? Of course not, so please try and respect how I go about making a living.