Tips – VeganMoFo

It’s Time to Share Your Own #VeganMoFo2014 Press Release!

August 22, 2014 jess sconé Comments 1 comment

If you’re reading this, I bet you’re gearing up for VeganMoFo 2014! It makes sense. Since we’re here, you’re over there, and I’m right inside this here blog with a fuzzy marketing comm. degree to dust off, I’d like to help ya spread the word about our big month ahead!

Because seriously, outreach is KEY and we all know it can be quite a productive month, you & your piece of the internet deserve a little time in the spotlight!

First, let’s share some of my recent eats from Beyond Sushi, because you’ve got some legit reading ahead.

Here’s what to do:

Think & go Google search: What are the local media avenues in my community (state, country, district, town, county, area, favorite blogs, online news sources, etc.)? Is there an alt weekly? Is there a monthly, city-wide cultural magazine and/or website? Where do you see local food & dining news? For example, in Portland, OR, I’d send this to Eater PDX (and there are a ton of Eater sites out there!), Willamette Week, Portland Mercury, Oregonian FoodDay, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland Monthly Magazine and a bunch of my favorite culinary-focused blogs. Plus, the huge local vegetarian outreach group, Northwest Veg, other vegan-friendly events that have caught my eye, and maybe, The Kitchn, Serious Eats, and so on. If you’ve been involved with media outlets/events, who are your contacts? Do you have friends that work in PR? Are they relevant and could they help get the word out? Do they like vegan cookies? Is there a VegFest? Basically, find out their contact email/fax (right?! You can totally send faxes for free online these days in case you actually want to do that). Take note that there is typically a contact specifically *for* press releases and calendar info with the bigger outlets. Go cover your ground and spread the word!
Download a personalized or general copy of the official VeganMoFo press release (I’ll get to this below!), generously assembled by VeganMoFo’s own Amey of Vegan Eats & Treats (Thanks again, Amey!!).
Save the (ideally revised) press release as a PDF with a clearly marked file name, for example “Media Alert: VeganMo, The Vegan Month of Food Writing Returns September 2014“
Next, copy/paste the press release content into the actual email message from title down. I like to do this, it doubles your chances of being read. At the top, if I know who it’s going to well, I’ll often include a little note in a different font and color and sign it, like “Hey Jojo, I’d love for you to take a look at this news! I’ve got a whole month of xxx in store and daily updates! Let me know if you would like more information or photos for a story” (or something a little less lame then that, but I hope you get the point).
Make sure you’ve attached a copy of the press release PDF (or Word Doc or whatever you prefer, but this is getting crazy talk) to the email itself.
Press send and let that baby fly, preferably one at a time, but one big blind BCC can do in a pinch (but don’t tell my Writing for Marketing teacher at Emerson that I actually said that).

And here’s how to do it! There are two versions of our shiny, official press release all ready to go below:

OPTION 1) We’ve got the official press release ready to be personalized linked right here and copied below. It is super important to make sure you personalize all the red bits! If not, you look like a noob, and no writer potentially ready to put your name in lights and spread the word about veganism is gonna let that fly.

OPTION 2) Okay, if you don’t want to personalize it and are just thinking this is far too annoying to open and add some text to (I feel ya), but you’ve got some contacts and simply want to help, please know that A) We still heart you! and B) Go for it and pass the info from this link right here along, using the instructions above.

Thank you!!!!

Now, let’s get back to pondering thematics and/or bloggy and social media whims, as you please.

P.S. And tell my teacher I didn’t go on hiatus to NYC and posted this 30 days ago, sheesh.

Why Take Part in VeganMoFo?

August 8, 2014 veganinbrighton Comments 4 comments

Hey there! Jojo here, I’m franticly working on my mofo theme, attempting to trace / draw/ collage myself a logo with minimal artistic skills and getting ready to eat everything in sight come September. What are you doing? Are you working hard on your theme? Are you planning to wing it? Are you still undecided about hopping aboard the MoFo train? Let us know in the comments but, if it’s the latter, I’m here to give you 5 good reasons why you should join in.

It’s super fun! I’ve seriously loved every moment of taking part in VeganMoFo since I first joined in back in 2010. Even on days when I’ve felt a little burnt out I’ve been inspired to continue by everyone else’s amazing posts.
During MoFo you’re not just one person out there in the blogosphere cooking, photographing, eating and typing your little heart out, you’re part of a community. And an awesome community at that. We’ve had over 100 sign ups so far and the only thing missing is you!
Year on year I gain new followers and make new blogging buddies. Whether you’ve been blogging for years or are just starting out this is a great way to get involved in the online vegan community.
Discovering new blogs is great. If, like me, you enjoy starting your day gazing at other people’s gorgeous foodie creations whilst you nom on your own breakfast then MoFo is the place for you. We’ll be organising the participating blogs by country and category so you can browse that way. The site randomofo (link coming soon) is aother fun option for browsing through the feed. I also like to add the blogs I’m enjoying to a folder in Bloglovin’ so that I don’t miss anything during or after MoFo.
Challenging yourself is fun. Whilst we ask that you blog 20 times during the month (and a lot of us shoot for the full 30) we won’t be putting you on our shitlist if you miss a day! Just hop back on the hobbyhorse the next day and keep on blogging.

Are you convinved yet? We sure hope so! If not we’ll be back next week with a post on Community Building!

We’ve got 3 weeks to go! Happy MoFo!

Official Daily Themes & Blogging Prompts.

August 25, 2013 veganinbrighton Comments 31 comments

Hey y’all! Can you believe it’s only a week until Vegan MoFo 2013 begins? Colour me excited! (I’m British, that ‘u’ is staying, get used to it!)

I was lucky enough to attend Vida Vegan Con in Portland this spring and one of my favourite classes was the Vegan MoFo workshop run by fellow volunteers Kittee, Amey & Mo. I loved the tips these MoFo veterans shared for getting involved in and surviving Vegan MoFo. For a lot of us the idea that MoFo has to be about elaborate cooking projects is enough to stop us signing up and I don’t mind admitting that I’ve suffered from MoFo Burnout™ on more than one occasion. But, never fear, our ideas are here! During the workshop we brainstormed fun daily themes that you guys can use all of, some of, or, y’know, none of. It’s up to you! The official Vegan MoFo 2013 Daily Themes are…

Mac-and-Cheese Monday – This is pretty self explanatory and a theme I’m personally running with

TV Tuesday – Eat and Watch, cook a meal featured in your favourite movie or TV show.

Work With it Wednesday – Focussing on a food you don’t love and learning to love, or at least tolerate, it.

Thankful Thursday – Focussing on the positive and giving to others. Maybe you could bake some cookies to thank a friend, teacher or neighbour?

Freaky Friday – Trade with a fellow blogger for the day.

Retro Saturday – Dress up and veganise your favourite retro dishes.

Sleepy Sundays – Your favourite breakfast, brunch and lazin’ in bed snacks. This is another one that I’ll definitely be taking part in!

I’d also like to share ALL of the brainstorming ideas we came up with in the workshop so that you too can laugh about Bathtub Tuesday or run with Fry-day!

Monday – Mock Meat Monday, Mom’s Meals, Metal Monday, Munchie Monday, Muffin Monday, Manic Monday.

Tuesday – Taco Tuesday, Bathtub Tuesday, Tomato Tuesday.

Wednesday – White Flour Wednesday.

Thursday – Thirsty Thursday, Thursday Treats.

Friday – Fry-day, Fruity Friday, Far-mar Friday, Farty Friday (yes, we are adults), Fermented Friday, Fave Film Friday.

Saturday – Sprouty Saturday, Sautéed Saturday, Sausage Saturday, Spousal Saturday, Saucy Saturday.

Sunday – Sweetie Sunday, Sundae, Soul Food Sunday, Sassy Sunday, Spicy Sunday, Small Town Sunday, Special Sunday.

The awesome Erika at Sews Before Bros wrote a great summary of the workshop right here if you’d like to read more about it.

This year the MoFo team (with a little help from our Twitter followers) have also come up with 30 blogging prompts that you can use if you’re dealing with a case of writer’s block. Again you can use some, all, or none of these.

Your Origin Story (what led you to become vegan?)
Share your first experience cooking with tofu.
A food / ingredient you didn’t used to like but now you do, how did the transition happen? (Mine is pickles, Isa’s is Celery!)
Five vegan foods you cannot live without.
Five kitchen utensils or gadgets you cannot live without.
What was your first vegan cookbook?
Pick a historical figure and discuss what you might cook for them.
Tell us about a herb you use in a unique way.
Take us on a (pictoral or video) tour of your kitchen.
What’s your newest foodie discovery and how did you discover it?
Your vegan heroines / heroes.
Is there something you do in the kitchen that you know you’re not supposed to (knives in the dishwasher, soap on cast iron etc)
Hidden vegan gems in your town, city or village.
Veganise a local speciality / food that’s popular in your area.
Veganise a family recipe.
What’s the best vegan meal you’ve ever eaten?
Describe your fantasy meal, money and time are not an issue!
What’s your favourite accidentally vegan product?
How do you feel about leftovers?
Your top five vegan products (including clothing, cleaning supplies, make up, shoes, soap, whatever)
Your five favourite cookbooks.
Your top five store cupboard essentials?
Post a picture of a cat!
What’s the first vegan meal you ever cooked from scratch?
When is the last time someone cooked for you and what did they make?
Do a cookbook challenge! Throw cookbook names into a hat, use a random number generator to pick a page and make whatever comes up.
Your favourite vegan food pairings (Yes, we kinda pinched this one from Vegetarian Times!)
Talk about your favourite place to buy vegetables.
Your ultimate cooking playlist.
What’s your killer dish when you’re cooking for non-vegans?

If you haven’t signed up for MoFo yet I hope that these prompts might inspire you to do so – you have until August 28th! The sign up form’s right here. Go on, you know you want to!

If you have signed up but are already freaking out about how much work it’s going to be hopefully this post will help you chill out a bit! We understand that it can be hard, or downright impossible, to keep up with cooking project after elaborate cooking project for a whole month because we MoFo too. Hopefully the daily MoFo Workshop themes, and prompt questions alongside Katie’s post about MoFoing On The Go will make it all seem considerably less daunting and more fun. Roll on September!

VeganMoFo On The Go

August 25, 2013 Katie Comments 5 comments

Every year, we hear people say, “Oh, i’d love to participate but i’ll be out of town for a week or two and won’t be able to post.” So here a few ways that you can keep your blog full of content, even if all you have on you is a smart phone. I have an android phone and use wordpress, so those are the apps I have experience with and will be referencing.

1. Did you know that youtube channels have their own RSS feeds? It’s entirely possible to participate in VeganMoFo without typing a single word! If you’re more of a talker than a blogger, vlogging for the month is a great option. The address for a youtube account RSS feed is: https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/YourUserName/uploads (obviously, put your youtube username in place of ‘YourUserName’). Most smart phones take pretty good video quality, just remember to turn your phone. If you just want to supplement your normal blogging content with videos, you can just embed the video into a blog post. The youtube app on your phone has a ‘share’ feature that will send it right to your wordpress app, if you use wordpress.

You can make cooking videos, show your recent vegan grocery purchases, do a video restaurant review, product reviews, or just vlog about food in general. We’re going to have a list of blogging prompts up soon that can also be used as vlogging ideas.

2. Instagram! Via the instagram app, you have the option to share your photos directly with tumblr, but after you take a photo you can also click the three dots underneath it ‘…’ and one of the options is to copy the photo url, which you can then paste into your wordpress app. If you plan on relying on instagram for blog content, make sure you read up on some tips to get the best food photos you possibly can with your camera phone.

3. You can also write some posts in advance and set them to automatically publish when you’re going to be gone. There’s no rule that says you have to write your posts on the day you publish them! Even if you won’t be out of town during part of VeganMoFo, having a few pre-written posts for days when you feel too burned out to blog are a good idea.

If you have any other suggestions for traveling MoFoers, please feel free to leave a comment! And keep in mind that the cut-off for sign-ups is August 28th, we need a few days to get the blog list together.

VeganMoFo

The Vegan Month of Food: 2017

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