Thinking of writing a wine blog? Not so fast, kid!

In a recent post from blogger, Steve Heimoff, entitled “A wine blogger on wine blogs, he suggests that ‘the blush is off the rose’ when it comes to online writing about wine. The post didn’t seem to hold out much hope for somebody who hasn’t already arrived on the scene and I think that is the wrong message. As writers who have already attained some level of acceptance we need to be the ones to nurture talent when we see a spark of interest. Before I go any further I want to state my general views on the current state of online wine content.

There is:

•      An establishment of recognized writers with a high degree of expertise on noteworthy topics
•      A vast population of hobby bloggers/vloggers who have a lot less stature and relevance 
•      No shortage of topics for an inspired/passionate writer to build their reputation on over time

As Steve points out almost immediately, he can’t cite any hard evidence for what he suggests, yet doesn’t waste much time coming to a somewhat bleak premise when he states: 

“Something else, too: I think we now know who the players are, and that situation is unlikely to change. The field is set, the top names known. It is now extraordinarily difficult for a newcomer to enter the fray and succeed. It’s too late for that. The country already is saturated with wine blogs. I can’t see how a newbie could jump in and achieve any kind of respectable numbers, unless that person already was famous from something else.”

First of all, let me make clear that ‘fame’ in another area may make you a curiosity as a wine blogger, but certainly not relevant (two examples popped into my head – Snooki and Bono). Further, lets agree that nothing is static. Opportunities arise constantly for new talent, if you don’t believe that just look at major league baseball, and I have no doubt there is still plenty of bandwidth for budding writers to attain some level of prominence. To suggest otherwise is to imply that we as a group of current talent are irreplaceable, and that our ‘hall of fame’ is as good as it gets. I don’t believe that. Furthermore, history tends to bury those who make such claims.

I think there is an identity crisis in the online wine writing community. What I mean by that is:

•      Writers need to do a better job of defining, and honing their particular niche
•      Wineries and PR are faced with the daunting task of determining if you matter

If you succeed with the first point, the second one is a lot easier to establish. Here is an example:

I ran into a wine industry colleague at a recent tasting. She is in charge of marketing for a well-known winery that attracts well-deserved attention. We first met in the early ‘90s and have a great deal of respect for each other. I shared the changes that will be happening with my writing in the next few months and she offered an open invitation to visit and taste with the winemaker. From there she continued by remarking about the difficulties the winery was experiencing fielding requests from bloggers (whom they had never heard of) who call wanting access to their guesthouse, private tastings and wine lunches. The impression she got was that there was a sense of entitlement simply because someone wrote a blog. I couldn’t really argue with her.

In researching this post, I wanted to try to get some sense of the growth and maturation in wine blogging and decided the Wine Bloggers Conference website would be a good place to start. I attended the first two conferences in California and recalled the site includes lists of the participants for each of the four annual events. In the inaugural year, 2008, the list covered just about 2 pages and has more than doubled in three years. I could only guess as to what percentage of the wine blogging sphere the list represents.

Once I had a chance to look over the attendees I pulled out some names that I didn’t recognize and plugged them into my browser. A few showed nice layout elements but for the most part there was very little discussion of the background of the writer, site FAQ and even less indication of what the focus is – there was everything from reviews of aerators, wine bar openings, dinners they went to, florist recommendations, my bottle of Chardonnay from Livermore etc.

For any new talent to rise they need to do several things to stand out. This list is not meant to be complete, but when I am asked, “What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?” my answer is:

• ·       Ask yourself why anyone should take you seriously
• ·       Find a niche and own it
• ·       Discuss your philosophy, intentions, aspirations, experience
• ·       Be genuine, honest, fair and transparent
• ·       Use spell check religiously
• ·       Write because you are passionate about wine
• ·       Forget about generating ad revenue
• ·       Make your writing engaging and interesting
• ·       Post regularly
• ·       Own your domain name
• ·       Don’t expect wineries to gush over you, if they do, run the other way