It has been almost 7 years since I started this blog. I have decided to shut it down. It will be officially down around first week of May 2023. Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me on this journey, I appreciate each and everyone of you. You are all amazing!!
Why the decision to shut down the blog?
There are a few reasons.
More opportunities to write professionally
When I started this blog, I was just using it as a creative outlet. This blog has opened up so many wonderful opportunities for me. Starting with Hindustan Times, with the Managing Editor Sukumar Ranganathan taking a chance on me, and the ability to work with the greatest Editor, Zara Murao, on a weekly basis has been such a great experience for me. I write for their weekend edition on Food Science. Just google ‘Swetha Sivakumar’ and Hindustan Times and you will get links to all my work.
I have written for newer publications such as Truth Be Told. I have some amazing projects in the works that I am very excited about. But I can’t talk about it yet. I hope to keep you all updated on those (more on that below). I feel really good about teaching food science concepts to a larger audience I am able to reach through these big platforms, rather than my old, clunky website. I have also been approached by brands to either conduct training for them or sell products. While I rarely do take those on, it is nice to have the capability to do so.
Social Media vs Blog (Chicken or the Egg)
If I want people to notice my blog, then I have to be prevalent on social media. But if I want to build a bigger audience in social media, then I barely have any time to write blog posts. Besides, I feel like everyone is on social media these days. All my professional writing gigs, I have gotten via social media. Social media has its problems, for sure. But, I have come to realize that I have got to go sell my wares where the market is, the market is not going to come to me.
My poor understanding of website tech
Gosh, my website looks so dated, even I can’t stand it. Yes, I can hire someone to update it and run a bunch of ads. But all that sounds exhausting to me. All I want to do is write about food science, not worry about SEO and plugins and managing ads.
But, let’s not say goodbye…let’s stay in touch
Instagram: Right now, your best way to reach me is via Instagram. Apparently, running video reels is all the rage. I recently became quite active on Instagram. I went from having ~150 followers a few months ago to 25K followers right now. Gosh! It took so much longer to even hit 10K in Twitter. Who knows, it may all crash and burn, but for now I am having a lot of fun (and anxiety) trying to come up with content for Instagram. Look for me: @upgrade_my_food.
Youtube: For those of you -sane ones who don’t use any social media like my husband (how do y’all do that?), please follow me on Youtube (I identify it more as a search engine). While my current Youtube subscriber count is low (153); if you subscribe to me there, I promise to be really active on it. I plan to post videos both in Instagram and Youtube at the same time, so you don’t miss out on the latest content from me. Look for me: @SwethaSivakumar
Twitter: Another way to reach me is Twitter. It used to be my favorite platform. The recent changes since Elon took over have not been great. While I am not as addicted to it as before, it is still hard for me to give it up completely. Besides, I have met some wonderful people there and I will stay to be in touch with the community there. Look for me: @upgrade_my_food
Other platforms: I am also on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Facebook. Do connect with me if you are in any of these platforms.
Email: Finally, you can email me anytime at [email protected] to reach me directly. If you have already subscribed to this website, I hope to email you in the near future when my upcoming project is ready to be shared. Else, please hit unsubscribe (although I really hope you don’t).
Conclusion
Thank you, thank you, thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog from time to time, commenting and sharing my work with others.
I will leave you all with a lovely quote: “No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.” – Heather French Henry.
You all have been that help that got me through my career-break back into a fulfilling career as a writer. Thanks!
Congratulations on your success! It’s been great to see you grow. I hope to read more from you in the other platforms that you have mentioned. Good luck!
Thank you! That’s so lovely of you!
Hi Swetha will your blog contents be archived so that we can still access and read them?
For now, I want to keep things simple and just download them to my PC for my future reference. I would recommend you download any info you find useful too before May first week. I am so sorry! But thank you for your interest.
Congratulations Swetha for your achievements! It is a shame the attention span of people is getting shorter and shorter with the advent of reels culture through the social media. None wants to read a detailed analysis .I am indeed sad that I will miss the finer details of your many interesting experiments. Your content offering is very unique and I am not aware of any one else other than you offering a scientific perspective on our many cooking processes. I will be following you on the instagram as I greatly value your observations.
Thank you Anil! That’s so sweet of you! The silver lining is that the videos are a visual medium to make some of my explanations come across more effectively – e.g. how greens react with acids, or how rice flour cooks in oil, etc. So, atleast that’s a plus!
But I will miss the high and the satisfaction of writing long-form articles. But, sometimes you just go with the flow, I guess…
Big fan of your articles. Didn’t get a chance to appreciate you earlier.. But all of your articles are really great!!
If possible, please share your downloaded contents into other social media like Facebook, so that all your hard written articles would be always available for everyone . Like me, many of us just referring the contents from the links whenever required instead of downloading them and keeping somewhere in the local and searching very hard when requires.
All the best!!
Thank you Nagarajan, Will try to share as much as possible.
Best wishes that the new opportunities are even more fun and fulfilling. Looking forward to following your posts at the new forums