this blog in Tech & U NST 26 November 2007

thanks to Suba for promoting this blog in the Tech & U NST...an excellent review from her...

LOVE cooking and baking, check out the blog called A Small Family with a Big Appetite. It is located at http://smallfamily-bigappetite.blogspot.com, or you can go to http://ezzuramd.fotopages.com and click on the link.

Interestingly, the site is developed by a doctor-cum-trainee lecturer, Dr Ezura Madiana Md Monoto. Besides reading, travelling and shopping, Dr Ezura loves cooking and baking, which explains the creation of the blog.

“Basically, the site is about sharing food recipes. I love cooking and baking. I always browse other blogs to test their food recipes. At the same time, I enjoy sharing my family’s favourite recipes with others,” she said.

The blog is designed for housewives, mothers, career professionals – practically anyone who loves cooking and baking. Dr Ezura even guarantees that she has tested all of the recipes posted on her blog.

“The recipes posted on the blog are absolutely delicious and easy to make. I welcome comments on the recipes tested by Internet viewers,” she said.

On how the blog helps to “bond” visitors, Dr Ezura said through the blog she has made new friends, from chefs to people from various backgrounds, all of whom share a common interest in food.

On monitoring the number of hits per day, Dr Ezura uses Motigo technology, a free Web analytics tool that allows her to track traffic to her site and gain an understanding of the behaviour of the visitors. The tool also helps her to constantly improve and optimise the blog to match visitors’ needs.

Apart from some scams that intruded the Comments section (in foreign languages), the site has been receiving encouraging response.“I am not sure how to solve (the scams). I usually delete comments that are not beneficial, especially when they are written in a foreign language,” Dr Ezura said.

Her future plans for the blog include uploading more recipes and linking the site to other Web sites that have similar trends.