Interview with Onyx Clemente, Owner of FoodPorn.net

Onyx was generous enough to accept a brief email interview. Read on to learn about how FoodPorn.net was created and her advice for aspiring writers. Hope you enjoy!

Lets start off for any readers not familiar with FoodPorn.net; please provide a brief explanation about the site and how it was developed.
FoodPorn.Net was created so that food lovers can share wonderful pictures and recipes of food they have created or eaten. This collection of delicious photos is sure to make us all hungry. Many of the images are submitted by foodies, photographers and cooks!

There also isn’t a lot of personal information on the creator/creators of the site. Could you give readers further insight on this or is there a particular reason behind this discretion?
Since the site is created to be a place where anyone can submit photos, the focus of the site is not on the creators. Instead we would like to focus on the food and those who make these masterpieces.
Onyx Clemente, the owner of the site, is in the medical field and has triplets. She is also an avid foodie who loves “food porn”, cooking and entertaining.

“Food Porn” is such a unique term and has already become a trendy slang within the foodie community. Was the website just named after this as well or was it from some inspiration/brainstorming?
The website was inspired by the trendy slang used within the foodie community. The idea behind the slang is that a photo of food has the ability to awaken our senses and arouse within us a hunger for the mouth-watering food in the photo.

There is great buzz about FoodPorn.net and from such success, are there any milestones or particular memorable accomplishments you would like to mention?
FoodPorn.net was created to be a community of foodies sharing their photos and successes in the kitchen. These foodies are able to create an account, login, and manage their personal photos. We have also grown to have nearly 800 likes on Facebook as well as regular Pinterest and Twitter followers. We have expanded to include mycookbook.com which is a similar community including recipe storage, meal plans, and more.

With great success, I am sure there were great challenges too. What were FoodPorn.net’s chief difficulties and how were they solved? Or are they still ongoing problems today?
The greatest obstacle that we have faced is that not everyone is familiar with the term “Food Porn.” The word porn has a very provocative connotation and may be found offensive by some. Our challenge is to educate our audience on the meaning of food porn and expose them to a whole new world of delicious edibles.

How about advice for aspiring bloggers wanting to turn their blog into something more profitable or into a career endeavour?
Don’t forget to engage in the entire blogging community. Take the time to see what others are writing and reading so you can stay current with your topics.

One of my own key challenges is gaining more public awareness. I found creating a stronger Facebook and online presence has been really difficult. Do you have any tips concerning this issue?
I think the idea behind social media marketing is simple. You need to engage your audience and be offering them something that inspires, intrigues, or interests them. And, you also need to be willing to ask for their referrals. Once you have an engaged audience they are willing to spread the word.

Finally, from your experience do you have any important last words for aspiring bloggers, entrepreneurs and photographers?
Whenever you take on a new challenge or endeavor, choose something you are passionate about and connect with others that share the same passions. I believe that if you can get excited about what you are doing, the excitement will pass through to your target audience.