Meet The Bloggers, is a new series where I get to interview some of my favourite bloggers and get to highlight new bloggers too. If you would like to be included please give me a shout on social media.
Kacie Morgan From The Rare Welsh Bit
Hello! My name is Kacie Morgan. Based in Cardiff, I write the food and travel blog, The Rare Welsh Bit. Set up around five years ago, The Rare Welsh Bit features restaurant, product and travel reviews, recipes, giveaways and more.
The majority of restaurants that I review are based in South Wales but I have also covered a few in North, West and mid-Wales, London and even Jamaica.
What inspired you to start blogging?
I began blogging in November 2010, shortly after I graduated from Cardiff University with a BA degree in Journalism, Film and Media.
I attended an employability course run by the university and one of the tutors suggested that I start a blog in order to have a platform upon which to showcase my writing. I was quite passionate about good food and I had no desire to move to London (where most journalism jobs tend to be located), so I set up a Welsh food blog.
As time went on, I developed a passion for travel and so I decided to start writing about this on my blog as well.
I attended an employability course run by the university and one of the tutors suggested that I start a blog in order to have a platform upon which to showcase my writing. I was quite passionate about good food and I had no desire to move to London (where most journalism jobs tend to be located), so I set up a Welsh food blog.
As time went on, I developed a passion for travel and so I decided to start writing about this on my blog as well.
What are your three favourite restaurants?
Laguna Kitchen And Bar, Cardiff
- Moksh – Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay
- Yaks n’ Yetis – Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
- Laguna Kitchen and Bar – Park Plaza, Cardiff
What is your favourite dish to cook?
There’s nothing I love to cook more than a roast dinner. I like to cook a variety of fresh veg and I usually cook chicken or lamb. Regardless of what I meat I have, I always serve it with a mound of stuffing, homemade Yorkshire pudding and lots of mint sauce. It makes me hungry just thinking about it! As I don’t live with my family, I don’t often bother to cook a roast dinner, but that just makes it all the more special when I get round to doing one!
There’s nothing I love to cook more than a roast dinner. I like to cook a variety of fresh veg and I usually cook chicken or lamb. Regardless of what I meat I have, I always serve it with a mound of stuffing, homemade Yorkshire pudding and lots of mint sauce. It makes me hungry just thinking about it! As I don’t live with my family, I don’t often bother to cook a roast dinner, but that just makes it all the more special when I get round to doing one!
Tell me about your proudest blogging achievement.
My proudest blogging achievement is getting shortlisted for Best in Food in Cosmopolitan’s 2015 Blog Awards. It was such an honour to attend the awards ceremony at One Marylebone in London; I had such a fantastic evening and I enjoyed meeting the other shortlisted bloggers.
Although I didn’t win, 64,000 bloggers entered the nominations and only 100 of us were shortlisted, so I was very proud simply to have reached this stage.
My proudest blogging achievement is getting shortlisted for Best in Food in Cosmopolitan’s 2015 Blog Awards. It was such an honour to attend the awards ceremony at One Marylebone in London; I had such a fantastic evening and I enjoyed meeting the other shortlisted bloggers.
Although I didn’t win, 64,000 bloggers entered the nominations and only 100 of us were shortlisted, so I was very proud simply to have reached this stage.
What is your favourite blog post of 2015 and why?
My favourite blog post is from Thou Shalt Not Covet and it features a survey of bloggers, the results of which offer real insight into how much bloggers actually get paid for different kinds of services. This post has helped me a lot in helping to decide upon my rates and it really stands out in my mind when I look back over the blog posts I read throughout last year. Here is the link: How much do bloggers really earn?
Of all the blog posts I wrote last year, my favourite one was my recipe for Ferrero Rocher cheesecake. This was sinfully scrumptious. I dread to think how many calories were in it, but it tasted so good that it was worth every single one!
My favourite blog post is from Thou Shalt Not Covet and it features a survey of bloggers, the results of which offer real insight into how much bloggers actually get paid for different kinds of services. This post has helped me a lot in helping to decide upon my rates and it really stands out in my mind when I look back over the blog posts I read throughout last year. Here is the link: How much do bloggers really earn?
Of all the blog posts I wrote last year, my favourite one was my recipe for Ferrero Rocher cheesecake. This was sinfully scrumptious. I dread to think how many calories were in it, but it tasted so good that it was worth every single one!
Do you have any specific goals for 2016?
Blog-related goals:
- Get into the habit of writing blog posts on weekends and scheduling them to be published throughout the week (when I am in work, and don’t have time to write posts)
- Continue scheduling Facebook and Twitter posts in advance
- Plan blog posts in advance (eg. Around events like Valentine's Day, St David’s Day, Christmas, national awareness days, etc)
- Fix broken links (something I have NEVER done!)
- Increase DA (hopefully fixing the links will help somewhat with this!)
- Publish more travel content
- Grow social media followers (especially Bloglovin’ and Pinterest)
- Attend my first blogging conference, Traverse, in Cardiff in April
- Post every three days, consistently (ideally, it would be more than this, but it’s difficult to fit it in around work, so I’d rather be consistent every three days!)
- Find a better template
Other goals:
- Lose weight
- Be wiser with money (eg. Investing in a travel mug and decent coffee to avoid having to go to Starbucks every morning!)
- Improve my freelance writing website
- Travel more
- Spend more time with friends and family
Tell me have you read Kacie's blog?
What a lovely new series, and it's great to read more about bloggers. I read Kacie's blog and get quite jealous of some of the restaurants that exist in South Wales and not in London! x
ReplyDeleteThank you Rhian. If you want to be involved, let me know!
Deletewhat an achievement to be shortlisted! I've read Kacie's blog a couple of times as I visit north Wales often and at least now I know where to eat!
ReplyDeleteI love Kacie's blog! As a Cardiffian myself it's very helpful, plus I love the photos! Would love to take part in this series x
ReplyDeleteI love reading about restaurants in South Wales so I always follow Kacie's blog.
DeleteI regularly read your blog nice to put a face to the name :)
ReplyDeleteAhhh, fixing the links i need to do that too! There was a website that identified them all but I can't remember it for the life of me!! x
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few sites to fix broken links - www.brokenlinkchecker.com is one.
DeleteI like getting to know other bloggers like this.
ReplyDeleteThis so such a lovely post and a great way to get to know a blogger!! It's also reminded me to sort out my broken links!
ReplyDeleteThis so such a lovely post and a great way to get to know a blogger!! It's also reminded me to sort out my broken links!
ReplyDelete