Blogs tell world Sydney's secrets

Louise Hawson is a freelance photographer whose blog 52 Suburbs has acquired an international following.

SBS: What gave you the idea for your 52 Suburbs blog?
 
LOUISE HAWSON: I realised I was a stranger in my own city – there are more than 600 suburbs in Sydney and I hardly knew any of them well. You might drive through many but how often do you get out of the car and walk the streets, eyes peeled for the details that really make a place distinct?

I thought it would make an interesting photographic project – and a blog was the ideal medium. It meant I could ‘take’ people with me on my forays into the suburbs – I was pretty sure there were enough people who hadn’t ever seen all of Sydney either.

The 52 bit came out of the fact I thought it was realistic to cover one suburb a week for a year.

SBS: How do you decide which suburbs to photograph each week?
 
LOUISE: Spontaneously! It might be something someone says that makes me curious about a certain suburb. Or sometimes it’s out of necessity – the week is too busy to roam far so I choose a suburb close to home. And sometimes I just get the map out and pick somewhere randomly.


SBS: Have you been surprised by what you've discovered in your own city?

LOUISE : Absolutely. Every week I come across something that amazes me. It might be about the people who live in that suburb or something in the built environment that’s just so unexpected.
 
SBS: Do you know if your blog has been getting national/international attention outside of Sydney itself?

I have a site meter that tells me where the people who follow the blog come from – it’s all over the place. I love that someone in Mongolia was reading it the other day!
 
LOUISE: What role does the medium (the internet) have in a project such as this one?
 
An enormous role. Sure, this could be just a photographic project. But the fact that people can join me once a week to explore a new suburb is special – it makes it more real and involving. The other huge benefit is that I find the feedback extremely motivating – it’s a big commitment time-wise doing this project – it makes it all the more worthwhile when I know people are appreciating it and enjoying the project.

SBS: Any other similar projects in the pipeline?
 
LOUISE: I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stop at the end of 52 weeks! So maybe it will continue.

Karen Low, the foodie behind Sydney-based Citrus and Candy says she'll keep blogging whether her blog funds her eating habits or not.

1. What got you blogging?

I was new to the world of blogs and I wanted to start one up mainly as a writing exercise for uni. But when I started reading a couple of Sydney food blogs (mainly grabyourfork.blogspot.com), I was hooked. It was such a different experience reading food blogs over food magazines as it was more immediate and personal. Plus I loved the food photos and discovering 'off-the-beaten-track' restaurants that would never have been covered in print media.

Then it was the matter of seeing whether I could do it and of course, seeing as I love everything about food, it was a natural step.

2. Have you ever considered monetizing your blog? (Why/why not?)

Monetizing from a blog has always been the least of my concerns but last year, I joined Foodbuzz and started earning from page views. I don't have anything against ads on blogs as long as it is food-related and isn't intrusive. And it's nice to have a little extra cash on the side to sponsor my eating habits!

3. Do you click-track and where do most of your clicks come from, and

I'm starting to do it more often as I've become fascinated with where my readers are coming from and how. Not surprisingly, most of my clicks come from Australia, followed by USA and Canada. Though lately I've had a lot of traffic come from India.

4. What's the weirdest place you've ever seen a click come from?

I've had a click from Nepal but I've been more surprised with getting traffic from Kazakhstan and Iran!

Zina Zhang's blog Tasted By Two has been visited by a North Korean who spent an hour on the site reading Zhang's accounts of her experiences at Sydney's restaurants.

1. What got you blogging?

We've been following food blogs ever since the early days when there was only a handful of bloggers in Australia. We deeply valued the independent opinion that bloggers had and often visited restaurants purely based on a rave review.

We started Tasted By Two as a testament to our love for food, writing and photography. We felt there was room in the space for a food obsessed couple to share their (often opposing) takes on fine food around Sydney and beyond.

2. Have you ever considered monetizing your blog? (Why/why not?)

It would be great to be able to monetize our blog, eating out all the time is tough on the wallet. But at the end of the day, we blog for the love of food and Tasted By Two is a project of passion.

3. Do you click-track and where do most of your clicks come from?

The majority of our traffic is local, primarily from people searching restaurants we've reviewed or recipes we've posted. We also have a large following in the US, Canada, the UK and Singapore.

4. What's the weirdest place you've ever seen a click come from? (another interviewee told us her blog was clicked on my someone in Mongolia!)

We've had visitors from 133 different countries across the globe - including faraway places like Mauritius, Egypt, Costa Rica and Belarus. But the weirdest place we've seen a click come from would be one North Korean visitor who spent more than an hour on the site!