Field of Dreams was a great movie.

Unfortunately, the most memorable line in the movie is a lie. At least it’s a lie when it comes to blogging.

“If you build it, they will come.”

In the world of blogging, and in many other areas of life, that simply is not true.

McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are two of the most recognized brands in the world. Since everyone knows those brands, it would stand to reason that they no longer need to advertise. Yet McDonald’s and Coca-Cola spend millions of dollars a year on advertising. Why?

Because it’s advertising– word-of-mouth– that draws people to come to a McDonald’s when they build a new location. It’s advertising that keeps people coming back day after day.

Social media is like advertising. It’s word-of-mouth. Facebook. Twitter. Pinterest. Google+. We use all these social media platforms to share with others the good stuff that we find online.

It’s in our nature. We all like to share good stuff. And if you’re like me, a blogger or podcaster, then you also like to create good stuff… which you certainly want people to read or listen to.

Humble Beginnings… Just for fun!

In October of 2008 I launched the Catholic Foodie. I did it just for fun. I launched it because I love food and faith, and because I have a keen awareness of the connection between the two. I had no idea when I started it that anyone would want to listen to me or read what I had to say about food or faith… or anything else, for that matter.

Over 3 years later I’m happy to say that, apparently, there are folks who want to be inspired in their kitchens, around their kitchen tables, and in their spiritual lives. And this does, indeed, make me very happy.

The Catholic Foodie Featured on Alltop.com

Today I’m both happy and humbled to tell you that the Catholic Foodie is now featured on Alltop.com at Food.Alltop.com.

If you don’t know much about Alltop.com, it is essentially an aggregator of the best-of-the-best online content… “All the top” stories of the day.

Here’s an excerpt from Alltop’s About page:

The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you. You may wonder how Alltop is different from a search engine. A search engine is good to answer a question like, “How many people live in China?” However, it has a much harder time answering the question, “What’s happening in China?” That’s the kind of question that we answer.

We do this by collecting the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. We group these collections — “aggregations” — into individual web pages. Then we display the five most recent headlines of the information sources as well as their first paragraph.

Our topics run from adoption to zoology… and hundreds of other subjects along the way.

You can think of Alltop as the “online magazine rack” of the web. We’ve subscribed to thousands of sources to provide “aggregation without aggravation.” To be clear, Alltop pages are starting points—they are not destinations per se. Ultimately, our goal is to enhance your online reading by displaying stories from sources that you’re already visiting plus helping you discover sources that you didn’t know existed.

Here’s how some other people have explained Alltop. First, Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with Pictures, used these two pictures to explain Alltop vis-à-vis Google. Second, read the review by Sarah Perez in ReadWriteWeb. In a nutshell, Alltop is an information filter to help you find your nuggets of gold.

Does this mean I’ve arrived?

No. This is still the beginning and the beginning is still humble.

But being featured by Alltop is great news.

It’s an opportunity to reach and inspire more people. And that’s what the Catholic Foodie is all about.

The Catholic Foodie gives you inspiration and practical tips on living your faith in your family life and around the kitchen table. Recipes are part of that. I try to teach you how to make a Seafood Gumbo, a Shrimp Bisque, and pizza from scratch. But it’s more than just recipes. I try to entertain you while building up your faith though online radio shows (podcasts), blog posts, and Catholic culinary inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.

If you haven’t done so yet, join hundreds of folks who receive free and piping-hot culinary inspiration as soon as it’s published:

THANK YOU!

Thank you for reading the blog, for listening to the podcast, for connecting with me on Facebook and Twitter, and for commenting here on CatholicFoodie.com. And thank you for helping me to spread the word!

Is there more that I can do to offer culinary inspiration? Is there more that I can do to inspire you in your faith? Are there topics you want to hear more about?

Tell me about it in the comments below!