Farm blogging is not necessarily difficult and time-consuming. Try regularly posting a photo and frame with a few words of background -- a vibrant photo with an engaging description will go a long way in creating a connection with your customers.

It shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to post a blog entry like this. Perfect for those summer weeks when the last thing you want to do is write a long blog post.

Eugene from Catskill Merino, a sheep farm and Small Farm Central subscriber in Goshen, New York, does this consistently and effectively. See here or here.

Of course, every good rule is flexible and it is a good idea to break this rule if you do not have anything to say with a photo. If words do the job and you can't find a good photo, break the "one photo, one blog" rule!

(Whew, I made it to the end of the post without using some hackneyed "picture is a worth a thousand words" reference.)

[The Blog had a birthday while we were away on an end-of-summer blog-holiday. I'm sure you didn't mind since you were out harvesting instead of reading, but we are back at the blog and you will see postings once a week for the fall, winter, and spring.]

The Small Farm Central blog has one year under its belt. I have greatly enjoying writing about web marketing topics from the unique perspective of the small farmer.

For those of you who missed these articles or who have just recently come to the blog, here are some highlights.

10 Highlights from the Early Days of the Blog

In no particular order, but I'll number them anyway.

1. August 21, 2007: First blog entry, What is this all about?
2. August 23, 2007 - November 1, 2007: A ten-part course in web design & marketing for farms, Farming the Web
3. August 27, 2007: Market sales drop at the end of the season, a condensed version of a discussion on the market-farming listserv.
4. Fall 2007: Beth Bader contributed recipes on a weekly basis last fall, this is a list of her contributions and a recipe for Cauliflower, Chard and Leek Gratin.
5. September 12th, 2007: An interview with Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo covers his blog marketing strategy and successes up to that point. Since last year, he has been featured in Gourmet magazine, among others, and his Internet sales have taken off even further.
6. October 9, 2007: Specific ideas to get you started on writing a farm blog, Part 1 & Part 2.
7. October 29, 2007: This blog post on canning, Canning is Ideology in a Jar, received several thousand hits from Stumble Upon and still is the most popular blog entry with over 5,000 views. Honestly, I am not sure why it is so popular, but the link got out to the right place.
8. November 12, 2007: We posted some sample cards to hand out at markets or other public facing places. This is a great way to generate hits on your website and help your customers understand who you are.
9. November 27, 2008: Did you know that there are 9 distinct ways to eat your home-canned food?
10. December 26, 2008: You never know who will visit your website or what connections you will make, so why not embrace the Serendipity Factor ?

To another year of farm marketing blogging and providing great web services to farms across the country. Stay in the conversation: tell us what you think, post comments, and ask about topics you are interested in.