Meet Dennis Hornsby: Food Blogger & Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dennis Hornsby and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dennis, is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
Just how hard it is to get your website in front of people. For the first 6 months, I was getting zero traffic on my blog. You are completely at the mercy of Google. Every gripe you might have with food blogs (walls of text, recipe at the bottom of the page, etc.) is all because the search engines have decided to reward this behavior. Longer articles are more likely to rank for more keywords, bringing in more traffic. Putting the recipe on the bottom means you have to scroll through all the content on the page, and hopefully, this will increase the time you are on the page. Search engines love it when you spend a lot of time on a page. More recently, Google decided that a recipe isn’t “complete” unless it has a video and a rating. So, that adds a lot more work. Now, I need to make video content as well to beat the blogs that are being shown above me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I moved to Atlanta to become an actor in July 2019. I was starting over, making new friends, trying to network. For fun, I started a food blog called Dinner By Dennis in November. And then, we all know what happened in March 2020. I hadn’t made my new social circle yet. As with everyone else, I was lonely. Worst of all, I didn’t have a steady job. So, plenty of time, nothing to do, nowhere to go. What did I end up doing? I decided to make my biggest article yet. Something so large and thorough that people couldn’t help but check it out and share it on social media. What was the article? Over 100 dumpling recipes from all around the world. I contacted other food bloggers, asked if I could feature their recipe, didn’t leave my apartment for a week, and published the thing. Still, Google wasn’t showing it to anyone. So, I posted it on Reddit. Let’s see what the hivemind thinks, I thought. All of a sudden I had 8000 views on my blog in 1 day! I got all sorts of comments saying they loved it and suggesting additions from their own countries. In this time of extreme isolation, the social interaction was thrilling. It helped sustain me for the next couple months, encouraging me to pump out content. Now, I get hundreds of organic views every day, without doing anything! It’s pretty exciting.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are so many great spots to eat in the city. I love Gaja Bar in East Atlanta Village. They serve Korean food and drinks there. Also, all the international food on Buford Hwy is incredible. You have to take them to Ponce City Market if they’ve never been before, show them the Beltline. The aquarium and World of Coke are fun touristy things to do as well. For hiking, Sweetwater Creek, Blood Mountain, and Cochran Mill State Park are favorites of mine. For Instagram opportunities, you have to check out Jackson St Bridge and The Krog St Tunnel. In the same area, you can find Ebenezer Baptist Church (where MLK served as pastor) as well as a bar named Church (though I haven’t been yet). I’m also fond of the many rock climbing gyms around the city. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My older brother Travis. He started his own business called Student Loan Planner after quitting his job as a bond trader. After learning that I was feeling unfulfilled as well working as an engineer, he encouraged me to blaze my own path. He has never stopped mentoring me since then. My other brother Roy is a theme park vlogger on YouTube, so his passion for creating inspired me as well. Another shoutout would have to go to Alex Honnold, subject of the documentary “Free Solo”. For those who haven’t seen it, he was determined to climb a 3000 ft vertical slab of rock called El Capitan in Yosemite, without a rope. Obviously, this is incredibly dangerous. All of his friends and family pleaded for him not to do it, but Alex had an interesting perspective. He said that he lived for climbing this way. It’s what made him feel most alive. Everyone dies, why is it better for him to live a long, unfulfilling life? I don’t agree that climbing without a rope is a good idea, but his passion did plant a seed in my mind. Why play the long, safe game? I only have one life, and I wanted to really live it.

Website: https://dinnerbydennis.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinnerbydennis

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DinnerByDennis

Facebook: https://facebook.com/DinnerByDennis

Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/dinnerbydennis

Image Credits
Dennis Hornsby