Eat Blog Talk

Yvette Marquez is the Latina and founder behind the Mexican food site, MuyBuenoCookbook.com. She is an Emmy-winning producer and writer, food blogger, and author of Muy Bueno, Latin Twist, and a third cookbook due out in 2023. Yvette grew up in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother and has treasured family recipes that were never written down. She had no formal background in cooking before deciding to start a food blog and document her family's recipes, develop new recipes and partner with brands. Food has been the core of her family and business and in this episode she shares about how she has transformed passion into purpose. Over the last 10+ years, her site has grown from a small source of additional income to a full-time, thriving six-figure business. - Whether you are launched into being a full-time blogger or decide to take the leap on your own, Yvette has encouragement about how to treat your blog like a business. - Tips about how to monetize your blogging business while you wait to get into an ad network. - How and why you should chase your dreams both personally and professionally. - How to know if a cookbook is a good next move for your business.

Mary Barnett, also known as "Mobile Mary" in the industry, is a text marketing and social media expert. Her company Another Brilliant Idea, Inc. helps business owners and restaurants use social media to grow a database that they actually own. This allows them to reach their best customers offline, giving them what they want instantly and on-demand to increase sales and brand loyalty! Inside this episode, Mary shares her best secrets about how to increase engagement and connection with your audience by using social media and text marketing. - Start seeing social media platforms as "borrowed territory" and proceed with this concept in mind. You don't own your social media accounts. - Start building your own list, including phone numbers and email addresses THAT YOU OWN. - Strategize and nurture your list. - Learn how to build a trusted list organically. - Include audio messages as a way to build trust even more quickly. - We all want those clamoring fans, so tune in and learn how to accelerate the path to getting there!

David has been blogging at Cooking Chat for over 10 years alongside a full-time job running a local nonprofit organization he founded. Cooking Chat focuses primarily on healthy, seasonal recipes, along with wine pairing recommendations. After reaching a point several years ago where things seemed to be going in the wrong direction with blogging, in 2019 David recommitted to it with a number of new investments in strategies. Since then, year over year traffic has been up well over 50%, and ad revenue is now generating a solid additional income stream for his family. In this episode, David delivers seven effective strategies for seasoned food bloggers to achieve growth. - Update old content. - Internal linking. - Plan new content strategically. - Build a strong infrastructure. - Set some good boundaries for your business. - Join us inside the episode for more great strategies!

Chris is a product photographer at Pieta Productions and teaches creative business on YouTube. He helps other creative get clients, start their businesses and scale down the road. While he's not a food blogger, Chris has helped other food bloggers seek out clients and has an understanding of the business of food blogging. Join us in the episode to learn how to get clients for a stream of revenue while you wait for other opportunities to pop up. - This is a great strategy to implement if you're currently in the "ad network wait." - The road to monetization can seem arduous and long, so use client work as a way to earn fast money but also build on and accelerate blogging skills. - Clients aren't going to come to you in droves. You need to go find them! - How to find the right clients in the first place.

Chelsea has been blogging at Mae's Menu for 3 years. After a year of posting aimlessly and with no regards to SEO, Chelsea took an SEO course and grew her blog traffic over 2000% in the following year and qualified for the Mediavine ad network within 6 months. Chelsea publishes 4-8 recipes per month and believes in working smarter, not harder. In this episode, Chelsea makes a great case for prioritizing SEO over photography, as improving photos is something you can easily learn as you go. Join us in the episode to hear her best tips for learning SEO and accelerating the growth of your blog. - Take a course, absorb webinars and do whatever you can to learn about effective keyword research strategies and tools. Investing in good SEO information is worthwhile. - Find the content that has SEO potential and put your focus there in order to work smarter. - Add or improve ingredient shots and process shots to give your content an immediate boost in traction. - It is ALL about the user, so always aim to make your content the best resource it can be for your audience. - Get way ahead of seasons and holidays to leverage seasonal and holiday-specific traffic.

Brandon Gaille is an entrepreneur who founded multiple 7 figure businesses in his 20s before becoming disabled by a rare disorder for nearly a decade. He eventually regained his health and started a blog. He grew his blog to over 1 million visitors in just 18 months after his first blog post. Today, he gets 5 million monthly visitors from over 100,000 first-page Google rankings. Brandon has taught his SEO growth hacks to over 20,000 bloggers through his podcast, The Blogging Millionaire. This past year he launched RankIQ, an AI-powered SEO toolset tailored for bloggers and small businesses that have a blog. This year RankIQ was ranked #1 out of all 333 SEO tools by G2 for customer satisfaction and ease of use. In this episode, Brandon shares his incredible story that laid the foundation for his wild success as an entrepreneur. He tackles two SEO-themed topics within the episode, covering the importance of keyword research as well as backlinks. - Why all food bloggers should be doing keyword research. - The biggest mistakes people make when doing keyword research. - Reasons your blog needs backlinks and best tactics for getting high quality backlinks. - An effective 4-stage approach for updating old content.

Kristi is the blogger behind Carrots and Cookies, as well as a Registered Dietitian and busy working mom of three kids, ages seven to fourteen. Her passion for helping parents understand what it means to feed their kids well has grown as she raises her own. Without going crazy, Kristi found a way of developing easy and practical nutrient-dense recipes that she was proud of and kids love but so do parents too! In this episode, Kristi talks through her experience with receiving an SEO audit with under 100 published recipes. Learn from her experience to determine if an early audit is a good fit for your blogging business. - Learn why she decided to receive an audit so early and how this has positively impacted her business. - Kristi shares 5 main takeaways that she carried away from her audit: accessibility, mobile friendliness, general SEO tactics, backlinks and keyword research. - What to expect post-audit.

Dan has been running Joy to the Food for nearly a year now along with his wife Mika. Both have full time jobs and do everything together for the blog in their off hours. Throughout the process of building this brand, together they have learned a lot about each other and the best way to work together. Dan does the numbers, research and styling and Mika creates the content and handles communication. In this episode, Dan shares his strategy for doing keyword research, involving the use of two powerhouse tools: RankIQ and Keysearch. Using the two in tandem has produced positive results for Joy to the Food. Join us inside the episode to learn the ins and outs of each tool, as well as his overall strategy. - Game-changing parts of Keysearch to pay attention to (that will save you a ton of time). - A thorough deep dive into each tool and when to use which. - Deep dive into the robust RankIQ optimizer and how to best utilize it. - Differences between the tools.

Lauren has been a food blogger at Maritime Glutton for a year and a half and a photographer for about 6 months. When she began her food blogging journey, she was partially through earning a business degree. Lauren landed a marketing job for the government because of her "unofficial" skillset built while food blogging (photography, SEO, marketing, content planning). Building a skillset to support her blog allowed her to monetize from multiple income streams, while becoming an "expert" in these fields. In this episode, Lauren sheds a ton of light on this long game known as food blogging and how to take advantage of the "marathon" by building on unique skills along the ride. - Mindset matters. Work on this first and foremost. - Place a focus on learning the right things (for you). - Do a lot of trial and error! Researching and experimenting is good. - Tap into the massive amount of free resources available to you. - Create boundaries. Schedule time for yourself to do nothing. (Don't discount this!) - Find specific skills to build on and offer to other bloggers.

Danielle is host of the Entrepreneur Money Stories podcast, a reformed corporate CFO, and co-owner of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. She helps female entrepreneurs increase their profitability and take-home pay. She's passionate about helping business owners to not think about accounting as the evil tool needed to file taxes but the best tool in your tool belt to help you build the business of your dreams. In this episode, Danielle teaches food bloggers how to build a profitable business. Come learn her secrets! - Dig into your expenses, first and foremost. Your expenses will tell you what your revenue needs to be. - Focus on staying profitable. Know your numbers! Don't allow them to intimidate you. - Consider outsourcing certain services and tasks vs. wasting your time and money learning about them. - Rate your feelings and emotions as you move through your work week. - What gets measured gets managed.

Eden Westbrook is a wife, mom, and entrepreneur. Creator of the food blog Sweet Tea + Thyme in 2016, she has built it from an idea to a six-figure business. Eden's blog focuses on multicultural family-friendly dishes and date night ideas for the millennial family. You'll also find her teaching other food bloggers how to build profitable and successful food blogs through her mastermind course The Food Blogging Mastermind. In this episode, Eden shares how important it is to create that perfect one person who all of your content gets created for. You absolutely must know who you are talking to in order grow your blogging business in the way you desire. - Start with what you love. What do you love to create? What are you passionate about? What does the world need? What makes you money? - Think of your blog like it is a store in a mall. What causes people to come into your store? What would make them stay there and buy your products? - Do not be afraid to be exclusive! This is uncomfortable, but so important. - Create your person, then deliver to him/her! See imposter syndrome as a blessing!

Gregory is the recipe creator, cook, photographer and writer behind the food blog Craving The Yum. In 2016, Gregory was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, achieved 4 years of remission, and today he is working on healing a recent cancer development called Nodular Lymphocyte-Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma. Inside this episode, Gregory shares how he was able to take his experience with cancer combined with a global pandemic to dive into blogging and explore new creativity, skills and tastes. - Learn how to take life's lemons and turn them into productive, creative and fulfilling ventures. - Sometimes it is better to be authentic than to stick with the path you initially set out on. - Keep chiseling away. This is a long game. - Come ready to be inspired!

Jenna is the content creator behind The Urben Life, a food and lifestyle blog where she shares allergy-friendly recipes and travel guides. She is an early adopter within the blogging space, staying on top of tools, platforms and trends that are unique to food content creators. Inside the episode, she shares about trends food bloggers should pay attention to in Q2 of 2022 and provides updates on Q1 trends discussed in Eat Blog Talk episode 266. - Where web stories are at, along with a few little new details. - New updates and features are being added to Facebook reels, which is a sure sign that they aren't going anywhere. - The opportunity and potential that lies within the marriage of TikTok and Whisk. - Don't toss Pinterest out the window! - Fill in those question gaps by using Google Question Hub. - What's in store for audio. - Different ways to use Airtable, outside of content management.

Chef Dennis is the food blogger behind Ask Chef Dennis, as well as a chef, social media enthusiast and travel blogger. He has a passion for sharing restaurant-style recipes and he enjoys figuring out how to get the most out of his new and existing blog content. Inside this episode, Dennis shares his favorite secrets and tips that shed light on SEO, help you prioritize your time and ultimately accelerate your growth. - Get on podcasts. The world needs your voice and this is also a great way to get backlinks. - Learn the ins and outs of optimizing your recipe posts and create a template that you can use on repeat. - Dennis' most coveted secret weapon is Reconalist, a course that will help you automate your traffic strategy in an individualized fashion. - Remember that you have to invest money in order to make money. - Comb through your email list and don't worry about vanity metrics. You don't want people on the list who aren't list-worthy.

Renee is the blogger and podcaster behind Awesome on 20. She blogs about comforting recipes for witches who love junk food and she hosts a podcast about everyday spirituality and wellbeing. A strength that she carries into all aspects of her business and that has helped her to continue creating and delivering great content, is to never give up. Join us in the episode to hear Renee's encouragement so that you continue moving forward on the path you've started on. - It's ok to put on your blinders and block out the competition when needed. - Find those people who trigger you in a good way! Scroll back through their feed to discover the elements you're most connecting with. - Follow your creative ideas to keep from getting bored. - Find supportive peers and make intentional time to discuss goals with them regularly. - Everything becomes possible and magical when you believe in yourself. - Remember that you have desires for a reason!

Stephanie is the food blogger behind StephaniesSweets.com. She went from hobby blogger to business woman after being furloughed from her job. After spending a year focusing on improving her photography skills, it only took 4 months to go from 5k to 50k page sessions and to be accepted into a major ad network. Join us in the episode to learn Stephanie's growth secrets! - People eat with their eyes, so prioritize constantly improving your photography skills. - Show up consistently where it matters most. - Pinterest is not dead! Figure out how to gain traction on the platform for an extra traffic boost. - Optimize your site and your content. - Learn SEO strategies and dig into keyword research. RankIQ and Keysearch are Stephanie's secret weapons. - Web stories are a great option to explore for extra traction. - Don't forget that your mindset matters!

Gina is the recipe developer and party planner behind the food blog Intentional Hospitality. Inside this episode, she talks through her 5-year journey with cancer and how this coincided with being an empty nester and discovering her place in the world both inside and outside of being a blogger. Her creative journey has blossomed into a beautiful blog that has grown very quickly in a year's time. Come learn from Gina and be inspired! - Connecting with your "why" will nudge you to keep going. - Eventually we need to put our learning into action and start doing. - The success trio that moved Gina from 18k to 112k page views in one year: Eat Blog Talk, RankIQ and web stories. - Community plays such a huge role in getting traction, so find your people!

In this episode, Megan talks through her top 10 takeaways after attending her first in-person blogging conference since the pandemic (over 2 years ago!). In-person gatherings are super valuable for entrepreneurs who "go it alone" most of the time. They are imperative for growth, connection and so much more. - Connecting with people in person is EVERYTHING. - Investing in yourself and your business needs to be a priority. - The amount of self-educating we've done collectively since the pandemic started is incredible and that was evident at the conference. - Collaboration is way cooler than competition. There's room for every single person to shine in their unique way. - Doing scary things is scary, yes, but the rewards far outweigh the fears. - Join us in the episode for the remaining 5 takeaways!

Amy Katz is the creator of Veggies Save The Day where she shares easy vegan recipes inspired by a Mediterranean diet. She feels that so many bloggers discount the power of something that is sitting right in the hands of all of us: EMAIL. She has tapped into strategies to use her email subscriber list to grow her blogging business and in this episode, she shares 5 common mistakes food bloggers make with email marketing and how to fix them. - Stop making it hard for people to sign up! - Send those emails! - Find your voice and be consistent with showing up. - Repurpose your content. You have so much of it! - Use that list to generate revenue.

Amanda is the chef, writer and photographer behind Saporito Kitchen. As a mom of 4 kids, she runs her blogging business efficiently and stays organized by batching her content and her work schedule. In this episode, she gives tangible tips so you can accomplish your goals! - Batching is a power and underutilized resource for bloggers. - It may seem daunting, but with just a bit of planning you can tap into the magic of FLOW that comes from batching both your content and your schedule. - This is a process! Strive for progress, not perfection. - Providing consistent, quality content to your audience is the most important thing.

Shinta is the food blogger behind Caramel Tinted Life. In the last 2 years she has managed to make the blog a steady source of income while having a busy personal life. She has applied what she learned in her previous career as a marketing strategy consultant to her blogging business, and has a streamlined approach to getting results with an SEO focus. - There is a lot going on in the world of SEO, but if growing traffic is a goal for you it is worth learning on- and off-page SEO and implementing it on your blog. - It's all about your user, all the time. - A focus on social media may lead to constant disappointment. - Invest your time and money in learning SEO in order to future-proof your business. - Create a 2x2 matrix for your business for clarity.

Mika and Dan have been running Joy to the Food since early 2020, while also working full-time jobs. In the process of building their brand, they have learned a ton about criticism, awareness and efficiency. In this episode they share what has worked for them to grow their business quickly! - If schedule freedom is an ultimate goal for you, working with a partner is a great way to accelerate your growth. - Content management tips. - Ways to accept criticism and how to critique gently. - Comedic relief should play a role in the process! - Play on one another's strengths. - Establish processes, systems and always strive to be more efficient.

Casey Markee is the founder of digital consultancy company MediaWyse. He is a well-known SEO professional who helps bloggers take their businesses to the next level through his expertise and website audits. Listen to this episode to hear about the state of SEO in 2022 in the realm of food blogging. - There have never been more food bloggers than there are now and what this means for you. - Upcoming GDPR issues to have on your radar. - Deferred ad loading defaults and how to navigate what is right for your blog. - Casey addresses some recent inaccurate SEO advice given to food bloggers. - So much more gold inside the episode. See you there!

Alison delivers whole-food plant-based recipes on her blog Keeping the Peas. She has streamlined her business and figured out a way to work much more efficiently by using a handful of tools. Inside the episode she shares what has helped her work smarter, so come learn from her so you can work smarter, too! - Keysearch: A robust and affordable comprehensive keyword research tool. - RankIQ: A super powerful keyword research tool, helping you to save time and get a page 1 ranking on Google quickly. - Canva: Optimize your images and graphics most effectively by upgrading to the Pro package. - Convertkit/Convertpro: A powerful email marketing and pop-up creation tool combo.

Cate is the founder International Desserts Blog, a side hustle she turned into a full-time income in late 2020. She enjoys challenging herself, sharing joy, and being a lifelong learner and has figured out a fun way to grow email subscribers quickly and drastically. She shares all her secrets inside the episode. - Learn the logistics of hosting a free content bundle. - Use the summer slump as a time to host a bundle and grow your email subscribers. - Don't overcomplicate things. A few simple tools are all you need to get started. - Streamlining tips included, such as making sure you test every contributor's sales page before releasing it to the public.

Lauren started her food blog Pinch of Parsley in March 2021 as a side hobby. She took the leap to pursue blogging as her full-time job in September 2021. Since then, she has mastered mindset, money management, pitching and landing clients. Inside the episode she shares her secrets! - Invest in yourself and learn as much as humanly possible. - Mindset mindset MINDSET. - Get comfortable with pitching yourself. - Learn how to manage your money. - Diversify revenue streams. - Making connections with peers is a necessity.

Julie Tran Deily is the blogger behind The Little Kitchen and has recently begun working part-time as a Community Growth Manager at Whisk. Inside the episode, she talks about the TikTok-Whisk integration and how food bloggers can benefit from using these tools. - Links can now be shared through TikTok via the Whisk integration and it is easier than you might think. - The power of Whisk communities and how to get started with your own. - What's on deck for these tools in 2022 and what should be on your radar as a content creator.

Chellie has been food blogging for 12 years at Art From My Table. She learned to supplement her blog income by launching a photography business and believes in working smarter, not harder. Inside this episode, Chellie encourages bloggers to offer up photography services as a way to accelerate blog growth. - Invest time in learning about photography. - Utilize the Facebook groups dedicated to selling food photography. - Raise your prices to match your value when you begin feeling stretched. - Many tips included so you can work smarter instead of harder!

Lyn is the food blogger behind Cook Eat Live Love. She uses lifelong learning as a way to accelerate her business growth and to make a bigger impact. Inside this episode Lyn shares about ways you can make a greater impact through learning, whether you consider yourself to be a lifelong learner or not! - There are many different ways to learn, so explore the different avenues available to you. - You don't need to learn it all at once. Start somewhere and allow yourself to learn as you go. - Learning doesn't have to mean taking courses or classes. It can entail connecting with peers and learning from one another. - Hire out the things you have no desire to learn about.

Andrew Wilder is the founder and CEO of NerdPress, a digital agency that provides WordPress maintenance and support for hundreds of food blogs, placing an emphasis on site speed, stability, and security. Inside this episode he provides food bloggers with five things to focus on as we head into a fresh new year. - Site speed/core web vitals. - Invest in good web hosting. - Look at your site from your user's perspective. - Diversify revenue beyond display ads and diversify traffic beyond Google. - Start building your team today!

Casey grew her food blog Get On My Plate from 0 to 55k monthly sessions by following a few simple strategies. She shares her secrets inside this episode, not only for quick growth but also for setting yourself up for a long game by shifting your mindset. - Lean into SEO and keyword research. - Don't discount social media (but don't obsess about it, either). - Publish non-recipe content with a focus on modifiers and low competition keywords. - You MUST be willing to adapt and stick with blogging, no matter what comes your way if you want to find success.

Megan is a freelance food photographer and the blogger behind The Oregon Dietician. She decided that instead of waiting around to qualify for an ad network, she'd take things into her own hands by starting a freelance photography business. Learn more about how to freelance during that dreaded "ad network wait." - Focusing on other projects and revenue streams is a great distraction while waiting to get enough page views to join an ad network. - Find what you love doing and pursue it in a freelance role. Separate yourself from being a "blogger" if needed. - Use the wait time to improve skills that need sharpening. - Focus on building traffic and before you know it, you will have the page views you've been yearning for!

Emily is the author of the book titled Growth Junkies Unite. She helps other business leaders find success by helping them implement Entrepreneurial Operating System® businesses so they can find life balance. In this episode she provides actionable tips bloggers can take to stop the "busy-ness" and find the balance they deserve. - You can achieve MORE by doing LESS. - Proactive work allows you to minimize chaos. - Self-awareness is key! - Tips about how to outsource as well as how to be a great leader, minimizing stress and urgency throughout your entire business.

2021 was an epic year for both the food blogging community and for the Eat Blog Talk podcast. Join us in this episode to hear what the stats say about the most popular content on this podcast, as well as what the fan favorites and Megan's personal picks were. We also dig into what is in store for 2022! - Common themes for favorite podcast episodes: SEO, quick growth stories, sponsored work. - We want to know what YOU want more of in 2022!

After hitting rock bottom with her own health, Cristina from The Castaway Kitchen studied food to get her life back. Inside this episode, she talks about how bloggers can get more traction by creating recipes for people who struggle with chronic illnesses or have food allergies. - The wide array of diets provide opportunity for niching down in powerful ways. - There are people out there who need your resourcefulness with the various diets. - Educate yourself before digging into a specific diet (resources included in show notes). - This mindset offers opportunity for bloggers looking for more traction and traffic!

Full-time travel blogger and SEO coach roaming the world at whim, Isabel from Bel Around the World helps aspiring bloggers and brands get the most out of their online presence and financial freedom by ranking on Google faster by utilizing smart SEO strategies. Inside this episode she gives quick tips on how to get the greatest return for the least amount of effort. - If you create the right content with the right keywords, backlinks can be built naturally. - Sprinkle a mixture of keywords (including LSI indexing) into your recipe posts for more relevancy. - All kinds of details included, such as site speed, information about images, links, descriptions and how to get your content to show up in featured snippets.

Kristin is the blogger behind Baking Bettie and she teaches her audience through tutorials on her blog, YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok and through in-person workshops. Her on-camera confidence did not come easily and she shares about how she overcame her fears to find comfort in front of the camera. This episode is packed with actionable tips so you can do this, too! - It might take a while, but keep pushing through those on-camera fears. The end result will be worth the struggle. - Start with what you have! Don't let the overwhelm of needing the perfect equipment or setup keep you from getting started. - Creating consistent videos for your audience is the best way to connect with them on a deep level. - Give yourself permission to create bad content. Embrace imperfection.

Natalya is the founder and head home cook for Momsdish, a food blog focused on bringing crazy easy recipes to the masses. She moved from part-time blogger to full-time business woman alongside her husband and shares about their 2-year journey filled with ups and downs inside this value-packed episode. - Learning how to avoid burnout and maintain some degree of balance is a huge part of the success equation. - Strategizing through the tough times (think: traffic loss due to a Google update) is important. - Hosting blogger retreats is a really great way to build your inner circle and make income outside ad revenue.

As the self-proclaimed "poster child" for making the most mistakes in a blogging journey, Megan from the food blog Pip and Ebby shares about the mistakes she has made within this series. This is the fifth episode in a series that covers multiple mistakes, takeaways and action steps for other food bloggers to learn from. Mistake #5: Starting well and ending poorly (or not at all). - Think through every project from start to finish before you dive in. - Finished is not "done." In our ever-evolving space, projects are never complete. - Declutter your current projects to open up space for new things to enter.

Jenna is the content creator behind The Urben Life, a food and lifestyle blog where she shares allergy-friendly recipes and travel guides. She is an early adopter within the blogging space, staying on top of tools, platforms and trends that are unique to content creators. Inside the episode, she divulges three trends to pay attention to as we head into a new year. - Web stories are just ramping up, so get started (and keep at it). - Facebook reels—More power than Instagram reels?! - What's coming our way on Pinterest. - Bonus: The power of the new Instagram story linking feature.

Media producer, multilingual educator, podcaster and YouTuber, Catharina runs the Creators Abroad podcast, YouTube channel and production studio. She produces media focusing on max impact (podcasts, videos, social media and blogs), helping creatives spark their imagination, find opportunities, navigate culture, form new connections and build rewarding careers. In this episode she explains why food bloggers should place a focus on creating max impact content. Using your voice to tell stories about your recipes and food is extremely powerful. Utilize the many platforms and media available to deliver content in a unique and captivating way. In such a saturated market, you must find a way to pull away from the pack and make your content stand out.

Comfort zones are comfortable! But are they productive? Growth occurs within the zone of DIScomfort, so let's dissect this and learn ways we can grow more quickly. Megan of Eat Blog Talk and Loren of the Align and Expand podcast dive into this topic in this podcast series. This is the fourth episode of four, focusing on the topic of PEOPLE. - People and relationships are everything! Choose your people wisely. - Assess the people around you and make some potentially uncomfortable decisions about who you are giving your energy to. - Put yourself in the paths of people whose energy you admire.

Justin Moore is founder of Creator Wizard and has made over $3M working with brands. He has a unique perspective as both a creator in the trenches as well as helping countless brands decide how to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on influencer campaigns. Inside this episode, he breaks down common mistakes food bloggers make when pitching and pricing themselves for sponsored work. - Be a detective! Get a full picture of the campaign before saying a word. - Use words that illustrate you know your worth. Language matters! - Don't be a creator, be a consultant. - Know when to walk away. Pay attention to your intuition.

As the self-proclaimed "poster child" for making the most mistakes in a blogging journey, Megan from the food blog Pip and Ebby shares about the mistakes she has made within this series. This is the fourth episode in a series that covers multiple mistakes, takeaways and action steps for other food bloggers to learn from. Mistake #4: Investing in the wrong things and in some cases avoiding making investments. - Setting clear goals will ensure you are focusing on the right investments. - Invest in the PEOPLE behind the products and services you purchase. - One of the best investments you can make in your business is hiring a quality coach.

Chandice is the bubbly personality behind the blog This Vivacious Life. She is a food and entertaining blogger and the co-author of Gluten-Free on a Budget. One piece of the blogging puzzle that lights her up is connecting with brands and other partners and delivering pitches that focus on the value they will get from her expertise and quality work. Listen to the episode to learn her secrets about sending well-received pitches! - Think beyond brands! Food bloggers have so many options for people and companies to pitch their services to. - Learn how to find the people to pitch and what to say! - Create a vision they can't refuse. Always provide value. - Remove yourself from the pitch. - Action steps included, so you can confidently send a pitch today!

Comfort zones are comfortable! But are they productive? Growth occurs within zone of DIScomfort, so let's dissect this and learn ways we can grow more quickly. Megan of Eat Blog Talk and Loren of the Align and Expand podcast dive into this topic in this podcast series. This is the third episode of four, focusing on the topic of BLOG TRACTION. - Rewrite your scripts about how you show up for your blog. "I do uncomfortable things," and "I show even when it's scary" are good affirmations to repeat. - Push yourself to create differently or learn a new skill. - Removing things from your life (such as starting at analytics) can be very uncomfortable yet rewarding.

Kathy is the blogger behind Beyond the Chicken Coop. After retiring from her elementary school principal job in 2021, she has delved into, and seen the power of, updating older content. This is a great way to be a more efficient food blogger, ensuring all published content is providing value to the end user. - Start by creating a spreadsheet containing the information about all of your content. - Comb through every single blog post systematically. - Kathy talks through her strategy for optimizing each blog post. - Consider batching to further streamline your updating process.

Sandra is the blogger behind She's Not Cookin'. She was able to get her blog onto an ad network in just over one year by using a specialized approach. First and foremost, she worked on her mindset, which became a solid base to build a successful business on. This episode explores the possibilities available to entrepreneurs who are willing to dig into mindset work first. - Get crystal clear on what you are trying to accomplish and why. - Sandra provides strategies for working through limiting beliefs, achieving balance and tapping into creativity: journal it out, quiet your mind, put inspiration in front of you, celebrate every win (even the small ones) and have fun. - Your vibe attracts your tribe, so put a good one out there.

Terri is a part-time food blogger at Food Meanderings. She began entering recipe competitions in 2010 and after winning contests, decided to start a blog in 2016. Entering recipe competitions has improved her skills and has had a huge positive impact on her side hustle. Join us in the episode to learn more about this unique strategy! - Where to find these competitions. - What judges are looking for. - Terri talks through logistics and provides a few insider secrets that will give you a leg up before even getting to the recipe development. - This avenue establishes credibility and it is a great first step to working with brands.

Comfort zones are comfortable! But are they productive? Growth occurs within zone of DIScomfort, so let's dissect this and learn ways we can grow more quickly. Megan of Eat Blog Talk and Loren of the Align and Expand podcast dive into this topic in this podcast series. This is the second episode of four, focusing on the topic of MONEY. - It is very common to fall into comfort zones with money. Your unique zone is important to identify and be aware of. - Money mindset: Learn how to identify limiting beliefs that are blocking you from abundance and work through them. - Your subconscious mind will allow you to make the amount of money you BELIEVE you should make. - Ways to extend past your comfort zone in regards to money: Become aware of (and change) self talk, invest in yourself/your business, work through the limiting beliefs and so much more!