Eat Blog Talk

In episode 320, Megan chats with Izzah Cheema, founder of Tea for Turmeric, the largest Pakistani food blog, about why creating more content for your blog does not necessarily lead to growth. Izzah specializes in Pakistani recipes and with less than a 100 recipes on her site, she has over 350 thousand page views a month or about 2 million views a year. In this episode, she explains why posting lots of recipes regularly is not necessarily a wise growth strategy and why curating content specifically for your audience, helping them solve their problems, will get you much further. - Are you producing content that you will NOT be ranked for? - Build unshakable EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust). - Treat each blog post with extra care to improve EAT. - Provide a solution to a specific problem in your market to rank more easily. - Do the work nobody else wants to do (which food solutions or information have not been written about yet?) - Roundups is a smart way to market what you already have instead of writing new content.

In episode 319, Megan chats with Eloïse Jennes of Cooking with Elo, about 10 things she wishes she knew when she started her food blog in college. These are essential tips that will help you grow your blog quicker from the start by applying the right skills and avoiding common pitfalls. Inspired to explore cooking after being diagnosed with food intolerances, Elo started a secret food blog in high-school to cope with a complete diet change. This first attempt motivated her to set up a new food blog to share her gluten-free and vegan recipes with friends and family while in college. In this episode, she shares 10 tips she wishes someone had told her as her food blogging career took off in college. Tune in to find out answers to these questions: -When is the best time to start a food blog? -What kind of photography equipment do you need? -How do you make sure you stay consistent with your blog? -How do you apply batching to increase your efficiency? -How important is learning new skills in food blogging? -What should you focus on first? -Do you really need to start a social media channel for your blog? Connect with Eloïse Jennes Website | Instagram

In episode 318, Megan chats with Laura Sirkovsky about becoming a food blogger after hitting 30 and how to earn recognition and be noticed in your niche. After being diagnosed with coeliac disease, Laura started her food blog to recreate gluten-free versions of the recipes she grew up with in Canada. After leaving her teaching job, she decided to grow her food blog to have an additional income. She did not expect it to become her full-time job. In this episode, she shares her journey, discussing why you can become a successful food blogger despite your age or niche. -Food blogging is a viable career choice for people over 30. -Choose the right social media platforms to connect with your audience and help grow your blog. -Gluten-free diets are here to stay as more and more people find out they are coeliac or gluten-intolerant. -Gluten-free recipe blogs are a great avenue for food bloggers to explore. -Deal with the mental health challenges of trying to grow your blog and stay on top of life by connecting with the food blogging community. Connect with Laura Sirkovsky Website | Instagram

In episode 317, Megan chats with Kim Cauti and Chelsea Vetre about why being an influencer is a good thing and how you can make a change for the better in your niche while at the same time earn extra money by working with brands that you love. Kim and Chelsea offer unique coaching courses for bloggers, photographers and nano-influencers in the food space, educating them about how to successfully land sponsorship deals even if their social media accounts are under 10k. In this episode, they discuss the empowering nature of being an influencer. -What does it mean to be an influencer? -Why do some people think of it negatively? -What should you do to avoid negative perceptions of sponsorship deals? -What are the common mistakes new influencers make? -How to build and keep the trust of both your followers and the brands you work with. Connect with Kim Cauti and Chelsea Vetre Website | Instagram

In episode 316, Megan chats with Carolyn about how ghost-writing can lighten food bloggers' loads, helping them gain more time to focus on other aspects of their business. Ghost-writing – writing posts for other bloggers as if they were writing it themselves – provides Carolyn with an additional source of income while she is growing her own gluten-free recipe site, Caramel and Cashews. Whether you are passionate about writing and looking for a new source of income or want to hire a ghost-writer to free-up your time, find out everything you need to know in this episode. -What is ghost-writing? -How can it benefit you as a food blogger? -What is the easiest way to find reliable ghost-writers? -What should you look for in pricing OR how should you price your services (if you're a ghost-writer). -Once you found a ghost-writer, how does the process work? -Why choose ghost-writing as an additional source of income and how can you find your first client? Connect with Carolyn Truett Website | Instagram

In episode 315, Megan chats with Ann and Madeleine about their new app Spillt, a social media app that helps food bloggers gain exposure and increase their traffic and revenue by allowing them to save, share and review recipes online while gaining new followers. We cover information about the app's exciting features, including: - How it helps you increase site viewing time. - Click through rates in search results. - Add an additional revenue stream through ads. The social nature of the app incentivizes users to leave reviews and ratings. It syncs automatically with your site through a WordPress plugin, so you don't have to create any new content to grow on the app. Find out more about how it works in this episode! Connect with Ann and Madeleine Baum of Spillt. Website | Instagram

After being laid off in March 2020 due to the coronavirus, Ashley Schuering started her blog Confessions of a Grocery Addict at the behest of her friends. While she has been steadily growing her blog traffic, Ashley has created a thriving ghostwriting business for other food bloggers that has allowed her to become a full-time freelancer. By focusing specifically on her "zone of genius" — writing with an emphasis on SEO — she has created a monetization strategy that has become full-time work that pays her better than she has ever been paid before! Inside episode 314, Ashley encourages food bloggers to lean into their zones of genius in order to take the pressure off getting accepted into an ad network. There is so much inspiration in this episode. Join us inside! - Clear out the clutter (both literally and figuratively) in order to let new opportunities enter your life and business. - Be a voracious learner in order to accelerate your growth. - Establish days and times for working, resting, as well as professional development. - Bravely accept that making a fool of yourself will be part of the success equation. - Lean into what is working for you.

Carl is an engineer who spent many years in corporate technology consulting roles which gave him a unique perspective on the application of technology, processes, and getting a return on your investments. It means he has spent literally decades helping customers make sense of technology products. Twenty years ago he started building recipe websites as a 'side hustle.' At one point he had over 50 sites online, each generating rnice revenue.Then the Google Panda update tanked every single one of the sites, which was the right thing for it to do because they were very low quality, massively over-optimized sites that had been churned out en masse. They deserved to get buried deep, deep in the search results! Today only a couple remain online and he uses them for SEO testing purposes. Fast forward to 2019 and Carl has started offering SEO services and the food blogging niche was an obvious fit. While he works with bloggers in many different niches, food bloggers are his bread and butter. Inside episode 313, Carl delivers relevant information about a few timely SEO-related topics. - What to do and what to expected with the change from Google Analytics 3 to Google Analytics 4. - Blog images can cause a lot of problems if not handled properly. Follow Carl's guidelines to ensure they are sized properly and aren't affecting your site's page speed. - Where your focus should be placed in this ever-changing world of SEO. - Keyword research tips included. - Update about the recent Google core update in May 2022.

Partners Corinne Schmitt and Christina Hitchcock are both six-figure influencers with multiple websites. Over the years, they've become organizational ninjas and workflow fanatics with a knack for providing actionable strategies to help influencers work smarter and scale faster. These two women have been in this space for over 10 years and learned a lot along the way (often the hard way!). They share their insights on working smarter on The Smart Influencer, a podcast and a private mentoring group where they help other influencers work smart and grow stronger. Inside Eat Blog Talk episode 312, Corrine and Christina talk about the gap in the conversation with influencers about being prepared in the case of an unfortunate event. So many influencers don't have a plan in place if something should happen to them and they can no longer run their business. Thinking about this topic is stressful enough but trying to figure it all out and make a plan on your own can be overwhelming. - Importance of contingency planning. - What to include in your plan. - Who to hand it off to in the first place. - How to put it all together. - How often to update the plan.

Mika and her husband, Dan, have been running Joy to the Food for nearly a year now! Both work full time jobs and do everything together for Joy to the Food 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 with your partner and to grow a blog. Dan does the numbers and styling and Mika creates the content and handles communication. Inside episode 311, Mika explains why every food blogger should create a blogging outline and how to get started. - Content optimizers and SEO best practice encourages having many keywords within your post naturally (2-3%). - Your post should be a one stop shop. - Have sections for equipment, methods, FAQ and instructions to maximize opportunities to include relevant keywords in a natural way. - Use descriptors, process terms and recipe name variations to cover all your bases. - Follow Mika's checklist found in the show notes or create your own checklist with or without the help of the Feast plugin.

Christine is the founder of COOKtheSTORY where her passion is to create recipes that take less time in the kitchen, giving you more time at the table. She founded COOKtheSTORY in 2010 and her other contributor-based site, TheCookful, in 2015. Christine has used her SEO strategies and cooking knowledge to get these sites in front of over 2 million readers per month. More recently, she has embraced her love of audio and is the host of two podcasts, one of which, Recipe of the Day, has been named one of the top ten cooking podcasts out there by Popsugar! Inside Eat Blog Talk episode 310, Christine gives tangible strategies for foodies to create a successful audio podcast. - Why a food blogger might want to consider podcasting. - The cost of producing a podcast and whether you should outsource or DIY. - How to choose the topic for your podcast and determining your audience. - If you love audio, then get started pronto! The time is now to explore this medium.

Eliza is a plant-based food blogger, photographer, and full-time Product Manager working in the travel technology space. She loves seeing how little tweaks can make a huge difference, and geeks out over Google Analytics, Search Console and any data she can get her hands on. With limited time, she uses data to focus on what's important to grow her blog and business. In episode 309, Eliza offer data-driven strategies food bloggers can employ in order to amplify growth in a powerful and effective way. - Give the 80/20 rule some thought and adjust your business accordingly. Create goals and continuously adjust focus to align with them. - Dive deep into the metrics on a specific post or web story. - Analyze and tweak before you begin work each week. - Readers and Google (and all the platforms) can feel our energy, so give proper attention to each bit of content you produce. - Consider what is working and DO MORE OF THAT.

Lauren Grow is the owner and founder of Talk About Town—a marketing agency focusing on clients in the blogging space. She has been hard at work connecting readers with recipes for over 5 years. Beginning as a social media writer for Fresh April Flours, Lauren has scaled her business and currently has 20 clients in the blogging world on any given day. An expert in email marketing, Lauren specializes in creating a consistent, approachable and profitable email plan for clients ranging from big to small. Lauren prides herself on owning the voice of her client and adapting to the needs of the reader. In her world, it's all about opens and clicks. Inside episode 308, Lauren provides tangible tactics for food bloggers to take away and begin implementing in their email marketing strategy immediately. - Choose the right email provider. - Get started in bite-sized ways. - Importance of subject line and preheader text. - How to structure your email. - How to get those click conversions!

Melissa Erdelac is the recipe developer, photographer and cookbook author behind the popular food blog MamaGourmand. Besides authoring her first cookbook, Frugal Gluten-Free Cooking, her work has been published in Better Homes and Gardens, MSN, Taste of Home, Parade, and Prevention. Inside this episode, Melissa shares about the value of attending and hosting an in-person blogging retreat. Join us inside and be inspired! - Conferences vs retreats. - Do not get hung up on experience levels of other attendees. Everyone has value to offer! - Logistics for the retreat. - The only thing you really need to prepare for beforehand is your mindset. Open yourself up to learning, growing and investing in yourself and others. - The opportunities, boost in confidence, blog growth and friendships/connections that follow the retreat are the best part!

In 2022, the podcast industry is expected to grow at an exponential rate. The use of audio in the food blogging space to speak your message and connect with your audience is underrated, underutilized and overlooked. Now is the time to get on board with audio! Listen in on this Clubhouse recording where a handful of food bloggers discuss using audio to speak their messages in a profound way. - Brand recognition - Reach people "beyond the blog" to expand brand awareness. - People - The people you will meet in your journey with audio will allow for so much opportunity. - The unexpected - People connect with the human voice more than with written voice. When you put your actual voice out into the world, you never know who is connecting with you. Unexpected favor and opportunities will come your way. - There is currently very little competition in the food and recipe niche for podcasts. This is such a great way to separate yourself from your competition!

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!