Eat Blog Talk | Megan Porta

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

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

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 professi

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 d

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 plannin

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

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

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 getti

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 co

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 bi