Eat Blog Talk

In episode 479, Megan chats to Lynn Polito about whether we should still be making Web Stories and how they can help us bulk up our blog traffic. Lynn has been a food blogger for a little over 2.5 years. Her niche is creating recipes using 10 ingredients or less. She also focuses on almost all of the ingredients being pantry staples. In this episode, you'll learn how to create web stories, what animations to use and other logistics to make them go viral and boost your site traffic. - Use web stories to BOOST TRAFFIC to your blog without having to post new content frequently. - It can help your post appear in GOOGLE DISCOVER. - Choose SEASONAL RECIPES for web stories. - What should you put in a web story in terms of SLIDES AND ANIMATIONS? - Post web stories CONSISTENLY and track results. - You can SCHEDULE web stories in advance. - What should you change when DUPLICATING a web story? - The new Google algorithm is not pushing web stories as much, but it's still a good SOURCE OF TRAFFIC and WORTH THE TIME investment. Connect with Lynn Polito Website | Instagram

Welcome to the first ever Mindset and Self-Care episode here on Eat Blog Talk! Every Wednesday, Megan will pop in for a few minutes to talk about key topics concerning mindset and how to look after ourselves as entrepreneurs. In this episode, she shares 5 ways in which we can pull ourselves out of a slump and rediscover our mojo for life and blogging! Knowledge and blogging hacks won't get you very far if you don't have the right mindset and self-care strategies to help prevent burnout and build resilience for when the going gets tough. In episode 478, you'll learn 5 easy strategies that you can do every day to help reinvigorate you and get you back on track towards achieving your blogging goals. - How can you create daily quiet time so that you actually feel calmer (and why is it life-changing)? - Learn how to make small upgrades to your life daily. - Improvements to your life can be fun and easy - go for a haircut, get your nails done, declutter a drawer! - Don't underestimate the power of extending love to someone every day. - Take time to be creative. - Why is gratitude the easiest, quickest way to pull yourself out of a slump?

In episode 477, Andrea Liebross teaches us an easy, 5-step process to think big, do big things and take big leaps in our life and business this year. Andrea Liebross is a business and life coach specializing in working with unapologetically ambitious women entrepreneurs from a variety of industries. A speaker and host of the Time to Level Up podcast, Andrea guides her clients to combine Big Thinking with solid systems that work together to unleash their success and find the freedom of time, money, and energy they crave. She is excited about the release of her book She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and into the Extraordinary in the fall. In this episode, you'll learn the method Andrea developed around the acronym TRUST to help you be a bigger thinker and push yourself beyond your comfort zone to get closer to your true potential. - What ACTIONS would the Future You take today to bring you CLOSER to your GOAL? - Analyse your THOUGHT OPTIONS and adjust your thinking. - Give as much airtime to POSITIVE OUTCOMES as you would to negative outcomes. - Do you have a SUPPORT STRUCTURE outside of your family? - Look for support from someone who will ask you the HARD QUESTIONS in a loving way. - TAKE ACTION following valuable advice. - Ask yourself, what is the WORST THING that can happen? Connect with Andrea Liebross Website | Instagram

Are you ready for 2024? In this episode, Megan Porta explains how we can make 2024 our best year ever, including planning strategies, mindset and self-care and how to deal with uncertainty. In this episode, you'll learn Megan's planning strategy, how to make the most of everything Eat Blog Talk has to offer, other helpful resources and why mindset and self-care are essential to remain motivated and healthy as an entrepreneur. - Block off 2-4 hours in your calendar to PLAN THE YEAR ahead. - Create a few simple lists - one for YOUR WINS from 2023 and one for YOUR CHALLENGES. - Based off of your lists, what should you DO MORE of and what should you AVOID in 2024? - Make another list for small improvements or UPGRADES you can make to your life. - Write a letter to your FUTURE SELF of everything you want to ACCOMPLISH this year. - Surround yourself by POSITIVE people who inspire OPTIMISM. - How can you be PROACTIVE about MINDSET and SELF-CARE? - What should your FOCUS be for 2024? - Throughout any uncertainty, keep your USER at the top of your mind. For the full list of resources mentioned in the episode, go to eatblogtalk.com/2024kickoff

In episode 475, Megan chats to Jacqui Wormington about how our community's purpose and core values should form the foundation of our actions. Jacqui started food blogging around 3 years ago as a hobby and got more serious last year. At first, it was to hold herself accountable for being vegan and sharing the food she loves to create with people. Jacqui has always loved online communities. She has enjoyed creating a safe space for people to learn about the vegan lifestyle, while also connecting with like-minded people to share more about each other than just food. In this episode, you'll learn how to identify the values and purpose of your community so that you can choose the right platform, create valuable, relatable content and build personal relationships with your readers. - Select the social media channel that best SUITS your TARGET AUDIENCE and content type. - Regularly share CONTENT that aligns with your community's INTERESTS and VALUES. - How can you PARTICIPATE in conversations within your COMMUNITY to keep them ENGAGED? - BOOST ENGAGEMENT by encouraging your community members to CONTRIBUTE their content. - How can you EMPOWER your community members? - Use FEEDBACK from your community to understand their NEEDS and IMPROVE your content. - Go beyond the screen and BUILD personal RELATIONSHIPS with your community members. - Show that you genuinely CARE about their SUCCESS and WELL-BEING. Connect with Jacqui Wormington Website | Instagram

In episode 474, Kathleen Phillips teaches us 10 unique ways to grow our network and create valuable opportunities for our blogs. Kathleen Phillips is a cookbook author and professional food stylist. She is the creator and digital publisher of her food blog GritsAndGouda.com. Drawing upon years of experience as a test kitchen director (Oxmoor House-former cookbook publisher for Southern Living/Cooking Light/and more), she takes traditional Southern recipes and makes them with a shortcut so you can enjoy them faster. She likes to say she's "Short and Southern, just like her recipes". She incorporates fresh ingredients from her own garden as well as local, seasonal ingredients. Her love for local farmers led to her becoming one of the first Sweet Grown Alabama ambassadors. In this episode, you'll learn different ways to make long-term connections that will help you grow your center of influence and reach your goals quicker. - Networking is most valuable when you have a clear goal in mind. - You cannot predict where the connections you make today might lead you in the future. - Reach out to a big blogger in your niche and ask to meet for coffee. - Comment on other bloggers social media - use their first name in comments to have more impact. - Why should you join your Chamber of Commerce? - Contact the PR person for cooking stages at large home shows and women's shows. - Find unique locations in your area where you can teach cooking classes. - Reach out to local TV stations to be on morning cooking segments. - Contact local print and digital magazines to feature your recipes. Connect with Kathleen Phillips Website | Instagram

In episode 473, Megan chats to Aimee Pruett about the benefits of food blog audits and common mistakes bloggers make when they audit their sites. Aimee is the creator of the Food Banjo blog. She has almost 20 years experience in marketing and over 7 years running a food blog. As part of her marketing job, Aimee performed over 100 website audits throughout her career, so she decided to bring her marketing know-how and food blogging love together to do food blog audits. In this episode, you'll learn how to do a a food blog audit, how it differs from an SEO audit and how it can impact your blog's growth. - Do regular food blog audits to get perspective on your blog's progress. - Blog audits look at branding, promotions, site experience and other elements. - It does not look at SEO in-depth (only a high-level analysis). - Do a professional audit when you hit a wall and you don't know what to do next. - Find out if you're on the right track and uncover opportunities that you may be missing. - How often should you do a blog audit? - Start your self-audit by placing yourself in a user's shoes. - Pay attention to your Google Analytics and any reoccurring trends. - What are the most common site mistakes food bloggers make? - Prioritize the most important improvements you have identified for your site. Connect with Aimee Pruett Website | Instagram

In episode 472, Cliff Ravenscraft teaches us his 10-step formula for how to achieve any goal. Cliff Ravenscraft a Master Business Coach, Mentor & Speaker. His focus is to help you break free from any beliefs and/or behaviors that are holding you back from living the life of your dreams and doing the work you feel most called to do in this world. In this episode, you'll learn why goal-setting is important for food bloggers and how to overcome limiting beliefs that are holding you back from achieving your dreams. - Be very specific about what you want. - Filter all your goals into the top 3 and prioritize them. - Believe that it's possible - otherwise you won't put time and effort into it. - How do you eliminate any doubt around the goal you want to achieve? - You are more likely to achieve your goal if you write it down. - Vision boards are powerful reminders of our goals - get an object that represents your dream. - Tell others about your goal - they might have the missing elements to achieving it. - Create a Massive Action Plan - what's one, two, or three actions I can take within the next 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days etc.? - Evaluate your results, categorize as desired or undesired. - If they are undesired, how can you improve your approach? Connect with Cliff Ravenscraft Website | Instagram

In episode 471, Megan chats to Liz Douglas about her short-form video strategy that helped her grow her Instagram account to over 200k followers. Elizabeth is a food buyer and product developer turned plant-based foodie influencer at Glow Diaries. Elizabeth chose the vegan path in 2019 and it sparked a love of exploratory cooking. She then started an Instagram page not long after but didn't see much growth until she began consistently posting reels in late 2021. Elizabeth's account grew from 12k followers in early 2022 to 202k followers in just over a year, with most growth happening in spurts of 40k followers in one month. Once she started directing traffic to her blog, she qualified for Raptive within a few months thanks to viral reels. She loves to create easy wholesome plant-based recipe ideas, help other content creators and she also hosts her own podcast, Thrive Diaries, which is all about lifestyle, wellness and personal development. In this episode, you'll learn how to use your iPhone to film, the right hook for your video, common mistakes you can easily avoid and clever editing techniques to keep your audience engaged. - Get lucrative brand sponsorships if you have an engaged audience on Instagram. - Instagram can drive traffic to your blog, increasing your page sessions fast. - What are the best-performing food videos on social media? - Food videos on social media are mainly for entertainment. - Film aesthetic videos with an iPhone - finding the balance between realistic but still drool worthy. - Use voiceover and putting yourself on camera to tell your story and build connection with your audience. - Open your video with a lot of action and a hook to keep your audience engaged. - Use intrigue to keep your audience watching. - Make sure that you cut your video in a fast-paced style - you don't have to show every step. - Do you really have to post every day to gain many new followers? Connect with Liz Douglas Website | Instagram

In episode 470, Anja Eckert teaches us how to keep going despite setbacks caused by major changes in the blogging industry or in our personal lives. Anja's been a food and lifestyle blogger since 2018. What first started as a pet project, turned into an almost full-time job after a severe knee injury that prevented her from continuing on as Yoga teacher. In March 2020, Anja was at almost 25k sessions when MediaVine raised their requirement to 50k. It took her another setback and 3 years to finally reach the 50k. Refusing to give up, continually learning and upgrading, and remembering her "why", were the qualities that got her to the goal. In this episode, you'll learn how to persevere through blogging challenges especially by understanding your 'why' and nurturing a strong mindset around it. - Define your 'why' and visualize it. - When you feel like giving up, think of your 'why'. - How to deal with potential setbacks from Google Updates and other changes. - Diversify your income so that you don't rely only on your blog. - Use your email lists, look into sponsorships or create courses within your niche. - Create an additional revenue stream through a digital product catered to your niche. - When things aren't going well, they can only get better. - We tend to dwell on negative experiences and forget positive ones. - Find a supportive community that you can rely on. Connect with Anja Eckert Website | Instagram