Eat Blog Talk

In episode 381, Megan chats to Erica Hopper about ways in which you can apply your previous work experience to improve your blogging skills. Erica, the creator behind the sugar + salt co., uses nearly 2 decades of professional culinary experience to create mostly gluten free, veggie forward recipes that anyone can make and the whole family will love. Erica has worked in all areas of the "food biz", and for the last couple of years has enjoyed developing her own blog, diving into the world of food photography and recipe development, and really found she loves developing relationships with brands and clients to help them tell their stories. In this episode, you'll learn about time management, keeping motivated, social media management and applying other skills you might have learned in the past to improve your blog today. - Break down your tasks into digestible chunks throughout the day. - Be flexible when your schedule doesn't go according to plan. - Take a step back from social media and avoid comparing yourself to others. - What skills did you learn in previous jobs? - How can you apply these skills to blogging? - Outsource where you can to see your creativity flow more easily. - Everyone has something valuable to share. Connect with Erica Hopper Website | Instagram

In episode 380, Megan chats to Shani Whisonant about how she turned her blog into a lucrative baking academy and bootcamp. Shani is the creator behind Begin with Butter, a baking education platform. It started as a baking blog in 2021, and she's now grown it to include the Begin with Butter Home Baking Academy. She uses this platform to host live and pre-recorded baking classes to help home bakers and cottage bakers reach their baking potential. Shani enjoys demystifying baking for people by teaching them tips and techniques that help them become more consistent and confident in the kitchen. In this episode, find out how you can make more of an impact by teaching people the skills you've learned while growing your blog, specifically from a place of love and with an authentic desire to help others. You'll also learn about the logistics of organizing baking or cooking classes online. - Approach a business idea from a place of love and service. - Balance writing about what you love with the things that'll make you rank higher. - Bring your authentic self, then your audience will find you. - Approach your business from a space of gratitude. - Have a team to support you as you expand your blog into a business. - Why is it crucial to believe that you're on the right path? - How do you set up an online academy and what platforms work well for teaching? - You can effectively and organically market your classes through social media. Connect with Shani Whisonant Website | Instagram

In episode 379, Brooke Harmer teaches us how to monetize our blogs before hitting 50,000 pageviews. Explore 7 strategies ranked in order of difficulty and time required. Brooke launched her food blog in March 2020, because she knew she could work from home and still be a full time mom. However, after her son was born, she struggled to keep up with the demands of the job and constantly felt discouraged that despite her best efforts, she still hadn't hit 50,000 monthly pageviews. Instead of focusing on what she didn't have, she honed in on the time and talents she DID have and began to monetize her business in other creative ways, even while raising her 6 month old son by herself for a time. She has since self-published two cookbooks, landed 5-figure brand deals, and hired her first employee. In this episode, you'll learn about additional sources of income for your blog, from easy ways to earn money through affiliate marketing and more intense methods like brand work and online courses. - Focus on the qualitative aspects of your business instead of the quantitative. - How do you create the habits that will help you monetize? - What is the best way to go about affiliate marketing? - Email marketing gives you full control of your audience. - Sponsor work for a brand requires more time but allows you to make more money. - What is the difference between sponsor work and freelance work? - Why do unpaid speaking gigs help your business grow? - Digital products can help expand your brand and help your audience. - Are online courses and coaching worth investing time in? Connect with Brooke Harmer Website | Instagram

In episode 378, Megan chats to Zhen Zhou about how her experience in business school translated into her blogging career and how that has helped her succeed. Zhen blogs about cooking up flavorful South East Asian recipes for her audience because she can't stand bland food. She also occasionally shares about the life of a food blogger. She shares her story of going from doing an MBA in London to starting a food blog as a way to reach more people with her creative work on the Internet. In this episode, you'll learn more about Zhen's top five lessons from business school, including what helps you succeed in one field won't necessarily help you get to the next level, invest in your blog like a real business, the importance of diversification, lean into what is uncomfortable and think about the consumer. - Set different goals to adapt to your blogging journey and the next step of success. - Should you focus on RPMs more than keywords? - What you don't pay for in money, you pay for in time. - Invest in courses that will help move your blog to the next level. - Ways to diversify in traffic sources and income. - If your ranking gets affected on Google, having diverse sources of traffic is useful. - There is a payoff in doing what feels uncomfortable, like being a guest on a podcast. - Imagine yourself in the consumer's shoes - do you need to adapt your marketing for your ideal audience? Connect with Zhen Zhou Website | Instagram

In episode 377, Jamie Silva teaches us strategies that we can use to grow our blog business without relying on Instagram. Jamie quit a safe and secure full-time job in 2016 and started A Sassy Spoon, her food blog. Two years later, Jamie began making a full-time income (from $0 to $85k in 2 years). Today, she's making over six figures from various income streams (close to $100k from ad revenue alone). Jamie focuses on coaching food bloggers on how to grow and manage their food blogs so they can turn them into a full-time business in less time. If you're feeling frustrated with Instagram right now (or another social media network), this episode will show you how to make progress without the need to rely on that platform. Jamie shares why she stopped posting regularly on Instagram, what she does instead and how this impacts her business and wellbeing positively. - The attraction and trap of Instagram is chasing likes, shares and views. - For the time spent, how much ROI do you get from posting reels? - Instead of posting on Instagram, how can you spend your time differently? - Going back to the basics is invaluable. - Audit your blog and reevaluate your niche. - Can you land sponsorship deals without Instagram? - Make your largest traffic source organic search by paying attention to SEO. - Be intentional with key words and establishing E-A-T for a bigger ROI than Instagram. - Be transparent and negotiate carefully when discussing brand sponsorship contracts. - Do all brands care about Instagram followers and engagement? Connect with Jamie Silva Website | Instagram

In episode 376, Megan chats to Nadalie Bardo about why we are losing potential traffic opportunities by not exploring Pinterest more and which Pinterest strategies work the best for growth. Nadalie is a Pinterest coach dedicated to helping blogs, brands, and businesses like yours achieve their goals of more traffic, more subscribers, and more sales. Achieving 1M views on Pinterest since her very first month for her personal development blog, It's All You Boo, she's grown her email list to 14K subscribers and has sold 1000s of copies of her digital products and courses. As a Pinterest Coach, Nadalie has taught thousands of creators how to market their blogs, businesses, and brands on Pinterest. In this episode, learn why you should be immersing yourself in Pinterest marketing and how to balance new features like Idea Pins and Video Pins with your Static pins to drive maximum traffic to your website. - Food and recipes is the biggest niche on Pinterest. - New space is opening up as old users are dropping off from Pinterest. - Great images are your edge on Pinterest. - Which type of pin will drive most of your traffic? - Use pins as trailers for your website. - What are the best practices for Pinterest in 2023? - Make the most of Pinterest Trends to map out your recipes according to seasons. - Market your Pinterest account outside of the platform. - How can you optimize SEO for Pinterest? - Promotion is almost as important if not more important than just creating. Connect with Nadalie Bardo Website | Instagram

In episode 375, Megan chats to Tim Schmoyer about expert strategies to optimize our YouTube channels for easy discovery and growth in 2023. Since 2011, Tim Schmoyer has been one of the leading YouTube strategists in the online video industry. His company, Video Creators, has been featured by FOX, Forbes, BBC even YouTube themselves as his team trains creators and brands to master YouTube and use it as a place to spread messages that change lives. Their clients have organically grown by over 20 billion views and 81 millions subscribers under their guidance. In this episode, you'll learn more about YouTube search, discovery systems and YouTube's goals in general so that you can optimize your channel to get discovered more and increase your subscribers. - What are YouTube's goals and how can you align your channel with that? - How much do keywords and viewing time impact your discoverability on YouTube> - Content on YouTube has become completely customized. - Optimize your content for your ideal audience - think how will they respond? - How do you spark curiosity and create intrigue? - Create title, thumbnail and first couple of seconds before you create your content. - Should you request viewers to subscribe, like and comment? - Take the approach: Hang out in the kitchen with me while I cook. - When analyzing your content, think how can I improve my game? Connect with Tim Schmoyer Website | Instagram

In episode 374, Andrea Liebross teaches us effective strategies for long-term planning, making it less daunting, doable and fun. Learn how two become clear on what you want to achieve and how you're going to make it happen in 2023. Andrea is a coach, speaker, podcast host, and soon to be published author who is known for helping bold, ambitious women make clear, confident decisions, so that they get exactly what they want, every time, and not just add another thing to their to-do list. Andrea's clients become "I've got this" kind of women by creating their own custom secret sauce for success in both life and business; the sauce has just two ingredients - the right mindset and solid systems. In this episode, find out how to shift your mindset about annual planning, set SMARTER goals, get over your fear of failure and think honestly about how you want to grow in life and business. - Why are we daunted by long-term planning? - Our fear of not achieving goals often prevents us from making them in the first place. - In life and business, ask yourself: What do you value most? - Start your vision with 10 years - where will you be? - How do you see yourself evolving as your business grows? - Set SMARTER goals. - Do you truly celebrate reaching your goals? - Partner with someone when you go through your future vision. - Spend half of your energy on mindset and half of your energy on your goals. - A plan helps you focus on what you need to do to move forward faster. Connect with Andrea Loss Website | Instagram

In episode 373, Megan chats to Chandice Probst about the importance of networking to grow your business and how your business community can help you succeed. Chandice Probst is the business partner and sponsor director of Tastemaker Conference, which is the premier food blogger conference and community for food content creators. It is a place where food bloggers and content creators make contact with incredible brands and foodies. Based on Chandice's experience of Tastemaker Conference, and making lifelong connections in a community of like-minded creatives, in this episode, you'll find out more about every aspect of networking. This includes everything from reaching out to someone on Instagram to networking with competition and making the most of an in-person event. - What is the best networking method? - In-person and virtual conferences are worthwhile investments. - Find the right conference for you. - Why do food bloggers need community? - What are the best ways to connect outside of conferences? - Do not focus on isolating yourself from competition. - Focus on building a support group, even within your niche. - Overcome fear of reaching out to somebody and asking for help. - What happens at Tastemaker Conference and why can it make a difference to your business?

In episode 372, Casey Markee gives us his best SEO predictions for 2023, describing the bigger picture and what we should be thinking about as we create our content in the new year. Speaker, writer, and trainer, Casey Markee, is the founder of digital consultancy company Media Wyse. He is a well-known SEO professional with 20+ years of experience. Casey has trained SEO teams on five different continents, he has spoken at over 100 conferences, and he has worked with thousands of bloggers in the Food, Lifestyle and Travel niches. He also collects comic books, enjoys watching trashy reality TV with his wife Tifany, and he believes bacon should be its own food group. In this episode, you'll learn exactly what to look out for when it comes to SEO in 2023, including how to deal with new Google updates, how visual content is going to have a major impact on your Google rankings going forward, keywords versus entities and the importance of E-A-T. - What should you know about the Helpful Content Update? - Product reviews should be unique. - What does Google prefer: Quantity or Quality? - Tips to rank for visual content. - What is the difference between entities and keywords? - How to optimize for semantic SEO for higher rankings - Ranking categories: Navigational, Informational, Transactional and Commercial - Target featured snippets on Google (quick answers to questions) - What to know about E-A-T optimization? - Google ranks according to 2 factors: 1) relevant scoring, and 2) a quality assessment. - How can podcast guesting help your E-A-T? - Why should you consider openly supporting a social cause on your blog? Connect with Casey Markee Website | LinkedIn