Eat Blog Talk

In episode 322, Aubree Malick, host of the Freelancer to CEO podcast, teaches us how to monetize the blogging skills we've mastered by turning them into invaluable services we can offer other bloggers and businesses. Aubree helps people in conventional careers become freelancers, growing their own online businesses. She shares the tactics bloggers can use to identify their strengths and outsource this to other bloggers who might find the same tasks tedious or who've got too much on their plate. In this episode, she unpacks the most important steps to start a successful freelance career. -Find your ideal clients in online communities and in your local network. -Niche down with the type of service you offer or the type of client you serve. -Research other freelancers' pricing to find a good balance between NOT undervaluing or overpricing yourself. -Ask yourself: What price point is going to make me feel resentful? What is going to make me feel good? -Best way to build relationships with your audience is through authentic video. -Have a system in place to make the process smooth and keep your clients satisfied. Connect with Aubree Malick Website | Instagram

In episode 321, Megan chats with Molly Madigan Pisula, founder of Vanilla Bean Cuisine, about how food blogging gives you the opportunity to live a mobile life. Have a successful career anywhere in the world, while being in control of your time, so that you can spend more of it with the people you love. Molly and her husband moved to France where she went from being a personal chef to food blogger, specializing in healthy recipes using seasonal ingredients. With in-depth knowledge of overcoming the obstacles of moving to a new country, she discusses lifestyle differences between France and America, why enjoying food allows us to slow down and how you can choose the lifestyle you want, anywhere in the world. Find out more about her experience in this episode. -Live in a foreign country like France to enhance your senses and food knowledge. -Experience a different lifestyle that gives you more opportunities to be creative and appreciate life to the full. -Have the freedom to spend time with friends and family when and how you want. -Make a conscious decision to prioritize your responsibilities in a different way to everyone else. -Small moments in life can be a great way to strengthen connections. Prioritizing relationships and people will make everything else in life easier. What can you expect when you move to a new place and how will it change you for the better? Guest Details Connect with Molly Madigan Pisula Website | Instagram

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.