The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Outsourcing tasks, growing a social media following, and self-publishing a cookbook with Erin Collins from Meaningful Eats. ----- Welcome to episode 469 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Erin Collins from Meaningful Eats.  How Erin Collins Went from 25,000 to 250,000 Instagram Followers While Self-Publishing a Cookbook Erin started her blog, Meaningful Eats, in 2012. Since then, she has self-published a cookbook (another one is coming out soon!), grown her site to 1 million monthly page views, and gained over 275,000 Instagram followers. In this interview, Erin talks about how she achieves a work-life balance by delegating tasks and how being aware of her “zone of genius” allows her to focus on what she’s most passionate about. She also discusses how she committed to growing her Instagram following by honing in on her audience’s needs. She self-published her cookbook “Gluten-Free Cookies, Brownies, and Bars” last fall and generated over $100,000 in revenue in the firs

Becoming a private chef, prioritizing projects, and sharing your aspirations with others with Kenneth Temple. ----- Welcome to episode 468 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews celebrity chef and food blogger Kenneth Temple.  Breaking into the Private Chef Industry and Sharing What You’re in Pursuit of with Celebrity Chef Kenneth Temple Kenneth Temple started his food blog in 2017 and has been a private chef since 2009 so he’s got a lot of great insights to share with us in this interview. He now finds himself cooking for NFL, MLB, NBA players, and Grammy artists. On the blog side, he qualified for Mediavine in November of 2023—a huge milestone! In this interview, Kenneth and Bjork discuss how he broke into the private chef industry, landed his first celebrity client, and why he chose to go down this route over working in a restaurant. They also talk about the importance of putting yourself out there and sharing your aspirations with others and the power of word-of-mouth

Strategizing for growth, pivoting to Pinterest as an alternative to SEO, and branding on Pinterest with Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media. ----- Welcome to episode 467 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media. Pinterest Strategy in 2024 This is a super special episode of the podcast, as it kicks off what we are calling our Summer Membership Spotlight. Over the next three months (June, July, and August) we will be sharing a piece of content that is normally exclusive to Food Blogger Pro members here on the podcast. We are starting with a replay of our Pinterest Live Q&A with Kate Ahl! This Q&A originally aired in April. Food Blogger Pro members submitted lots of great questions all about Pinterest strategy — branding, pinning strategy, types of pins, you name it. We’re so excited to share this Q&A with you (it’s a really informative one!) and hope you’ll tune in for our other membership spotlight episodes throughout the summer. In this

Why SEO is about more than building traffic, how to think more holistically about your SEO strategy, and the importance of community with Ann Smarty. ----- Welcome to episode 466 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Ann Smarty from Smarty Marketing. How to Respond to the Recent Google Updates Ann Smarty has been working in the SEO industry for over 20 years, and she has lots of expertise to share with us in this interview! Bjork and Ann chat about the current state of SEO, including a deep dive into the impact of the recent Google Helpful Content Updates. They also discuss the history of backlinks with SEO and how to approach link-building as a content creator (and why it’s more about community than you might think). Ann has a really great perspective on the importance of developing a holistic SEO strategy and why diversifying your income and traffic sources matters now, more than ever. Don’t miss this episode! In this episode, you’ll learn: About the current state of S

Welcome to Tiny Bites from the Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Ben Holland from Clariti about the upcoming deletion of Universal Analytics data — and what you need to do about it.  Get the resources for this episode a foodbloggerpro.com/podcast/tiny-bites-universal-analytics-data.

Monetizing through a membership as a food creator, choosing a subscription platform, and marketing a membership to your community with Jen Matichuk from Memberful. ----- Welcome to episode 465 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jen Matichuk. Creating a Subscription Platform for Your Food Blog Are you tired of brand partnerships or navigating the Google algorithm? Have you ever considered starting a membership for your community? Then you won’t want to miss this podcast episode with Jen Matichuk from Memberful. And yes, Memberful is a podcast sponsor, but this episode isn’t sponsored by them! We were just really excited to have an honest conversation about what it looks like to create a membership as a food creator, and how you might go about doing it, and Jen is the perfect person to cover this topic. In this episode, Bjork and Jen chat about how to determine if a membership is the right option for your business, how to choose a subscription platform, how to predict if

Evolving your business to fit your audience's needs, assembling a team of recipe developers, and growing an email list from 1,000 to 75,000 subscribers with Jason Norris from Recipe Teacher. ----- Welcome to episode 464 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jason Norris from Recipe Teacher. How Email and High-Quality Content Helped Jason Norris Reach Millions of Monthly Pageviews with Recipe Teacher Jason Norris has gone on quite a journey with his site, Recipe Teacher. From trying to sell the site for $1000, to growing a site that reaches millions of monthly pageviews and is worth well over a million dollars. In this interview, Jason shares more about the growth of his site, how he has built a team of recipe developers, his approach to SEO, and more. He also explains how he grew his email list from 1,000 to over 75,000 subscribers by working with our friend Allea at Duett and, in the process, learned that many of his readers are seniors! Jason’s journey to success is a r

Leaning into the science of SEO, committing to a niche, and dividing attention between three websites and businesses. ----- Welcome to episode 463 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Shaunda Necole from The Soul Food Pot. How a Love of SEO and Entrepreneurship Helped Shaunda Necole Grow Three Successful Websites and Hit 1 Million Monthly Pageviews Shaunda Necole has a true passion for being an entrepreneur — from her first business owning a cheerleading product company to today, running three websites, a food tour of Las Vegas, writing books, and more. In this interview, she shares more about her love of SEO and keyword research and how her SEO strategy has changed in light of Google’s recent Helpful Content Updates. She also explains how she divides her time between her three websites (a food blog, a travel website, and her personal site), in addition to her SEO consulting, Las Vegas food tours, and upcoming travel book. In a time where SEO can feel really unpredictabl

Building three blogs in different niches, growing a team and building a community, and diversifying traffic sources with Julie Evink from Julie's Eats & Treats. ----- Welcome to episode 462 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Julie Evink from Julie’s Eats & Treats. Monetizing Three Blogs, Outsourcing Tasks, and Self-Publishing a Cookbook Julie started her first blog, Julie’s Eats & Treats, back in 2010. Since that time she has taken her site full-time, started two other blogs, grown a team, and is self-publishing a cookbook! In this interview, Julie shares more about growing her blog and how that experience changed her approach to her other two sites. She also chats about outsourcing tasks, how she hires team members, and what she thinks is working really well in her businesses currently. Her cookbook is being released on May 21, so we also get to hear about the process of self-publishing a cookbook. It’s always fun to hear about the journey of someone who h

Developing a photography portfolio, growing a career in photography, and the importance of telling a story through your photographs with Alanna O'Neil. ----- Welcome to episode 461 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Alanna O’Neil. Building a Career as a Photographer and Storytelling Through Visuals Alanna O’Neil has been a photographer for almost as long as she can remember. Despite starting her career in fashion, she took a risk and moved to Hawaii to start a career as a photographer, and hasn’t looked back. In this interview, Alanna shares more about building a career as a freelance photographer, developing your skills as a photographer, building a portfolio, and the importance of storytelling through visuals. She has an incredibly calming and inspiring energy, and this interview will give you a lot to think about as an entrepreneur, creative, and photographer. Don’t miss it! In this episode, you’ll learn: How Alanna first got into photography (spoiler: it involves

Getting removed from Mediavine, leaning into social media as a traffic driver, and rebuilding to 85,000 monthly sessions with Yasmin Henley from By the Forkful. ----- Welcome to episode 460 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Yasmin Henley from By the Forkful. How Yasmin Henley Recommitted to Her Blog and Grew to 85,000 Monthly Sessions Yasmin started By the Forkful (her second blog) in 2019 and quickly qualified for Mediavine. But, as often happens, life got in the way when she had her daughter and went back to work full-time. After taking a step back and being removed from Mediavine, Yasmin has worked hard to bring her site back to life. In the last year she has built the traffic on her site back up to 85,000 monthly sessions and is once again part of an ad network! In this interview she shares more about her process for growing site traffic, the role of social media in driving traffic to her site, and how she balances her full-time job, family, and blog. We loved thi

Balancing a business and home-schooling 8 children, building a team, and diversifying your business to different platforms with Lisa Bass. ----- Welcome to episode 459 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone. How Lisa Bass from Farmhouse on Boone Diversified Her Business and Found Work-Life Balance Lisa Bass first started her site, Farmhouse on Boone, in 2016. Since then, she has diversified her brand to include a podcast, YouTube channel, courses, and more (all while raising 8 children)! In this podcast interview, Bjork and Lisa talk about balancing her business with her family life, and how she has built a team to support her business over the years. Lisa also chats about how each arm of her business ranks in terms of income, and why she continues to prioritize YouTube. Lisa has been one of our most-requested podcast guests and we’re so happy to have her join us! Hope you enjoy the episode. In this episode, you’ll learn: More about Lisa’

Balancing a full-time job in the SEO industry with running a food blog, managing burnout, and applying SEO best practices to your site with Marley Braunlich from Baked Abundance. ----- Welcome to episode 458 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Marley Braunlich from Baked Abundance. SEO Tips from a Food Blogger Who Works Full-time at an SEO Agency Marley Braunlich started working full-time at an SEO agency shortly after launching her food blog, Baked Abundance. In this interview, she shares more about balancing a full-time job and a side hustle (especially when they’re both in the same industry!) and how she manages burnout. Marley also explains what tips and tricks she has learned from her full-time job and how she has worked to optimize her site for search engines and build domain authority. If you want to increase your site traffic (who isn’t?!) without losing the aspects of food blogging that bring you joy, you won’t want to miss this interview! In this episode, you’

Acquiring an existing food blog, navigating traffic drops, and reimagining a site to make it your own with Parker Thornburg from Foodness Gracious. ----- Welcome to episode 457 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Parker Thornburg from Foodness Gracious. How to Acquire and Grow a Food Blog Starting a food blog or business is hard work. It can take months (years!) of determination, practice, and consistency before you start to see results. So what if you just… skipped ahead?! That’s exactly what Parker Thornburg and his business partner did when they acquired the existing food blog, Foodness Gracious. But just because the site was up and running (with thousands of recipes!) doesn’t mean the transition has been an easy or seamless one. In this interview, Parker shares more about the process of acquiring a site, what the transition has been like, how they’ve navigated hiring and traffic drops, and have started to come out the other side. Whether or not you’re thinking about

Navigating the creator landscape, improving the value of your site, and the importance of diversifying with Chelsea Clarke. ----- Welcome to episode 456 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Chelsea Clarke from Her Paper Route. Monetizing, Diversifying, and Leaning Into Pinterest and Email We are thrilled to welcome back Chelsea Clarke to the podcast this week. Chelsea is an expert at all things monetizing, buying, selling, and optimizing sites and she shares lots of that expertise in this interview. Bjork and Chelsea chat about the current state of the industry for online creators, and how the slew of recent Google algorithm updates have impacted the industry. Chelsea also shares how she has reacted to these changes with her sites (hint: it includes Pinterest, video, and email marketing). Chelsea also explains more about how buying and selling websites works, and how you can make your own site more valuable for yourself (and for potential investors)! In this episode, you

Developing your own product line, diversifying income streams, and increasing brand awareness with Barbara Hobart. ----- Welcome to episode 455 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Barbara Hobart. Creating Your Own Products and Adding a Revenue Stream Barbara Hobart is a television writer and producer who also happens to work with food bloggers and other entrepreneurs to identify, create, and manufacture custom products. In this interview, Bjork and Barbara chat about why food creators might consider selling their own products to generate new revenue streams and increase brand awareness. They walk through all of Barbara’s recommendations for how to develop, manufacture, and distribute a product, and what kinds of products tend to perform well for food creators. We always love to chat about diversifying income streams on the podcast, and this is a great episode to get you thinking about how you might do that! Don’t miss it. In this episode, you’ll learn: More about her b

Balancing two blogs, social media, and two dessert shops, using trends and viral videos to drive blog traffic, and winning a baking competition on Netflix with Catherine Zhang. ----- Welcome to episode 454 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Catherine Zhang. Catherine Zhang on Being a Netflix Star and the Power of Social Media Catherine Zhang has quite a resume: she was on (and won) NETFLIX’s Zumbo’s Just Desserts season 2, runs two food blogs, has over 1 million followers between Instagram and TikTok, and owns Kurepu Crepes — a dessert shop with locations in Perth and Sydney. She also happens to have a Bachelor of Science majoring in Food and Nutrition Science, and spent two years working in pastry kitchens. Safe to say, she has had tremendous success as a creator over the last few years. In this podcast interview, Bjork and Catherine chat about her professional journey, how she balances her businesses, and the power of social media. It is a really fun and inspiring in

Transitioning careers, deciding not to take your blog full-time, and using your blog as a business card with Vincent DelGiudice from Always From Scratch. ----- Welcome to episode 453 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Vincent DelGiudice from Always From Scratch. Balancing a Full-time Job and Your Food Blog We first met Vinny when he joined Bjork for a Coaching Call in 2023. He is on the podcast this week to chat more about his career journey — including how he made the leap from working as a full-time speech-language pathologist to where he is now. Vinny started his blog, Always From Scratch, in 2019 and has had lots of success in that short amount of time — including qualifying for Mediavine and reaching over 100,000 followers on Instagram. While he contemplated taking his site full-time last year, he has since decided to hold off and shares more about his decision-making process in this interview. Vinny and Bjork chat about balancing a full-time job with your blog, h

Creating content for YouTube, developing meal plans for your community, and strategizing for growing your brand with Nisha Vora from Rainbow Plant Life. Welcome to episode 452 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Nisha Vora from Rainbow Plant Life. YouTube, Meal Plans, and Business Growth Nisha Vora (who just so happens to be the YouTube Expert on Food Blogger Pro!) is back on the podcast this week to chat about all things YouTube, business growth, and meal plans! Bjork and Nisha kick off the conversation with a deep dive into YouTube — YouTube shorts, longer-form videos, monetization on the platform, and more. Nisha also recently launched Meal Plans by Rainbow Plant Life and shares more about the process of developing and marketing the meal plans, and what the future of Rainbow Plant Life might look like! In this episode, you’ll learn: How she prioritizes creating content for her different platforms (blog, YouTube, newsletter, and social media). How her income varies b

Navigating the evolution of online content creation, balancing SEO with creating content you love, and defining success for you with Katie Higgins from Chocolate Covered Katie. ----- Welcome to episode 451 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Katie Higgins from Chocolate Covered Katie. Staying True to Yourself as a Content Creator Katie first started creating content online in 2006 and has been making a living from her food blog, Chocolate Covered Katie for a long time. In her first podcast interview (!!!) Katie shares openly about navigating the online content creation space for almost 20 years and how she has stayed true to herself throughout that time. Katie has been very intentional about running her business in a way that prioritizes doing the things she loves — creating recipes, SEO, photography, FOOD, and letting go of the things she doesn’t — video, sponsored content, Instagram. She has a really refreshing perspective on what success looks like and how she naviga