Learning as you go, repurposing content, and building a business that fits your life with Emily Christensen of Country Roads Sourdough.

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This episode is sponsored by Raptive.

Welcome to episode 594 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Emily Christensen from Country Roads Sourdough.

Last week on the podcast, Bjork chatted with Dahn Boquist. To go back and listen to that episode, click here.

Emily Christensen joins Bjork this week to share how she grew Country Roads Sourdough from local sourdough classes into a thriving online business. It started small, with a simple logo and posts in local Facebook groups. From there, Emily steadily built her social media following, learned which content hooks connect with her audience, and found ways to turn one popular recipe into several posts. She also explains how her blog, cookbook, affiliate links, and social platforms each play a pivotal role in her business.

You'll also hear Emily get candid about what contributed to her growth: plenty of time and persistence, the work of balancing a business with raising a family, and the decision to hire help and set boundaries. If you're working to turn your audience into income and want a business that supports your life rather than taking it over, you'll come away from this episode with practical ideas to put to work right away!

• Start with what you have: Emily didn't wait for a polished brand to get going. A simple logo and posts in local Facebook groups were enough to get Country Road Sourdough off the ground!
• Get more from the content that works: Spotting strong hooks and turning popular recipes into multiple posts helped Emily grow her audience without reinventing the wheel every time.
• Build a business that fits your life: Growth didn't happen overnight; it took time and persistence. Hiring help and setting clear boundaries made it possible for Emily to keep growing while raising her family.

Resources:

• Country Roads Sourdough
• Same Day Sourdough Bread
• Check our Emily's cookbooks here!
• Raptive
• Shop My
• Amazon Affiliates Program
• GRO
• URLgenius
• Follow Emily on Instagram and Facebook
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

This episode is sponsored by Raptive. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.

Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Creating content without the boundaries of SEO, recovering from a traffic drop, and rediscovering joy in food blogging with Dahn Boquist from Savor the Best.

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Welcome to episode 593 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Dahn Boquist from Savor the Best.

Dahn Boquist left her nursing career to blog full-time with her mom at Savor the Best, and the flexibility that came with that leap has been the highlight. But the journey hasn't always been a linear one. In this interview, Dahn walks Bjork through her site's growth, its decline, and its recovery, and what she learned and changed along the way to start growing again.

Dahn opens up about the March 2024 Helpful Content Update, the emotional toll of cutting two full-time team members, and why she decided to run her blog as if SEO was dead. She also talks about the importance of testing and reviewing data and how she's making sure she still enjoys running her business. This is a great listen for anyone rebuilding after a traffic hit and looking for ways to make their site more valuable to the readers who already love it.

• What happens when you let go of SEO — After being hit by the Helpful Content Update, Dahn stopped doing keyword research and writing SEO-optimized posts altogether. She explains how SEO had been quietly dictating what she could create, and how letting go of it brought her back to the reasons she started her food blog in the first place.
• How meal plans made her site more useful to readers — Dahn shares how she set up a menu planning tool on her site using WP Recipe Maker and what the process looked like. So far, 600 people have signed up, and that group spends 4x as much time on the site and views twice as many pages. Along with a stronger focus on email and Pinterest, the meal plans have helped push revenue from direct traffic up about 76% year over year (which is especially valuable as search becomes less predictable).
• Her approach to email marketing — Dahn talks about why she always ends up back on Kit, how to use Google Postmaster Tools to keep an eye on deliverability, and how she has been using the Kit MCP to streamline her email process.

Resources:

• Savor the Best
• Savor the Best Meal Plans
• WP Recipe Maker
• How Savor the Best is giving readers more reasons to come back
• Clariti
• Email Crush by Matt Molen
• Substack
• Flodesk
• Kit
• Postmaster Tools
• Kit MCP
• Raptive
• Mediavine
• Follow Dahn on Instagram and Facebook
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

This episode is sponsored by Clariti.

Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.

Outsourcing your weaknesses, the power of email authentication, and using AI to optimize your business with Aaron Randhawa.

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Welcome to episode 592 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Aaron Randhawa.

This week, Aaron Randhawa joins Bjork to explain the different processes behind The Forked Spoon, where Aaron manages technical operations so Jessica can focus on what she loves most: recipes, photography, and creative work! They'll talk about how email infrastructure can play a huge role in protecting a creator's brand and improving deliverability, as well as the lengthy process of earning a verified logo in email.

The conversation also explores the outcomes of Aaron's updates, how AI has improved business workflows, and the freedom that comes with outsourcing your weaknesses. From email performance to accounting opportunities, Aaron and Bjork share practical ways creators can use technology and expert support to build a more resilient business!

• You don't have to do it all: Aaron shares how he and Jessica divide the work at The Forked Spoon, with Jessica focused on being the creator while he handles the technical and operational side. Rather than searching for one person who can do everything, he recommends building a vetted list of trusted specialists and outsourcing your weaknesses to the people and tools that are stronger in those areas.
• Email trust starts with authentication: DMARC, SPF, and DKIM are the backbone of email authentication, but Aaron took it a step further to get The Forked Spoon's logo and a blue check mark in Gmail, which led to higher opens and clicks and fewer unsubscribes, especially among new subscribers!
• AI can be your guide through unfamiliar territory: You'll hear Aaron talk about how he used AI to learn about BIMI and VMC to optimize his trademark filing and to identify tax and business structure improvements, like moving from sole proprietor treatment to an S Corp.

Resources:

• The Forked Spoon
• MediaWyse
• NerdPress
• ChatGPT
• Raptive
• Kit
• dmarc digests
• Claude
• LegalZoom
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• CultivateWP
• DigiCert
• Clariti
• Wispr Flow
• The Economist
• Follow The Forked Spoon on Instagram
• Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group

This episode is sponsored by Clariti and Raptive. Learn more about our sponsors at foodbloggerpro.com/sponsors.

Interested in working with us too? Learn more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get started here.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com.

Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership.