The Ultimate Blog Podcast - Cooking Up Success: How Jennifer Draper Scaled her Food Blog for Growth

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Are you a food blogger who’s ready to scale your blog? You’ll love this special episode of The Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today, Jennifer Draper steps into the guest seat to share how she scaled her food blog for growth. She’s explaining how she got started, what worked and didn’t work in the beginning, the shifts she’s made through the years, and how she’s positioned her food blog for growth and long-term success.🔗Check out the show notes for Episode 164!

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You'll learn exactly how to create content that works, focus on the right steps to reach your goals faster, and also avoid wasting time on the things that don't really matter. Plus, our membership includes ongoing support and cheerleading and also guidance from other bloggers who have been where you are. We have three monthly calls and a forum that's always open for collaboration and help.

The best part, no more overwhelm. With the ultimate blog roadmap, you'll know exactly what to do and when to do it. It's a monthly membership designed to take the guesswork out of blogging and help you reach your goals for just $97 a month. If you're ready to join us, head over to ultimateblogroadmap.com and let's get started. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when we started blogging. I'm Amy Reinicki and I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips.

We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice. Our mission is to educate, support, inspire, and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Well, we have something a little special for you today on the podcast. And this is an episode that I have wanted to share and I got to convince Jennifer that I think it's a really important episode. And today, Jennifer is actually in the guest seat and I get to ask her all the

interview questions. So welcome Jennifer to your own podcast. Thanks. It feels weird to be sitting in this seat instead of the host seat for once. I know. I know. Today is what I think is going to be a really important episode. There's been a lot going on behind the scenes in Jennifer's journey on her blogs. And I think that I've been, you know, watching from the sidelines for the last about year, year and a half. And I think what I'm learning and what I'm witnessing has been pretty incredible. And that's really why I wanted to bring her on to specifically talk about what she's done in her blogging business. And if you go all the way back to episode seven, you can hear

kind of Jennifer's origin story and that catches you up to where she was in about 2022 when we started the ultimate blog podcast. So if you're interested in that about how she got started blogging and everything, go back to episode seven. We'll be sure to link that in the show notes for you. But for today's purpose, there was a bit of a shift that happened around that time, quite honestly, around the time that we began the podcast. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's just dive right in. So Jennifer, in 2022, 2023 ish, there was a shift that you felt in your business. And so do you want to talk about what that shift was or what you were feeling at that time? And then we'll

go into what that's looked like, Tyron. Yeah, so in 2022, like you said, we took on extra with Spark Media Concepts. We were doing a lot at that point in time to teach other bloggers and have the podcast and a membership. And we had so many things going, which I love doing and I learned so much from it. But at that point I was also still managing

both of my blogs. So for anyone listening who doesn't know, I have two food blogs, Slow Cooker Gourmet and Garnish Plate. And so I've been blogging for about 10 years at that point. And it was just starting to feel very overwhelming to keep up with trying to create content consistently for my blogs and to keep up with everything with spark media concepts. And so I knew something needed to change because I was really burning myself out. I enjoy what I do so much, but it's easy

to overcommit yourself to that and just get to the point where you're working all the time because you love it, so you just keep doing it. But then you realize, I'm almost just spinning my wheels here. I can only create so many more efficiencies. I can only batch my work so much more and at some point something's gonna have to change. So I had to really sit down and think about at that point like what are my goals because I didn't feel like I was doing anything well. I was doing many things but I wasn't doing any one thing like really well. So I had to sit down with myself and just ask myself some hard questions like

my blogs really kind of stagnant at this point and I'm not creating content in the way that I want to on a regular basis. Like what do I want to do here? Do I want to just be okay with where I'm at or do I want to grow this thing? And At that point I was like I love what I do I love blogging, but it's gonna have to look a little bit different if we're gonna make this sustainable and we're gonna be able to grow this thing to really make it worth the amount of time

that I'm investing in it and the amount of time that I have invested in it. Because anybody who's blogging knows it takes a long time to get to the point where you're being able to make it profitable, create an income and all of that. And so I had put in so many years of work. I knew that if I could put some things in place that I might actually be able to make this profitable to a point where I felt really good and really excited again about what I was doing. So yeah, it

was really just that feeling of like, okay, something's gotta change. I can't keep up at the pace that I am and also be able to have the life that I want, the time with my family that I want and do the other things that I want outside of work. And so what does this need to look like? And I think we both feel like with the podcast,

it's awesome that we're teaching other people things, but we're learning so many things. So through a combination of different guests that we had, it just, I think, got us both thinking about what kinds of things do we need to be looking at to make decisions? And so it was really just a matter of sitting down and writing out really specific goals

and looking at really specific data to be able to make decisions about what that shift was going to look like. Yeah, yeah. I agree. We do bring so many people on that make us look at our own businesses and through a new lens and through a new light and ask yourself like, what could I be doing better or differently than I'm doing right now? And I think that that shift was important for anyone who hasn't listened to episode seven yet. She began blogging in 2013. So I just kind of want to put some dates here

because I think that that could be important. So it was 2013, right? When you started? Yeah. Okay. So 2013 is when she started. And so this, this kind of shift that she was feeling was nine to 10 years into blogging. So one question I want for you to share, I want to answer, I guess I want you to share it with everybody is like, how did, when we start blogging, we usually have some goals or what do we want out of this? So Jennifer in 2013, how is that different than Jennifer who was sitting there looking at things in 2022, 2023? What had shifted in that time? Like not just in your business or your goals,

but in your life, how did your needs impact some of this shift that needed to happen too? Yeah. So when I first started my blog, it was shortly after we had adopted our daughter. And so my main goal then was to like not have a boss. I wanted to create an income and I wanted to bring in enough money that I could help support the financial needs of my family. And so I did start this

and you can go back and listen to all this, but with that business aspect in mind. But it was just that balance of taking care of a small child and all of that. And so it was really about like working in the nooks and crannies of the day and kind of just hustling to some extent. Like that's just the phase you're in because you're not able to have a big team or whatever when you're starting a business like this. You're doing it for the most part by yourself and maybe hiring out some small pieces for help and things like that. And I don't know how it came about. I feel like there was some luck involved and obviously

some hard work, but I did start to make money and all of that. Buffalo chicken chili. Buffalo chicken chili. Buffalo chicken chili. Buffalo chicken chili went viral. Yeah, that's a whole nother story. Yeah, I had some recipes that did really well, got some traffic, got on an ad network, started making some money. And that was great for that point in time.

I was replacing a good portion of my salary and it's what we needed so that I could also take care of the kids and the house and all the things that needed to happen. But, you know, fast forward 10 years and that looks a lot different. Your kids are older, they're in school all day, they're self-sufficient. And so you can manage your time a little bit differently. And so I was like, well, I have a lot of different things I could do, have a lot of different things that are important to me. So what can I do at this point so that I am spending my time doing things

that are fulfilling to me? And if I'm going to invest in this business, I'm going to truly treat it as a business that can grow and not just sustain us, but get to the point of having some like, you know, built like some wealth building strategies and things like that with this business as well. Like I'm not gonna wanna do this forever.

So what is that going to look like in the future? How can I make this, into truly like a sustainable business that makes good money that I can invest and I can have an asset? I mean, I don't know if everybody thinks about it that way, but your blog is an asset, especially when it makes money because that's something that you could potentially sell someday and so it's thinking about like the long term as well I had to really start thinking about the future and where this was going to go so how can I make this into the best version of what it can be so that I have options in the future something else I want you to touch on because I think it's a pretty

big part of your life and I hope you're okay sharing. But there wasn't just that shift with your business. There was a shift in your personal life of a different area that you also wanted to allow yourself time to focus. And I think that often you said the word fulfilling and I think that what we're told is, you know, you graduate high school, you get a job, you go to college, you get a job, you need to do the hustle, you know, they say 40 hours a week, but it's usually more than that. You're answering to somebody else. And so this idea of being a creative, and to be a little bit more in control of your time

to be able to say, no, I don't want to work on that, or I want to actually do things that are fulfilling to me, not just in my work, but I want to have a job that fuels me to be able to show up in other areas of my life to also fill our cup, quite honestly. So if you want to share what that is, I think it's a really cool thing that you do that you, without this shift, you would not be doing. That's for sure. Yeah, I think you're talking about my like volunteer work. Um, so in 2022, I started volunteering with a local animal shelter to do some fostering of cats and kittens.

It's always been my passion and it's one of those things. I think we all have something that's like inside of us that's important to us and we don't always understand the reason but there's gotta be a reason there somewhere. And so it's like the, well someday when I have time, anytime I was ever a PetSmart and saw all the cats in the adoptable room or people working with them on events and things like that.

I was always like, well, someday that's something I would be good at. I love animals and I'm good with cats and that's something I could help with when I have time, when I have time, someday when I have time. And I always said that to myself. And in 2022, I saw a post on Facebook, and there was this organization pleading for help. They had a lot of animals that were a lot of cats specifically that were getting rescued and they desperately needed somebody to foster. And I was like, Oh, I hope people step up for that. And then I was like, Wait a minute. Why do I hope somebody else

is going to do this? I want to do this and I'm scared. I don't know what this means. I don't know how hard it will be. But I've had some things happen in my life and I've lost some people close to me. And you start to realize we don't know how much time we're going to have to do the things that we want to do or the things that are important to us. So I'm just, I'm going to try it. Like we'll just try it. It takes, you know, I can be somebody, I can be the somebody that can help here. So I did volunteer.

It was a fun experience and haven't looked back. I've pretty much had a revolving door of cats and kittens in my house since then and it definitely has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. But yeah at this point I think I'm at 70 plus cats or kittens that have been fostered and have gotten homes and so it's just it is it's such a fulfilling experience to be able to be a part of helping something that's outside of yourself. So all that being said, I mean, since I do work at home, I feel like I'm a good person to be able to do this because I can, you know, take a quick five minute break and go check on something or whatever. So it works out well. And so that also fuels

me to be like, yeah, this is my life. I want to be able to create this sustainable business that's going to allow me to do those things. And I need to really be mindful of how I spend my time working. Because it's easy to fall into that trap of busy work. No, I need to be doing impactful work so that then I can get that done and move on and do all the other things as well because those things are important too. So it's just really finding a good balance, but you can't create more time in the day

so you just have to figure out and you can only, like I said, you can only create so many efficiencies. So then you really have to start giving things a hard look about where you are spending your time and what you are and aren't going to do. Yeah. And where you want to. And I think that that's the beautiful part of being able to not only work from home, but work for yourself and setting your own goals and all of that. You know, when, when you're able, then you can ask yourself, you know, how else can I make an impact in the world? Because just a reminder,

bloggers are making an impact every single day. I mean, the content that you're sharing, whether it be something vulnerable, whether it be recipes, whether it be fitness programs, you're making an impact on people all over the world, essentially. And I think that we can also make impacts in our community by what we're doing. And that might look different than just sending out content over the internet, you know, and so I just, I love that you chose to have a little faith there. I remember calling you like around the time you did it and you saying exactly that to me. Like I'm picking up foster kittens and I was like, oh, okay.

And you said to me, this is something I've always wanted to do. And I'm tired of not doing the things in my life that I want to do. You also sew and like you've gotten more sewing things and things like that. And I think that that's just, that's always been inspiring to me because I think when we are in this field, sometimes we can feel like we just have to hustle, hustle, hustle, and we shouldn't have time for those things that are really important to us. Or we shouldn't make time because maybe we're not at the income goal that

we're at yet or whatever reason, insert your reason there. But it was just a reminder to me, it's okay to have other areas of my life that are important to me and that I focus on or that I volunteer or that I make time for also in my day. It's okay to do that. I don't just have to sit at my computer every day because I do think that that white space away from our computers, away from the content that we're creating and filling our cups up in another way is critical to our success.

I think if we don't give ourselves that time, that's when we reach that point of burnout, which is essentially what you're experiencing. And I mean, you kind of had a fork in the road. You could have just thrown it all, you know, been like, whatever, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. Instead of that, I think it's really inspiring that you took a step back, looked at your life,

looked at your business and said, okay, I don't actually want to quit doing this. I want to continue what I'm doing. But if I'm going to do that, then these things need to change. And so I want to go into that. I kind of want to dive deep into that now. So there was the shift.

And so what was the first thing that you did after you sat down and looked at everything? What was the decision that you'd made? So what I really did was I looked at my finances for the business and I said, here's, you know, pretty much what I'm bringing in. Here's what I expect to bring in if I stay at this level that I'm at. And here's what my expenses are. I cut, you know, I cut anything that I could that I wasn't using. And I just sat down and said, okay, if I'm going to get some help to make this happen so that I'm spending less of my time on this, what does that look like? So I had to just say, okay, if I can take the next six months and

test this out, what does that look like? So what I did was I said, I need to have this much in the bank to be able to pay these expenses. I know what I have coming in currently. And so I am going to be okay with either reducing my take-home pay or not taking pay some months potentially to take a chance to grow this. And I'm going to give myself six months and I'm going to see what this can do because it's either going to work or I'm going to have to make another decision at this point because I cannot manage all of the tasks of running these two websites by myself. Well, and Spark. And doing Spark, yes. And Spark. I mean, we support students in our membership, the Ultimate Blogger roadmap, and we have our podcast. And I mean, this is almost what I do full time.

My blog has taken a total backseat because my singular focus almost right now is just spark and supporting people in this way. And so I have asked myself that question. I don't even know how Jennifer is doing this. Now, we're in different stages of parenting. Her kids are older than mine. And so that looks a little different, but it, yeah. Yeah, just yeah.

Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot on our plates. It's a lot. Yeah. If you go back and listen to that old episode, for episode seven, where I told my story, I talked a lot about batch working

and how I got everything done. Cause creating content, and especially creating recipe content is incredibly time consuming. And so I was like, okay, if I was going to get some help, where can I start and what's gonna have the most impact and what's gonna free up the most of my time so that I can focus on, you know,

A, the things that I want to do and B, the things that I can do to help increase the revenue. And so for me, that was, it was hard because you don't want to give up, you don't want to give up control. It's your baby. It's your business. You've built it to this point. And so we did a podcast interview with Michaela Quinn, and she talked about how she trains mainly women to be virtual assistants. And she had a whole database where you could put out job descriptions and get people to apply.

And I was like, well, this is my sign. I don't remember how long it was after we did that episode that I took the plunge, but that really, really got me thinking. And it's not that, like you, if you go back and listen, you'll know like Amy was a virtual assistant for me. My mother-in-law is a virtual assistant for me to this day. I've had people helping in smaller capacities,

but I was kind of managing just some like work that they were doing to help me. But I was like, no, I need people that specialize in certain things so that I can truly take things off my plate. I know this is gonna be an investment, but here's what I'm willing to spend and here's why I'm willing to spend it. And so I interviewed multiple people. That was very difficult for me because that is not an area that I'm an expert in. And so I've never done anything like that even in my prior life.

It was never my responsibility to interview and hire people. But really when you think about it, the risk is pretty minimal. You're usually signing a contract for 30 days. So you can try people out and see if it works or doesn't work. And so what I ended up at the end of the day choosing at the beginning of this, this would be about midway through 2023. So I said, I'm going to spend the rest of this year investing in this help so that going into 2024, things can look different. And so I hired somebody who has expertise in SEO and keyword research. And I said, I'm just going to focus on one of my blogs to start with because I think that's, you know, you just kind of have to figure out a starting point.

And so this particular blog was the one that made the most money, has the most traffic. And I was like, that's where we're gonna start. And so I hired somebody to do the SEO, and so she would help me figure out which posts needed to be updated, what new kinds of content needs to be created, and just things to fix up my website so that it was more user-friendly for Google.

And then I also hired somebody to help me write the content for my blog. And that feels also hired somebody to help me write the content for my blog and that feels weird as a blogger. I'm not gonna lie, it feels weird to take that off your plate and have somebody else writing your blog posts. But I think that if you're looking to free up something that's time-consuming and depending on the types of content you have on your website, that is a really reasonable place to invest some money for the amount of time and energy that it will free up for you.

We don't have to go into that here today, but there's lots of ways to go about it to make sure that you still are maintaining your authenticity and that your messaging is getting across and all of that. We have a really good process in place. I lucked out with an amazing, amazing person to help me write my blog and it's just gone incredibly well. And that has freed up such a significant amount of time. And then the third hire that I made was for a digital business manager. So she does a lot of different things. She wears a million different hats and she just makes sure that everything is running smoothly so that I'm not the one in there on a daily basis managing some of those day to day tasks. She's making sure that the blog posts are ready, that everything that needs to go in them, like the Pinterest

pins are ready, that everything's getting scheduled, that the emails are getting answered, and she's making sure that I'm staying on track, and she's helping manage my click up for project management. She just wears a million different hats. And so just being really intentional about that as well. So that piece in and of itself isn't directly going to the blog, but it's freeing up a lot of my administrative time and also like

some growth time too. She's got some background in marketing and social media and things like that. So she's just an all-around helper. So that just takes such a significant amount off of my plate. And so we did that for almost an entire year. That is what I focused on. And then I still did the content in terms of taking the photos of all of the recipes. So I was still managing that. But in that amount of time, in that time, since I had somebody hired to write the content and all of that, I had to stay on a very strict schedule to make sure that I had all the content ready to go. And so that was still a huge time commitment on my part to make and photograph all of those

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Hey, can I ask a question here? I'll fast. Yeah, just for reference. So you have the two blogs, but at this time, or are you just doing this on slow cooker? Like were you even posting on garnish plate at all? No. So garnish plate was just going with the content that was on it. So the sole focus for that year was on slow cooker gourmet. Correct. Yes, that's a good point. The whole focus was on slow cooker gourmet. I said, you know, we'll just set aside garnish plate. We'll see what happens. And if this is successful, then maybe we can take some of what we've learned and apply it.

But for right now, we're going to see if this even works before I invest more money in a blog that wasn't making quite honestly that much money. So it would not cover- Yeah, because you already, but you already were on an ad network with Garnish Plate. Yes. And so you were able to, it's not like it was sitting there not making any money. It was making passive income with the ad network. Yeah, it was making a little bit every month and it's just sitting there.

And it didn't miraculously like the traffic went down some, that's what happens. But it didn't like completely disappear or anything like that. So I was comfortable with the risk I was taking there by setting that aside and focusing in the one spot. So at that point, so that had been, so for the six months of 2023, it was just like breaking even, seeing how this is going, and then heading into 2024, we're starting to see some traffic improvement.

So that was a really good sign. And then- Because in this time, your Pinterest traffic had taken a hit too. It's right. Yeah. Yeah. So it was kind of going back to the drawing board, hold on, the way that I've been doing things isn't working, which I think so many bloggers that's happened to.

Yeah. So that was part of that kind of data processing. What do I need to do to get this all back? Because you it did drop significantly, if I remember, and what you were doing wasn't necessarily working there. So that's when you chose to just really hone in on Google, right? Yes, definitely. And, you know, that's not what we want to do, like long term, but that's what I chose to do for a period of time and say,

OK, let's just take things one step at a time. And I think that's really important when you're making changes like this. So we, I did get a Pinterest consultation and adjusted things slightly. I mean, I think that's what you kind of have to be looking at those things, but like the majority of your time, I think you're going to spend in one area at a time unless you can continue to grow and piggyback and snowball and hire. So I'm not quite at that point yet, but so going into 2024, I was starting to see some increases in blog traffic from Google specifically and then corresponding increases in my ad revenue as well.

And so then I had another decision to make. Am I going to continue to create the photos for all of these recipes or can I get some help in this area too? So that was something I pondered for the first several months of 2024, watching how things were playing out, making sure that the increases that were happening were going to be, you know, mostly sustainable. making sure that the increases that were happening were going to be mostly sustainable. And then I'm like, okay, do I just take that extra money that I'm making now back out? Because at this point, I remember calling Amy one day

and I was like, yes, all the help that I hired is now paying for itself because of this increase in revenue. And now I'm even making a little bit more than I was. So I'm bringing home more than I would have had I been doing this all myself. So now what? Can I take one more thing off of my plate? And that was photography. And that, I would say, is the hardest piece to give up

because I have spent years learning food photography. And I had even bought a course because I knew that I think we have to continue to grow and evolve and change and meet the needs of the people out there. And I did want to, I knew I either needed to invest in some more learning of the photography and improving my photography, or it was going to be time just to take that off my plate and let somebody else do it. And I was like, you know what? We're just, again, we're just going to try this out. I have nothing to lose.

And I was very fortunate to find a very good photographer. I actually have two people that I work with, but they are doing a fantastic job. And so that was midway through 2024. It was like, okay, this is the harder piece to give up because it's not directly bringing in any income. I think it's also because photography was so important to you. You used to take photos for bloggers. That was a way, like years ago ago that you also brought in revenue to your business. Because as bloggers, we have all these different hats that we put on. And so you were doing that for a while. You were shooting photos for other people's blogs. So I just want people to hear

that that your journey is going to evolve. If you stay in this, it's going to evolve so much. And we're going to talk about any of the emotions that you've had to process, which I know you don't love to talk about that all the time, but I'm going to make you talk about it a little bit. But I think that's important to know. Like that this was something this was like for me, for instance, I've hired out my food photography before on my site because I'm like, I don't want to I don't have the capacity to learn how to shoot good food photography at this point.

It is not something I'm passionate about. So that was an easy thing for me to hire out when I did do that. But for other people, that's not something that they want to do. And so that was like the last thing that you're holding on to. And so I just think that's important to recognize. There's pieces of our business that are easier to let go than others. It doesn't, what Jennifer's sharing today, it's not like this is the solution

or the formula for everybody. This is just her experience. And I think that that's a really important thing to say. You might be listening to this. I don't ever wanna hire out anything. Great, you don't have to. You don't have to do that. This doesn't have to be the answer.

But I think that we're really speaking and I want the people to hear who are feeling that burnout and they want that growth and they're looking at this as an asset. And how can this provide for my family for many years down the line, and truly looking at this like a business investment, because you're really good at that, like you're really, really good. And every decision that Jennifer makes is well thought out. Like it has you you have taken the time, you have done the research,

you have put numbers on paper, literally everything we do at Spark, there's been many spreadsheets created, lots of lists, lots of conversations. And so all this was very intentional. None of this was just, I think I'm just going to make this big decision today and go forward. You know, it was something that was very thoughtful that's ended up being very fruitful for you. Yeah, yeah. I just took it one step at a time and just try to analyze each and every month. Is this still working? Is this still the right choice?

You know, I never sign a contract that I can't get out of in a reasonable amount of time and I'm never going to spend money that I don't have. That's just one of my personal beliefs is the money has to be in the bank to spend it. I'm not going to go out and finance this business for myself. And that may work for some people, it's just not for me. And so having that money saved up and ready to go and spend on this, I mean, it's still a risk. I'm still having

to make the decision that I'm either going to take less or no money from the business for a period of time to make this happen. But again, it's just like the month to month, okay, let's just make sure this is working. Let's make sure this is working. So it's that balance between the long-term commitment to seeing something through, but also being willing to then again, make adjustments if you need to along the way because things might not work out like you thought they would. So how long was it before you started to see some of the shifts? It was a year, right? About a year in? Yeah, so at that, once I hired the photography,

then I went back to again, reinvesting some of the money again, and then lowering what I was going to take. But very quickly that has paid for itself, just with all of the work that's gone in over that last year, traffic was continuing to grow. I also made a shift in taking a chance and leaving one ad network to try out another. And it has paid off so far. I've been getting higher

RPMs and all of that on my blog traffic. And so, yeah, obviously, once you decide on those expenses and you're set on those, those will stay the same. And then what you're hoping is based on those set expenses, the percentage of your revenue is going to continue to increase and therefore eventually your profits and your take home are going to increase. And so that's what I've been working on the last six months of 2024 going into 2025. And just really keeping a close eye on all of that. I have not decided to invest anything else at this point.

Like now I feel like, okay, we're getting in a good rhythm. We've, I didn't even say we did add on the second blog and start creating content for that. So that's what I'm really analyzing at this point is like, is this making sense? So just to give a little bit of perspective on this, if you compare like 2023 to 2024, and then even just every month I'm looking like year over year, what does my traffic look like? Because my traffic has gone up and down over the years. But since I've been intentional about this particular shift and change, what does it look like? So every month I look, and my traffic on both websites

is up about 50% to 75%, like the number of page use per month from the exact same time period in the prior year. So that's been fantastic. And again, that's mostly Google traffic. So there's plenty of room for improvement in other areas and diversification and all that. Sure we have lots of other episodes you can listen to if you want to dive into any of those thoughts. But for right now, this is mainly like I said, I'm focusing on my Google

traffic. And it's not that I'm ignoring the other things, but this is my main focus. And then with the shift in that and the ad and the ad networks and all of that, that has really helped my revenue increase. I'm talking about revenue here, just that the income not like related to the expenses, which we talked about the expenses can be fixed at this point, but the revenue increases. So for my main blog, Slow Cooker Gourmet, from 2023 to 2024, I was able to increase my revenue by about 83%. And on Garnish Plate, it sounds better than it is because it had a very small income, but it did almost double. So I think we're going in the right

direction, you have to look at those trends. And so for right now, I'm choosing that it's still worthwhile to invest in seeing potential growth. I think there's plenty of room for growth and it's going in the right direction. So yeah, we're just going to stay on this path right now. And now it's a little bit more time to think about how do I start to diversify a little bit. It's been really incredible to watch. And I know that I want to talk about the emotional side of it a little bit here. Being blog coaches, coaching other people, I think you're like, well, I hire a lot out. So there's some feelings behind that there. What are those feelings? What do you feel about that? Yeah, it was hard for me to agree to do this episode because I felt like I don't want anybody

to think this is like the direction they have to go or that being a blogger is about just business and money and all of that stuff. I think it's about finding the balance. And so we all have to figure out what that means for us. But that means keeping the bigger goal in mind. And so the bigger goal that I had with my blog was A, to serve my readers by giving them healthier slow cooker recipes, you know, that they can make every day and, you know, just improve their lives in that way. I have a lot of

email subscribers that message me and tell me like why they made my recipe, how they liked it, what they did to it, things like that. And so those connections are really important in the way that something even as small as a recipe can help somebody just make their day a little bit easier and a little bit better. So that's number one. So I can maintain that integrity because for me and my own personal feelings, that is I'm deciding on the recipes, I'm testing the recipes, I'm creating the recipes. So I have my own standards for that that I feel will serve my readers and everybody's lines in that way are going to be different. And then the other piece of it is just, okay, but this is a business. And so I have to treat it like that. And so businesses, if they're gonna grow, they have to grow and they have to

have help and things like that. So you have to just decide what areas do I need to let go of what makes the most sense? What do I not want to have on my plate every day or every week? And how can that contribute towards my goals of growth and just be really intentional about it? But it is, it's like almost, oh my gosh, I don't want to tell people that I have help. I don't want people to think I'm a fraud. I don't want people to think this is like AI content or that I'm not interjecting my own, you know, thoughts and feelings and tips

and all those things into the content that I'm creating just because somebody else is like writing out the post for me. Yeah, it's a tricky balance, but I will tell you that once it's working and you have some breathing room and you're not hustling but you're still making money it is a good feeling if it makes you feel like hey I am running a

sustainable business here I am a business owner and this is what I do and it just becomes a little more freeing and it takes some of that I think there's a little bit of guilt and shame with it but it but it helps offset because you're like, oh wait, this is working. And you also have to think about the fact that you're helping in another way somebody else, all these other people who are virtual assistants who have their own motivations for why they want to do what they do. And you're providing work and paying them and they're making an income and they're creating a business. And so it's just a kind of a win-win situation to be honest. I think it also, it reminds us of what we learned when we went to craft and commerce

that very first year. And I can't remember if that would have been before or after like in the middle of this transition for you, but Bonnie Christine, it was before actually Bonnie Christine did a presentation about working in your zone of genius. And that was one of the most impactful talks I've ever heard. And it really did. I think that as bloggers, we start this by sitting down and buying our domain and buying

our theme. And from that point, we're like, we have to do it all. And you have to do everything forever for your blog. And as you're into this, you're 10 years in, you're like, okay, I still wanna grow and scale but I can't keep up. I, this is, you know, affecting my mental health. And what Bonnie Christine shared in that talk

was working in your zone of genius, working on the things that light you up and that you're really good at. And that being where your focus is. And then you allow other people to come in and support you in your business in ways that are their zone of genius. And then together as a team, you're putting out probably better content than you were if you were trying to do it all. And know, and what is that doing? That's serving your reader better. That's, that's creating a more sustainable, engaged community when you're putting out content that is truly helping them because you can actually have the

capacity to put that kind of stuff out. One last thing I want to touch on, because this has been super inspiring to me and something that we have talked more about just here on the podcast, in the membership. And that has been also the focus on your email list, which I think is directly also impacting you. You have put a couple of things into place there as well that I just think are really important to highlight here because you have had such incredible success.

So I'm thinking of two things that you've done. I'm sure you know the ones I'm talking about, but do you just want to share that? Cause I think that that's something that maybe somebody's listening to this is like, I don't have the capacity to hire anybody yet, but I think part of increasing your traffic, which can then increase your revenue, increase your impact, increase your reach is growing your email list. And so maybe somebody could put these two things into place. And I'm talking about the Grow plugin, and I am talking about Hubbub and

what you've done there. So we just share those two tips that you've implemented, those two things that you've implemented that have directly increased your email subscribers. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think this is a super important area and one that I've been really excited about and I can't believe I didn't really mention it throughout this, but to back up just a smidge, the one thing that you'll wanna have in place is at least a bit of a welcome series

and we have lots of podcasts where we've talked about how to get started there, but that's one thing I did with the help of my business manager is we got a really good welcome series in place with a really intentional path for the people to take once they come onto the email list. So they get really valuable information, best recipes, things like that. And then once that's in place, that's when I decided, okay, now I'm going to implement some tools to help me grow this more.

Because I think as most bloggers if you already have your website up and running you know there's sign-up forms on your website and you can get people to sign up for email list but can you like super increase that number because the more people that are on your list more people that are gonna click through I mean just at the very basic level you're gonna get more traffic to your website and then at a more advanced level if you have products and services you that's who you're going to get more traffic to your website. And then at a more advanced level, if you have products and services, that's who you're going to mainly sell to. So growing that list is incredibly important. And so some new tools have come out over the last couple of years that I've

tested and implemented and I've seen super great success with. And the first one is the Grow plugin by Mediavine and this plugin has lots of functionalities but one of those things is a spotlight subscribe form and this is like my favorite subscribe form that I have seen over the years there's been pop-up forms and all different kinds of things but this spotlight subscribe form is fantastic because when anybody's scrolling your site it will pop up momentarily as you've scrolled a certain percentage of the way down. It will essentially become a pop-up, but you can still see the content behind it grayed out and this becomes the focus.

The spotlight is on this form and then you're going to put your whatever wording it's going to take on there, whether you're offering them something or telling them what they're going to put your whatever wording it's going to take on there, whether you're offering them something or telling them what they're going to get by signing up. And it just gives them that momentary pause. Oh yeah, this would be great. I've already seen some of their content and I'm in. So I've had really, really good success with that. And then Hubbub has also come out with a tool where you can have a form and it's also a certain percentage of the way down and you have different options for where you place it. And then you can say, send me this post.

So for recipe bloggers, anybody who has anything like detailed instructions, things like that. This has been incredible because, you know, if somebody doesn't use Pinterest or they, you know, they don't want to like bookmark something. A really easy thing for them to do is I just say, hey, do you want to save this recipe? I'll email it to you. Just pop your email address in here and I'm sending it right to you. And it does all the work. I don't have to do anything once I set it up. And I have had so many people sign up for this. They didn't need just know you just told me something the other day. It was like 500 people. I think it was something crazy. Yeah, I implemented it towards the end of November 2024.

And by like early January of 2025, I've had 7 to 800 people sign up. That's on that just that specific form, I believe. And so, yeah, people really like it. Now, people will unsubscribe at a slightly higher rate than they do through some of the other things, but I still have a lot of those people and they are going, now they're going through my welcome series. So they sign up, they get the recipe. A lot of people reply and go, hey, I made this. I liked it or here's what I did or whatever. They're like, thanks for the recipe. People feel like it's personal. It's personalized.

And so that has had great success. Those people are now going through my welcome series and getting all the new recipes. And then we've got some various like sign up incentives in place that people are that we're testing out and some that people like and some that aren't getting as much response. So yeah, there's there's just so many different things you can do with your email list, but focusing on that growth and then having something in place as the purpose for it to serve those people. Yeah, it's a it's a great way to also just increase that traffic to your website. Yeah, I wanted to be sure you mentioned that because that yeah, that has been really fun

just to talk about as it's grown, you know, just to hear how those different things are moving. The Grow plugin is free and I want to mention that that is also what you need. So if you're kind of like a beginner to new blogger, that's also you would need that to apply to Journey. We have had people on the pod. We've had Heather Toulouse from Mediavine come on and talk about Journey. And Journey is like your beginner ad network that, that Mediavine offers that we really do recommend to anybody to go ahead and download that grow plugin. That way you can apply to Journey.

That's a great way to just earn a little bit of passive income within Ad Network. So I'll be sure to put that link in the show notes and you can apply before you think you might even be eligible. And they just keep your application and then you can, you know, obviously keep working. But I just, that's been something that we have had a lot of success. We just had two people in the roadmap just this week get accepted with Journey. And so it is so exciting to celebrate with, I don't know, we have several in the roadmap now who are on Journey, which is such an exciting place for them to be in. We've watched them work so hard on their blogs and now they're getting to the point that

they can be on an ad network through Mediavine at that journey level. So super, super exciting. But that spotlight subscribe piece of that being a really important piece of that too to also help grow email lists. And then Hubbub is the other plugin and resource that Jennifer just shared and that is $49 a year. And that particular piece allows you to like have people essentially share your content. So when you go to a blog post and you'll see, usually we say like Facebook,

email, Pinterest is what we tell our students to put on there. And that allows people to just easily share your content. That's a great social sharing tool for you to put on there. That one is $49 a year. That's the pro version. And then the version that Jennifer was talking about is the hubbub pro plus, and that one is 129 a year. So like Jennifer has mentioned multiple times in this episode, know what you're spending. We never recommend spending money that you don't have or doesn't have a direct purpose. So just keep that in mind as you navigate some of these decisions if you want to put anything into place. But

that's just some information on the hubbub as well. So thanks for being open today and sharing. Yeah, it was fun. It's been fun to watch this the last year and a half or so and honestly be really inspired by you knowing that you can still grow a blog like exponentially 10 years in just by implementing some new things and that it's okay to find fulfillment in your life and time for the things other than your job or your blog that mean a lot to you. And I know that people may want to connect with you personally, not just through Spark.

And so I would love for you to just tell them where they can, one, find your blogs, but also how they can maybe email you directly if they want to talk about your specific journey. Yeah so my two websites are slowcookergourmet.net and garnishedplate.com. So one of them obviously has slow cooker recipes, the other one has like simple healthy family recipes, and then I'm on Instagram at both of those slowcookergourmet and at garnishedplate. And then if you would ever want to reach out to me via email, you can do so. I would just send it to jennifer at slowcookergourmet.net.

Awesome. OK, I hope you learned something today. And you can always email us too. If you want to tell us something that you learned or that was really impactful about this, we would love to hear. So you can always email us as well. But thanks for tuning

in today. And I hope that Jennifer's story inspired you to really look at your blog and what you're sharing with people as a business and how you can make a greater impact. So we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about building your blog, visit theult blog podcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you next

time.