Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience Articles

How to get more traffic to your blog, lessons from The Matrix

Bjork
by Bjork on Apr 23, 2020 in
a picture of a computer with a picture of Neo from the Matrix and an upwards trending graph with the title of this article, 'How to get more traffic to your blog, lessons from The Matrix'

The Matrix holds a special place in my heart. It was the first rated R movie that I saw. I can remember it like it was yesterday…

The year was 1999. My brother was nice enough to let me go with him to his friend’s house, where a few “older kids” were hanging out for the afternoon. I was 13 at the time and my brother and his friends were 16. They were trying to decide what to do when one of the guys said, “Hey! I rented The Matrix last night, we should watch it!” He proceeded to pull the movie (a VHS rental from Movie Gallery, of course) out of his backpack.

My brother, being the good brother that he is, let the guys know that I’m not allowed to watch rated R movies. There was a collective groan from the guys and I immediately felt like a middle schooler kid in a group of high schoolers (which I was).

In an effort to gain some dignity I said; “Wait! Maybe Mom and Dad will let me watch it. I’ll call and ask them.”

Phone: Ring ring ring…

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The Ideal Search Result for Food Bloggers (and How to Get it for Your Blog)

Alexa @ FBP
by Alexa @ FBP on Apr 16, 2020 in ,

Have you ever Googled one of your recipes and been disappointed with how the result is displayed in Google (if it even displays at all)? This happens for one of two reasons:

  1. Google has decided to show your post that way.
  2. You haven’t set things up correctly on your blog.

You can’t do much about #1. Even if your blog is perfectly formatted Google might still decide that they’re going to leave out certain information from a search result. Google does as Google pleases. There’s not much you can do about it except make sure that you’re not falling victim to #2.

There is something that you can do about #2, as there are multiple components that factor into the ideal, rich search result for food bloggers. None of them are complicated, but they do require some time to set them up properly.

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Choosing a WordPress Recipe Plugin

Alexa @ FBP
by Alexa @ FBP on Apr 9, 2020 in
A screenshot of the Tasty Recipes editor with a blue overlay that says, 'Choosing a WordPress Recipe Plugin'

One of the most important plugins for a food blogger is a recipe plugin. Recipes are at the core of most food blogs, so as a food blogger, you’ll want to make sure you’re publishing your recipes in a way that’s helpful for your readers and for search engines to understand.

And a good recipe plugin will do both!

We’re going to cover a few different things in this article to help you choose the best recipe plugin for your blog:

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WordPress 5.0 Gutenberg Release – What It Means for Bloggers

Alexa @ FBP
by Alexa @ FBP on Dec 4, 2018 in , ,

Hope you’re having a rockin’ Tuesday.

We wanted to send you a quick email because we got some news from WordPress HQ today: WordPress 5.0 (aka. the Gutenberg release) will be live this Thursday, December 6.

Because most of our members are using WordPress and because this is a sizable update, we wanted to send you a couple FAQs and some quick resources that will help you out with this transition:

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A Sweet Pea Chef: A Food Blogger Pro Case Study

Raquel
by Raquel on Nov 12, 2015 in ,

We recently received an email from long-time FBP members Dustin and Lacey Baier with a PDF blog post draft that Dustin wanted to share with us. In the email, he said,

"I was starting to write a post for A Sweet Pea Chef that was based off Food Blogger Pro – kind of a success story post. In part, because of the recent success we have seen and, in part, to be a good affiliate piece for Food Blogger Pro. Then I realized that, if I was in your shoes, I might want to use something like this as a case study on Food Blogger Pro or Pinch Of Yum."

Welp, we were definitely interested. We love to think that we help people here at Food Blogger Pro, but there’s nothing like hearing from bloggers who have found success through hard work, determination, and a tiny bit of help from FBP.

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4 Ways Twitter Can Help You Grow Your Blog

Raquel
by Raquel on Jun 9, 2015 in ,

We all love social media. We love it! I know there are some of you out there who are saying "Ugh, how can she say that?? I hate social media!" But deep down, under all that prickly disdain, you know that social media is one of the keys to blog success. And isn’t it?

While we all love social media, we all probably have a fondness for one, maybe two, platforms that really pull our heartstrings. For me, it’s Facebook. I can surf Facebook for minutes to hours every single day given half a chance.

But Twitter? Nah. Not me. Twitter was "after my time" – meaning only that Facebook was the thing right after MySpace took a dive, and it stole my heart. Twitter was late to the party, and who wants to truncate all the wonderful, descriptive things that you have to say? Let’s just say Twitter is not my cup of tea, er, coffee.

That is, Twitter was not my cup of coffee until I learned about Twitter. No, it’s not just a way for teenagers to send mass messages about their daily activities. Used properly, Twitter can be a really powerful tool. Let’s explore how some Twitter nuances can really help you grow your blog, all in 140 characters or less.

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Overcoming the Resistance

Bjork
by Bjork on Jan 3, 2015 in

I’m convinced that the #1 issue that people face with building a blog (or any creative endeavor, really) is The Resistance.

It’s not a lack of time, it’s not a lack of knowledge, and it’s not a lack of skill.

It’s The Resistance.

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Here’s how Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, describes it:

Resistance comes as a voice in our heads. The voice tells us not to work today and it gives us a reason. Our daughter’s dance recital starts at seven; this headache is killing us; the boss wants us to organize the Penske file.

Sound familiar? I know it does for me. I’m fighting that voice right now.

“You’re in Chicago, Bjork. You can write the post when you get back home…”

“It’s New Year’s Eve…”

“You’re heading out in an hour. It’s not worth it to start now. You’ll have a good chunk of time on the car ride home, you can do it then…”

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