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The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

We interview successful food bloggers and industry experts in an effort to surface strategies that can help you more efficiently grow and monetize your site. You'll learn about recipe SEO, food photography, plugins, monetization, traffic, and more. New episodes every Tuesday!

Leaving Your Day Job and Scaling a Food Blog with Pinterest with Sharlene Murrell

Ann @ Food Blogger Pro
by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on May 19, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 571 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sharlene Murrell. 

In this episode, Bjork Ostrom sits down with Sharlene to explore her journey of building a thriving food blog by mastering Pinterest. Sharlene shares how adopting a “ready, fire, aim” mindset and overcoming early struggles with keyword research helped her rapidly scale her traffic and income after leaving her day job.

The conversation also dives into actionable Pinterest strategies, including targeting broad keywords, creating multiple pins per post, and leveraging tools like Canva. They round out the conversation with practical advice on capitalizing on seasonal trends, maintaining consistency, and overcoming imposter syndrome. No matter where you are in your food blogging journey, this episode is packed with inspiration and tactics for creators ready to take action!

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How Jenn Lueke Grew to 1.7 Million Followers with Budget Meal Planning Content

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on May 12, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 570 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jenn Lueke from Jenn Eats Goood.

Jenn Lueke started Jenn Eats Goood in 2018 as a college student — no strategy, no monetization plan, just a hobby Instagram account she loved running. For five years, growth was slow, but she remained consistent. Then in 2023, something clicked. She leaned into meal planning and budget grocery content, and everything changed. Within a year, she went from stalling in the thousands to crossing one million followers.

In this episode, Jenn and Bjork chat about all of it — what finally worked, how she prioritizes data in her content strategy, which platforms she’s focusing on right now, and why she now considers her Substack newsletter her number one priority.

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How to Write Emails Your Readers Actually Want to Open with Liz Wilcox

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on May 5, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 569 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Liz Wilcox.

Early on in Liz’s career as a content creator, she noticed a pattern: the most successful creators all had one thing in common — a thriving email list. So she started hers from day one, and she never looked back.

In the following years, Liz sold her travel blog, went all in on teaching email marketing, built a membership with 4,000 members, and — plot twist — competed on Survivor while her business kept running, generating $1,000 a day in revenue while she was literally on an island with no phone.

In this episode, Liz and Bjork talk about what it actually takes to build an email list that drives real business results, how she transitioned from one-on-one client work to a scalable membership model, and why she believes the biggest thing holding most creators back from email success isn’t strategy — it’s that they’ve stopped sounding like themselves. She also shares the mindset shifts, boundary-setting practices, and growth tactics that have made her business not just profitable, but genuinely sustainable.

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Food Blogging News Roundtable: AI Buttons, Instagram Links, and Google Rewriting Your Titles

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Apr 28, 2026 in ,

Welcome to episode 568 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork is sitting down to chat with Emily Walker from the Food Blogger Pro team!

In this roundtable episode, Bjork and Emily break down the biggest stories impacting food creators so you can stay informed and make smart decisions for your business.

From a new HubSpot marketing report that has some encouraging news for creators who lead with their personality, to a quiet Google experiment that could have big implications for every recipe title you’ve ever carefully crafted — there’s a lot to cover! Bjork and Emily also dig into the AI button debate (should you install one on your site?), what Instagram’s new caption link test means for food bloggers, and how Pinch of Yum approaches testing site changes before rolling them out broadly.

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How to Write a Cookbook Proposal and Land a Book Deal with Sally Ekus

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Apr 21, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 567 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sally Ekus.

Have you ever wondered what it actually takes to get a cookbook deal — and whether your platform is big enough to make it happen? Sally Ekus, a literary agent specializing in the cookbook space, is here to pull back the curtain on the entire process.

In this episode, Sally shares exactly what she looks for when evaluating potential cookbook authors, how to build a proposal that stands out, and what a realistic book deal might look like depending on the size of your audience. Whether you’re dreaming of a cookbook or just starting to explore the idea, this episode will give you a clear and honest roadmap for what the path forward actually looks like.

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What Food Bloggers Need to Know About AI Search and the Fight for Fair Traffic with Adam Gallagher from Inspired Taste

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Apr 14, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 566 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Adam Gallagher from Inspired Taste.

Adam and Joanne Gallagher have been running Inspired Taste since 2009 — long enough to have lived through every major shift in how Google works, from early SEO best practices to AI Overviews. But what’s happening right now feels different, and Adam isn’t staying quiet about it.

In this episode, Adam and Bjork dig into the current state of search from the perspective of a creator who has spent 15+ years playing by Google’s rules — only to watch those rules change in ways that feel fundamentally unfair to creators.

This is also a conversation about what comes next — equal parts anxiety and optimism — and what creators can actually do right now to advocate for a more fair and sustainable version of AI-powered search.

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How to Keep Creating Without Burning Out with Ashlea Carver from All the Healthy Things

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Apr 7, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 565 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Ashlea Carver from All the Healthy Things.

Ashlea Carver has been creating food content for ten years, and in that time she’s built a well-rounded and financially diversified businesses. But longevity in this industry isn’t just about strategy — it’s about learning how to navigate the harder parts of being a creator online.

In this episode, Ashlea and Bjork dig into the mindset shifts that have kept her going — how she handles comparison and how she’s made a deliberate choice to lead with joy in her business decisions to avoid burnout.

They also get into the practical side of her business — why her blog is still her most valuable platform and biggest revenue driver, why she’s prioritizing email, and how she thinks about Instagram in an era where personality-forward content is so important. It’s an honest conversation about building a business that lasts — one that doesn’t burn you out, doesn’t make you dependent on any single platform, and actually feels good to run.

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Reinventing a Food Blog After an 80% Traffic Drop with Carrie Forrest from Clean Eating Kitchen

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Mar 31, 2026 in ,

Welcome to episode 564 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Carrie Forrest from Clean Eating Kitchen.

Carrie Forrest has been blogging since 2009 and has experienced the full range of highs and lows that come with building an online business. When Bjork first interviewed her in 2018, she was already growing Clean Eating Kitchen with simple, healthy recipes and a strong foundation in SEO and keyword research.

Between 2022 and 2024, that strategy paid off in a big way — Carrie grew her site from a few hundred thousand monthly pageviews to nearly one million. But with the rollout of AI Overviews, many of the keyword-driven and how-to posts she relied on were hit hard, leading to an 80% traffic drop almost overnight.

In this episode, Carrie shares how she’s navigating this rebuild season — from leaning into her email list and YouTube to focusing on what AI can’t replicate: human connection, empathy, and transformation. It’s an honest conversation about the shifting landscape for online creators and what reinvention can look like after years of success.

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The Road to 1 Million Pageviews with Rachel Kirk from Laughing Spatula

Emily @ FBP
by Emily @ FBP on Mar 17, 2026 in

Welcome to episode 562 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Rachel Kirk from Laughing Spatula.

Rachel’s mom, Kathi, started Laughing Spatula 20 years ago, and it has now grown into a full-time business for both women. In this interview, Bjork and Rachel talk through the changing search landscape, the challenges of the last few years as food creators, and what is keeping them going.

Rachel is working towards a goal of 1 million monthly pageviews (they’re currently around 300,000 – 500,000 pageviews a month) and Bjork provides his advice on what changes he would recommend to move the needle. If you’re looking to increase your pageviews or revenue this year (hello, who isn’t?) and want to join Rachel in her challenge, don’t miss this episode!

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