Hey friends!

You guessed it - NEW COURSE TODAY!

The course we are releasing today is all about using Instagram to build your visual brand as a food blogger. The Instagram for Food Bloggers course has 21 lessons total including a bonus lesson that’s strictly Q&A based off the questions you asked in the survey prior to the launch of this course.

One thing that’s really fun about this course is the fact that we were able to create a setup where you will be able to see my phone on the screen as I do different things in the Instagram app. So as I go through each concept, tip, or trick in the lessons, I will be demonstrating it all live on my iPhone.

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.

Lindsay and I have started to shoot videos for Pinch of Yum's YouTube channel. It has been a fun challenge for us. We love the fact that we're starting from scratch and building the channel from the ground up. You know that point in growing your blog when you do a little dance every time you get a new subscriber? We're at that point with our YouTube channel.

We've had a handful of people email (and post to the FBP forum) asking us what equipment we're using to shoot these videos. Here's the list of what we're using and some basic examples of how we use it.

Confession: I’m a complete rookie when it comes to YouTube.

Our subscriber base just recently climbed out of single digits (40!) and we’ve released a total of 10 videos.

So, naturally, I’m writing a post giving advice on using YouTube.

I know it seems a wee bit cray-zee but I’m a huge believer in the idea of expert enough. As a matter of fact, I’ll go so far as to say that sometimes not being the ultimate expert can actually make you a better teacher (see the above link for reasons why).

So if this isn’t The Expert’s Guide to YouTube, then what it is? I think a better way to describe this post would be A Look into my Notebook: 5 Things I Learned in my First Month Using YouTube.

Over the last few weeks I’ve piled up an impressive stack of (digital) notes on building a YouTube channel. I’ve tinkered, explored, researched, Googled, YouTubed (ironic, I know), and even Skyped with the channel manager for a top 20 YouTube channel.

After awhile I started to notice some common themes with the advice that people were giving me. That advice, along with some other “ah ha” moments, are included in this list of the five things I learned in my first month using YouTube.

Here they are: