Welcome to episode 457 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Parker Thornburg from Foodness Gracious.
457: How to Acquire and Grow a Food Blog with Parker Thornburg
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!
456: Monetizing, Diversifying, and Leaning Into Pinterest and Email with Chelsea Clarke
Welcome to episode 456 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Chelsea Clarke from Her Paper Route.
We are thrilled to welcome back Chelsea Clarke to the podcast this week. Chelsea is an expert at all things monetizing, buying, selling, and optimizing sites and she shares lots of that expertise in this interview.
Bjork and Chelsea chat about the current state of the industry for online creators, and how the slew of recent Google algorithm updates have impacted the industry. Chelsea also shares how she has reacted to these changes with her sites (hint: it includes Pinterest, video, and email marketing).
Chelsea also explains more about how buying and selling websites works, and how you can make your own site more valuable for yourself (and for potential investors)!
455: Creating Your Own Products and Adding a Revenue Stream with Barbara Hobart
Welcome to episode 455 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Barbara Hobart.
Barbara Hobart is a television writer and producer who also happens to work with food bloggers and other entrepreneurs to identify, create, and manufacture custom products.
In this interview, Bjork and Barbara chat about why food creators might consider selling their own products to generate new revenue streams and increase brand awareness. They walk through all of Barbara’s recommendations for how to develop, manufacture, and distribute a product, and what kinds of products tend to perform well for food creators.
We always love to chat about diversifying income streams on the podcast, and this is a great episode to get you thinking about how you might do that! Don’t miss it.
454: Catherine Zhang on Being a Netflix Star and the Power of Social Media
Welcome to episode 454 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Catherine Zhang.
Catherine Zhang has quite a resume: she was on (and won) Netflix’s Zumbo’s Just Desserts season 2, runs two food blogs, has over 1 million followers between Instagram and TikTok, and owns Kurepu Crepes — a dessert shop with locations in Perth and Sydney. She also happens to have a Bachelor of Science majoring in Food and Nutrition Science, and spent two years working in pastry kitchens.
Safe to say, she has had tremendous success as a creator over the last few years. In this podcast interview, Bjork and Catherine chat about her professional journey, how she balances her businesses, and the power of social media.
It is a really fun and inspiring interview — Catherine is so intentional about everything she does for her businesses and will definitely leave you with a lot to think about.
453: Balancing a Full-time Job and Your Food Blog with Vincent DelGiudice
Welcome to episode 453 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Vincent DelGiudice from Always From Scratch.
We first met Vinny when he joined Bjork for a Coaching Call in 2023. He is on the podcast this week to chat more about his career journey — including how he made the leap from working as a full-time speech-language pathologist to where he is now.
Vinny started his blog, Always From Scratch, in 2019 and has had lots of success in that short amount of time — including qualifying for Mediavine and reaching over 100,000 followers on Instagram. While he contemplated taking his site full-time last year, he has since decided to hold off and shares more about his decision-making process in this interview.
Vinny and Bjork chat about balancing a full-time job with your blog, how you can use your blog as a “business card” for other job opportunities, and how to create a work-life that fills your cup.
452: YouTube, Meal Plans, and Business Growth with Nisha Vora
Welcome to episode 452 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Nisha Vora from Rainbow Plant Life.
Nisha Vora (who just so happens to be the YouTube Expert on Food Blogger Pro!) is back on the podcast this week to chat about all things YouTube, business growth, and meal plans!
Bjork and Nisha kick off the conversation with a deep dive into YouTube — YouTube shorts, longer-form videos, monetization on the platform, and more.
Nisha also recently launched Meal Plans by Rainbow Plant Life and shares more about the process of developing and marketing the meal plans, and what the future of Rainbow Plant Life might look like!
451: Staying True to Yourself as a Content Creator with Katie Higgins from Chocolate Covered Katie
Welcome to episode 451 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Katie Higgins from Chocolate Covered Katie.
Katie first started creating content online in 2006 and has been making a living from her food blog, Chocolate Covered Katie for a long time. In her first podcast interview (!!!) Katie shares openly about navigating the online content creation space for almost 20 years and how she has stayed true to herself throughout that time.
Katie has been very intentional about running her business in a way that prioritizes doing the things she loves — creating recipes, SEO, photography, FOOD, and letting go of the things she doesn’t — video, sponsored content, Instagram.
She has a really refreshing perspective on what success looks like and how she navigates imposter syndrome in the industry. We’ve been longtime followers of Katie and enjoyed getting a peek behind-the-scenes of her brand!
450: Planning for Extended Time Away from Your Food Blog with Jessica Hylton Leckie
Welcome to episode 450 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Jessica Hylton Leckie from Jessica in the Kitchen.
Jessica first started her blog 10 years ago when she was in school pursuing a law degree. Since that time, she has continued to scale her business and now receives 1–2 million pageviews each month.
While pregnant with her first child, Jessica knew that she wanted to take some time away from her business to focus on being a mom. In the process, she developed a strategy for planning extended time away from your food blog and social media accounts, without losing any of the momentum she had worked so hard to build.
Whether you’re hoping to take a maternity/paternity leave, need time away to support a family member or loved one, or just need a break from being an entrepreneur, this is an incredibly valuable episode all about the importance of planning ahead, delegating, and learning to let go.
449: Monetizing Through Bread, Courses, and a Food Blog with Matthew Duffy
Welcome to episode 449 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Matthew Duffy.
We first got to know Matthew when he joined Bjork for a 2-hour-long marathon Coaching Call as a Food Blogger Pro member. He started his career in food as a professional chef in Michelin-starred restaurants before becoming a private chef to a slew of celebrities. Since that time, Matthew has become an online food creator with his courses, social media accounts, and food blog (while also baking lots of bread and panettone on the side).
Since his Coaching Call last fall, Matthew has kept the FBP team updated on his progress with his site (spoiler alert: there has been a lot of progress!). One major win? His site traffic has grown from 6,000 monthly pageviews to over 45,000 in just 5 months!
In this interview, Matthew shares more about his professional background, why he decided to start sharing content on social media and his blog, more about his different streams of income, and lots more.
448: How Faith Christensen Grew Her TikTok and Instagram Platforms to 2.5 Million Followers
Welcome to episode 448 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Faith Christensen from Faith’s Fresh.
Faith first started posting food content to Instagram and TikTok when she was in 2019 when she learned she was intolerant to gluten and dairy. Since that time, she has taken her career as a food creator full-time and grown her social media accounts to over 2.5 million followers (!!!).
In this interview, Bjork and Faith talk about Faith’s strategy for creating video content, how she uses trending audio, her tips for navigating the algorithms, and why she decided to work with a management agency to support her with brand partnerships.
If you’re looking to up your game on TikTok or Instagram this year, you won’t want to skip this interview!