Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience Archives

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

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on May 19, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

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

by Emily @ FBP on May 5, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

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

by Emily @ FBP on Apr 28, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience, Tech Tips for Food Bloggers

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

by Emily @ FBP on Mar 17, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

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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How Food Dolls Turned Facebook Into Their Top Traffic Source

by Emily @ FBP on Mar 10, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 561 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Alia and Radwa Elkaffas from Food Dolls.

Alia and Radwa, the sisters behind Food Dolls, join us on the podcast to discuss how they built a thriving food business with a Facebook-first strategy.

With over 5 million followers on Facebook, Food Dolls has become a case study in adapting to platforms, navigating algorithm changes, and continuously evolving content formats. In this episode, Alia and Radwa share how they got started, how they divide responsibilities today, and how they think about analytics, monetization, recipe development, and platform-specific strategies in 2026.

Whether you’re just beginning on Facebook or looking to rethink your traffic mix, this episode is filled with actionable insights and tips to get you started on the right foot.

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Infusing Your Culture into Your Brand and Launching a Digital Zine with Krista Linares

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Feb 10, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 557 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Krista Linares of Nutrition Con Sabor.

In this episode, Bjork is sitting down with Krista Linares, a dietitian who made the bold choice to transition back to a full-time job to reclaim her mental bandwidth (and yes, solve the health insurance nightmare). It’s a refreshing look at why stability might actually be the secret ingredient to better creative work.

She didn’t just change her job, though! She completely overhauled how she shows up online. With the nutrition space getting flooded by generic AI content, Krista realized standard blogging wasn’t cutting it anymore. She opens up about her pivot to a “digital zine” — a mix of recipes, hot takes, and cultural deep dives — and why leaning into your specific, un-copyable voice is the only way to make it in today’s digital landscape.

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The Reality of Career Pivots and Building an Authentic Brand with Tanya Harris

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Feb 3, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 556 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Tanya Harris of My Forking Life.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to walk away from a “prestigious” career to chase a creative dream? In this episode, former attorney turned food blogger Tanya Harris gets real about the guilt, identity shifts, and mental hurdles of trading in the courtroom for the kitchen. She opens up about the challenge of redefining success on her own terms and why aligning your work with your personal values is the secret to longevity.

Tanya also touches on the business side of full-time blogging — from the dynamics of working with her spouse to using AI tools to avoid burnout, she shares practical strategies for building a sustainable brand. We think you’ll find this episode really insightful as you think about how you can be your authentic self online and grow your blog.

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Pinterest Strategy for Food Creators in 2026 with Kate Ahl

by Emily @ FBP on Jan 27, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 555 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media.

Pinterest has changed a lot in the last year — and food creators are feeling it. With the rise of AI-generated content (aka “AI slop”), many established bloggers have seen traffic declines, while newer creators are still finding success on the platform.

In this episode, we’re joined by Kate Ahl to break down what’s really happening on Pinterest right now. We talk about how AI has impacted the platform, whether Pinterest still offers a strong ROI for food creators, and what strategies actually work in 2026 — especially if you’re an established creator wondering whether Pinterest is still worth your time.

Kate also shares practical, actionable advice for using Pinterest more intentionally, building trust with users, and showing Pinterest (and your audience) that there’s a real human behind your content.

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Reclaiming Your Audience and Moving Beyond Google with Phoebe Lapine

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Jan 13, 2026 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 553 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Phoebe Lapin from Feed Me Phoebe.

In this episode, Phoebe joins us to talk about her evolution from the early days of blogging to the current landscape, opening up about why the constant SEO headaches finally pushed her to pivot toward Substack. She shares exactly how she’s reclaiming her connection with her readers and why shifting your focus from “content creator” back to “writer” might be the best move for your brand right now.

But this conversation isn’t just about switching platforms; it’s a masterclass in creative longevity. Phoebe gets real about the systems that keep her from burning out, including the game-changing decision to hire an SEO team so she could get back to doing what she loves. We also dive into why picking a niche that genuinely excites you is the only real secret to sticking around for the long haul. Whether you’re looking to shake up your workflow or just need permission to step off the algorithm hamster wheel, this episode is a must-listen.

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Coaching Call: Expanding Your Reach and Republishing Content with The Cafe Sucre Farine

by Ann @ Food Blogger Pro on Dec 30, 2025 in Building Traffic and Growing Your Audience

Welcome to episode 551 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, we’re sharing the replay of a Coaching Call that we released earlier this year with Chris and Scott Scheuer of The Cafe Sucre Farine.

In this Coaching Call, Bjork is joined by Chris and Scott, the husband-and-wife team behind The Cafe Sucre Farine, their daughter Cait, and daughter-in-law Lindsay! On their site (which they started 14 years ago!), they share food that tastes amazing and actually works in real life through easy, elegant recipes that bring people together and help build meaningful connections around the table.

Their goals for their blog include expanding their reach through social media and email marketing, introducing new team members to their audience, republishing and updating their arsenal of almost 2,000 (!!!) recipes, and figuring out how to prioritize their time.

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