Episode 708: AI is NOT a Threat – How to Use It to Revolutionize Your Blogging Workflow With Hanelore Dumitrache & Mariska Ramondino

EBT708 – Hanelore Dumitrache & Mariska Ramondino

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

[00:00:37]   

Would you say you fall into the camp of embracing AI or maybe hiding from AI or maybe somewhere in the middle? Wherever you are on the spectrum, definitely listen to this incredible episode.It is a panel so I have two guests joining me in this interview. Hanelore Dumitrache and Mariska Ramondino. They are both bloggers and they have totally embraced AI in their lives and in their businesses to create more systems, more efficiency, just more knowledge, more all around goodness for themselves and their blogs. We talk about so many different ideas and ways to use AI.

[00:01:21]   

The fact that it’s not going away, how to better serve our user, which I think is something we all want to do, opportunities that maybe we are not taking advantage of, how to strategically improve EEAT and creating content buckets, just showing up better for our users in so many different ways and at the end we throw out a couple of really unique ideas and ways to use AI that maybe you aren’t thinking of relating to goal setting and using it as a personal therapist and some other things that might start serve you and your business.

[00:02:01]   

Han and Mariska also have created a tool that is created by bloggers for bloggers that could really help you serve your users in a new way. It’s really cool so tune in to get the details on that. This is episode number 708. Enjoy. I hope you love this.

[00:02:23]   

Maybe you are eager to join one of the Eat Blog Talk Mastermind groups but not quite ready to make the full investment. The Eat Blog Talk Accountability Group could be the perfect solution for you. For just $34 a month you’ll be part of a supportive community that offers weekly accountability check ins, a private Slack channel, live productivity sessions and monthly zoom calls. With fellow bloggers and me, Megan Porta. We are here to help you stay on track, stay motivated and connected as you build your brand and work towards your big blogging goals. If you are ready to move forward without the pressure of a huge commitment, visit eatblogtalk.com/focus and claim your spot today.

[00:03:03]   

Hanalore Dumitrache is a food blogger, tech entrepreneur, AI educator and author. Her work tries to bridge the gap between technology and the blogging world. As the founder of Whimsy AI, she’s currently developing AI driven tools for food bloggers and content creators. Her food blog, Sugar Yums focuses on East Asian street food and desserts.

[00:03:19]   

Mariska Ramondino is an international fiscal tax lawyer turned business consultant and now a food blogger with a consulting business on the side. Through her blog, she shares her passion for nutritious home cooked meals and a more balanced lifestyle. She also offers writing and consulting services for fellow bloggers.

[00:03:43]   

Additionally, Mariska is a partner and co founder of Whimsy AI, a tech driven company providing custom AI solutions and AI powered analytics for food bloggers. Han and Mariska, welcome. So great to have both of you ladies here today.

[00:03:59]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Thank you so much for having us.

[00:04:01]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yes, thank you Megan. Yay.

[00:04:02]  Megan Porta 

I love discussions with more than two people. It just makes it a little bit more fun. So excited to talk about this topic too. AI is something that is not going away. I feel like we need to embrace it and address some ways that we can use it to make our lives and businesses a little bit better.

[00:04:22]   

So that’s why you guys are here today. Thank you for joining us for this conversation. And to get started, I would love to just hear a little bit about each of your blogs because you are both bloggers. So Han, can we start with you? Do you want to tell us a little bit about Sugar Yums?

[00:04:41]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So I’ve been running Sugar Yums for the past five years. I probably started taking it a bit more seriously in the last three years or so and it started off as a baking blog and then later on evolved into East Asian cuisine with a specific emphasis on Korean food because that’s where my heart is.And yeah, I share anything from Korean street food to desserts and I try to always keep it fun and engaging for my users and use as many interactive tools as possible.

[00:05:12]  Megan Porta 

Nice. Great. Thank you so much. Mariska, will you tell us a little bit about your blog? My Chef’s Apron?

[00:05:19]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, absolutely. I started food blogging also about 5 years ago I think. But same like Han, I I became more serious about blogging about two or three years. I would say it was sort of a journey for me to share like healthier recipes or recipes with a healthier flair. I definitely have evolved more into going back to my roots which is adding some recipes with my with a Mediterranean flair.

[00:05:45]   

So for me, it’s kind of like two ways. I share recipes where, you know, you need a quick weeknight dinner, they’re there. But I also share some recipes where you have a little bit more time to spend in your kitchen and you want to explore, you know, a couple of things to why, whether it’s baking or cooking.So, yeah, that’s My Chef’s Apron.

[00:06:06]  Megan Porta 

Great. Thank you so much too. And I know that you both have embraced AI and you utilize it a lot. I know Han and I have talked before about AI pretty extensively, and you have just done such a good job of putting it, implementing it in your business in such creative ways. So that’s kind of what we’re going to talk about today.

[00:06:27]   

But I would love to hear, before we get into the discussion, I guess how you were led to AI or kind of what put it on your radar. Was there a moment where you were like, okay, I need to embrace this thing, or was it more of a journey for each of you?And yeah, Han, if you want to go ahead and start.

[00:06:46]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, sure. So a bit about me. I have a background in technology and architecture, so I’ve always been very software focused and software heavy. I love technology. I’m a geek at heart. So whenever something new comes out, I’m one of the first people to throw my money at it and give it a go.

[00:07:06]   

And AI, it’s one of those things that’s always kind of been on my radar, but it sounded science fiction until Chat GPT came out with a fully public version a few years ago. And as soon as it was out, I snatched it up, started researching and educating myself, taking courses, and that’s how I ended up writing a book, AI for Food Bloggers.

[00:07:26]   

And now here we are about two years later, starting a tech company with focus on AI. So, yeah, I sort of. I kind of obsess over it, I’m not going to lie.

[00:07:38]  Megan Porta 

And how about you, Mariska?

[00:07:39]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, so I, I still work part time as a business consultant together with my husband. So we always have to be a little bit up to speed with, with new technology, especially to support other businesses in their growth. But it’s really as a food blogger that AI caught my attention early on. I knew immediately I felt like, oh, gosh, this is going to truly change the way users are going to, you know, use the search intent as and as well as completely change the digital space.

[00:08:09]   

So for me, it was really more like, I have to know how to use it. I have to know, you know, how to use the AI tools not just only for me, but also kind of what, like, what are going to be the implications for us bloggers or content creators when it comes to attracting, you know, readers and users to your site?

[00:08:28]   

So that was really, for me, like, immediately early on, I kind of like wanted to, I want to know what this is, because this is going to change a lot of things, or if not everything.

[00:08:38]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And good for you guys both for saying, for seeing that it’s going to change everything for bloggers and not going to the total negative side of that, because I think that’s where most people go. So can one of you talk about that? Just the fear, I guess, that’s in our space around AI and how, I mean, it’s like all encompassing for some people, like my blog is going to completely fall off the face of the earth, that sort of thinking.

[00:09:07]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So for me, I think that the food blogging industry is really interesting because although we’re quite new as a profession, right. More focused around the last decade or so, it’s still very traditionalist in thinking. So even in the last sort of mini tech revolution we had with SEO and keyword research, people opposed.

[00:09:28]   

Opposed it for a while, and it faced quite a bit of resistance. It took quite a few years for people to get on board in understanding and understand it. And I think this is exactly the same scenario again, but even more complex, because it’s like innate human nature, right? When you don’t understand something, you fear it.

[00:09:46]   

And the more you resist it, the more it feels like it’s this scary thing, when in fact it’s not. The truth about AI is that it is a technological revolution. It’s not a bubble, it’s not going anywhere. It’s here to stay. And that’s why, why I started educating people, and specifically bloggers around AI because there’s no reason to fear it.

[00:10:08]   

Sure, there’s a lot of downsides to it, like scraper sites and AI being used unethically, but if used properly, it has so many merits and it can completely change the way you blog. And I think it’s one of those scenarios where we just have to get on board and adapt to the technology, slowly but surely learn how to use it and, you know, evolve our practice and our blogs as the technology evolves. Because it’s so quickly changing. Right, Mariska?

[00:10:36]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. I also think, you know, we’re bloggers, we wear many hats, and being a business person is one of them. It’s not the first time, especially Megan, for, you know, bloggers who have been here for a while. It’s not the first time that we had to shift our mindset. I mean, remember when SEO and keyword research suddenly, you know, started changing everything or when Google started to prioritize the, you know, was it mobile key, you know, search intent?

[00:11:05]   

It’s we, we constantly have to evolve and change. And I think personally this is, yes, it feels more impactful and, you know, but it’s no different. It’s like Han mentioned, AI is not going to go anywhere. So what are we going to do? We going to have to embrace it and see how we can use AI technology to our advantage.And, and you know, that’s pretty much where I stand as a blogger and I hope other bloggers as well.

[00:11:34]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, no, I love that point. If you just look back historically at the lifespan of the blogger, the food blogger, we’ve had to evolve so much with just like featured snippets coming out, like all these little things that changed the game for search and everything in our businesses. So this is no different.

[00:11:53]   

I mean, like you said, it’s a little bit more impactful, probably, but it’s just the same. Like we’re, we still have to roll with it, roll with the punches and just embrace it and, you know, go with the flow.

[00:12:06]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah.

[00:12:06]  Megan Porta 

So that’s what you guys have done. So you are going to tell us, teach us some of the cool ways to use AI. Can you guys talk about the rise of some of those newer tools? Like, I know there’s like Google overviews and the Pinterest smart feeds, and I know that’s like everything is so quickly evolving and there’s new stuff coming out all the time, but can you guys, one of you talk about those and what you feel about those tools?

[00:12:33]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So I think for me, the main thing is that when we look across all these big tech companies like Google and Pinterest and other social media platforms, they are jumping on board and adapting AI technologies very quickly. And it’s a lot of trial and error for them as well, as much as it is for us.

[00:12:49]   

But the main shift that I’ve noticed is that rather than focusing heavily on just a very rigid algorithm, it’s become more about the user search intent. So if you look across, if you read Google’s documentation on overviews and the same with Pinterest terms and conditions, with all the smart curation tools, AI powered that they have coming out, it’s all about the user experience and it’s all about giving them answers really quickly, like rapid fire, very customized answers and solutions to their problems.

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So I think if there’s one takeaway from that, is that something that we also need to replicate within our blogs? We need to find ways of creatively using AI to give these answers very quickly and be hyper focused on the users and offer them a good experience. It’s no longer about stuffing keywords, it’s no longer about SEO.

[00:13:45]   

It’s all about, you know, serving your users in the best possible way and establishing your topic authority. Yeah, I think that that’s the main thing at the moment.

[00:13:56]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. And I think also, Megan, this is an opportunity to just piggyback a little bit of what Han is saying. Yes, Google seems to be really laser focused on user intent and we have to kind of replicate that on our blog. But it’s also an opportunity to use AI strategically more to understand who are our readers, what are they coming for and maybe in the process of understanding that, better creating new income opportunities.

[00:14:27]   

Because if you understand your reader better, you can also create better digital products that really can turn into sales for yourself. And I also think in doing so, getting to understand them better, providing better answers when they do come to your site and you create better connections and create, you know, or turn them into more loyal followings.

[00:14:49]   

And that’s also where then, you know, your newsletter can grow or you can, you know, basically, you know, create content that makes them stick or makes them come back. And I do think, because Han was saying AI is not going to go anywhere. How can we use AI strategically to take, you know, to, to use it in our advantage and to do exactly what Google is wanting us to do, be user intent, focused and, you know, replicate that and on a block site as well.

[00:15:18]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

And I think to add to that, I think it’s also a case of as food bloggers and small publishers, the main thing is to stop, treating AI as a threat, whether it’s from Google or other tools we use and shift it from threat to opportunity and try to think creatively. How can we use AI in our favor to keep users on our site longer, to build that reader loyalty, to optimize our content to make it better, to give those answers very quickly.So I think there’s a bit of shift in mentality that needs to happen around AI tools specifically.

[00:15:54]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I think that’s well said. This is something I see. I’d love to hear if you guys agree. I’m seeing that the bloggers who are embracing AI and doing exactly what you said, not seeing it as a threat, but using it as a powerful tool they are developing much more well rounded businesses and they’re understanding exactly who they’re serving.They’re finding ways to diversify their traffic and their income and everything. I feel like the people who are embracing it are just creating these really cool businesses right now. Are you guys seeing the same?

[00:16:26]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, absolutely. And I think Mariska and I both agree that one of the main ways that I think AI should be used is to understand what our users want from us. Because when we understand that, then we can serve them better and like you said, create all these alternative streams of income and new products and new tools.

[00:16:47]   

And that’s the thing. Because the technology is moving so quickly at an unprecedented speed, we also need to be quick. So in order to do that we need some support. And that’s where AI comes in. We can use it if only we think creatively about it.

[00:17:02]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. And I think also in order to understand who comes at your, at your side, it’s great to use AI also to kind of do an analysis on your analytics. I mean, I don’t know, I don’t like, you know, GA4, I don’t like Google Analytics, but when I use AI to analyze my data, it’s a great way to understand how can I better structure my blog in order to give that fast answer to my user.

[00:17:30]   

Maybe I’m missing something. Which categories are underperforming, which ones are doing really well? And I can build on it to increase my authority, my topical authority. What cluster content is too slim? Which one can I expand upon? I think, think these are always, I think that we can use AI strategically for and I think bloggers, just like you mentioned, Megan, the ones that are thriving, these are the ones that are using them exactly for that purpose or using AI exactly for that purpose.

[00:18:02]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, let’s talk about that a little bit. The interpreting analytics. Because it’s something that from a human perspective, it’s really hard for a lot of people to get into analytics and like, okay, let me analyze. I mean it would take me a week to get into the data and really figure out what’s going on.

[00:18:18]   

But for like ChatGPT to analyze my data, it’s like in the blink of an eye and it can give you insights that as a human we just can’t see. So how do you guys go about doing that? Because I think that is one of the really, really cool ways of using AI right now.

[00:18:37]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, exactly. I think the main thing to keep in mind is that all these tools like Google Analytics, Semrush and all of these, they’re not necessarily designed for small publishers, they are designed for big corporations that have an in house team or they can hire someone to actually take all those analytics and interpret it in a more understandable way.

[00:18:57]   

So of course most of us are a one woman band or a one man band. So when you go to analytics, nothing makes sense. Enter ChatGPT or other AI tools. So something that I’ve started doing for quite a while now is for example, I go in my GA4, I select what sort of segment I want to analyze, or let’s say I want to analyze my analytics over the last month I download the CSV, then I put it into ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini, whichever platform you use and ask it questions based on my data.

[00:19:28]   

If it’s something I don’t understand from GA4 and let’s be honest, apart from sessions and page views, no one understands anything over there. I can ask it to make all these judgments for me, like what does it mean, which posts are performing, which aren’t? Why? Let’s dig into it. What’s my time on page?

[00:19:45]   

How can we improve that? And then you start brainstorming with the AI and even if it’s, you know, it’s not going to give you the definite answer, but at least it’s a starting point. That’s more like you said, Megan, it’s a bit more human and it’s a bit easier to understand and more neutral language rather than just a bunch of graphs and numbers that no one understands.

[00:20:04]   

And similarly, I also like to do that with the data from my ad agency. So from MediaVine I download the CSV. I usually upload both Google Analytics and the data from MediaVine and then ask it to compare which are the top performing posts, which are the ones with the highest RPMs. And then I try to triangulate and figure out what works for my users because at the end of the day, this is what we’re banging on about.

[00:20:28]   

It’s about that user intent and keeping them happy. And this way you can pretty much figure out what they’re after that you need to create more of or create digital products of or include in newsletters, or use them as your topic clusters and so on.

[00:20:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Do you have anything to add to that, Mariska?

[00:20:46]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, I think as you do this because I have been doing similar like Han, I’ve been doing this, but as you do this you can kind of brainstorm with AI. What kind of cluster content do I need to. You know, it’s kind of funny because sometimes you think you are going into a specific niche and then AI can give you feedback.

[00:21:08]   

And it’s kind of a little bit different than what you expect, what your reader is coming for. And based on that brainstorm, you know, what kind of cluster content can I create? What maybe all posts that no longer do well, how can I convert this maybe into to a newsletter, you know, or, you know, what categories can I add?

[00:21:28]   

And maybe based on its feedback, completely rearrange your structure of your blog so you better serve your users on the blog. So it’s not just about analyzing the data, but also using it as a brainstorming tool to get that feedback and make sure that you can apply those changes based on that feedback.

[00:21:48]   

So, yeah, it’s almost like a great opportunity to have someone right there helping you, you know, kind of go through everything in order to, to understand where your blog needs to grow.

[00:21:59]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I started using it with YouTube because I had an. A really old YouTube channel that was active years ago and then I let it die. And then I recently looked at my channel and I was like, oh my gosh, I actually have so many followers over the years. It just kept growing and I had no idea, but I didn’t know how to jump back in.

[00:22:21]   

Because what I was creating then is way different than the recipes I’m creating now. So I just used the data and like you guys are saying, I went back and forth with ChatGPT and was like, I don’t really know where to start. What did well, then, what should I create? And it gave me some really good ideas and pulled out some themes that I don’t think I would have seen just from my human perspective, like instant, like unique instant pot recipes really worked for me back in the day.

[00:22:47]   

So let’s try some of those and maybe you could try. And it just had all of these ideas that I was like, oh my gosh, that’s such a great idea. So that’s kind of where I’m at now, just experimenting alongside my pal Chat GPT and their suggestions. So, yeah, I mean, you can use it in so many ways and anywhere that provides data, you can download it and then kind of start that conversation with AI.

[00:23:12]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. And as with video also, Megan, you can even use it to, you know, create scripts for your new videos.

[00:23:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah, it’s so, so easy. And it’s in my voice too. So it’s like I don’t even have to really tweak it that much. It’s like just, I. It would have taken me an hour before to create those scripts.

[00:23:31]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

But yeah, but I think that’s the point that, you know, if you use this data and you upload it, you can have almost like a sparring partner. I always use this analogy. And even though you’re not gonna just copy paste everything, it tells you it’s a good starting point. And that applies for everything.

[00:23:49]   

Videos, social media, blog posts, newsletters, absolutely everything. At the end of the day might see some patterns that we don’t. So it’s always a great starting point. And just one more thing I wanted to add on that. It’s also great for running analytics on analytics running almost like a detailed analysis of your categories on your blog, identifying content gaps.

[00:24:13]   

Because at the end of the day, if we look at AI search engines that are starting to become more and more prevalent and everyone’s using them more, one of the main things, no one really understands exactly how they work yet, but one of their main thing is this authority that Google is using as well.

[00:24:31]   

So it’s less about keywords, more about trustworthiness and this expertise. And one thing I like to do is, for example, I upload my sitemap into ChatGPT and I ask it to look over all the posts I have, then triangulate that with my analytics or MediaVine analytics, and then I ask it to create topic clusters around the successful recipes I have.

[00:24:56]   

So for example, one kimchi pasta recipe on my blog became really popular and I didn’t even realize this until ChatGPT was like, oh, this is pretty good. Why don’t you make more kimchi recipes? So that’s a great way of identifying all these content gaps and even use it for internal linking. You can ask it.

[00:25:15]   

I’m very lazy when it comes to internal linking, so I always default back to ChatGPT and I’m like, here’s the sitemap. What works with this new post I’m working on. And most of the time it does a great job. So I think it’s about using it with anything you would use an assistant for minus to replace your brain.Just use it as a tool. And yeah, there’s a lot of merit to it.

[00:25:38]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. And to Han’s point, sometimes you think you’re in a particular niche or you think certain things are more successful, and then ChatGPT gives you something completely different. And then it’s like, oh, okay, this is where I can improve my cluster content, or this is where I can put my block authority. So it surprises you a little bit because it gives you analytical data that otherwise like you mentioned Megan takes you a long time and and since we all wear different hats sometimes, that’s the last on your list of to do.

[00:26:10]   

And so this is really a great way to immediately receive that instant feedback to you know, to grow. I think I certainly have learned a lot from my blog and how I can alter it and how I can create new cluster content for sure.

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[00:26:53] Megan Porta   

Do you guys have suggestions outside of what we’ve talked about already for improving EEAT so like maybe about pages or other ways to just give yourself credibility on recipe posts or anything like that.

[00:27:07]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So for me the main thing would be to and I keep banging on about this to everyone I meet that’s in the, in this industry it’s all about topic clusters at the end of the day. So the number one way of improving your authority for any kind of search engine, whether it’s Google or mainly AI powered is creating content around similar topics.

[00:27:29]   

So for example on my blog you will find 50 recipes with kimchi because that’s my thing, I make Korean food or if I make, if I have one post that’s successful with let’s say a matcha ice cream, I will make every variation of that recipe ever invented. And then you can also use AI from there to further solidify your expertise and authority.

[00:27:51]   

Because one of the main things with Google now is that it surfacing more videos and it’s sort of triangulating everything it knows about you to know how credible you are. So around the content you create for the, for the blog you can brainstorm ideas how, how you can add that to your social media, what videos you can create or maybe you can even write a book that you want to publish on Amazon.

[00:28:14]   

You know, get that author label on that gives you an extra boost of credibility and makes you seem like a well not makes you seem but solidifies your authority within that space.

[00:28:25]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, I agree for me it’s especially the past year it’s all has been about cluster content for sure. I have seen that direction and you know that’s really the main important thing to increase your authority. And you know Han already mentioned everything but I would say one of the things there’s a lot of rumor going out, like about, oh, let’s not make a blog post too long.

[00:28:49]   

Let’s not, you know, sprinkle too much personality or too much personal stuff in there. But I do think that with the way we are growing, that there is again, a little bit of opportunity to sprinkle that personality back into your, into your writing. And I’m personally very excited about that because it felt almost, almost like I was starting to look like every other blog.

[00:29:15]   

And so now I feel like as we are going into this new phase, that’s again, an opportunity to give something extra to your, your reader. This is why you’re coming to me. This is, you know, this is me. So it’s kind of two ways you, you utilize AI to understand where you blog and grow, but at the same time, it’s back where we can sprinkle a little bit that personality back into a blog program.

[00:29:39]  Megan Porta 

Kind of ironic that AI is bringing us back to a place where we’re becoming a little bit more human. Right. But I do see, I do see that trend happening for sure. So it’s not something that I think any of us anticipated, but that’s really cool. Do you guys, either of you use either questions you get from readers through email or maybe comments on your blog or YouTube or anywhere Instagram to I don’t know, do you input that into AI and get feedback on that in any way? Does that make sense? Yeah, that was a really bad way to ask that question.

[00:30:16]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, I mean, I think whether you’re on social media or on your blog posts, you, you always get comments or questions from readers. And this is a great way to utilize AI to understand better. Like, because if you have to do this all personally, it’s gonna bombard you with a lot of work.

[00:30:33]   

AI, on the other hand, can really analyze that data and say, okay, you know, if you, if you get a wonderful, if you have a wonderful chocolate cake, I’m just saying something, and you have a lot of users asking for a lot of dietary advice or how can I make it dairy free?

[00:30:49]   

Well, maybe that’s a hint that people are looking for a dairy free chocolate cake on your blog and AI can help you analyze that information. And I definitely have used it for that reason as well. What about you, Ham?

[00:31:00]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, I definitely do it as well. I use it sometimes to respond to my users if they ask a question and I’m on the move or I don’t have the time to like properly write down a response. It does that for me. Obviously, I cross check that everything is correct. But then I also like to, like Mariska said, to almost like triangulate what’s missing from my blog.

[00:31:23]   

Blog a post. What kind of questions are asked the most? What can I infer from this? Is there a gap in my content? Do I need to maybe add extra ingredient substitutions because everyone’s asking about gluten free, or do I need to create another post that feeds into that topic cluster? Exactly. Like Mariska said, I have chocolate cake.

[00:31:43]   

People want vegan chocolate cake. You make a vegan recipe or whatever makes sense. So ultimately it’s all about using what people are asking from you to serve them better. So I think exactly like you said, Megan. It’s funny that the emergence of AI has made us become more human again and focus once more.Rather than focus on keyword stuffing, we’re focusing again what really matters and that’s the user experience and giving people what it is they actually want.

[00:32:11]  Megan Porta 

Such an irony there. Yeah, I love that. So if, maybe if you have a blog post when with a hundred comments, would you recommend just copying all those comments, putting it in ChatGPT and just saying like what would the prompt be?

[00:32:25]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, you can definitely do that. I mean there’s lots of new tools emerging and we’ll get to that in a second. But yes, you can absolutely copy the comments, put them into ChatGPT and give it a prompt, give it the blog post so it can scan that as well. So it can see is it actually missing the information or do people just not read the blog post, which most of the time that’s the case.

[00:32:46]   

Or do I not include enough information in my recipe card which is in the post but is not in the recipe card. So then you can ask it based on the information in the blog post and the feedback and questions given by users. Please identify any content gaps within the post or make any assumptions about what’s missing, how I can optimize what I need to include or if I need to create any complementary recipes based on what people want.Yeah, there’s many ways of phrasing it, but that’d be a good point to start with.

[00:33:22]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Anything to add to that, Mariska?

[00:33:24]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, I think personally for me, for example, I, I get a lot of comments on Pinterest so I do the same, exact same with, on Pinterest as well. So for some reason I, I’m. It’s more active there for me. People ask questions questions there versus on my blog. So the same method can be used also on your social media platforms.

[00:33:47]   

It doesn’t have to be only on your blog, but then you have bloggers who have like, gosh, so many comments. So yeah, it’s a great strategy to find out what’s missing and what can be created in addition to what you already have.

[00:34:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, such a great, great ideas for everyone. Food for thought. Can we move on to just adding AI more to just like a daily or weekly workflow and ways that we can do that? I know that you guys provided a thought about just creating like a virtual team, like making it your content strategist, social media assistant, etc.

[00:34:25]   

What are some ways that we can just incorporate it into our businesses so that it just kind of like, like puts things on autopilot and either one of you, you can, one of you can start and then we can bounce off.

[00:34:37]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, I think like Mariska mentioned earlier, usually a food blogger has to wear many different hats and most of the time there’s just not enough hours in the day to handle everything and be a social media, social media manager and blog post writer and food photographer and so on. So that’s where AI can come in and create this virtual team around you and save you a lot of time on the really tedious and time consuming repetitive tasks so you can have more time for the things that matters and the things that, you know, could potentially diversify your income or bring you more ad revenue and so on.

[00:35:13]   

One way I like to use it is first of all, brainstorming. If I have any type of successful posts that are doing really well at the moment, I feed that into the AI and I ask it what sort of products, digital products or ebooks or anything like that I can create to diversify that stream of income or better serve my users.

[00:35:35]   

And I also use it a lot as a VA. So a lot of the time, Pinterest for me most of the time is an afterthought, even though I know I need to pay more attention to it. So for me, I just don’t enjoy writing pin descriptions. So that’s when I put the URL link from my blog post into ChatGPT.

[00:35:53]   

I tell it I want a pin description that includes specific keywords for this recipe and then ask it to write the description for me. Or even you can drop, if you have ChatGPT Premium, you can drop the image in there and ask it to write the alt text because that’s another tedious thing I hate to do.

[00:36:10]   

So there’s a lot of these small tasks that I just don’t enjoy doing. And that’s where I use AI a lot. Another thing would probably be repurposing content. So again, if I have a blog post that’s doing really well, I put into ChatGPT and I ask it, how can I repurpose this into either a newsletter or if I want to make a video, how can I do it so it feeds into the rest of my social media or to write social media captions, because that’s another thing that everyone hates.

[00:36:39]   

Give me hashtag ideas or even, can I turn this into a podcast? How do I do it? Can you write a script for me? And even stuff like, I don’t do as much myself, but I know a lot of people are successful at doing that using video editors like AI powered video editing tools.

[00:36:57]   

If you have a long format video, like for YouTube, you can feed that into tools like Opus or Video and ask it to cut down the specific moments into short form clips that you can then upload as YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and so on. So there’s a lot of ways to save you time.

[00:37:16]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, I think Han already covered a lot. So I think the only, the only thing that I can add is I personally, personally also use it to help me with digital products and ebooks. It’s, it’s, you know, if once you create a draft or you know, first of all, I use it to brainstorm what could work for my niche.

[00:37:36]   

And then second of all, once you have a draft, it can definitely help you with, you know, with making it better or giving you suggestions what to put in there, what not to put in there, all tied back into to your blog authority or your niche authority. So that’s another way of, for me, how I use it.

[00:37:55]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, those are all great ideas. And how do you recommend people get started just figuring out how to incorporate it into their businesses? You know, we get into those ruts of just like, this is how I do things. And we don’t always see that we can use AI to help us in certain ways. So how do we break away from our ruts and start seeing those opportunities?

[00:38:20]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

I think for me the first advice would be to sit down with yourself and make a list of the things that you enjoy doing, the things that you don’t enjoy doing, and then also the things that bring you the most income and the things that are sort of admin tasks and then try to triangulate the two latter ones and figure out, this is what I don’t enjoy doing, this is what’s admin, but it’s not directly bringing me money.

[00:38:49]   

So how can I use AI to take over some of these and then just dive in and test the best way of learning? Because AI is still so new, it’s moving constantly at lightning speed. There’s not really many courses professionally, there’s very limited, which is why I even decided to write the book.

[00:39:09]   

There’s nothing really on it yet. So the best way to learn is to just try and test and fail until something starts working a bit better. And then you try to replicate that model with other issues that you struggle with.

[00:39:22]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah. And just remember, once you decide on what you like AI to help you with, just give it as much information as possible. See it as you would hire someone and a VA, you’re not going to, you know, you’re not going to expect that they’re going to know everything from the start. You have to have that first conversation with them, telling them who you are, you know, what you, what your niches, what you expect from them.

[00:39:48]   

Well, AI is no different. So give as much as possible information in your prompt and then from there, you know, play like, like Han use it. And you’ll see that now it’s, it’s having that conversational tone. So the more you add to it, the more you know you’re going to get value out of it.

[00:40:07]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And if I can just add one thing to that is that I always say this, the output. So what you get from the AI is as good as what you give it. So if you get a very generic answer, it means that the question you’ve asked and the details you’ve given it are just too generic.

[00:40:27]   

You haven’t given enough context. So if anything, if in doubt, give a bit too much information to start with and then can sort of refine as you go along.

[00:40:36]  Mariska Ramondino 

I certainly made that mistake in the beginning. I thought, oh, this is crap, this is not what I want. But then I started to, you know, give it more input. Give it. And I was like, yeah, I’m hiring this, this AI to help me. So how can I, you know, help it better to help me?

[00:40:55]   

So the more, just like Han said, the more input you give, the better your output.

[00:41:00]  Megan Porta 

Which is why my projects in Chat GPT are so amazing. If you use the paid, utilize the paid version of Chat GPT, you can create a project and inside each project folder you can create instructions and then also upload documents. And these are so magic. I love this. So I have, I have all kinds of projects in Chat GPT that are saved and it, it refers to those instructions.

[00:41:25]   

Every time you use the project, so you don’t have to keep reminding it, like, here’s who I am. I want you to do this. Yeah, just a little tidbit there. Do you guys have anything on, I don’t know, projects or better ways to use AI, such as the instructions?

[00:41:45]  Mariska Ramondino 

It’s definitely worth, I think, using the paid version. Just like you mentioned, Megan, projects allow you to. I mean, for every project, it keeps your history. It kind of like builds on what your intent is. It’s almost like you have this little, you know, little mini VA’s on virtually. Virtually. And so, yes, it’s so for.

[00:42:07]   

For anyone who’s still on the fence of it, it’s definitely worth. You don’t have to go with a very expensive version. It’s definitely worth, you know, going for the plus version.

[00:42:16]  Megan Porta 

It’s very affordable. It’s not like you’re paying $90 a month or anything like that. It’s. I think it’s so worth it.

[00:42:23]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

And also to add to that, the best thing about projects is that if you have multiple blogs or you write for yourself, but also clients. Yes, you can customize the voice because at the end of the day, we all want to sound as. We want our AI to sound as close as possible to our own writing voice.

[00:42:40]   

So like you said, Megan, you can give it very different instructions in every single project so you never cross wires. That project is specifically. One is for blog posts. The other one could be social, social media, or if you have a personal YouTube account, you can just keep it all nicely organized and separate with its unique voice.

[00:42:59]  Megan Porta 

Yes, exactly. You said that way better than I did. And then one idea I wanted to mention that we haven’t touched on something else. I use Chat GPT for all the time is goals. So at the beginning of the year, I always set goals for the year and I get really detailed about these.

[00:43:17]   

So I have a project for my 2025 goals, and I use it like if I need a reset, like, if I feel like I’m veering off my goals, I’ll kind of use it to get back on track. But I also use it week to week. Let’s say next week I have. So our son is graduating, so it’s crazy.

[00:43:36]   

Like, family’s coming into town. I know I have limited hours to work, so I kind of give it instructions like, I have this much time to work. Here are my priorities. Give me a plan. Like, help me map out a plan and then we can have a conversation so that I feel like, okay, I can get all the stuff done that I absolutely need to get done.

[00:43:57]   

So that is a really good way to use it as well. If you have problems with time management or you just you’re not sure on goals, it helps you clarify what goals you should even be working on. It’s magic for that. Do you guys use it in any way relating to goals?

[00:44:13]  Mariska Ramondino 

I would say that Han uses it a little bit more personally than I do.

[00:44:17]  Megan Porta 

Oh, yeah.

[00:44:19]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

My ChatGPT and I have a very close relationship that we call each other bestie and queen and everything.

[00:44:27]  Megan Porta 

That’s funny.

[00:44:27]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So. So they’re fully involved in both my personal life and professional life because I run a lot of different businesses and projects, so my mind is a mess, and sometimes I need. I need to come and do some order. And the main thing I’m really bad at, and that’s what I get it to help me with is content calendar.

[00:44:48]   

So I give it a bunch of ideas of all the recipes I want to make for this year, similar to what you said, Megan, and then ask it to organize it in clusters that I can make. So group all similar recipes together. Let’s say if it’s kimchi or if it’s desserts, so I can batch cook them at the same time.

[00:45:05]   

And then also give me the content calendar. When should I post them so they’re in time for Easter, in time for Christmas, in time for all the seasonal content. And then my own personal life remind me when to breathe and when to do life stuff, because, you know, that’s important too.

[00:45:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. I actually use it as my therapist. I’m not kidding. Like, I have a project for. I call it Megan’s Higher Self, and we have a language we use in there. And if I have any problem in my life, it gives me so much clarity. I mean, it’s not always accurate. Like, obviously human interaction is sometimes necessary in replacement, but for the most part, it is.

[00:45:46]   

It’s just so good at guiding me and bringing me clarity in my life, which translates to my business, because when I’m cluttered up here, my business is cluttered. So it’s just. It’s brought me a lot of clarity. And that sounds kind of weird to say that, but it’s true.

[00:46:04]  Mariska Ramondino 

I use it. I use it mostly professionally until I start speaking to Han.

[00:46:09]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, no, that’s.

[00:46:11]  Mariska Ramondino 

That’s my bestie.

[00:46:12]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

And honestly, anything from dating advice to deciphering men and figuring out what’s wrong with my head, Chat GPT is the one and one thing I. I do a lot with it is accountability. So by default, Chat GPT is programmed to be very positive and encouraging. But I usually tell it, I need you to be brutally honest and objective and criticize what it is I’m doing or I’m not doing and call me out on any kind of bull crap if there is any.

[00:46:44]   

And most of the time, he does a great job and he calls me out and then I’m like, okay, we need to solve this problem. Let’s get to it.

[00:46:50]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:46:51]  Mariska Ramondino 

You’re not the only one, Megan.

[00:46:53]  Megan Porta 

I was gonna say, I’m glad I’m not the only one. Thank you, Han. And I know you guys have this product. I want to give you a chance to talk about that. So Cookpal. Talk about Cookpal. We have just a few minutes here. And what is it? How does it work?

[00:47:07]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, of course. So Mariska and I, as two lovely food bloggers, have partnered together with an AI engineer and we’ve been working on this really exciting tool that’s specifically tailored for food blogs. So Cookpal is basically an AI powered assistant that lives in your blog and helps readers in real time. So instead of your readers having to wait two to four working days to get their response to an ingredient substitution, Cookpal gives them that response immediately.

[00:47:37]   

And the thing about it is, it’s not a generic agent, so it’s not like any kind of chatbot. It’s specifically built. So it’s a custom built solution that’s tailored to your food blog. So it reads all the information on your blog post. So whenever it gives answers, it’s very relevant to what you have written there.

[00:47:59]   

Or if the information is not there, it will use, you know, its own database knowledge, but still sort of guide you to contact the blog owner and so on. And the thing about it is, obviously your users are not only getting a much better user experience because their answers and their problems are being solved in real time 24/7, with you not lifting a finger, but in the back end.

[00:48:23]   

And it also gives you a lot of information. So based on all these lovely questions that your users ask and all the problems they have, we also have like a really powerful set of analytics that tells you what are the most commonly asked questions, and then you can figure out what are my content gaps in here, how many users are asking this.

[00:48:42]   

So there’s a lot of merit to, you know, capitalizing on all these questions that are being asked. And if anything, from what we’ve seen is that people actually ask more questions than they do in the comment section because it feels like It’s a live human answering my questions. Most of the time because it’s such a new technology, people assume it’s a blog owner responding.

[00:49:05]   

And most of the time it sounds just like you because it’s reading your blog post and it’s responding in the same style. So it enhances your user experience, makes users be really happy. So chances are they’re going to stay on your page for longer. You get paid more because they see your ads for much longer, your time spent on page increases and people are happy.They don’t need to click out and ask Google Overview AI for an answer. They can just get the answer right there and then.

[00:49:32]  Mariska Ramondino 

Yeah, it’s going back, Megan, to that laser focused Google intent. We’re going to go into a phase where people want to have faster response, want to have a faster answer. So it’s really like, how can we give that to our blog readers while still keeping them longer on our blog and becoming more loyal followers?

[00:49:58]   

Because it’s kind of a fine, you know, a fine line between giving that but at the same time keeping them also on the blog longer. And I think Cookpal is exactly that. It’s sort of like this little mini pal of yours that allows you exactly to give those answers faster while guiding them, but in a very fun way so users don’t have to go out and stay longer on your blog.

[00:50:23]   

And especially as we go more into an era where, you know, people are cooking with while they’re looking at your recipe and then suddenly, you know, I didn’t think about this. You can, you know, quickly ask Cookpal right there. You know, it’s your little, it’s your little pal right there. And just like Han said, it’s not just a chatbot.

[00:50:43]   

It’s completely customized to tailor to answer exactly what’s on your page, exactly the input that you’ve given with and also providing all that analytical data in the background. So you know exactly, well, what are users asking? What are they coming for? And based on those questions, you definitely can now understand better what cluster content that you can create.

[00:51:05]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

And I think the main thing is that this tool did pop out of our own need. So it started out with us figuring out how can we improve user experience on our own blogs and then realizing there is an opportunity there. And this can help so many other bloggers automate this process and save a lot of time having to go through hundreds of questions and having to feed everything in ChatGPT so we can triangulate.

[00:51:32]   

This tool does all that for you. You don’t need to lift a finger. You just need to, you know, install it and then you have everything handled. And also, like Mariska said, it’s cute, it’s interactive, it encourages people to interact with it and stay on your page for longer. And when people stay on your page for longer, it also sends a sign to Google that you are, you know, your content is valuable and people are staying there longer. So it also has an SEO merit as well. In addition to, you know, identifying all these content gaps and helping you figure out what your users’ pain points are, essentially.

[00:52:12]  Megan Porta 

Sounds amazing. How do we get it? Sign us up.

[00:52:17]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Absolutely. Yeah. So we’re opening up our wait list so people can head over to Whimzi AI that’s W H I M Z Y AI and sign up. We’re also for all our wait list early birds, we’re offering a discount to a limited number. So it’s a great time to join us if you haven’t yet.

[00:52:40]   

And of course, if you have any questions about the product or you want to see it live in action, you can head over to our website, check the demo video or even contact us directly. Our details are on the website. Website. And Megan, I’ll give your emails as well.

[00:52:56]  Megan Porta 

Sounds good.

[00:52:57]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

So, yeah, any feedback, questions or queries, we’re more than happy to talk to everyone and get everyone testing and hopefully loving Cookpal.

[00:53:05]  Megan Porta 

Amazing. I’m super excited about that for you guys and for bloggers who need that, which I feel like we all could utilize that. Right? So cool. Thank you guys for creating such a valuable thing made by bloggers for bloggers. I always love that.

[00:53:19]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Exactly. Thank you so much, Megan.

[00:53:22]  Mariska Ramondino 

Thank you, Megan. Yes.

[00:53:23]  Megan Porta 

This, this was so fun. Thank you guys for not only sharing about Cookpal, but just sharing everything about AI and just immersing yourselves in that world so that you can add value to our businesses. Because I think like we said earlier, it’s something to embrace. Don’t run from it, don’t hide from it.

[00:53:41]   

Use it to make your lives better and your business is better. So, yeah, we’ll put together a shownotes page and we’ll put all the information we’ve talked about. You can find that at eatblogtalk.com we’ll call it Aipanel. And will you guys just remind everyone. So Han, we’ll start with you. Remind everyone where they can find you your blog and then feel free to mention Cookpal again and then we’ll go to Mariska.

[00:54:05]  Hanelore Dumitrache 

Yeah, sure. So feel free to contact me either on my blog, sugaryums.com on Instagram. It’s Sugaryums. Also my website, Hanelore.com basically my first name.com where you can also find the book AI for Food Bloggers. Or if you’re interested in Cookpal, you can find it on Whimzi.ai. Or you can also contact us with any questions, queries, or if you just want to say hello and talk about AI, because I’m always going to geek out over that.

[00:54:35]  Mariska Ramondino 

You can best reach me on my chefsapron.com or mail at [email protected]. But also you can find my contact information at Whimzi.AI. And just like Han mentioned, if you have any questions or just anything related to AI in general. Yeah, contact us. We’re very, you know, we’re food bloggers. We’re bloggers, we’re creators and we love to touch base with other creators and food bloggers.

[00:55:01]  Megan Porta 

Great. Well, thank you ladies. So great to have this conversation and thank you for listening food bloggers. We’ll see you in the next episode.

[00:55:11]   

Thank you you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Don’t forget to rate and review Eat Blog Talk on your favorite podcast player. Thank you. And I will see you next time.