Episode 509: What Should You Do If You’ve Outgrown Your Blog’s Niche? with Amy Whiteford

EBT509 – Amy Whiteford

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. 

The topic in this episode is something that I think a lot of us can relate to, but that we don’t give a lot of thought to. Many of us started our blogs because we wanted to be stay at home moms or dads, and we maybe wanted financial or schedule freedom. And when we started our blogs, we may have been in a different season of life than we are now. So our niche and the content that we created for our blogs may have changed over time. Amy Whiteford from Healthy Little Foodies sheds light on this topic here. Inside this interview, she talks about staying motivated as you outgrow your blog’s niche and talks about her own experience with starting 10 years ago, making food for her toddlers and babies, and how she still makes food for that same niche on her blog, even though her kids are no longer babies and toddlers. We talk through some possible ways to navigate this. Amy talks a lot about her mindset and how she had to change her mindset and really embrace her expertise and the authority that she had spent so much time creating on her blog. We also give attention to spending less time on those things that you don’t love about blogging. Maybe it’s social media or video, and allowing yourself to really focus on the things that you do love about blogging. No matter where you’re at in your journey with blogging, you will probably be able to relate to a lot of the things that we talk about in this episode. So I really hope that you enjoy it. It is episode number 509, Sponsored by RankIQ.

Sponsor 02:07

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Megan Porta 02:35

Amy Whiteford is a food enthusiast, originally from Scotland, now residing in Sydney, Australia and has been the driving force behind the blog Healthy Little Foodies since 2012. Amy is a mom of two little foodies, Finley and Rory, and has a background in food science, education and childhood nutrition. Amy’s on a mission to simplify mealtime for parents of babies and young children by providing healthy and delicious recipes and feeding tips. Hello, Amy from across the world, how are you today?

Amy Whiteford 03:04

I’m good, thanks Megan. How are you?

Megan Porta 03:06

I’m good. How is Australia early in the morning?

Amy Whiteford 03:08

It’s sunny. It’s summer here. So good. It’s nice and sunny.

Megan Porta 03:11

I can live through you because we’ve had a string of kind of dreary days, so I am envious of your sunshine. But yeah, great to have you on the podcast. We’re going to talk about staying motivated when you might feel like you’re outgrowing your blog or your blog’s niche. But before we get into that topic, do you have a fun fact to share with us, Amy?

Amy Whiteford 03:31

I’m not sure if it’s fun, but it’s a good fact. I have lived and worked in five different countries.

Megan Porta 03:37

Oh, okay. Tell us the countries.

Amy Whiteford 03:39

So obviously starting in Scotland, you might be able to tell from my accent. I’ve worked in many cities in Scotland and then when I was at University, I worked in the USA and then I worked in London, England. And then once I finished university, I worked in Canada, went back to the USA and I’m now in Australia.

Megan Porta 03:59

Oh my gosh. Wow. That’s amazing. I don’t think many of us can say that. So quite the diverse little collection of places to live. I love it. Okay, let’s talk about your blog for a little bit because I think that’ll give us a really nice backdrop for our conversation today. So do you want to tell us a little bit about Healthy Little Foodies?

Amy Whiteford 04:17

Yeah. I started the blog 10 years now. I just had my 10 year anniversary.

Megan Porta 04:22

Oh, congrats.

Amy Whiteford 04:23

So I started back in December, 2013, and my eldest son was two at the time, and I was really immersed in the world of baby and toddler food, and he was a really good eater. And I’d be at all these kids, you know, toddler groups and the parents would be like, how do you get them to eat this? How do you get them to eat that? And so that’s when I started my blog. Just really just showcasing recipes that I made him and him eating it because they, my friends thought if their kids could see my son eating it, their children would eat it. So it was really more of a diary and, and it was called Feeding Finn at the time. And then as he got older, as the blog became more successful, I changed it to Healthy Little Foodies because I had more than one foodie to feed at that point. So yeah. So it’s a baby and toddler food blog.

Megan Porta 05:21

So do you have all of your baby and toddler food recipes and content still?

Amy Whiteford 05:26

Yes. Yeah, it’s all baby and toddler food. There is some family food recipes, but it’s mainly focused baby toddler food.

Megan Porta 05:35

Okay. So do you still make baby and toddler food even though your boys have, or your kids have outgrown that age?

Amy Whiteford 05:42

Yes, I do. Which has been recently has been a struggle for me because I see all these blogs that, you know, I’m drawn towards ones with nice cheese pools and, very indulgent foods. And I, and I want to have a, a go at doing all that. But with my niche, I have to stick to the low sugar, low salt recipes that are suitable for baby led weaning and toddlers.

Megan Porta 06:09

Who do you give your food to? I’m assuming it’s food mostly meant for babies, or is it food that anyone can eat?

Amy Whiteford 06:17

Yeah, I mean they’re, they’re developed for babies for, you know, they’re low in salt. They try and think about the iron content and nutritional needs of, of babies and toddlers, but they’re suitable for all ages. I eat it, my children eat it, my husband eats it. We do have to add some salt, but we still, we, you know, nothing goes to waste.

Megan Porta 06:40

So I can see other bloggers may be making a different choice, right? Like they don’t really want to continue with food that they’re not necessarily eating or loving. Can you relate to that? Was there a point where you maybe could have gone down a different road?

Amy Whiteford 06:56

Oh, definitely. Yeah. In fact, just maybe a year, two years ago I considered selling the blog because I just felt like I’d outgrown my niche and I did try to go down family friendly meals, but just ranking for them just seemed to be a challenge. And the audience, my blog’s audience really wants the finger foods, the baby foods, the toddler recipes. And every time I put, I still do put family meals on, but they never rank as well. They never take the give me the traffic like the baby-focused recipes do.

Megan Porta 07:33

So what if somebody had a niche that wasn’t necessarily based on like what their family was eating, but more a diet and then maybe a diet changed, like their, what they were consuming changed and they literally didn’t eat the old diet anymore. They would have to sell or change a niche or maybe even start a second blog. Right? So you’re, I feel like you’re really fortunate that this is still food that you guys can still consume.

Amy Whiteford 07:58

Yeah, exactly. At least we don’t have any dietary needs that we’re having to deal with. We can eat everything. Which does make it easier.

Megan Porta 08:06

Do you anticipate continuing this for a while? Or can you see eventually outgrowing this niche?

Amy Whiteford 08:11

I already thought I had outgrown it, but I just changed my mindset and looked at everything that I liked about the blog and enjoy about the job. And I’ve just kept going. I mean, I, when I thought about selling it, I was going to start a new one, but then I thought, I’ve got 10 years experience in this niche. My domain authority’s high. And the thought of having to start at the very beginning was quite daunting. And I just realized that blogging is so much more than the recipes you’re creating. It’s continuous learning, it’s photography, it’s video, it’s video editing, it’s SEO, and all these aspects of food blogging would be exactly the same. So it’s just a small part that I’ve outgrown. The actual niche is just a small part of blogging. So, although sometimes I wish I was doing things that related more to my family now, I do understand that, you know, good 80% of the job would be the same regardless of what my niche would be. So that’s when I changed that mindset. That’s made me more focused and happy to continue with Healthy Little Foodies.

Megan Porta 09:29

Are there, so I’m looking to your site now. It’s really beautiful by the way. Are there other recipes on your site that don’t fall into your niche? Do you do anything outside of that that is just kind of fun for you that you like to include in there?

Amy Whiteford 09:42

I mean, there are family friendly recipes which do actually fall in niche because well, children can eat what the whole family are eating. So, but I don’t have anything in, you know, very indulgent in it because just with the title as well, Healthy Little Foodies, I’ve, I’ve just tried to keep it to healthier foods that would be suitable. Right. For not every recipe on the site suitable for babies, but would be, would be for toddlers and children. And I’ve, and I do have some lunchbox stuff that’s more geared to school-age kids as well.

Megan Porta 10:19

Oh, that’s so helpful. So you cover a range, it’s not just . babies and toddlers, but this could extend to early elementary years. And even like I have super picky children and they’re teenagers, so this could even be extended to them. I think just trying to add some healthy vibes into the food.

Amy Whiteford 10:37

Yeah. There’s like past the sauces with seven different vegetable blended into them and things like that. That’s good for eaters as well.

Megan Porta 10:45

Oh my gosh. Yeah. That’s great. So if somebody feels like they have outgrown their blog or their niche in some way, do you have recommendations for them?

Amy Whiteford 10:54

Yeah, I do. I just think you need to change your mindset and think about what you know on that subject. Think about how many years experience you, you’ve had on that subject and that you are, you’ve become an expert. Because I think with my own blog I start to think, oh, I’m no longer and I, you know, I’m no longer can no longer speak on this subject. I don’t have babies anymore. I don’t have toddlers anymore. I’m not a qualified dietician. What am I even doing? Doing a blog on healthy children’s food. But then I just changed my mindset and I was like, well, I do have two very adventurous eaters. I have a degree in food science, I have a certificate in childhood nutrition. I also have a postgraduate in education, so I understand how children learn and I can, I can put that focus in. And I understand that not like every child’s the same. So one child may eat something on the first try, other children may take 20 tries before they accept it. I’ve had experience working in the food industry developing recipes for major UK supermarkets and I’ve lived in different countries and had babies and toddlers in those countries. So I understand the products that are available to them, the ingredients, the measurements. And so, although I don’t actually have children anymore and was feeling like I was being an imposter in the niche, I, I then just switched my focus and thought what experience do I have? And I also have 10 years talking about this topic and developing food for this topic. So I think just changing your mindset and thinking, although I may not be in that phase just now, I had many years experience doing that phase.

Megan Porta 12:42

Embracing your expertise, you were an expert. The expertise doesn’t go away just because your children have gotten older. Right. You still have all of that experience.

Amy Whiteford 12:51

Yeah. And also I think if you’re finding it challenging, you should spend more time on the things that you do enjoy and, and less time on the things that you hate. So I struggle with social media and more so now because I see all the influencers, you know, they’re younger than me and they’ve got little babies, cute little babies eating their meals and they can show them the meals that they started with and how much they ate. And that’s really interesting for new parents. And I don’t, I can’t do any of that because it’s the world I’ve moved well beyond that. But, you know, I never liked social media before, really. It’s, it’s something I find exceptionally hard. So I think I switched it to, okay, I, I can’t do this. I can’t have showcase a baby eating it and the cute little hands and everything now because I’ve moved beyond it. But if I was to switch niche, I wouldn’t enjoy the social media anyway. So I just tried to switch my focus away from social media and mainly on SEO and onto the blog, the more things that I enjoy. So I think you have to think, would I still hate that side of this blog if I was to change my niche? And if the answer’s yes, then you don’t need to change your niche.

Megan Porta 14:07

Oh, that is really powerful. Yeah. Because you tend to think like a fresh start equals renewed passion for everything, but that’s not necessarily the case if you don’t like Instagram, for example. You probably aren’t going to like Instagram no matter your niche. And then I assume that you by doing that, by focusing less on things that you don’t like, you’re able to focus more on what you do like. Which for you is blogging or?

Amy Whiteford 14:36

Yeah, I enjoy the actual blog itself. I like being stuck behind the computer where no one sees me or hears me. So I like the blog and I like the photography, I like the finished edited videos, but maybe don’t like recording the videos at the time, but I like seeing it finished. So I like all the, the backend side of the blog as well. But there’s so much more about the blog that I love. I love the freedom, the time freedom that gives me so I can be present for all my kids’ activities rather than a traditional job. So if the kids have something on at the school, I know I can attend and work that evening instead, et cetera. I can move country, city with my husband’s job without the worry of myself, I’m to find a new job. So there’s lots about blogging as a whole that’s, you know, so flexible and great to, so I, I look at that focuses as well. And the finance, yeah, the financial stability now of a, a blog that’s established, the thought of selling this established blog that you know is earning a certain amount, guaranteed, well, not guaranteed maybe in the long time, but guaranteed in the short term a certain amount of money to, to sell that and then start at the beginning again where you’ve got no guarantee of any finances coming in for a year or two is quite daunting as well. So yeah, that’s another reason to stay where I’m at.

Sponsor 16:06

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Megan Porta 17:21

Yeah, keeping an eye on your why. Like if you want financial freedom, schedule freedom, like you mentioned, and if it’s filling that gap for you, then it’s probably good to keep going with it, right? But if it’s not, maybe it’s good to reconsider another route. So what if somebody is like, okay, I’m just done and they have a 10-year-old blog and maybe they’re looking for, I don’t know, just ways to stay inspired to keep going. Do you have any recommendations for that?

Amy Whiteford 17:50

So if you think you want to carry on with your niche because you’ve looked at the, the alternatives and you know, if you were to sell you, you’d have to look at a new job or a new blog. And if that’s not what something you want to go down and you’ve looked at all the positives and you’re like, yeah, I definitely want to keep my niche, but I’m feeling stale, then you could always start a second, a second blog.

Megan Porta 18:18

Oh, that’s a good idea 

Amy Whiteford 18:19

And this is what I’m not doing it. My son has recently asked if he could start a blog. So, I just thought, well this would be a good project for both me and him to do because both my boys are very sporty and they’re drawn towards their dad in that respect. So him coming to me saying, I, I would be quite interested in starting a blog. It’s a good thing to keep that bond with him, especially as he grows older. He’s about to start high school, so it’d be nice to, to have something absolutely. That we could do together. He wants to do very sweet recipes like, and he said he’d quite like to do this, you know, Scottish recipes. So I think this would be, this is a great thing for me because it means I can explore a new niche and my son can learn new skills and he can learn and have a deeper understanding of culinary traditions, Scottish culinary traditions and he can connect with his grandparents for family recipes. And it’s, you know, it could be a shared passion that we do together. So I’m hoping that gives me that, you know, because the reason I wanted to move out of my niche was to do something that’s more related to me now. So this is quite good because this allows me to do sweeter recipes. Allows me to do more indulgent recipes and also connect with my son. At me. And there’s no pressure to make it financially, you know, because I’ve still got the finances from my own blog.

Megan Porta 19:49

So. Right. No pressure.

Amy Whiteford 19:50

Yeah. So just starting a second blog and with, without that pressure of it having to succeed. And then if it did take off, that’s maybe when you could then sell the blog that you feel you’ve outgrown.

Megan Porta 20:03

I love that. I love that it’s something for you and him to bond over and maybe it’ll foster a great love for cooking and certain types of cooking and food for him. So many benefits.

Amy Whiteford 20:15

It does have, and I don’t know if that is because of being immersed in it right from when he was, you know, two because he never went to daycare. He was always sitting on the kitchen bench. Yeah. Helping me with all the developments. So he has always been growing up and he always comes home from school wondering what there is to try, what recipes we’ve created. He’s, they’re both very still interested in the baby recipe. So they come home from school and eat it all. So he has, he is very enthusiastic about cooking and eating.

Megan Porta 20:49

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. I think this is an issue that more people encounter than we might think because a lot of us did this to stay home with our kids and then once we’re here we’re like, oh, I might as well make food for them and then that kind of naturally leads into our blogs and then eventually they get older if we stick with it long enough. So I do think there’ll be a lot of, all the mommy bloggers right. That because when you’re in that stage of life, that’s all you can think about. I know when you have a baby, it’s, that’s your world at that time. So, and you’re also, well I know maternity rules are different in the states, you maybe don’t have so much time off, but you know, in Scotland and Australia we have a lot longer time off. So that’s when people start maybe thinking, oh, I might do, I might start a blog. Because I’m only thinking about baby stuff at the moment and I have the time. So I, I think there’d be quite a lot of people that have started baby toddler that have either given up or they’ve, they’ve moved on. But having to stay in that niche because it’s become successful.

Megan Porta 21:58

So you did rebrand though a little bit, right? Because your initial blog was called Remind me what that initial, initial blog was called?

Amy Whiteford 22:05

Feeding Finn. Okay. So my eldest is Finn. Finley Finn, and it was very just much pictures of him eating and now I don’t have that.

Megan Porta 22:13

Yeah. At what point did you rebrand to Healthy Little Foodies?

Amy Whiteford 22:17

So, I’m trying to remember. It was when I just moved to Australia, which was 2016, I think. So I had three years, maybe four years, three or four years or maybe 2017. I think I had about three or four years Feeding Finn. And then I just was like, I really want to get serious with this. And did a rebrand that wasn’t so personal because I just felt feeding Finn, it was a bit diary like. Just all about me and I wanted it to be more of.

Megan Porta 22:48

More helpful.

Amy Whiteford 22:49

Yeah.

Megan Porta 22:50

Yeah. Putting the, either like your kid’s name in the URL or I know there’s a blogger in my mastermind currently. She started her blog when her boys were really little too. So her URL has mama in the type in the description. It’s like, it’s my mama. And, and now it’s like she, I’m obviously, she’s still a mom, but her kids are older and it kind of implies that she’s a mom of young kids. You know what I mean? Yeah. So your branding can reflect that you are a certain thing that you kind of grow out of. So that’s hard too because rebranding is no joke. Like you have to get a new URL, you’ve got to get new logo and all of that stuff. So that can be really overwhelming too.

Amy Whiteford 23:35

Yeah. And the longer you’ve been running it with the, the other brand, the harder it is I think because you’ve got all your back links and you get nervous changing. Right. Everything basic, all goes.

Megan Porta 23:48

Don’t want to upset Google.

Amy Whiteford 23:50

And I did drop initially. Just for maybe a month or two. Okay. But I did hire someone to do all the changeover to make sure it was right. And then it just took off again after that. So it didn’t affect me hugely just a month or two.

Megan Porta 24:06

Yeah, I’ve heard that’s pretty typical. Do you have any other advice for people who are in the same boat as you? Any mindset advice or more logistical advice?

Amy Whiteford 24:15

So just writing your positives, writing your negatives and really thinking, is this a negative because of the niche or is this a negative? Because I don’t like that aspect of blogging. And then yeah, just, it’s just a change of mindset. Thinking about what you love. About it and just thinking that, well, it’s so much more than the niche blogging, isn’t it? There’s so much that you do regardless of the niche that’s exactly the same.

Megan Porta 24:41

Right? Yeah. This is great to consider. A lot of us fall into that. I almost went down the road of doing more baby and kid focused recipes and doing exactly what you did. And I mean, it would’ve served me fine, I’m sure, but now it’s like, oh, I think the niche has kind of grown with me really well. So it’s going to be a different story for everyone. But thank you for sharing your perspective. I really love this topic and yeah, it was just great to have you here. Is there anything we’ve forgotten that we want to mention before we start saying goodbye?

Amy Whiteford 25:13

Just when you said that I think niche sites are easier probably to grow, especially now that food blogging is so saturated. So even if you were to have to move out of one niche, you’d have to probably nowadays go down another niche which you could outgrow again or you could get bored of again. So you’ve got to also think about that the days of being able to start a blog that is, you know, encompasses all now is, is really difficult because Google wants to say that you’re an authority in something. So even if you are going think, oh, I’ve outgrown this one, you can’t just go and do a broad blog now you have to just go back into another niche. So that’s another thing. Maybe you just, you know that you’re always going to have to niche down now, so stick with what you know maybe and think of all the expertise that you’ve gained in doing that and that Google sees.

Megan Porta 26:13

And that you have to share too, right? And how you can benefit your users and how Google will have favor on you as well.

Amy Whiteford 26:20

Yes.

Megan Porta 26:20

Yes. Well, thanks again Amy, for sharing all of this. It was a pleasure to chat with you and connect. Do you have either a favorite quote, words of inspiration to leave us with?

Amy Whiteford 26:30

I do. I’m quite at risk adverse person, so it’s strange that these quotes have really stayed with me. And the first one is, I don’t know who said it and it’s, it was a friend of mine when I was, was in high school, used to always say it. I’d rather regret the things that I have done than regret the things I haven’t done. And that has stayed with me my whole life. And I think that’s why I’ve moved to different countries. I’ve taken a risk in jobs, I’ve moved jobs when I needed to. And it’s just the way I live my life now, even though I’m quite a risk adverse person. And then I remember when I was working in Canada, I had, it was like a building thing with my job and the lady said, there you to do one thing every day that scares you. That was a quote. Do one thing every day that scares you. And I really, really have taken that quote on as well because you can get used to a very cozy, comfortable life and yeah, you could be happy with it, but there’s so much more. And if you just take a little risk each day and do something that is out of your comfort zone, your world can become bigger and even better, even though you’re comfortable and happy with it as it is now. There’s just so much more. So those are two that have stuck with me for, you know, years. And one other is every morning you have two choices. You can continue to sleep with your dreams or you can wake up and chase them. And I think that three quotes just is how I live my life. You know, I have these dreams and I’ve gone for them. And yeah, it hasn’t been easy. It’s been quite scary, but it’s given me the life that I’ve always dreamed of.

Megan Porta 28:14

Those are so great. I love all of them and how they kind of play together too. Such a great way to end and a great conversation. Thank you Amy. We’ll put together a show notes page for you. You can find those at eatblogtalk.com/healthylittlefoodies. Tell everyone again where they can find you, Amy.

Amy Whiteford 28:31

You can find me at healthylittlefoodies.com and all my social medias are HealthyLittleFoodies apart from Pinterest, which is just HLittleFoodies.

Megan Porta 28:41

Awesome. Everyone go check out Amy’s content. And thanks again, Amy, for being here. And thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro 28:52

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.