Episode 645: How to Succeed as a New Blogger in 2025 (Part 2) with Ashley Freeman & Gwen Wolken

EBT645 – Ashley Freeman & Gwen Wolken

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. 

Supercut  00:37

You are going to want to download our bonus supercut that gives you all the information you need to grow your Instagram account. Go to eatblogtalk.com/Instagrowth to download today. 

Megan Porta  00:52

This episode is part two of our new blogger series, and what is working for new food bloggers in the episode, Ashley Freeman from the Little Black Skillet, and Gwen Wolkin from A Sweet Thyme join me in an incredible conversation. It seems like each conversation carries a theme or a couple of themes, and the themes for this episode is definitely consistency and networking. And we talked a lot about getting traffic from both Google and Pinterest, and there are a few other little gems in there other ways to get traffic that don’t involve Google and Pinterest all around it was a robust, valuable conversation that I think you’re going to find much value in even if you’re not a new food blogger. So it’s not just new food bloggers who should dive into this episode. It is episode number 645. I hope you love it. 

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Megan Porta  02:31

Ashley and Gwen, thank you, ladies, so much for joining me. I’m super excited to talk more about newer bloggers finding successes in unique ways. So yesterday, I recorded part one. This is part two, and my hope for this series is to inspire newer bloggers to persevere in this crazy current world of blogging, because it can feel really daunting and heavy and frustrating honestly at times, but these success stories will hopefully encourage you and just keep you moving. So to start, I’m just going to have each of you do a really quick introduction to yourself and to your blog. So Gwen, why don’t you go ahead. 

Gwen Wolken  03:14

Sure? My name is Gwen Wolken, and I have a blog called A Sweet Thyme which focuses on a Mediterranean niche, and I tend to focus down a little bit into the gluten free area, because that’s where we are in our own home. I have been, I started the blog in 2019 but basically put it aside during the pandemic, and picked it back up about a year, a year ago, and basically had to revamp and restart over and it’s been going really well since then. I’ve also spent like, 10 years in the chocolate industry, and I’ve done some other things, but I really just wanted to share my love of food with my family and friends, and that’s how it all started, because everybody kept asking for the recipe. So it was really fun.

Megan Porta  04:01

And just to point out that sweet, so it’s A Sweet Thyme, and thyme is t, h, y, m, e, if you want to go check it out, it’s not the T, i, m, e, but I like the plan words, okay, well, thank you for filling us in on that. Ashley. Do you want to tell us a little bit about you and your blog?

Ashley Freeman  04:17

Yeah. So I’m Ashley Freeman, and my blog is called the Little Black Skillet. My niche is more broad. I do focus on Southern recipes and recipes inspired by travel, just because that’s kind of what I love. But the premise behind the name of my blog is the my cast iron skillet. It’s kind of the workhorse of my kitchen, and just like a little black dress is kind of like your go to reliable outfit for any occasion. That’s kind of how my little black skillet is in my kitchen. So these recipes are trying to make them approachable. I want them to be like your trusted go to recipes that you can count on again and again. So yeah, so my background, I actually. Actually started in like the cookbook publishing world in a test kitchen, developing recipes. I was food stylist, then I moved over to the editorial side, and was a cookbook editor and author for a bunch of years. And I don’t know, like I’ve been a freelancer golly 11 years now, and did all those things that I did when I was, you know, in the corporate world, but I was getting kind of tired of the grind and, you know, other people being responsible for everything I did. And I was, I was still using my creativity, but not for myself. And so at the beginning of 2023 I took a leap of faith, and was like, I want to do something for myself. And that’s when I started my blog. So I already had a cookbook. I’ve already I’ve got great clients that are for food styling and recipe development, but this is kind of for me, so that’s kind of how I started out. 

Megan Porta  05:57

Okay, that I love backwards stories like that. They’re just so cool. For some reason, do you feel like having things like a cookbook and clients already did a good job of setting you up for success with your blog, because you had some knowledge first?

Gwen Wolken  06:13

I think so. I mean, the whole the blogging world is a lot. It’s totally different than what I thought it would be, and it’s really funny when I tell people that have a food blog, they’re like, Oh, how great. Like, you know, how do you make money and all this stuff, and it’s…

Megan Porta  06:28

All those questions, right? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. 

Ashley Freeman  06:31

Just a cute little hobby that I have, but yeah, like, I think I learned all the skills that you need to have a successful blog. You know, the recipe development in the food photography, all that, it really did help. 

Megan Porta  06:45

Yeah, I can see where that would totally set you up for success. Because as a new blogger who doesn’t have that background, you kind of just have to dive into the deep end and learn the hard way, which can make it feel so much harder. So your blog is about two years not quite two years old.

Gwen Wolken  07:03

Yeah. So September 2023, okay, when I launched it, oh, okay, so I’m just over a year old.

Megan Porta  07:10

Okay, just over a year so tell us how you found success? Are you finding success assessed with traffic or in other ways, or all of the above?

Ashley Freeman  07:20

Yes, so let’s see. In 2023 I went to my first Tastemaker conference, and that was before I had a blog. I was kind of putting my feelers out to see if this was something that I wanted to do. And I took, like, all the notes, and met all the people, and, you know, kind of soaked up as much information as I could. And then after I launched, I guess, I guess it was a couple of months before the next Tastemaker conference, which was in March. And at that point, when I went to the conference, I had 1200 sessions a month, which, you know, that’s okay. But then I really, I started taking all these little nuggets of information that I learned from the conference, from people I met, from podcast. I mean, I was like living and breathing, and every every second of every day was devoted to this blog. And I really started to see an uptick after the conference. And so by July, I applied and then approved for Journey by MediaVine, and then last month, I was accepted to regular MediaVine, and congratulations on that 65,000 sessions. 

Megan Porta  08:32

That’s amazing. Congratulations. That’s a huge, huge milestone in every blogger’s journey. When you get past that 50k mark, I feel like so yeah, I hope you celebrated, because you deserve that. So tell us how you got your traffic. What did you learn from the conference that helped the most?

Gwen Wolken  08:50

Well, first, like, my big thing that I try to tell people is, like, networking is so huge, especially as a as a blogger, like, I mean, I work from home, and my dog is my co worker and so, like, it’s so nice to be around other people at the conference. But then also, I have a few little groups that I’m involved with, like some masterminds, and it’s just so great, like, other people that love the same thing that you do and like, can cheer you on. Like, I think that’s huge. So like, we’re exchanging information with each other, of like, what’s working, and I think that’s helped a bunch. The other thing that really, I think moved the needle for me was I love RankIQ, and I’ve heard that, and I’ve heard that from you and from other people too. It’s like, I really think that that helped me rank quickly for posts.

Megan Porta  09:43

So is most of your traffic coming from Google or okay, great, that’s actually super impressive in this time. RankIQ was a game changer for me, so my blog was really old, and my traffic had just been kind of dying out over time. So when I started using RankIQ, it turned everything around, and it has just gone up since, and I’ve not stopped using it. Do you use it as your primary keyword research tool? Or do you use the optimizer, or both? How do you use it?

Gwen Wolken  10:18

I use both. In some instances, I use KeySearch as well, and then I’ll plug it into RankIQ After I find something that. Because, I mean, sometimes there’s a recipe that I’ll just randomly make for dinner, and my husband’s like, oh, you should put this in the blog. Well, it’s kind of hard, you know, you don’t want to spin your wheels unnecessarily, you know, put all this work and then no one’s gonna see it. But for the most part, I get my ideas from the keyword database on RankIQ.

Megan Porta  10:49

Okay, and then you said that your your niche is Southern food and some travel. What are some of your top pieces of content that rank well in Google? So

Ashley Freeman  11:02

One that really took off was sweet potato cornbread, and it uses Jiffy corn mix. So it’s, I think my audience really responds to like those, I mean, because I’m a busy mom, and a lot of times I’m just like, What the heck am I gonna make? And I think that really resonates with my audience. You know, what can you make that’s delicious and homemade ish? So that one’s done really well. And then Sloppy Joe recipe is doing great, which was kind of a surprise to me. And that’s like something I just like, you know, I have a nine year old son, and, you know, that’s just a weeknight recipe, but everyone loved it. And then deviled eggs. It’s another big one.

Megan Porta  11:42

Is there a spin on your deviled eggs? Or what makes them unique?

Ashley Freeman  11:46

They’re Christmas deviled eggs. So they have they’re basically deviled eggs, but with roasted red peppers and parsley. 

Megan Porta  11:53

Oh, I see it. I’m on, I’m on that post, and they’re so cute, festive. Well, that’s great. I always love hearing what people’s top posts are for some reason, and what Google sees you as an expert in. That’s interesting, right? So do you feel like that is a good reflection of you as a blogger? Those top three posts?

Ashley Freeman  12:10

Yeah, it’s kind of funny. Like, I think my my niche was, I wasn’t super niched when I started, and it’s kind of, I’m kind of seeing what people are you responding to the most? And that’s helped me kind of hone in on certain things that I know will resonate with them, because the end of the day, I mean, I’m trying to pay attention to my audience. I mean, that’s I want them to keep coming back. 

Megan Porta  12:34

Yeah. So when you say that you’re paying attention to what people are wanting from you, is that through are you just looking at your analytics, or are you doing that through email? Or how are you doing that?

Ashley Freeman  12:44

Yeah, it’s mostly analytics, because that’s kind of I don’t have a huge Instagram. I mean, I have some followers, but I don’t get a lot of my traffic from Instagram. It’s mainly Pinterest and Analytics, Google Analytics. But Google, but also MSN is a big one. 

Megan Porta  13:03

Okay, are you in the MSN network?

Ashley Freeman  13:05

I’m not, but I share my recipes in roundups. Gotcha, okay, which is huge. That’s another biggie. Okay,

Megan Porta  13:15

I’ve heard other bloggers say that as well, and those are on Facebook, so you can search those. And I think anyone can be a part of that, right? You can you just submit your URL, your link, exactly.

Ashley Freeman  13:27

Yeah. I mean, you have to have a food blog, but, right? Yeah, why? What else would you be giving recipes, right?

Megan Porta  13:34

Absolutely, no reason. No, that’s a good little gem right there to go search those up and just contribute. So from what I’m hearing, you are finding your magic through low competition keywords that you’re researching through RankIQ, and you’re just really tuning in to what people are devouring from you, and then, based on that, do you create more of the same theme, or how are you determining what else you make?

Ashley Freeman  14:00

So I’m kind of, I have this big spreadsheet of all my different categories, and I’m trying to make it I want to be a one stop shop, so I’m trying to fill in any holes. And also, like, if there’s a key, there’s a keyword phrase or a keyword, if it’s something that I feel authentic about, like it’s something that I wouldn’t make, or something that I could offer a trick or a unique spin on, and that’s the ones I pick, because I really feel like people can tell if you’re being authentic or not. So 

Megan Porta  14:34

Oh my gosh, so true and so true. It’s so easy to dismiss that and be like, Oh, nobody’s gonna know. I’m just gonna make this because it has a really good, you know, numbers and key search or whatever. But people know when you’re being authentic, they can feel that. Yeah, so there’s, I think there’s value in not always looking at the numbers and doing what you’re doing, Ashley, and just tuning into, do I feel aligned with this? Is this something. Can authentically share, is it going to resonate? Well, no matter what the numbers say, right? Yeah, okay, love it. And then you mentioned, Pinterest is also a traffic driver. It is strategy, 

Ashley Freeman  14:41

I’m still figuring it out. 

Megan Porta  15:12

Okay, what are you doing on there right now? 

Ashley Freeman  15:14

So my big challenge is I try to do everything at once, and I’m a one woman show, and that’s just impossible. And so for a while, I was just doing two pins a day, and then my traffic tanked, and I was like, Oh, what is going on? So I was like, well, maybe I’ll do three pins a day. Well, that was it worked for a little bit, but then it was just too much for me, so I just didn’t do it. Well, that’s not a good strategy. So now I’m back to two, and I figure, you know, at least there’s some it’s starting to go back up again. I feel like they have changed their algorithm a couple times, and it’s so hard to figure out, like, you know what they want, but I’m still getting good traffic, so, okay, I’m gonna keep plugging along with the two 

Megan Porta  16:05

And being consistent. That’s such a huge… 

Ashley Freeman  16:06

Exactly. I think that’s the most important thing. Is to be like, be consistent. 

Megan Porta  16:10

100% no matter what you’re doing, just be consistent with it. Okay, anything else we should know about traffic or other projects that you found success with in the past year. 

Ashley Freeman  16:21

I mean, I’m just, I’ll just go back to the networking thing, like, so the blog is, like, I love it, like, I wish I could do this exclusively, but I’m not to that point yet. So I have to, you know, pay my bills and work on other things. So I’m a food stylist and recipe developer for a bunch of different brands, and the way that I made those connections was through networking, so going to conferences, or, I don’t know, being involved in things locally, like or reaching out to someone you worked with in the past. I mean, I just think it’s so important, like people will remember, you know, something all worked on together, or whatever, and they’ll reach out to you.

Megan Porta  17:00

So relationships are huge, so important, so important. I love that you have that is priority for yourself and your business, and just doing that alone is going to allow you to find success so much more quickly, I think so. Kudos to you. Nice work. Okay, we’ll come back to Ashley. Gwen, I want to get to you so you told us just a quick synopsis of your blog. Now tell us how you have found success on your platforms?

Gwen Wolken  17:30

Well, I started the blog actually in 2019 and had someone who had been working for me in a prior marketing business kind of do the website and and do the hosting. And she she her thought process was it would never be monetized, so it didn’t really matter what the theme was and what the host was. And at the beginning, I didn’t really care. And then the pandemic hit, and I had one of my kids basically graduate college on my couch and go through lots of stuff. So I had to basically stop, stop the blog. And I brought the blog back mid summer, fall of 2023 and I knew I needed to get a new host, a new theme. And I went through and I did all of that and and just like Ashley, I went to Tastemaker conference in March of this past year and met some amazing women, and we’ve also formed a mastermind we oh, great joke with ourselves, because we’re all slightly older bloggers, and we’re all newish to the blogging arena, and we love, you know, sharing, you know, with each other and and cheering each other on. I mean, one of us just made Journey this past week, and we’re celebrating her, so it’s a lot of fun. I also knew that what I was doing probably wasn’t right after coming off a Tastemaker conference, because, like Ashley, my views, my sessions were very low. I think it was around the 1000 mark as well, and I didn’t really know kind of what to do. I was just trying to take in all the little nuggets and everything that I needed to do. But I did reach out to Casey Markey and get some help there. I started taking some courses, I started doing a lot of things, and I ended up making Journey in end of August. And yeah, no, and I’m getting close to MediaVine, it’ll happen. So it’s just exciting. It’s just been growing. And I just have had to soak in lots of things, you know, courses and, and get advice and, and basically spend some money in order to make money. It’s been happening.

Ashley Freeman  19:33

Gotta spend money to make money. 

Gwen Wolken  19:35

Gotta to spend money to make money. It’s something I’ve learned throughout my life. So, but it does work, and it’s nice at least, to be getting some income coming off my two biggest traffic drivers seem to be Pinterest and Google. I’ve leaned into Pinterest. I’ve leaned into Flipboard as well. 

Gwen Wolken  19:52

Me too. 

Ashley Freeman  19:53

Yeah, and they’ve been doing really, really, really well. And, you know, I’m getting backlinks. I’m doing all sorts of things. Things, and it’s just driving, it’s just driving traffic. So it’s been great. It’s been great. You know, with unlike you know, Ashley, well, you’re doing two pins a day. I’m doing five a day. I don’t know how you do it. So basically, I’m using Tailwind. It makes my life so much easier. And I just am going back depending on the seasonality, like right now I’m like recreating pins for Valentine’s Day, right? And I’m just putting them out there. It’s just on my to do list, one of my first three things I do when I sit down at my desk every day. So yeah, I just make sure they’re there, and Tailwind schedules them, and I and I just don’t think about it anymore, but it’s driving a ton of traffic. So Pinterest has gone crazy this year for me, it’s been great 

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Megan Porta  21:45

So would you say you get more Pinterest traffic than you get Google traffic?

Gwen Wolken  21:50

I would say it’s about equal. Okay, right now. And it’s interesting, because my top posts are very different on Pinterest versus Google, which I find very interesting.

Megan Porta  21:59

Yeah, isn’t that interesting? How that shapes out? I know I don’t get it. So five pins a day, and are you doing all unique pins? So every pin is different, and that’s for both of you. How do you create your pins?

Gwen Wolken  22:12

Each pin is the five a day. They’re all the same URL, and all I’m doing is creating new text, new photos and new descriptions for you know that URL per day. 

Megan Porta  22:25

Gotcha, that’s interesting. And how about you, Ashley, how do you create your pins?

Ashley Freeman  22:29

So I have four templates in Canva, but it’s funny, so I’ll do only one. Like, I won’t share the same your URL. Like, I put a two week in between each one, which that’s interesting, that you’d use the same

Gwen Wolken  22:45

But each depending on how I’m scheduling them out, I do three to four days in between each pin, okay? And if it’s the same pin that’s going to several boards, I do a one week interval between them. Got it?

Megan Porta  22:59

Okay. Yeah. I love hearing everybody’s unique. Pinterest started strategy, and then Do either of you notice certain types of pins that do better for your account? Like, maybe you have the title or no title, or maybe it’s just teaser text, anything like that.

Gwen Wolken  23:14

All of my pins have titles on them. I don’t have any that don’t I find that the cleaner looking pins do better. So, you know, cleaner fonts. Usually, you know, there’s a color I use my theme colors behind all my text. You know, it just as long as the pin is clean looking where someone who’s looking at it, I guess this is a marketing piece in me, someone can look at that pin and easily identify what it is and read it. Those are the ones that do the best. 

Ashley Freeman  23:39

Mine’s more seasonal, so it’s, honestly, it’s a crap shoot for me. 

Megan Porta  23:44

Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to find themes, right? You’re like, okay, what are the commonalities here? I don’t see anything. 

Ashley Freeman  23:51

That should be a goal of mine for 2025 

Megan Porta  23:53

Yeah, right. Well, I don’t think anyone ever has accomplished that, so have grace with yourself if it doesn’t work, but yeah, it’s just a consistent game, right? Like continue publishing and then finding those little things that do work. Like Gwen, you’ve noticed that clean is best for your account, so keep on with that and just keep experimenting. Think that’s the key. Do you do either of you ever put video pins on Pinterest? 

Ashley Freeman  24:21

No.

Gwen Wolken  24:21

No, that’s a goal of mine for 2025 is to do more video. Okay, overwhelming to me.

Megan Porta  24:30

Yeah, yeah, I hear you, yes. It’s like one thing at a time, right? 

Gwen Wolken  24:34

Exactly. 

Megan Porta  24:34

Get this situated. Get on an ad network. Okay, so Gwen, your Google traffic. How do you do your keyword research? 

Gwen Wolken  24:42

I started with RankIQ, and loved it, leaned into it, and then I find found that I was over optimizing a lot of it, or I wasn’t getting enough traffic from some of those keywords. So I started using more Keysearch and Keywords Everywhere. And kind of a combination and finding the keywords that I that I need, I also found that I was it was harder for me within my niche to find what I wanted from with RankIQ. So I’m leaning coming up in the new year. I’m leaning more into topical authority and kind of just basically getting five different buckets of content within one basically keyword. So let’s say a keyword is chicken, and I’ll go in and I’ll create, you know, 10 pieces of content within my niche that I think will do. Well, basically list them out, and then I’ll go back and do keyword research on it. Some of them will have, you know, decent traffic, and some may not, but it’s all about building that topical authority within the blog, which I think will be helpful for Google as well. 

Ashley Freeman  25:45

Yeah. Well, then you can interlink too. 

Gwen Wolken  25:48

Correct, and I do a ton of that now, which I was not doing prior, so I’ve learned how to do that and do it well. So that’s been huge, and it’s been very helpful.

Megan Porta  25:57

That is a great strategy, and your niche is Mediterranean and gluten free, correct? 

Gwen Wolken  26:04

Yes. Okay. Interesting thing is, I did survey my audience last summer, and no one wanted the gluten free. So I’m going to survey my audience again come January, and now that I’ve pretty much tripled my email list, I’m going to see what people are really looking for, because it may be that I just say, forget the forget the gluten free piece, which will help with the dessert category. Since I have a background in chocolate, I’d like to do more with chocolate and that are not gluten free. So I have to see what people are looking for.

Megan Porta  26:33

Yeah, it’s so important to stay in touch with your audience and what their needs are, especially now, back when I started, it didn’t matter, but now it matters. So I love that you guys both are doing that. What are your top recipes currently from Google. 

Gwen Wolken  26:49

From Google, my top recipe is my almond macaroon recipe. It ranks number one for that keyword. It’s a really easy, simple recipe. I think the second keyword is the Neiman Marcus bars, which are basically a spin on the Gooey Butter bar, which a lot of people have in Southern cooking. It has nothing to do with my niche. I think the third is probably this Turkish eggplant salad that I have. So, yeah, it’s interesting. It’s kind of all over the board from Pinterest. It is a breakfast it’s an egg casserole that I think that I get just a huge amount of traffic from. 

Megan Porta  27:28

Isn’t that funny? Yeah, I know… You know, it’s yeah, like, this is going to be great on Pinterest. And when you think that, it literally never is, but then things surprise you. But I think that’s kind of fun. That’s a fun that’s a fun part of blogging is that you just never know what people are going to love on each platform and then so going forward for you, Gwen, are you going to continue kind of that category type planning? So you mentioned chicken, and then just rounding out your categories on your site?

Gwen Wolken  28:00

Well within each topic that I’m going to be building out, I try to build out within each category as well. So under the topic of chicken, for example, I want to make sure I’m going to have a an appetizer that may have chicken in it. I’ll make sure I have a soup that has chicken in it, you know, a casserole, main course, whatever it might be within my category. So I’m going to try to spread that topic within all of my categories to help build it out. I spent last summer building out my salad category, and then I realized that there were certain ingredients that I used that were based on my niche of being in the Mediterranean niche, like feta, for example, and pistachios, and I can just build all of that out, which is what I’m trying to do within some of the other categories.

Megan Porta  28:44

And that’s really smart way to go about it. So from both of you, I’m hearing kind of similar things. You’re focusing on traffic from Google and Pinterest, and you’re being consistent. How often are you guys publishing new content on your sites?

Gwen Wolken  28:59

Well, I’ve been only publishing once a week up till now. I’m going to try to go to two a week this coming year, if I can by batching. And what are you doing Ashley?

Ashley Freeman  29:08

I do between two and three a week. And honestly, once I started batching, it really helped, because I can be kind of scatterbrained. If I have just one thing to focus on, then, you know, it really has helped. Yeah, maybe more efficient. 

Gwen Wolken  29:24

I find batching will be good. I’m little worried about it, about getting the posts out. It’s like one thing to take the pictures and to do the recipes and be recipe testing and everything else, but then actually writing the post. I find the hardest thing to do for me personally.

Megan Porta  29:38

Like with everything, it’s it’s a process, and it’s a learning, ongoing journey. So just, yeah, be patient with yourself. But batching is super powerful. It can, can produce so much in such little time, if you can tap into it. Okay, you both mentioned Flipboard, so tell me how you are using Flipboard?

Ashley Freeman  29:57

I’m still kind of new at it. I guess I started the summer. And I don’t get a ton of traffic. I don’t know. It’s kind of one of those things that I’m still getting, you know, a feel for. But I try to do two flips a day, so that same as my Pinterest. And then I’m a member of a lot of different boards. And so I’ll do my own, I’ll pin to my own magazine. They’re called magazines, and then I’ll flip to four other magazines that I’m a member of.

Gwen Wolken  30:28

Are you doing only new content? Are you doing old content? 

Ashley Freeman  30:31

Both.

Gwen Wolken  30:32

Both? Yeah, I’m doing the same thing, but new content is what Flipboard wants to see. I know won’t always have that new content to be able to flip So, right? Always curious. Yeah.

Megan Porta  30:44

They’re looking Flipboard is looking for posts that have been published recently as far as the date. Is that, right? 

Gwen Wolken  30:51

Yes. 

Megan Porta  30:51

Okay, interesting. Gwen, are you seeing traffic from Flipboard?

Gwen Wolken  30:55

I am. It’s my third most traffic source. Wow. So just, it’s being consistent. Everything is about consistency. So Pinterest is consistency. I’m I am flipping every day as well. So it’s, again, it’s just part of what I’m doing on a daily basis.

Megan Porta  31:12

Yeah, that’s great. I know there was a big rush with Flipboard last maybe May or so, everyone was trying to get on to the point where I think they were overloaded. Their system was like, Whoa, backup. We can’t handle all of these bloggers, but I’m glad to hear that you’re actually seeing traction from it now. So I wonder if it would be a good option for newer bloggers to consider just getting on there and flipping, you know, consistently.

Ashley Freeman  31:40

Yeah, exactly. You gotta try. I mean, it’s a lot of trial and error.

Gwen Wolken  31:46

I don’t know about you, Ashley, but I’m not finding a lot of traction from Facebook or Instagram. So, you know, it’s, it’s a little more difficult there than it is some of these other places. 

Ashley Freeman  31:56

I feel like my Facebook traffic is from those roundup groups that I’m a part of, and that’s, I don’t know. It’s not actual followers. 

Megan Porta  32:05

It’s traffic, though. 

Ashley Freeman  32:06

It’s traffic, yeah, so I’m gonna keep doing it.

Megan Porta  32:09

So tell me about that. Do you invest significant time there? How many groups are you a part of, and what niches are they, I guess.

Ashley Freeman  32:16

So I think I’m a part of five different roundup groups, and I check it at least once a day in the morning, so I have, like, my little to do list, like Gwen does in the morning. I do my pins and my flips, and then check the roundups. And then if I have time at night, then I’ll check it again. Because, I mean, sometimes people will post a specific type of recipe they’re looking for, and then they’ll turn off comments within like five hours.

Megan Porta  32:45

Interesting, yeah, and then, yeah, the groups that work the best for you very niche, specific.

Ashley Freeman  32:51

Nope, nope. Just general recipes.

Gwen Wolken  32:55

Okay, I don’t know that there are any real niche blogger roundup groups that I’ve seen.

Megan Porta  33:00

There are some, yeah, there’s like, dairy free, you know, gluten free, things like that. But it’s interesting that the more general ones are, are still working. Do you guys have any suggestions or recommendations for the actual content that you put up? So are you posting your content there, or are you replying to I haven’t been in those groups forever, so I don’t remember how it works. You’re actually putting a post up on these groups, right? 

Ashley Freeman  33:28

So someone will request a particular type of recipe. Like, the other day, it was like, I’m looking for whoopie pies, and I happen to have a whoopie pie recipe, so I’ll respond with the link to my recipe.

Megan Porta  33:39

Gotcha, because I know there are groups also where it’s more like, you can go and freely publish your link just as a post. So there’s like, a theme to the group, and then you can just go in and say maybe a sentence like, these are the best sweet potato cornbread muffins you’re ever going to eat in your life. Here’s the link, that sort of thing. So I know there’s a couple different ways you can do it.

Ashley Freeman  34:04

I’m honestly, like, I’m a member of those, but I’m not very active, just because I don’t know. I find that everything’s a time suck. And so I really have to figure out what, you know, what has the best ROI. 

Megan Porta  34:18

Absolutely. 

Gwen Wolken  34:19

And I don’t, I don’t find that I get much back on those types of groups, but I do better when I’m responding to somebody, I will put a link out, ask for links when I’m doing a roundup. On occasion, if I don’t have enough content that I that I want to share myself, but they’re all within these, these roundup groups.

Megan Porta  34:37

Yep, yeah. So you’re getting little bits of traffic from Facebook. It sounds like not a massive ton, but at least something is trickling in from your efforts and consistency there too. I think is really important just showing up every day. I love that you guys have each have your morning to do list. Check it off, right? Yeah, the list. List. Yes, good. This is great. Bloggers love lists. I don’t know. Yeah,

Ashley Freeman  35:04

Sometimes I’ll write something I’ve already done just so I can cross it off.

Megan Porta  35:08

Oh my gosh, I do the same thing. I’m glad I’m not alone with that.

Gwen Wolken  35:14

And then organizational tools, Ashley, besides just paper and pen. So

Ashley Freeman  35:20

this one’s kind of silly, but on to have a Mac and there’s like, the list app. Is it called list reminders? Yeah, and I have one for every day, and I just put little things that I want to accomplish every day. Also can make my grocery list through that. Like I’m very obsessed, because it it syncs to my iPhone too. So honestly, that and then I love a spreadsheet.

Megan Porta  35:45

How about you, Gwen? 

Gwen Wolken  35:46

A combination of kind of doing what Ashley’s doing. I don’t use reminders. I use my notes app in my in my iPhone, and I use airtable for all of my spreadsheets, of which there are many to keep me organized.

Megan Porta  36:00

Yeah, that’s great. I love how both of you mentioned networking as being kind of a foundation for success and also investing. That came up yesterday in our part one of this series. Everyone there too was like, first and foremost, you have to be willing to invest in your business, and that networking piece is kind of a part of that. Are there any other pieces of the puzzle that you feel are important to mention. Consistency, we mentioned, networking, investing anything we’re forgetting. 

Ashley Freeman  36:31

I think, honestly, your host is kind of important because speed, like, if someone’s trying to get to your site and it’s taking forever to load, then they’re going to go away. 

Gwen Wolken  36:43

Theme too, I think.

Ashley Freeman  36:44

Exactly. So before I even started, I met with all the people at tastemaker, and I ended up going with feast and big scoops. And I want to those are probably, I feel like that’s a big part of you know my success too.

Gwen Wolken  37:02

well. For me, that’s what changed everything, because I was using my friend’s hosting and my friend’s theme that she developed because she was a web designer. And when I moved to Feast and Big Scoots, it was like night and day. Yeah,

Megan Porta  37:16

yeah, that’s a good combo. I will say I use the same, and can’t complain. It’s great. It’s very important. All right, anything else that you guys feel is something that new bloggers should keep at the top of their minds?

Gwen Wolken  37:31

Consistency. Consistency is key, whether it’s a day to day, week by week, sending out emails. Nurturing your email list is huge. You’ve got to do.

Megan Porta  37:41

it show up over and over and over. Yep. Do you guys have last bits of encouragement for food bloggers? As we mentioned in the beginning, it’s not a joke, like people are giving up left and right. It’s it’s kind of tough out there right now. It we have to work a lot harder than we used to and not just work harder, but be a lot smarter about how we’re working. So I feel like it’s going to be a year where especially new bloggers just need extra encouragement, which is part of the reason I’m doing this series. So coming from you guys, you’re newish bloggers, and you’ve found some awesome success in a relatively short time. So give your fellow new bloggers some encouragement.

Ashley Freeman  38:27

Do you want to go first Gwen, or do you want me to?

Gwen Wolken  38:28

For me you know, it’s goal setting and trying to meet my goals and breaking things down and, you know, hitting like, like we talk about, you know, on a daily basis, it’s your to do list. On a weekly basis, it’s XYZ on a monthly basis, it’s XYZ hit the goals, and if you hit the marks, you’re going to see the progress and being consistent and enjoy loving what you’re doing. It’s all about, you know, the passion. Do you have the passion behind it? If you have a passion for what you’re making, if you have a passion for for food and sharing food. You know, stick with it. It’s it’s fun. It’s really fun. And these in, even though it’s a lonely profession, it’s really great to connect with other people. 

Ashley Freeman  39:11

Yeah, I’d say, find your people. And the little mastermind that I’m a part of, like, I mean, even if we don’t get to meet all the time, like, I don’t know, it’s just great having that community. And then the other thing I would recommend is, like, figure out what your superpower is. So like, something that, like, really lights you up, that you’re, you know, you maybe your friends say, Oh, you’re the best at making cake or whatever. Just figure out what that is. And I feel like that really kind of shines through, like, my I love food styling, like, that’s, I don’t know, I feel like that’s my superpower. So you just have to figure out, like, what it is that lights you up and that’s going to keep you going. 

Megan Porta  39:52

Those are such good words to end with both of you. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time for this. I appreciate it. I know everybody else listening. Okay, so appreciates your time and the value shared today. So Ashley and Gwen, thank you. Thank you. 

Gwen Wolken  40:05

Thank you. Thanks. This was fun. 

Megan Porta  40:07

And then will you just, just to end reiterate what your blog name is, and maybe social handles too, so people can go find you?

Ashley Freeman  40:14

Sure I’m Ashley Freeman, Little Black Skillet is my blog, and my handle for Instagram is little black skillet and Ashley Strickland Freeman on Facebook.

Gwen Wolken  40:25

All right, how about you, Gwen? I’m Gwen Wolken, and my blog name is A Sweet Thyme, thyme like the herb, t, h, y, m, e, and all of my social media handles are a sweet time, so it’s pretty easy to find.

Megan Porta  40:38

Yeah, great. Thanks again, ladies for being here. So appreciate you. 

Megan Porta  40:42

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories, I will see you next time you.