Episode 377: Grow and Monetize your Blog without Relying on Instagram with Jamie Silva

EBT377_JamieSilva

Intro : 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, and I’ve been a food blogger for over 12 years. I understand how isolating food blogging can be at times. 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. 

If you think you need a million or maybe just 10,000 Instagram followers in order to work with brands, this episode is going to inspire you. Jamie Silva from A Sassy Spoon joins me today and she talks about how she grew her blog without focusing on Instagram and how she landed sponsorships that became pretty lucrative for her. She provides tips for how you can do it too. So tune into the episode. Thank you so much for being here. This is episode number 377, and it is sponsored by RankIQ.

Sponsor: Hey, awesome food bloggers. Before we dig into this episode, I have a really quick favor to ask you. Go to your favorite podcast player. Go to Eat Blog Talk. Scroll down to the bottom where you see the ratings and review section. Leave Eat Blog Talk a five star rating if you love this podcast and leave a great review. This will only benefit this podcast. It adds value, and I so very much appreciate your efforts with this. Thank you so much for doing this. Okay, now on to the episode.

Megan Porta: I have Jamie Silva with me today. She is going to talk to us about growing your business without relying on Instagram. Jamie quit a safe and secure full-time job in 2016 and started A Sassy Spoon, her food blog. Two years later, Jamie began making a full-time income from zero to 85K in two years. That’s so amazing, Jamie. Today she’s making over six figures from various income streams. Close to a 100K from ad revenue alone. Now Jamie focuses on coaching food bloggers on how to grow and manage their food blogs so they can turn their food blogs into a full-time business in less time. Jamie, I am so excited to chat with you today. How are you? 

Jamie Silva: So excited to be here, Megan. Thank you for having me. 

Megan Porta: Yay. Thanks for joining me. Do you have a fun fact to share with us?

Jamie Silva: I do. So way back when, way before starting my food blog, I actually watched Food Network for two and a half months straight.

Megan Porta: What did you glean from that period of time? 

Jamie Silva: Actually I was going through a really rough period in my life and I just found so much comfort in watching other people cook. But little did I know that I’d actually be working in the culinary world years later. So it’s a fun fact that I started my food blog by watching Food Network.

Megan Porta: Oh, and you’re right, there’s something so comforting about watching people be creative in the kitchen and do it semi competitively, sometimes. I feel like I could sit on my couch and watch it for months on end as well, right? ? So fun. Jealous. All right. You’re here today to talk about growing your business without relying on Instagram, which I think for a lot of food bloggers listening, they might be like, what? What are you talking about, Jamie? But tell us how you got to the point where you were really discouraged by Instagram and how that whole process transpired. 

Jamie Silva: So obviously, it’s no secret that Instagram has been going through a lot of changes this year, but even from before that, I lost my father late last year.

Megan Porta: Oh, I’m sorry. 

Jamie Silva: Thank you. So it’s almost like my perspective on life just shifted overall. I just wanted to be more present in general, more intentional with my time. Again, this is not to say that social media is all bad because I do have many blogger friends that are doing amazing things with it, but just personally, I wasn’t seeing a return. So I just felt like my time was better spent elsewhere than, just posting reels and carousels and just chasing the likes, chasing the likes, the shares. So I actually stopped posting entirely for half of the year. First, in the first half of the year I was posting consistently, and I didn’t really see much happening there. So I just stopped and I decided to just spend more time focused on my blog. 

Megan Porta: Okay. So when you stop, do you go back to check in and see how things are going, or are you just done?

Jamie Silva: I do. I do check. I’m not gonna say I deleted the app off of my phone or anything like that, but I just feel like the pressure of just being always on, I just didn’t find any comfort in that either. So I’m just like, I’m gonna post whenever it feels good. Not because I am doing it, for the algorithm or for engagement or anything like that. Because it’s not like Instagram was really making me money, so to speak. I wasn’t getting much traffic from there either for my blog. So it didn’t feel like spending time on that platform really made sense, at least for my personal business. 

Megan Porta: I have personally accepted Instagram as being a community builder for me. I saw early on, right? It was a really good way to make friendships and I did make quite a few really solid friendships from Instagram and that has been my purpose working on Instagram. I am so with you, Jamie. I have been a food blogger for a million years and if you went to my Instagram account, you would not believe it. Because I don’t have many followers. I’ve adopted the same concept. If it’s not going to be fruitful with all this time I put into it, then I’m going to see it for what it is, which is a community builder. Do you have that same thought? 

Jamie Silva: Yeah, absolutely. I love watching. Stories are fun. You can see what people are doing and you can see what’s happening and connect with people on that level. So definitely. I can obviously see that as a way of connection and community. But yeah, just having that pressure of having to post every day or post reels. It just felt like so much work on a platform that the content becomes irrelevant in minutes and it just felt so counterproductive in a way, yeah. 

Megan Porta: You can get so lost and so sucked in easily, where an hour passes and you’re like, oh my gosh, what have I done with my life, my days?

Jamie Silva: Yes. It’s so true. That’s exactly how I felt too. I was like, oh my goodness, I’m stuck on this scroll. I just like scrolling. Yeah. So I really just wanted to be more intentional with my time and just spend more time with family and not just have my face buried in a screen. Yeah, just overall, I just decided to spend more time on different parts of my business that were actually going to bring a return and gonna be easier to monetize, so to speak. 

Megan Porta: Yes. We’ll talk about that in just a second. I first wanted to say, so sorry about your dad and the loss of him.

Jamie Silva: Thank you.

Megan Porta: I just lost my mom a few weeks ago.

Jamie Silva: Oh, I’m so sorry. 

Megan Porta: Oh, I know. It’s hard. 

Jamie Silva: It is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Absolutely.

Megan Porta: It is. You think about it your whole life, like what’s it going to be like? Then when it happens, it’s oh my gosh, I never imagined it could be this weird and hard. I mentioned that because I love what you said about the death of your father making you more intentional and present. That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now. There are certain parts of my business and my life that I just feel like, they’re irrelevant. I don’t need to do them anymore. Being faced with a parent’s death is such a, it just shakes you to the core. It makes you just see things differently. It doesn’t have to be a death necessarily that does that, but any trial that you go through, I feel like you have that same, just whoa, what is important here? What do I need to focus on? What do I not need to focus on? Instagram for you and your business is something that you’re like, okay, I’m just gonna put it on the sidelines for now. 

Jamie Silva: Exactly. It’s so true because I’ve, I’ve lost relatives in the past, of course, but I don’t know if it was something to do with the fact that it was a parent that is just, I wasn’t expecting my perspective on life to change as much as it did. I guess you don’t know until you go through it.

Megan Porta: Exactly. Yep. Okay. So what are you spending more time on within your blog? What did you decide deserves your focus?

Jamie Silva: Yeah. Okay. So basically what I started doing is I basically shifted my whole strategy. Instead of just like creating reels and posting reels, I just decided to really be intentional with the content I was putting on my blog. For example, I started auditing my current blog content for any content gaps. If I needed a post to be reworked and republished. Then also creating new content that made sense for my niche. So actually another thing that I did is earlier this year, I shifted to a more narrow niche. So before A Sassy Spoon was more about comfort food in general, and I felt like maybe I should niche down even further and do comfort food from the lens of Cuban food. Because I’m a first generation Cuban-American, so I decided why not really niche down to posting about Cuban cuisine. As a result I’ve actually seen more traffic come to the site. I’ve seen more email subscribers. I’ve gotten messages from people around the nation just thanking me for sharing this type of content because either their grandmother passed away or they moved out of South Florida where Cuban food was a lot more predominant. It just became apparent to me to be like, okay, I’m on the right path. This is the long game. This is the one that’s gonna pay off in the long run. So I am focusing my time on making my blog more robust with all the different types of content that it needs to either fill up different categories or just rework old posts that hadn’t been reworked in a long time. All that I am actually seeing is more of a return than posting reels on Instagram, so to speak.

Megan Porta: Oh, I think that’s so smart. This is actually a really important, effective piece of the puzzle that we often set aside because of the new shiny objects and all the platforms. So you’re actually going back to the basics, going back to the things that are going to move your blog forward, which I think is a really smart move. So how has that affected your traffic and your revenue and everything?

Jamie Silva: So as a result of posting on my blog, like I mentioned, I’ve seen a more targeted audience, which is really the goal of blogging, right? It’s just to attract a more targeted audience that you’re gonna be able to monetize from. But I also was able to secure four contracts for the year. Three of which were annual contracts. 

Megan Porta: Ooh. 

Jamie Silva: Yeah, which is great because that’s steady income. Three were for Sassy Spoon, which means that they were sponsored, on the blog, on social media. But then there was also one that was just pure content creation, which I highly recommend. Really put some pitch to brands just to do some content creations for them. They were all secured through email. None of them were secured through Instagram. I know that I’ve had messages from people that have told me like, I am so scared about leaving Instagram. How am I gonna get brand partnerships if there’s no Instagram? I feel like moving away from Instagram and bringing the conversation to email is gonna be a lot more successful in the long run because you can build the relationship way better back and forth on email and even on phone calls. Just going old school here. Instead of maybe Instagram dm, you don’t know if the person that’s running those brand accounts, if they’re like interns. Instead of email you can go directly to the media person that’s in charge of the media campaigns and spark up a conversation with them. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. And LinkedIn, I know a few food bloggers who have used LinkedIn to get contacts for sponsored work. Have you used that avenue? 

Jamie Silva: I have. Just to find their email. So definitely it’s been, you just have to get a little creative when you’re trying to look for contact info, if you’re not able to secure it a different way. But LinkedIn definitely worked. 

Megan Porta: Okay, so you’ve secured some amazing contracts. You didn’t go through Instagram. I think it’s a, I don’t know, it’s something that we all hear that you have to be on Instagram if you wanna get sponsored work. But you’re saying that is not the case. You’ve done this all through old school methods. 

Jamie Silva: Yeah, absolutely. Actually I’m glad you mentioned that. I think we’ve been conditioned to believe that if we’re not on Instagram, or if we’re not posting regularly, or we’re not DMing brands through Instagram it’s almost like we’re doomed for failure as a business. That’s why I believe that you can absolutely make a steady income. You can make a living without relying on Instagram or social media. By July of this year, after I stopped posting on Instagram and just focused on these contracts and on my blog, I had already made six figures, all without relying on Instagram. 

Megan Porta: Oh my gosh, Jamie, that’s amazing. Congrats. 

Jamie Silva: Thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t wanna paint a false picture here. It has taken years, obviously. It’s not something you can do overnight. I don’t want anyone to think that you can just start a blog tomorrow and suddenly you’ll have money in the bank. This has been a lot of work and a lot of dedication. You have to be consistent. You have to really be really focused on your food blog to be able to grow it into a six figure business.

Megan Porta: Okay. So you mentioned your sponsored work brings in money. Where else does the money come from, if you don’t mind sharing? 

Jamie Silva: Yes, absolutely. So my largest income stream actually is my ad revenue. Just this year alone, I’ve brought over $70,000 in ad revenue alone. I’m with AdThrive. 

Megan Porta: Nice. 

Jamie Silva: Then in total, with those four contracts that I secured, I’ve brought close to $66,000, which is insane to even believe that. 

Megan Porta: Oh my gosh.

Jamie Silva: Yeah. My largest traffic source has been organic search, because I know a lot of people think that, oh, maybe it’s Pinterest or maybe it’s something else. But it’s literally all been from SEO work and Google. That’s why I say like, it’s a lot of work to put into your blog, but it absolutely pays off in the end. 

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Megan Porta: I’ve seen this mindset kind of floating around our space lately, where people get hung up on the fact that they think there’s not enough space on Google and organic search for them. And they will be like everyone’s taking my keywords, so what’s the point? I just feel like there are so many things that are food related that people are searching for. Find something else, pivot, go find another keyword that you can deliver value on that people are searching for. There’s always going to be something. What are your thoughts on that?

Jamie Silva: Absolutely. I’ve always been of the mindset that, like there are, I don’t know, 20,000 chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, right? But there’s always gonna be someone that wants to learn how you do it. They don’t care how Gordon Ramsey makes it. They wanna see how A Sassy Spoon makes it. I always feel like you’re always gonna find your people. You’re gonna find your audience, you’re gonna find the ones that are going to want to learn from you and what you bring to the table, and how to develop this recipe. Maybe there’s a certain twist that you do, or some hack, or some secret ingredient that you add. Something that gives it that special touch that only you know about. That’s the way to stand out for sure.

Megan Porta: Oh, I love your perspective on that, Jamie. I relate to that. If somebody is listening and they are thinking that maybe they’re discouraged by Instagram or maybe Facebook or another platform and they want to do what you’re doing and just become laser focused on a niche and another way of getting traffic and money, how do you recommend they go about this?

Jamie Silva: So a few tips I can share is to really shift your focus to your blog, obviously, but publishing content on a consistent basis for your target audience. That is always gonna be the winning ticket when it comes to food blogs and growing your food blog. So focusing on content planning and part of content planning obviously is keyword research, or as I like to call it, intentional keyword research. Meaning you’re not just posting about a pot of spaghetti and you’re just hoping that someone finds you. You’re actually really intentional with the type of keywords you’re using, like you mentioned a second ago. Also your E A T. So for those that don’t know, E A T stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, which is kind of Google’s way to figure out how legit you are. You’re not some just spammy site just throwing up stuff on a website. So the more of an expert you are in a certain topic, the more you should showcase that on your blog, and the more that builds authority over time. You as an expert, showing off all this awesome content, all this knowledge and then trustworthiness. It’s the, like, trust factor where in general Google wants to make sure they trust you enough to give you the Google juice, but then also your audience. They will connect with you if they like you, if they know you, if they trust you. All that goes down to how well you present the information on your content. Are you providing valuable information on your post? Are you being super helpful? Your process shots? All that tells the story that people will be like, this was so well explained, I’m gonna come back for more, That’s what you want, right? You want more return visitors. You want people to really connect with you. Then before you know it you’ll start to see more and more people coming back to your site, coming to your site, coming back for your site. It’s just like this constant, you’ll see this flow of traffic, which you’ll be able to monetize eventually, whether that’s through ad revenue or even affiliate marketing and sponsored content as well. 

Megan Porta: I love your term intentional keyword research, because that’s so different from just keyword research, like you said. We need to be thinking through what we’re putting up and then doing research about it instead of Ooh, I wanna put up a lemon cake recipe. Maybe Lemon cake does not support EAT for my blog. So we need to really think through all of that in advance. 

Jamie Silva: Exactly right. Yeah.

Megan Porta: Then what else would you recommend, so you do some sponsored work. How would you recommend people getting brands to get on board with them?

Jamie Silva: So I also feel aside from you dedicating time to your blog and really making sure the content makes sense for your niche and your target audience. Also on the side of actually making money, because on the blog side it’s gonna take a while obviously. So in the meantime you can definitely partner up with brands. As I say, flex your content creation skills and negotiate like a boss. What that means is basically if you’re focused on follower accounts and engagement rates when you’re pricing yourself, you’re definitely leaving money on the table. So I always say rates should not be one size fits all. There should not be any flat rates. You definitely should think like a business owner. Think of expenses, your overhead. Think of the type of assets that brands are asking of you, the type of usage or licensing that they need, any exclusivity, and that way you’re able to structure a rate specifically for that brand based on their ask. It’s more well-rounded than if you just shoot out of a flat rate and then be willing to walk away if you’re not getting what you want. I know that’s scary sometimes, especially when you’re just starting out. But I think you’ll start to notice that the more you walk away from what you’re not Getting, it’s gonna be better in the long run because there’s nothing worse than resenting your work when you’re actually working on something and you’re just like, oh, I said yes to this. 

Megan Porta:  That’s the worst feeling ever. 

Jamie Silva: Yeah. It shouldn’t be that way for sure. So I definitely feel like there should be a conversation. Don’t be afraid of pitching brands. They have a budget, just like you have a budget. You know they’re working towards different goals just like you. So have an open conversation about it and be like, this is what I can do based on your budget. Is that okay? Are we aligned? Is there something that we can maybe work around? Be very transparent. I’m very big on transparency. I feel like there should be an open conversation when it comes to that as far as these are my rates. Based on what you are asking me of and what’s included and ask a lot of questions. You wanna make sure that you get the full story from the. How they’re gonna use your content, and everything else. Because the last thing you want is to maybe give them a low rate because you’re afraid of going too high and then suddenly you see one of your food photography photos, like on a billboard somewhere. You’re like, oh my goodness, I could have asked for more money.

So you definitely want to price in a way where you’re gonna be happy with that amount. Of course, as they say, like if they say yes too fast, you charge too low. So you always wanna negotiate around what you’re gonna be comfortable with and what you’re gonna be happy with, because again, you don’t wanna work in vain and then be like, oh, I shouldn’t have said yes to this. I’m not enjoying this work. It’s just such a bad feeling. 

Megan Porta:  That is. I’ve done it many times. I am sad to admit that, but there’s nothing worse than that when you’re working on a project and you’re like, oh, this is so frustrating. I’m only getting this much money and I, yeah. You just hate what you’re doing. So to take care of that upfront and just like you said, openly communicate and be upfront, be transparent. Do you ever get brands asking you about Instagram and how do you deal with that? 

Jamie Silva: So going back on what you said and I wanna give this as an encouragement to everyone else, even if you’ve already done that in the past, doesn’t mean that you can’t change from this point forward. So I don’t want anyone thinking that, oh, I already charged one brand this amount. I guess I have to charge every brand forever that amount. No, absolutely. You definitely can change your rates moving on as you grow. Then as far as Instagram, I honestly have never had a brand ask me about Instagram, about engagement rates, about follower accounts. I honestly always view any type of brand partnership as them asking for assets. So what that means is they are, they just want the content that they’re gonna be able to repurpose for their own goals. So whether that means they’re gonna use that for their email newsletter or for their own social channels, that’s really how I pitch when it comes to sponsor content. I never thought this post only got a hundred likes. I bought ingredients for, I shot the recipe, I put in my time, and they’re gonna get food photography from that, or they’re gonna get a reel from that or whatever that they’re gonna be able to use for their platforms. So I’ve never had a brand really say, maybe I didn’t deserve this money or things like that. I think of it like, this was work that I put in. In terms of Instagram or likes, shares, comments, anything like that. 

Megan Porta:  So really it comes down to focusing on what you’re good at, focusing on the things that are going to move you forward and not focusing on things that aren’t working for you. So just not even adding it as part of the discussion. 

Jamie Silva: Absolutely. Yeah. 

Megan Porta:  Yeah. Okay. Do you ever wish that you were on Instagram? Do you ever have those fleeting thoughts like, Ooh, I’m missing out? Or have you grown past 

Jamie Silva: Like the FOMO? 

Megan Porta: Yes. 

Jamie Silva: The Instagram fomo?

Megan Porta: Yeah. 

Jamie Silva: Not really, to be honest. I think I’ve passed that. I do, however, have FOMO with TikTok. I haven’t gotten on TikTok yet. I do have an account, but I haven’t posted on there, and sometimes I’m like, maybe I should start just throwing up some stuff to see what happens. But again, you feel like, oh my God, am I gonna get sucked into another platform? So I definitely do have more FOMO with TikTok than I do with Instagram. 

Megan Porta: Do you have any other advice, Jamie, for people who are intrigued by your way of thinking about growing your business? Any other tips or anything to impart? 

Jamie Silva: I think overall I think the whole like feeling the beast in terms of Instagram, if you’re not feeling aligned with that for your own business and if you feel like, you know what I think I wanna take a step back from Instagram and focus on my blog, you can absolutely do that. It’s not gonna be detrimental for your success, I promise. Again, it doesn’t have to be forever. It could definitely be a temporary thing. Maybe you go back to it, once you’ve taken a little mini break and you feel better coming back with more of a fresh mind instead of this I need to post. That pressure is just awful. I definitely think, focusing on your blog for a while and then getting back into Instagram, definitely not a bad idea. 

Megan Porta: By the way, I’ve taken breaks from Instagram for long stretches of time, and every time I come back, it’s like I hop back in without skipping a beat. It’s not like the world ends. The followers don’t just start falling off the cliff. People are still there. They still care. So it is okay to experiment with that and just see what happens with a little break. 

Jamie Silva: Yeah, exactly. Especially now with these changes. Maybe it’ll shake up , the algorithm somehow where they’ll be like, oh, she hasn’t been posting. Maybe we can reset her to whatever world of algorithms, maybe something will help your engagement rate or something. I don’t know. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. I can see a new trend emerging with people just seeing the importance of stepping away for periods of time and how that can maybe shift an algorithm for sure. Such a relevant topic, and I think this is a really valuable discussion just to bring to the table for food bloggers. So thank you for everything you’ve shared today. Jamie, you were just, yeah, it was a pleasure talking to you.

Jamie Silva: Thank you so much, Megan. 

Megan Porta: Yeah. So to leave our episode, our interview, do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to share with us?

Jamie Silva: Favorite quote that I actually have on a post-it on my desk as we speak is, done is better than perfect because Perfect never gets done. So I don’t know about you, but I’m sure like many other creatives I struggle with perfectionism and this is a quote that I repeat to myself daily because sometimes you just have to get your stuff done. You know what I mean? We get so caught up in the details and whether that’s just taking the plunge and starting your food blog, and you don’t wanna do that because it’s not the perfect time or it’s not, whatever it is. Or you simply don’t want to share those photos on your blog for that recipe because you think they’re not perfect or whatever the case is. Sometimes you just have to start the blog and publish the post and just check it off the list. Because more times than not, we realized that we were just obsessing over some silly details and we wasted so much time stuck in that procrastination perfectionism loop, that then we realized oh, I was kind of worried for nothing. Like people really like the photos or, I started my blog, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t that scary. So that’s why I always say done is always better than perfect because we sometimes will get stuck in that mindset of unless it’s perfect, I’m not gonna move forward. Time is just moving on and you’re not getting anything done. So I definitely have that on a post-it because sometimes, even at this level in my business, I just feel like I still struggle with that sometimes. Where I’m just like Jamie, just do it. Just go. Just do it. Nothing’s gonna happen. It’s fine. Even if it’s not perfect, at least it gets done and you can move on to the next thing. 

Megan Porta: Another way to say that, get your crap done. Just do it. Take action. The action is actually a huge word for me. I repeat it to myself so many times a day because I fall into that way of thinking, just like what you were saying, Jamie. I’m like I don’t know if I’m ready for whatever. I just remind myself. Probably a hundred times a day. Action. It pays off. Even if it’s not great or excellent or amazing, at least I’m taking action and doing the things that I know I need to do. So I love that. 

Jamie Silva: Yeah. It’s almost like taking messy action. Taking messy action is better than just waiting for the perfect moment or waiting for the perfect thing. It’s just, it’s never gonna happen. There’s never gonna be a perfect time. Just do it. It’s okay. We’re all human. It’s fine. It doesn’t have to be perfect. 

Megan Porta: We all take that messy action so we have grace for each other when we see others taking messy action. 

Jamie Silva: Yes, absolutely. 

Megan Porta: We’ll put together a show notes page for you, Jamie. If anyone wants to go look at those, you can go to eatblogtalk.com/sassyspoon. Tell everyone where they can find you, Jamie. Blog. Anywhere else you wanna mention? 

Jamie Silva: So you can find me on asassyspoon.com. That’s my food blog. You can also find me at foodbloggerboss.co. That’s where I host all my blogging courses from beginner to intermediate, as well as share free resources to help you start, grow, and manage your food blog.

Megan Porta: Amazing. Everyone, go check Jamie out and all of her resources. Thanks again, Jamie, for being here. And thank you so much for listening today, food bloggers. I will see you in the next episode.

Outro: 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.