Episode 543: How to Hire a Reliable Food Blog Writer and Rank on Google Without Adding More Work to Your Plate with Shyanne Reynolds

EBT543 – Shyanne Reynolds

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. 

Megan Porta  00:37

I hear so many food bloggers talk about this pain point of writing their content, whether that’s for their food blog, or social media, or emails or whatever it might be. Writing can take a long time. So outsourcing writing is something that is really relevant right now and top of mind for a lot of food bloggers, Shyanne, Greg, it joins me in this interview to talk about hiring a reliable food blog writer who has SEO experience and who can take some work off your plate and free you up for all of those other wonderful projects you want to work on. Shyanne talks about some nitty gritty details such as credentials to look for in your writer, how to determine if that person is a good fit for you, where to find this person, the difference in roles between an Editorial Manager and a writer, and why the VA’s are not writers. If hiring a writer is on your agenda, this will be a really good starting point for you. So you can outsource some of that work. This is episode number 543. And it is sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:48

Hello there, food blogger friends, I want to take a really quick break from this episode to chat about a few ways Eat Blog Talk can help you to feel connected as well as to get your hands on relevant, valuable information in 2024. It has been a bit of a tumultuous year so far do you agree? But you have come too far to stop now. This time is a minor blip in the journey. So buckle up and let’s do this journey together and come out on the other side stronger than ever. Eat Blog Talk now has a Facebook group. Go join the BlogTalk community Facebook group to get in on some great discussions. Once you’re inside, you will gain access to a free job postings shared document whether you’re offering a service or looking for a service. There’s also the new-ish accountability group that you BlogTalk offers. This group is a low investment membership for anyone looking to connect with peers and grow your business. This is for newer bloggers, intermediate bloggers and experienced bloggers we offer robust calls in Slack discussions and so much more in this group for the low cost of $34 a month. The Eat Blog Talk Mini Minds and mastermind groups are still being offered in 2024 and beyond. Mini minds groups start up again in October and we will start filling the 2025 mastermind group in late summer of 24. Join the waitlist for one of these groups and you will not be disappointed. And last but not least join us at an in person retreat. If you are ready to learn, grow and build relationships in person. Join me and a handful of your fellow food bloggers and an upcoming Eat Blog Talk retreat. This is such a great opportunity to convene in an intimate setting. So you can learn collaborate and connect. These retreats involve mastermind style peer to peer collaborating, and they’re incredibly powerful, delicious, so much good food and fun. For all the offerings mentioned head to eatblogtalk.com and you will be directed in the appropriate way. We are more than just a podcast go explore some of these other offerings as your time and budget allows can’t wait to see you in some of those other places. Now back to the episode.

Megan Porta  04:05

Shyanne is a food blog content writer who helps bloggers manage editorial teams and rank in Google. She has 7 years of writing experience and a degree in English. Shyanne started her freelancing journey while in college and accidentally on purpose launched a 6 figure career.

Megan Porta  04:22

Shyanne welcome it to Eat BlogTalk, how are you doing today?

Shyanne Reynolds  04:27

I’m good. Thank you. How are you?

Megan Porta  04:28

I’m good. Thanks for joining us. We’re excited to hear about hiring a content writer from your perspective as someone who is not a food blogger and you are a writer yourself. Before we get into all of that though, do you have a fun fact to share about yourself?

Shyanne Reynolds  04:44

I am originally from Indiana and two summers ago I packed up everything and moved across the country to Utah with my husband and two dogs.

Megan Porta  04:56

That’s a bold move. 

Shyanne Reynolds  04:58

It’s long 

Megan Porta  04:59

Yeah, well made you choose Utah?

Shyanne Reynolds  05:01

We knew we wanted out of the Midwest and there are quite a few food bloggers out here so we kind of just decided to go for it and so far we’ve loved it.

Megan Porta  05:09

Okay, good. Are you guys skier snowboarder snowboarders?

Shyanne Reynolds  05:12

Not yet? My husband grew up in Michigan. So he is I haven’t heard out quite

Megan Porta  05:16

yet. You’ll fall in love once you do it, you can’t go back. Awesome to learn that about you. So I know that you have a business for copywriting services correct called Shyanne Reynolds.

Shyanne Reynolds  05:29

Yes, Shyanne Reynolds copywriting.

Megan Porta  05:31

Okay. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? 

Shyanne Reynolds  05:33

Yeah, absolutely. So I help food bloggers, I actually started out as a VA and then transitioned into writing. So I help food bloggers with their blogs, obviously, I write up the posts, and I also assist with emails, and I have a small team that will handle any social media as well. But really, my focus is on SEO and the food blog writing itself.

Megan Porta  05:55

Okay, how long have you been doing that? Seven years? Oh, wow. Okay. And how has it evolved over time? Is it a different business now than when you started? How does it look now?

Shyanne Reynolds  06:06

Absolutely. I actually started in college as an intern, and was doing VA work for nutritionists and food bloggers. And as I got more and more into it, I transitioned from social media more into the writing, I’m actually have an English degree. So as I learned more about SEO, I kind of just fell in love with that aspect. And recently, with all the Google updates, it’s changed a lot faster than normal. 

Megan Porta  06:32

Yeah, it’s been great. Definitely. So things are changing at a very rapid pace right now. Right? Yes. Well, I found for myself, and for people who I talked to, in our space, that hiring food blog writers is kind of top of the list currently, because it’s just one of those things where it takes so much time. And if we could outsource, it gives us so much more opportunity to focus on new projects and new streams of revenue, etc. So this is a very relevant topic currently. So we really appreciate you bringing this to the table. So just to go along with that, like, I guess, where do we start? Like if we feel like we need a food blog writer? Where do we start with it? 

Shyanne Reynolds  07:19

Yeah, so there’s several approaches you can take, I get a lot of referrals from current clients. So you know, if you’re in this space, and you have friends who you love their blog, you know, they’re doing well with SEO, it never hurts to reach out to them and ask if they have writers they work with it might be open to additional work. But beyond that, I get a lot of other clients from Facebook groups, I think that’s your next best bet. There’s quite a few dedicated for food bloggers, specifically. And then you know, you can go old fashioned Google or even look for food blog writers on Instagram or TikTok. 

Megan Porta  07:58

Okay, yeah, I find that word of mouth is really powerful in our community. Because if we find someone who really works, we want to tell everyone else about it, right? So that is a really good place to start just asking trusted peers. And then if we do find a food blog writer who we want to look into more, how do we know that they’re qualified I guess?

Shyanne Reynolds  08:19

I think there are several factors to look into. And I think it depends on your blog, and your focus. So if you have a really science backed blog, or you focus on a specific allergy niche, or something like that, I think looking for people with experience and related credentials really helps. I also would recommend looking for someone who is a full time writer, they either have an English or journalism degree or they have studied SEO, and people who have portfolios and work that you can see to make sure you know, that they can’t actually write to your standards.

Megan Porta  08:58

Do you recommend asking people for references?

Shyanne Reynolds  09:01

Yes, and no, I don’t know that. It’s that helpful. Honestly, it personally, you know, if I was hiring, I would rather someone be willing to learn and grow and have enthusiasm rather than having a long spreadsheet of people they’ve worked for. So as long as they have quality work, that’s kind of where I would focus. 

Megan Porta  09:21

Okay, so definitely getting those credentials. Are they actually writers? Do they know SEO? Well, how do we know beyond that, if they’re a good fit for us in our business?

Shyanne Reynolds  09:34

I with my clients always like to do a test post. So I do a paid test post before we sign any contracts or do any kind of packages. And that way you can kind of gauge whether or not it will work for you on both ends because you know, sometimes you just don’t gel for whatever reason. So I think that’s kind of a easy way to mitigate risks.

Megan Porta  09:54

Okay. I like that. I’ve heard people talk about like doing a test, you know, like month, or three months or something like that, but what’s wrong with doing a one test post? And just seeing how that goes? 

Shyanne Reynolds  10:06

Yeah, because even if it’s not, if it’s not a good fit a couple of months could kind of make or break at, you know? 

Megan Porta  10:11

Yeah, right, exactly. That’s kind of a long time if you if it’s not going well. So I have a question about multiple writers. So if you hire a writer, let’s say to write new blog posts, and then you have a writer who may be manages, like rights for your social media, and or emails, how do we navigate that? Is it hard to manage different writers? Or should we seek out a writer who can do everything?

Shyanne Reynolds  10:39

I don’t think it’s hard to manage. I think having clear brand voice and tone really, really helps writers and yourself kind of stay in line. But most of the time, you can find a single writer who can kind of do all of that. Or you could pivot to have an Editorial Manager, which I do some of to kind of check for quality control and just ensure that everything fits. And then it kind of spreads out a lot of the task flow. So no one writer is getting overwhelmed.

Megan Porta  11:08

So the Editorial Manager is not somebody who writes as well, or are they just overseeing writers?

Shyanne Reynolds  11:15

It can be either or it kind of depends on your structure, I do a little bit of both. But in a lot of cases, it’s someone who is most of the time just laying out SEO guidelines, and templates. And then they kind of assign out projects to writers and then proofread and check everything for like a second or third set of eyes.

Megan Porta  11:38

What qualifications would an Editorial Manager have? And where do you even look for that? I’d have no idea. I mean, is it the same recommendation going to Facebook groups or word of mouth? 

Shyanne Reynolds  11:48

Yeah, I think so. That’s your best bet. And as far as qualifications, I think, personally, the best editorial managers have writing experience. They’ve kind of been in the trenches and know how to edit and adjust things, and are ready for the next step in their career. Because without that experience, you kind of struggle to be able to tell the writers what to focus on or how to change things.

Sponsor  12:14

Eat Blog Talk is thrilled to unveil the Eat Blog Talk Accountability group. An exclusive community made for food bloggers who crave accountability, focus and connection. We understand that not everyone is ready to dive into the Mini Minds Group or the Masterminds program. That is why we’ve crafted this special offering for bloggers like you who want that extra push toward their aspirations, but aren’t yet able to make the financial or time commitment. Here’s what the e Blog Talk Accountability Group has in store for you for this low introductory price of $34 a month. This ongoing membership has its own private Slack channel. You will gain access to a dedicated channel facilitated by the community manager at Eat Blog Talk, Taryn Soli for questions, insights, and collaboration. You will get weekly accountability check-ins so you can stay focused and motivated with those weekly check-ins in Slack to track and achieve your goals competently. You’ll have access to productivity focus sessions. Join these optional live Zoom sessions twice a week to boost your productivity by working alongside your peers and tapping into that collective energy. And you will get monthly group Zoom calls replacing the former clubhouse chats. Join these calls to connect, discuss current topics, share experiences, and celebrate achievements. Those calls will be hosted by me, Megan Porta, and I can’t wait to see some of you there. If this sounds intriguing, head over to eatblogtalk.com/focus to sign up today. Eatblogtalk.com/focus.

Megan Porta  13:45

From your experience. Have you seen more food bloggers have an array of writers? Or have you seen more like just having one or two very focused writers.

Shyanne Reynolds  13:58

At the start I see most people have one or two very focused writers who kind of grow with the team. And then as they get big and expand into different teams and sections they develop an Editorial Manager and more writers.

Megan Porta  14:12

Can you give us some examples of different things that we might need writing for so like obvious things, new content, new posts, maybe updating posts, social media, what beyond that? 

Shyanne Reynolds  14:24

Yeah, so in addition to that, there’s newsletters there’s, you know, if you start selling product, there’s product descriptions, cookbooks, any promotional material, you do scripts for reels and YouTube videos, YouTube video descriptions, all kinds of things.

Megan Porta  14:43

What about sales pages? I don’t like writing sales pages.

Shyanne Reynolds  14:48

Sales pages, landing pages, all of that I’m actually in courses for that right now.

Megan Porta  14:55

What is your favorite thing to write about?

Shyanne Reynolds  14:58

I love food blogs on this selves. I really like exploring different cuisines and ways of cooking. As someone from the Midwest, it was all kind of new to me when I started so it’s always fun to learn. 

Megan Porta  15:11

Yeah. And then the SEO is a big component of that, obviously. Right? So do you feel like you’re keeping up to speed with SEO? Or is that challenging for you as a copywriter?

Shyanne Reynolds  15:21

I do my best to keep up to speed right now I’m kind of just waiting and writing it out to see what Google does. But I check all the forums daily. And I think as a whole, you know, the biggest step is to just focus on your audience and serving them, and then the rest kind of follow. So I don’t think it’s as intricate and complicated as a lot of people make it seem to be. 

Megan Porta  15:43

Yeah. And then with AI being so prevalent right now, how important is it for food bloggers to just check on that? Like, I wouldn’t want to hire a writer personally, who was producing all of my content through AI, I don’t think it’s bad to use AI as a tool as a guide. Do you know what I mean? So what are kind of I don’t know, what are your thoughts on all of that?

Shyanne Reynolds  16:06

Yeah, I’m very anti-AI for the blog posts themselves. However, in terms of you know, about me pages, and social media and stuff, I think it can be very helpful to streamline the process and crank out a lot more content a lot faster. But I do think it’s really, really important to have human eyes on it and checking and tweaking things. Because you can kind of tell when things are written solely with AI. 

Megan Porta  16:32

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Do you feel like people who do write blog posts, with AI included are going to get dinged? Do you think that is a negative? 

Shyanne Reynolds  16:43

I do I think that’s coming for sure.

Megan Porta  16:45

Yeah. Do you see evidence of that? Or is that just a feeling?

Shyanne Reynolds  16:49

I’ve seen some evidence. I think right now, everything is shifting so fast that it’s hard to tell for sure. But I think again, if you’re focusing on keeping your readers in mind, they are smart. And they can tell when it’s written by AI. And you run into the problem that AI can’t generate new ideas or new concepts, it just regurgitates what’s already out there. So everything will start to look the same, essentially, which will be a problem. 

Megan Porta  17:16

That’s interesting. I like how you put that AI can’t generate new concepts. That’s something that I hadn’t really thought about before, because it takes anything currently that exists, right, and it kind of like smashes it all together. But as far as like novel, new things, or experiences, even, it can’t do that.

Shyanne Reynolds  17:36

Exactly. And it can’t bring that human emotion to, you know, your mom’s favorite casserole dish so you grew up in love eating and just can’t provide that level of emotion or depth. 

Megan Porta  17:48

Yeah, okay. So I was wondering if you would talk a little bit about a problem I had a few years ago, and this was all on me. I tried to squish my VA into the writer role, and just like, oh, well, while you’re helping me, let’s take on writing. And it just didn’t work. And I tried to make it work for so long. And it took me a long time to learn that, would you’re talking about that a little bit?

Shyanne Reynolds  18:15

Yeah, absolutely. I see that quite often. The issue with that is most VA’s are very task oriented. And they’re really, really good at carrying out a to do list and keeping you organized and structured. However, I mean, there are a few of them. Most of the time VA’s aren’t trained in blog writing or writing of any kind and they don’t know SEO. So you run into them just kind of kind of trying to scramble to put stuff together and imitate your tone or it’s not in their skill set.

Megan Porta  18:49

And they’re not necessarily trained in writing, they don’t have writing skills, so it can be okay. Like, that’s what I found for myself. It was fine. And it worked. Okay, but there’s such a difference when you actually hire someone who’s a trained right, like a skilled writer. I mean, it’s like night and day, if you look at what they wrote versus what I was trying to make my VA become. Yeah. Alright, what do you have for food bloggers? Do you have any other recommendations if somebody is looking for a writer, anything that they should keep at the top of their minds or recommendations, tips, anything at all?

Shyanne Reynolds  19:32

I think it’s very important to work with people that you enjoy working with. So making sure your personalities gel and making sure the way you give feedback relates or curves corresponds to how they receive it. For instance, I can handle pretty blunt feedback, but some people get a little upset with that. So just making that very clear when you’re hiring, you know, how you communicate how you assign posts, how you edit, and we’ll go through them and beyond that I think looking for people that have experience in the type of food you’re writing about. And people who love food beyond just the written word, it’s important to love writing. But I think having that experience with cooking and different cuisines really plays a big factor into an average food writer and a really great food writer.

Megan Porta  20:20

That is such a great point. So not just to writer but somebody who is a little bit adept, at least in the kitchen, and who loves food and cooking and has some sort of kitchen experience. And then back to your point with just hiring. How do you go about hiring people? Do you have a process for, you know, like, going through applications and all of that, what is your process with that?

Shyanne Reynolds  20:45

So I think, you know, quick applications for this job are the best I don’t feel there’s a need to have, you know, a million questions their entire life’s background, I don’t think it’s relevant for this role, I would primarily focus on any food blogs they’ve written for, or similar publications, their portfolio, and maybe a few references beyond that. Most writers will have, you know, a pretty simple website where you can view their packages and what they offer. And then if you find a few that you like, some of their example posts or some of their work that you’ve seen, you know, moving to that test post or a further interview, if you want to meet, you know, via zoom or something to make sure you mesh.

Megan Porta  21:28

Yeah, I like that you said quick. So it doesn’t have to be this elaborate, drawn out application and interview, it can be just getting right to the point. Do you have the skills? What’s your portfolio? And what are your packages, basically?

Shyanne Reynolds  21:45

Right, because by the time you’re wanting to hire a food writer, you’re probably pretty overwhelmed as it is. So there’s no need to draw that out and add a million messages to your inbox just to sort through.

Megan Porta  21:57

All right, Shyanne, anything else that we should know, when we are ready to hire a writer?

Shyanne Reynolds  22:04

It doesn’t always work out. And that’s not always your fault, or the writer’s fault. Sometimes. It’s just a matter of tone and preferences. And just because one writer didn’t work doesn’t mean none of them will. So keep trying. I see a lot of people give up after one just thinking that no one can match their voice. And it’s not true.

Megan Porta  22:23

I hear this so much. I mean, I can’t even tell you how much. This is a huge pain point and frustration for food bloggers. They’re like I tried it once or I tried it twice, even, or maybe even three times, and nobody can match my voice. So they just stop. And then they continue on with being frustrated with the right doing their own writing. And it just takes a little bit of encouragement, like, just keep looking right like you. There’s somebody out there to kind of reflect your voice and write about the things that you’re passionate about. Thank you so much. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your copywriting services? I know you offer your own packages and all of that, so we would love to hear about those? 

Shyanne Reynolds  23:06

Yeah, absolutely. My primary packages are for food blog posts. I also offer email writing. And if anyone’s interested in outsourcing social media, I have a team of amazing people who can handle that as well. We’re really here to be kind of your one stop shop for all kinds of outsourcing just to make your life easier so you can get back to focusing on what you love and why you got into food blogging in the first place. 

Megan Porta  23:32

And should people go to your website to get all the information? shyannereynolds.com 

Shyanne Reynolds  23:38

Yep, yep, that’s the easiest place. 

Megan Porta  23:40

Okay. And are you on Instagram as well?

Shyanne Reynolds  23:42

I am. It’s @shyannereynoldscopywriting.

Megan Porta  23:44

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Shyanne. This was a very fun conversation. Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Shyanne Reynolds  23:53

I think words of inspiration would be don’t be afraid to experiment and don’t forget to have fun with your food blog. I know outsourcing can be stressful but really in the long run it can take so much off your plate so you get back to what you love. 

Megan Porta  24:09

Yes, love it simple but very powerful. And we’ll put together a show notes page for you if you want to go look at those and everything we’ve talked about head to eatblogtalk.com/shyannereynolds. Do you want to spell that for everyone? Just something they’re going to the right place?

Shyanne Reynolds  24:25

Yes, it’s S H Y A N N E and then Reynolds is R E Y N O L D S.

Megan Porta  24:32

Awesome. Will everyone go check out Shyanne and all of her services and everything she offers. Thank you again, Shyanne for joining us today and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  24:43

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