Episode 702: How to Tap into Reddit’s Hidden Traffic Potential As A Food Blogger With Robin Means

EBT702 – Robin Means

Intro 00:00

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

[00:00:37]   Megan Porta

Give me your honest thoughts on this question. What are your thoughts about Reddit? Do you love it? Hate it? Have you never used it? Are you indifferent? So curious to know this conversation inside.This interview was so enlightening for me personally as a food content creator. I talked to Robin Means from from Vegan Dollhouse and she is utilizing Reddit in a way that actually serves her, that brings her traffic to her website and fills some gaps in other areas. She gives us all the information we need to know about Reddit.

[00:01:14]   

Why use it? Why now? She talks about getting started, how to navigate subreddits, how to find the subreddits that pertain to you and your content and your blog, what what to post, when to post, best practices. She talks about engagement, how to do that, and how to glean ideas from Reddit so that you can create more high quality content. I absolutely love this conversation. Not only was it super valuable, but Robin is just an amazing person and I think you will be inspired by her no matter what. This is episode number 702.

[00:01:42] Sponsor

Food bloggers. Do you want to see the conversations behind the mic? Eat Blog Talk is now on YouTube featuring edited interviews with expert guests. Head over to YouTube and search Eat Blog Talk. Hit subscribe and join the conversation in the comments. Let’s connect and grow together.

[00:02:06]   Megan Porta

The Vegan Dollhouse is based in Northern California. Taking inspiration from cute animals, sweet Lolita and tea parties, Robin Means makes cute and colorful vegan foods and desserts. She has been making vegan food for 25 years and is still as passionate as she was on day one.

[00:02:30]   

Hi Robin, how are you today?

[00:02:33]  Robin Means 

Hi. I’m doing well. How are you?

[00:02:35]  Megan Porta 

I’m good. Welcome to the podcast. Your first time here and the first time talking about Reddit. So welcome, welcome.

[00:02:41]  Robin Means 

Thank you.

[00:02:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, super excited to chat about this and shed some light on it. I think the people listening will be have piqued interest in this. So before we get into that though, we would love to know if you have a fun fact to share with us.

[00:02:56]  Robin Means 

Yes. My fun fact is that when I was, like, 14 or 15, I lived, like, not in a city, and there was no Internet, and so I wanted, like, unique clothes and there was nowhere to get them. So I just started making my own clothes.

[00:03:11]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh. Amazing. What were your first. Describe your first clothes that you ever made.

[00:03:16]  Robin Means 

Oh, my gosh. It’s gonna sound so silly, but I took a pair of pants and I cut, like, the sides out and I put in grommets, like metal grommets. And then I laced them, but that was like, I probably wouldn’t wear that now.

[00:03:34]  Megan Porta 

Oh, I love it. So creative.

[00:03:37]  Robin Means 

But as a teenager, I was very into it.

[00:03:39]  Megan Porta 

You were so impressed with yourself. I love it. I mean, creativity all over those pants. That’s awesome. Okay, so that kind of leads me to just wanting to know more about your site. So Vegan Dollhouse is your site, right? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[00:03:57]  Robin Means 

Yeah, sure. So I started Vegan dollhouse, like, maybe 12 years ago. Before that, I had a cupcake blog for a few years, but it was, like, not a good blog. It was like a blog where I was, like, sharing, eating cupcakes with my friends at their birthday parties. It wasn’t, like, a good blog.

[00:04:15]   

And so I did the cupcake blog for a few years, and then I was like. I felt like I was feeling too limited, you know, like, too niched down. Yeah, I was like, I want to make other cute food. Right? Like, I was into cupcakes because I’m into, like, cute food. Like, cute little food.

[00:04:31]   

I mean, do, like, cute everything, but also food. And so I was like, okay, so Ieatcupcakes.com is not going to work anymore. Right. And so I came up with Vegan Dollhouse because I have a friend, Jocelyn, and she, like, named my house the Vegan Dollhous because it, like, looked like a dollhouse.

[00:04:49]   

It had, like, the white picket fence and it was very small, had, like, the little columns. It was one of those older houses in downtown. So, yeah, that’s how I started it.

[00:05:00]  Megan Porta 

All right. And then what kind of content do you share on Vegan Dollhouse?

[00:05:03]  Robin Means 

Oh, yeah. So one vegan, obviously. So it’s only vegan food, but that’s, like, not really the focus. I think the focus is more like what I would call cute food, party food, food that you’re celebrating something. Probably not that much everyday food on my blog, I think it is everyday food for me, but I think you have to really like being in the kitchen, like, you have to like cooking.

[00:05:29]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Oh my gosh. These are. The lemon tartlets look so cute. So much cute stuff on here. And the little chocolate pretzel butterflies and oh my goodness. Adorable. How do you come up with all of your content?

[00:05:43]  Robin Means 

Isn’t that funny? All different ways. Like sometimes I’m like inspired by art that I see a lot of it. I’m just thinking about it when I’m in the shower. I know it sounds silly, but that’s. It’s just ideas that come to me usually.

[00:05:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. The succulent cake. Oh my gosh. How in the world did you do that?

[00:06:01]  Robin Means 

I know that I had help with it is.

[00:06:04]  Megan Porta 

It looks amazing.

[00:06:05]  Robin Means 

Yeah, that took that. That took a while. Me and a friend did it together and it still took like hours.

[00:06:11]  Megan Porta 

Oh my goodness. Mind blown. Wow. Amazing work there. I mean, talking about creativity from your pants to this, you are obviously a through and through creative individual and that shows just in my 60 seconds of looking through your blog, so.

[00:06:27]  Robin Means 

Oh, thanks.

[00:06:29]  Megan Porta 

And then remind me again how long Vegan Dollhouse has been around.

[00:06:34]  Robin Means 

I think it’s like 12 years, I think.

[00:06:36]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:06:36]  Robin Means 

Maybe 2012 or 2013 was my first post on there.

[00:06:41]  Megan Porta 

Okay, awesome. So that into Reddit. How did you become interested in Reddit? When? Yeah, when did this become an interest? I guess.

[00:06:51]  Robin Means 

Oh, that’s such a good question. I like don’t even remember. I mean, I could go on Reddit and it tells you like your Reddit birthday or whatever. It’s just like the day you signed up and I can’t remember when that was. I’m guessing like eight years ago. Ish. And I don’t even like remember like how I heard about it or why I started looking into it.

[00:07:09]   

I’m sure somebody mentioned it or maybe I stumbled upon it. I just have no idea. I do not remember. But I had a lot of luck with it so from like the get go. So I’ve just always stuck with it.

[00:07:24]  Megan Porta 

So what did you first use it for when you went on there? What so intrigued you about it?

[00:07:29]  Robin Means 

Yeah, just the amount of engagement I get compared to like sharing my recipe anywhere else. So like I guess my main places that I’m at are like Instagram. I wasn’t on Facebook back then. I was on Instagram. Maybe like. Yeah. Was that it? Maybe just messaging. I mean, obviously Pinterest, but I think Pinterest.

[00:07:50]   

I don’t consider Pinterest maybe social media as much. Right. Yeah. So yeah, I guess when I went on Reddit and you can share a link. Right. Which obviously Instagram you couldn’t then unless you had like 10,000, 10,000 followers, something like that. And so. And I didn’t, so I was never able to share links there.

[00:08:10]   

So it’s like the only way you’re getting people to click through is by convincing them to, like, leave Instagram, leave the scroll. Right. Which is like, nearly impossible.

[00:08:19]  Megan Porta 

It’s so hard. It’s like a vortex of something.

[00:08:24]  Robin Means 

Yeah. Oh, Food Gawker. I guess. Foogawker. I got a lot of traffic from back then.

[00:08:29]  Megan Porta 

Yep.

[00:08:30]  Robin Means 

So, like, yeah, there just wasn’t like a lot of places where I was getting traffic from besides Pinterest and Google. So I was just like, oh, this is really cool. When I shared on it and saw how much traffic I got, I was like, oh, okay.

[00:08:41]  Megan Porta 

Now is it frowned upon to share links? I mean, that can be perceived as spamming, depending on the situation, right?

[00:08:49]  Robin Means 

Yeah. So, yes, it depends on a few things. Every subreddit is different, right? So they all have their own rules and they all have their own, I guess, like, best practices. They call it rediquet.

[00:09:04]  Megan Porta 

Oh, nice.

[00:09:05]  Robin Means 

And so, yeah, like, you don’t want to, like, start off, I guess, right away just like posting a bunch of your links. Like, okay, for instance, don’t join Reddit after this, after you hear this conversation and then start like going through all your backlog recipes, being like, oh, all of these. I’ve never shared before.

[00:09:25]   

I’ll just boop, boop, boop. You can do that on Food Gawker, that’s fine.

[00:09:28]  Megan Porta 

Don’t do that on Reddit and say, Robin sent me.

[00:09:37]  Robin Means 

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so, yeah, you wouldn’t want to do that. But if you’re like, I don’t publish a lot of recipes. I know a lot of bloggers are publishing like two, three a week. I’m publishing one a week max because my recipes are complex. They take a lot of time.

[00:09:53]   

And so for me, I’m. It’s never spammy because it’s like one a week.

[00:09:59]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:10:00]  Robin Means 

You know, so.

[00:10:01]  Megan Porta 

So do you just do new content and what’s the. What’s the context? Like, do you just get on and like, hey, check out my new succulent cake. It’s really fun looking. Or do you join a thread that’s already talking about cakes? Or how do you go about that?

[00:10:17]  Robin Means 

Yeah, I. Okay, so that’s a really good question. So I have kind of my own strategy for how I do it. So my main thing is I’m posting a new recipe on my blog and I’m going to Reddit and I’m sharing that new recipe. So I’m starting a new thread. Okay, and then you’re in multiple subreddits, right?

[00:10:35]   

Well, I. I think most people are in multiple subreddits. So you’ll have your favorite subreddit. That’s the one that, like, you get a lot of engagement from, and it’s like your main one. So I always post there first. And then you have all your other subreddits and you just look through everything that you’re a part of and see which ones seem practical, which ones make sense, and then you cross post to those.

[00:11:01]   

So, like, if I were comparing this to Facebook, let’s say you post your recipe on your blog page. Right. So I posted on my vegan dollhouse page and then I share it to the recipe sharing groups.

[00:11:16]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:11:16]  Robin Means 

Right. So it’s kind of like you’re doing that on Reddit.

[00:11:19]  Megan Porta 

Okay, So I get what subreddit is. I. Okay, I’m going to tell you something. I’ve never. I don’t think I’ve ever used Reddit. I get the concept. Like, I know what it is and what it’s used for.

[00:11:31]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:11:31]  Megan Porta 

So will you describe what a subreddit is?

[00:11:34]  Robin Means 

Yeah, subreddits are actually really cool. Like, they’re so niche. So it’s basically like, you know how you have your different friend circles? I assume you have different friend circles. I have different friend circles. Okay. So I have, like my girls that I skate with, so my roller skating crew, and then I have like my vegan crew, my vegan friends, and then I have like my music friends, which are like, people I used to DJ with.

[00:11:55]   

Right. So I have like these different friend circles. So you can go on Reddit and find your different friend circles, which sounds like crazy, but that’s kind of what subreddit is. It’s like it goes down so niche, like bagels, you know, like all people who just post bagels, like, it gets real, real niche.

[00:12:13]   

Yeah. So you’re finding your little niches, I guess.

[00:12:18]  Megan Porta 

Okay. And then how big are these or how many people are in each? Or does it just depend?

[00:12:23]  Robin Means 

It depends. So some people will just like start their own. And it’s kind of new, so it doesn’t have that many people in it. I don’t usually post in those because you’re just not getting any engagement. So I’ve pretty much vetted like a really good group of subreddits. That get at least like a cert.

[00:12:42]   

I’m looking for a certain amount of engagement. Right. I don’t want to post something and get fewer than 5 comments. I don’t want to post something and get fewer than 10 clicks through. Right. I want people to, like, be engaging with my content. So the groups that only have, like, less than 20,000 people, I wouldn’t bother with.

[00:13:03]  Megan Porta 

Okay, 20,000. So on Facebook, in the groups. I know there’s kind of an unspoken rule that you can’t just go into a group, become a new member, and then just start, like, publishing your URLs. So is there a time frame? Like, should you wait a little bit and get to know people first like you do on Facebook?

[00:13:21]  Robin Means 

Yes, totally. Yes. You definitely want to, like, build your karma if you’re not already on Reddit. So some people are already on Reddit for non. Maybe not their food blog. Right. Maybe they go on it because they’re, like, trying to ask people’s opinion on how to, like, do something around their house. Right.

[00:13:38]   

So maybe you already have karma. But if you’re, like, not on Reddit that much, you really want to build karma before you start posting. So, like, my advice would be to, like, join Reddit, then find a couple of subreddits that seem interesting to you and then read their rules. Because everyone has really specific roles.

[00:14:00]   

Some of them have no rules, but some of them have very specific rules. So you want to make sure that you’re not breaking any rules and so, like, just like, kind of lurking. So if you’re just like, in it, you’re reading other people’s posts, you’re commenting on their posts. That’s all building karma.

[00:14:15]  Megan Porta 

So that is very similar to the face Facebook group strategy, I guess you’d call it that a lot of food bloggers use. Like you. Yeah, the karma. Karma is a great word to use. You’ve got to set the stage for good things. You can’t just go in and like, here click my links and come give me traffic.It has to be kind of a give and take situation.

[00:14:36]  Robin Means 

Yeah, totally. But remember, you were like, do you ever look for threads that are already existing? So that’s actually part of my strategy. But it’s not like, okay, I just published a chocolate black berry cake. I’m gonna go and see if anybody’s asking any questions about chocolate black berry cake. It’s not like that. I just shared my chocolate BlackBerry cake as a new thread and then I’m going in and I’m engaging in the group with other people’s stuff because they want you to be engage. They want to see that you’re engaging more than you’re posting.

[00:15:10]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:15:11]  Robin Means 

And so when I do my like cross posting to all of the other subreddits that I think that it would go good in. So if it’s this chocolate black berry cake, I’m going to put it in vegan baking and I’m going to put it in baking, you know, like, so I have like a few that it goes with.

[00:15:26]   

All those tabs are now open on my because it opens a new tab. So I just go back to each tab that’s already open after I’ve posted it everywhere and I engage with like 10 other people’s posts in each of those subreddits.

[00:15:42]  Sponsor 

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

[00:16:22]  Robin Means 

And so the engaging with other people’s posts is what you’re talking about. So what I do is I look at it and somebody’s like my mother in law is coming to visit. I really need a recipe that’s like gluten free but also doesn’t have onions, right? And so they’re like asking questions in these subreddits and you’re answering and they allow you to do formatting in the comments.

[00:16:47]   

So, so you can even put a bunch of links and it doesn’t look like you’re spamming it with links. So you can be like, oh, I have five recipes on my website that would fit that criteria. So you’re writing it as a paragraph, you’re highlighting the text every time you say this pate.And then you just link from the word pate in there. So it’s like you can kind of sneak in a lot of traffic that way.

[00:17:11]  Megan Porta 

How much time do you spend doing this? Is this a huge time investment for you?

[00:17:16]  Robin Means 

Okay, so I love that you asked this because I just looked into it because I, I don’t really like Pay attention to how much time I was spending. But I just looked into it because I knew we were chatting about it and I wanted to be able to tell you, well, I just wanted people to know.

[00:17:32]   

This is my selling point on Reddit. Are you ready? This is it. I compared it to Pinterest. I compared it to Pinterest for this reason. For me, Pinterest is the next high traffic driving, social media esque place that has longevity. Right. Is that, is it called longevity where, like, it’s not like Instagram or Twitter where it disappears after like.

[00:17:53]   

Yeah. Okay. So Reddit and Pinterest, I feel like, are kind of like neck and neck. Right. So that’s why I only compared it to Pinterest. I spend a third of the time that I spend on Pinterest doing Reddit, but I get three times the traffic from Reddit.

[00:18:10]  Megan Porta 

Wow, that blew my mind.

[00:18:12]  Robin Means 

I had no idea until I looked at it.

[00:18:14]  Megan Porta 

You didn’t even know and now you’re enlightened. That’s so great. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Okay. I feel like this is an underutilized platform. I told you before we started recording that I feel like so many content creators just have a bad. What’s like, connotation with Reddit because these forums have become more popular and have actually outranked a lot of our high quality content.

[00:18:42]   

So personally, when I see a Reddit link pop up when I’m doing a search, I’m like, oh, it’s like a source of frustration. But there’s the opposite side where you can actually embrace this platform and use it to help your food blog grow.

[00:18:57]  Robin Means 

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that was been like a year and a half since that started. Right. And when it started, I was like, oh, cool.

[00:19:05]  Megan Porta 

You were excited.

[00:19:06]  Robin Means 

Yeah, I guess everybody else was not like, oh, cool. But I was like, oh, good, this is good for me.

[00:19:11]  Megan Porta 

That’s amazing. So you’re fairly new at Reddit within the past year and a half or so?

[00:19:16]  Robin Means 

Oh, no, no, no. I’ve been on Reddit for like eight years. Sorry, a year and a half ago is when Google and Reddit made the partnership.

[00:19:22]  Megan Porta 

Right, right. Yep. Okay, gotcha. And then do you find people, like, friends there too? Do you make friends with people on Reddit?

[00:19:31]  Robin Means 

I would say no. Okay, so I’m saying no because Reddit is very big on anonymity. Is that how you say that word? And so what that means is that. Well, I used to joke and say people go to Reddit to fight.

[00:19:50]  Megan Porta 

To fight?

[00:19:53]  Robin Means 

Yeah, because they’re like, hiding behind this anonymous username, nobody will ever trace who they are to who they really are. It’s not like Instagram, where they can kind of. It’s kind of linked to your Facebook and you can kind of see who the person is. Like, they can say whatever. Like they just say their mind, which is like, kind of good.

[00:20:08]   

You’re getting actual honest criticism from people on your recipes and it helps you improve. But also like, if, if you’re sensitive, it could hurt your feelings some days because some people will just be like, that looks like puke.

[00:20:22]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:20:24]  Robin Means 

Or whatever, you know, whatever mean thing they feel like saying. Like, instead of kicking their dog, they’re kicking you on Reddit. Oh, but that being said, I will post something sometimes or I’ll comment on somebody else’s post and they’ll be like, oh my gosh, that means the world coming from you. I have been following you for a decade.

[00:20:45]   

I love your recipes. Like, so do you make friends? No, not really. It’s not like you would hang out with the people later in life, but. But you get interaction. I don’t know. I don’t know. Okay.

[00:20:59]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, like, it sounds like a unique kind of interaction.

[00:21:03]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:21:03]  Megan Porta 

Every platform brings unique personal. And I feel like this personality is so different from anything we know. So it sounds like you just have to get into it and learn it, right?

[00:21:13]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:21:14]  Megan Porta 

And then outside of just going in and creating these kind of like karma based relationships like giving and taking and then hopefully posting URLs, what else do you post? You post about other things going on in your life just to keep the conversation flowing.

[00:21:33]  Robin Means 

No, I don’t. And I think that’s. I think you can if you want. But like, as food bloggers, we’re already. I mean, I’m gonna say it over posting. Like, I feel I get post fatigue. I’m tired of talking about my life.

[00:21:48]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:21:51]  Robin Means 

Like, I’m talking about my life in real life when I’m hanging out with friends and then I have to like, talk about my life online so that like, my followers get connected with me. It’s just like a lot of talking about myself.

[00:22:02]  Megan Porta 

You’re right. It is a lot of.

[00:22:03]  Robin Means 

And so it’s nice that I don’t have to do that on Reddit.

[00:22:06]  Megan Porta 

You know, that’s refreshing.

[00:22:07]  Robin Means 

Like, okay, that actually leads me to something that I did want to mention. So something that is really cool about Reddit is it’s nothing is based on followers. So it’s like you don’t. You’re not like on, on Instagram. I feel like I’m like, fighting for followers. Right. I’m constantly, like, battling to get followers.

[00:22:26]   

It’s. It’s not like that on Reddit. You. It doesn’t matter at all. Like, you right now can go on Reddit and get just as much engagement as I would after being on Reddit for eight years, because they don’t do it based on follower count. So it’s like, great for someone new, which I feel like is not the case with any other platform.

[00:22:44]   

Not even.

[00:22:44]  Megan Porta 

True. And so there’s no algorithm or anything?

[00:22:48]  Robin Means 

There is. So yes. Good. I’m glad you asked.

[00:22:52]  Megan Porta 

Talk about that.

[00:22:53]  Robin Means 

Okay, so you know on Facebook, when you go in a group and it’s automatically sorted by something that’s not time.

[00:23:03]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:23:04]  Robin Means 

And. Well, some groups, some. I see that, some are. Some do default to by time.

[00:23:08]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:23:08]  Robin Means 

And I don’t know exactly what that is that it’s sorted by, but Reddit has that and it’s called hot. And so if you want to make it into hot, you need to be having a lot of engagement. And once you make it into hot, it just goes crazy. It’s like, goes from like 5 comments to a hundred.

[00:23:25]   

Right. And so you want to get your stuff into hot because it means more people are clicking on your recipe link and maybe more people are fighting on your. But either way, it’s like engagement is engagement. So great. If two people want to get in a battle on my post, go for it.

[00:23:43]   

Like, I’m fine with that. So whenever somebody comments, I go back in and I reply to their comment. Because every reply to a comment counts as another karma point. Right. And so. Or let’s. That’s kind of called upvotes. They have like an error up and down arrow. So it’s like upvotes and down votes.

[00:24:02]   

And so when I’m. When I told you, like, the amount of time I spent on Reddit, that include, like the majority of my time is replying to comments. Yeah. So. And I reply to all of them. Not all of them. Like, if someone’s like a hater and being completely psycho, I’m like, no, let someone else fight with you.

[00:24:23]  Megan Porta 

Right. You fight with someone else. For those. If somebody is being a hater, is there a way to get their comment removed or do you just completely ignore it?

[00:24:31]  Robin Means 

Yeah. So different groups have different moderators. Some groups are more moderated than others, and moderators can remove posts at any time for any reason they want. And so if you, if a post gets a lot of downvotes, then the moderators are more likely to delete their comment and so you can downvote. And I think that that’s typically what’ll happen.

[00:24:56]   

Like if you’re in a gluten free subreddit and someone posts something that’s clearly gluten and they were not following the rules, everybody’s going to downvote it and then the moderator will see that someone got a lot and boot them.

[00:25:09]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Is there potential for people to be banned from Reddit?

[00:25:14]  Robin Means 

Yeah, I think. I don’t know about Reddit as a whole, but from subreddits.

[00:25:18]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, from subreddits. Okay. And how, like, what do you have to do to get banned?

[00:25:22]  Robin Means 

Break the rules.

[00:25:23]  Megan Porta 

Just. Okay, so if there are rules, follow them. Or you could get banned.

[00:25:28]  Robin Means 

I still to this day, like, part of my procedure is if I’m about to cross post into something I don’t normally post in, that’s like, like there’s just some really niche ones. Right. And only a few of your recipes are going to fit there. So I reread the rule, even though I’ve been on Reddit this whole time.

[00:25:47]   

Like, if it’s not one of my main ones that I post in all the time, and I know the rules like the back of my hand, always reread the rules.

[00:25:53]  Megan Porta 

Okay. Wow. I’m learning so much. There’s like a little secret subculture with lingo and all of these words that upvote and hot. I had no idea hot was a thing. I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m so intrigued by this. And there is so much. Like, there’s so much, so many sub threads on Reddit. I mean, I see them pop up in Google searches all the time. It’s just like an endless stream of them. Yeah, like on any topic too. Not just food related, but literally anything in the world you can talk about. All right. If somebody listening is like, okay, this sounds like a good option.Really looking for this engagement and traffic, getting involved in Reddit. Where do they start? So they create an account, find a few subreddits, and then just start engaging.

[00:26:41]  Robin Means 

Yeah, don’t post yet. Just start engaging.

[00:26:44]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:26:44]  Robin Means 

Engage on other people’s content and just like, like watch and learn. I feel like every, every community has kind of its own, like, vibe. And so you just want to, like, get the vibe for the room, basically.

[00:26:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I just wrote that down. Get the vibe. We read each other’s mind. Okay. And then just do that for. It’s kind of the same on Facebook, honestly. Like, you just have to observe the room for a bit and then feel it when it’s ready to. For you to chime in. It kind of feels like that same thing.

[00:27:14]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:27:14]  Megan Porta 

And then would you say, like, don’t be afraid of Reddit. Embrace Reddit. Would that be a message for other food creators?

[00:27:22]  Robin Means 

Yes. Yeah, I think, like, people are used to getting, like, negative comments if they have a post that goes viral on other social media. So I think you’ll be ready for it. Yeah, but it’s like going to a protest, right? There’s a lot of protests going on right now, as we all know.

[00:27:40]   

So you’re going to a protest and like, 50 cars honk and wave and are like, yeah, yeah. And then one car flips you off, like, and you can’t stop thinking about that one car. Like, this is for me. I’m talking about myself here.

[00:27:54]  Megan Porta 

No, I hear you.

[00:27:55]  Robin Means 

And so I guess it’s kind of like that, like, don’t, like, try to focus on all the good. There’s so many good comments. People make you feel so good. Like, I get so many nice comments on Reddit, and it makes me really happy. So I guess, like, yes, go for it and just try.You know, people can say it, it’s just hard to. It’s hard to do it, but try not to let the one bad apple ruin the whole batch.

[00:28:21]  Megan Porta 

Well, unfortunately, we’re pretty schooled in that area just with blog posts and YouTube. I feel like YouTube’s the worst with people just saying terrible things. So I think most people listening are kind of have dealt with that before, so it’s not like a new thing. But you kind of alluded to this earlier.

[00:28:39]   

You also get ideas about your content too, right? Like, you could probably generate, like, I don’t know, ideas for new posts or article posts or something like that from Reddit users.

[00:28:51]  Robin Means 

Yeah, I mean, I, I use Reddit a lot for that. And I also. So some. Some groups don’t like it when you do this. And also I’ve been called AI for doing this. But sometimes I’ll ask questions. Like, I’ll be like, what’s the best muffin? Like, I need to know what people are looking for.

[00:29:08]   

And then, you know, you take. You take what they say, and you go into key search or whatever you’re using and figure out if, like, it makes sense to make those. But just to know, like, what muffins people want. And you get, like, the. Some of the things people come up with. I’m like, I would have never thought of a muffin that flavor because it’s not for me, but like, if there’s other people out there, and especially if you’re getting repeated comments for the same flavor, you’re like, oh, yeah.

[00:29:32]   

But yeah, sometimes when, when I post things that aren’t like, super specific, just boring, like, this is my recipe, you know, like, I’ll get a comment like, say, I. Not everything is AI.

[00:29:49]  Megan Porta 

My family calls me AI. I don’t know how that started, but they’re always like, see mom’s AI. Like, so we’re other than that.

[00:29:58]  Robin Means 

Are they on Reddit?

[00:30:00]  Megan Porta 

No. Oh, gosh. Good question. I don’t think so.

[00:30:04]  Robin Means 

Are they teenagers?

[00:30:05]  Megan Porta 

Yes, they are. Oh, they’re on Reddit, so maybe they are. That’s so funny. I don’t. Yeah, I’m trying to think how that started. It was some weird comment I made last summer. And I remember my 14 year old son looked at me like, who are you? He literally was scrutinizing me like, are you real?And ever since then he’s like, mom’s a robot. I don’t think she’s a human.

[00:30:29]  Robin Means 

That’s so cute.

[00:30:31]  Megan Porta 

What else do people have to know about Reddit? What else would you like to enlighten us about?

[00:30:36]  Robin Means 

I feel like we talked about a lot of it. Yeah, I mean, your questions were per. Like, all of your questions were so good. Like, those are all the things that I would tell people, I guess. Like, maybe if you have listeners who aren’t necessarily food bloggers, but they have a YouTube channel, there are specific subreddits for you.

[00:30:55]   

There’s specific subreddits that are only for links to YouTube, only for cooking videos. And you can’t put a link to a blog, like it’s against the law.

[00:31:04]  Megan Porta 

Oh, interesting. Okay, cool. So literally everything under the sun you can find. Okay.

[00:31:11]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:31:11]  Megan Porta 

I’m so intrigued. I want to go right after this and like, get a. Is it easy to get a user? You just like, make up a username. Do you have suggestions about what kind of username to make?

[00:31:21]  Robin Means 

Just anything that, you know, don’t let them give you yours. Make it match. Make it match your blog. Or if you’re going on there to talk about your podcast, make it match your podcast name.

[00:31:30]  Megan Porta 

Okay, cool.

[00:31:31]  Robin Means 

Yeah.

[00:31:31]  Megan Porta 

Oh, I’m so inspired.

[00:31:33]  Robin Means 

Ah, yay. I’m so excited.

[00:31:35]  Megan Porta 

Yay.

[00:31:35]  Robin Means 

I’m excited that you’re excited.

[00:31:37]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Well, thank you, Robin. What a great chat. And it was just getting good, getting to connect with you and meet you. So thank you for sharing all of this and inspiring us. We really appreciate it.

[00:31:48]  Robin Means 

You’re welcome.

[00:31:49]  Megan Porta 

Do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with today?

[00:31:55]  Robin Means 

Drink water. I know it sounds silly, but I feel like as food bloggers, we’re all over the place all the time. We’re like multitasking times a thousand. And sometimes it’s easy to forget to drink water.

[00:32:09]  Megan Porta 

I would say, like, not sometimes, but all the time. I need to remind myself to do it. So, yes, good reminder for all of us. Thank you. We will put together a show notes page for you if you want to go look at those, head to eatblogtalk.com/vegandollhouse. Tell everyone where they can find you.

[00:32:27]   

Robin.

[00:32:28]  Robin Means 

I’m Vegan Dollhouse everywhere. And like, everywhere. All of the places. I’m not super active on a lot of places, but I’m there.

[00:32:39]  Megan Porta 

Are you Vegan Dollhouse on Reddit?

[00:32:41]  Robin Means 

I’m Vegan Dollhouse on Reddit.

[00:32:42]  Megan Porta 

Ah, okay, awesome. And then wasn’t there. There was something else you were going to mention?

[00:32:47]  Robin Means 

Yeah, I did. I made like a list of subreddits so that you don’t have to do all the research and work because it does take a lot of time. It could take like a year to find all of your subreddits. Especially because when you post things, people will comment a subreddit that it would go good under.

[00:33:04]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:33:05]  Robin Means 

So like, I’ve gotten a lot of ideas for subreddits to join that way, so I have a pretty lengthy list. It’s only for food bloggers, though. I don’t know if you have people who listen who aren’t food bloggers, but they’re food bloggers. It’s all for food content creators. And so I can share that with you.

[00:33:23]  Megan Porta 

That would be amazing. Yes, yes. Awesome. So go to show notes to find that. And thanks again, Robin. It was such a pleasure. And thank you for listening, food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:33:38] Outro

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