← Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
Getting Curious About Pinterest Marketing
00:39:35
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- [00:00]
A
It has been almost 12 years since I started this business. I have seen so many ups and downs in the Pinterest marketing space that I feel like I could do a great chronological history of all the things, all the strategies, all the tactics, and assign dates, times and reasons for why people do things. But recently I came across a YouTube video of somebody who was sharing something, something about these strategies that were working for them. And they were strategies that I would probably say, I don't know, I'm using a little bit of caution with that. But towards the end, something hit me. And what hit me was I was watching somebody who was super curious about their Pinterest marketing. I am Kate All. Welcome to the Simplepen podcast. Today I'm going to be interviewing Megan Hernandez about her story when it comes to choosing Pinterest for her marketing for her blog. We're gonna go back through how she got to this place in her current moment, what she has learned, why she leaned into Instagram and ultimately leaned out, and what she's learning currently about her Pinterest marketing. I wanted to email Megan because she inspired something or wanted to do a podcast with Megan because she inspired something in me. And that was no matter how long you've been doing this, no matter how frustrated you might get, get curious and challenge the norms of what you hear, people teaching, even me, even other people who have been doing Pinterest for years, working with tons of different clients, look at the data and let it guide you. So that's the story that I want you to listen to today. We walk through her story, we walk through her decision to lean into Pinterest, we walk through her current strategy and we walk through why she created that video and how that video ultimately helped me wrestle out with some things in my teaching and what I bring here to the Simple Pin podcast. So if you need help with Pinterest, if you need a consultation, if you need ads help, if you need organic help and you this is your first video you're ever watching or first podcast you're listening to of Simple Pen Media. You can go to simplepen media.com there's lots of links down below in the description. Just click around and explore and see what we have to offer. Again, after 12 years of doing this, there is so much on our website that you can get into, whether it's keywords and images, ads, services, or just one time help that you might need. We have something for everybody, so go ahead and check that out. Simplepin media.com with that, here is my interview with Megan Hernandez, Megan, welcome to the Simple Pin podcast.
- [03:03]
B
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk Pinterest.
- [03:07]
A
Me too. And we were already talking before we hit record, which is typical with most podcasts, cuz we're just, you know, getting to know each other and kind of all this chatting. But you made the comment that your blog is your baby. So I want to know a little bit more about how much you love your blog and a little bit of the origin story of how it got started.
- [03:28]
B
So mine's a little bit different. I started my blog actually eight years ago, which sounds like forever ago, but I was pregnant with my second daughter and, and fully just started it as kind of a creative outlet. I was going through a lot of just postpartum stuff and I needed just an outlet for me to write and maybe connect with some other moms. So that's how it started. Just very kind of innocent and just like, like I said, a mental kind of break for me. But then, you know, with blogging I learned you can't just write a piece of content and people are going to just magically see it and you have to kind of go push it out, promote it, use other platforms, you know, for people to see it. So then I just, you know, I've, I've always been comfortable with Pinterest. I was a Pinterest user before a content creator. So I've been on Pinterest for at least 10 years. Really soon after I feel like it came out. So that was my beginning. I had a blog and I knew Pinterest a little bit and then just really got started. What I think everybody has to do, just looking up YouTube videos, kind of learning the nitty gritty of just getting everything set up. I was all ready to write and just do the creative stuff, but of course, you know, had to spend a lot of time just researching the technical stuff. I want to say I did it for a couple years. It was hard having eventually a new baby, a toddler. I didn't treat it like a business at all. It was definitely in the beginning, just kind of like a hobby, a little outlet on the side. Went into it a couple years and then I actually shared this in a video. I kind of stepped away from my blog. I took a weird path on my journey and got into the influencer world over on Instagram. Because of my blog, I went over to Instagram thinking, okay, you know, I'll try a new platform to try and get traffic over to my blog. Long story short, that did not work. Out. No one was clicking from Instagram to my blog. It turned into like it's own business. People just want to stay on the app and then brands, you know, the bigger that account was getting, brands wanted to pay me just to post there. So in the short run, I thought, okay, this maybe is a good, you know, source of income for me. I liked doing it. It was still creative. But gosh, two or three years into that and it was just taking all of my time. I completely stopped on the blog. I just didn't even. I wasn't even thinking about the blog anymore. Um, so that's my biggest regret with blogging is, is stepping away and focusing on Instagram. That's probably set me back so much. I always think where my blog could be today if, you know, I hadn't, I hadn't done that. But I take it as a learning experience. I took a few years, learned Instagram, that whole world of, of marketing, and then only came back to my blog about a year and a half to two years ago. And that's when I kind of really changed paths from the mom parenting content to recipes. And that's just because personally in my life, I just as a mom, started caring about eating healthy and cooking and realized, well, there's a whole world for this content in Pinterest too, so let's kind of learn this craft. The better at writing recipes and photography and all that that I got, the more it just started picking up really quickly in these last like one to two years.
- [06:48]
A
I want to pause real quick and just ask you this question. As I'm hearing your story, I'm hearing like multiple iterations of you're going from a creative to a business. And that in itself, I think is such a huge leap for people because you are, like you said, it's my baby. It's the thing that I love. And it becomes this outlet for these things. So on that, how did you. Was that just like a natural progression for you? Because a lot of people really fight against that. They're like, am I gonna lose my creative self as I get so into business? Like, or did you feel like. It felt like, okay, this is go time. I'm gonna move from creative to business. How. How was that for you?
- [07:32]
B
Yeah, it actually was kind of a conscious decision. When I came back to the blog, I actually made a very, like, conscious decision to stop Instagram. I just decided I'm going to stop posting, go back and just take, you know, pick up where I left off on the blog and see what happens. Just really in the beginning, just getting back at writing content, just getting some recipes out, just focusing on getting content out. And that's when I realized there should be, you know, this is a lot of work and I love it, I love doing it, but I should be trying to get paid wherever I can. So that's when I, I had actually partnered with mediavine. The first time around, I had a post go viral on Pinterest, of all places, and it got so much traffic that I was able to get into the mediavine program. The first time around when I, I left to do Instagram, I kind of also had to leave mediavine because everything just dropped. So it felt good to be back in there again. This is my second time with them, but this time around it was so. I had, I had some experience with ad income and this time around I definitely knew that was going to be a priority along with, you know, my, my main focus is always just making sure my content is good, that my recipes are quality. You know, that's always like the number one thing on my mind. But since I, I know I'm putting out good content, I know that, you know, I could probably get paid for it. So I really, they kind of go hand in hand, the better. And the more confident I got in my content, the, the more I kind of felt like I could be making and I should be doing the research and knowledge and just trying to learn just different, different income sources, which is still something I'm working on. Really right now it's only the ad income, which is great. I'm really happy with what I've done and what I've learned as far as just partnering with an ad network. But now I know there's so many other ways to go. So it's exciting, but it's hard. As a creative person, I just want to keep doing the creative work. It's really hard to stop and actually, you know, put some plans in place and goals for growing the business side of it. And it is super scary, but I think I'm at that point, so. So it's interesting time to talk to you. I'm actually starting to think of maybe hiring a person right now. I do everything on my own, so it's, it's scary. I very much feel comfortable with the creative stuff, but the business side is, is scary. But I know to grow, we have to make those scary decisions.
- [09:58]
A
Yes, a hundred percent those scary decisions. And it is hard. And I, I do want to touch on this a little bit before we dive into Pinterest, but What led to kind of this all in for you on Instagram before and thus kind of turned into burnout? Because what I hear from a lot of people is people will either outsource Pinterest to us because they are focused on Instagram, or I'll even hear from people that they are more focused on Instagram. They're more willing to, I guess, jump through all the hoops of the algorithm and all these other things. And you said it like, there's very little movement off of Instagram. Like, people don't leave the app, they just want to do these things. So I guess for you, when you were in that mode of like, you were blogging, you were all these things and then you jump to Instagram, was it a little bit of like, I think this could be lucrative, make me more money? Was like, I guess, or was it group think? Right? Like, there was this big, huge push to, to go to Instagram. Talk a little bit about that decision.
- [11:04]
B
Definitely. I felt. So being a new mom, I don't know if it's the content I started consuming. I. I started also seeing a lot of moms doing what, you know, the, the more, the more the influencer type content, not a blog. They were sharing, you know, stuff on Instagram. So once I came over there with the original idea to get traffic and realized that wasn't working out too much, I kind of just watched what these other people were doing and realized, you know, okay, so I'm basically getting to do what I liked on the blog. I could still write in my captions. I was really coming from the point of sharing my story as like a new mom who was just struggling, you know, like I said, with postpartum stuff. I kind of came in and just wanted to be open with my story. And I had a goal of trying to help just other people who, you know, maybe were going through something that didn't feel comfortable talking to, you know, people in their lives about it. So that was always the main goal. But I did see, okay, there's gotta be a way that I can work in making money because I see all these other people, you know, partnering with brands, I see all these sponsored posts. So then I definitely, it always went hand in hand, my content, like I said, it's always. I tried to, to really make sure that I was serving a purpose. I was never just trying to put out content just to put it out or just to make money. So it always, the money kind of went with still making sure that I was putting out something that, you know, was of value to someone. I really, that's just really big to me. I know not everybody, you know, comes from that place. But, but, but yeah, as I was sharing my story and then I was learning the other side of it, I. That's exactly what I did. I took time and decided okay, maybe this might make me more than my website. Because like I did part I got in with media buying at the end of the first time around with my blog, but I wasn't making, you know, my numbers were still pretty low. It was nothing major. I definitely started making more per sponsored post on my Instagram. So with about, I'll tell you numbers, I'm not afraid, I'm not weird about hiding it. I got up to about 15,000 followers and which is not huge. It's really not that much compared to some. But I was getting about 500 to $2,000 per for just one post. So you know, at the time, yeah, I decided, okay, this is maybe where it's at. I can do what I was doing creatively make more money than the website. But again, I don't know if you are curious about how that ended, but the burnout, the amount it took to put into that work and just to keep the account going versus getting, yes, I was getting some good sponsored post payments, but it's a one time payment and then it goes away. Whereas it took me a while to realize, okay, this, this money I'm earning on the website could keep earning me. You know, this post could earn me money for years to come versus like a one time payment for content that took almost as long to, to do as a blog post. It was, was just extremely time consuming and the haunting I was sharing, sharing my story, it, it just wore on me. It got really, really hard to be so open and vulnerable and on just like all the time. Because Instagram, to me it felt like you just had to post constantly or else it felt like you kind of got penalized. Like you start losing followers and it just, it got to be way too much. So I just, I burnt out and decided it wasn't worth it.
- [14:27]
A
Yeah, I mean I, I was talking with a friend of mine, I like to say my in real life friend, not my online friend. And we were talking about this Instagram kind of like hamster wheel of it. It was really in like the beauty space. Right. And what I was saying was that I was, I was following these women who were just like critiquing themselves right to the point where I was like this feels kind of intense. But she said this great point. She's like, but you would be too if you were walking around looking at your face all day long or posting content all day long, or having this thing being held up. And I was like, you're right. Like, if I had to be so immersed in the world of posting all the time or giving feedback on what is happening in my home or what is doing, the burnout level of not chasing that over and over does seem so high. And there's a lot of people, I see that, like, maybe they love it, maybe they thrive on it, maybe they don't even know they're in it. But I hear more stories similar to yours where people just go, I can't do it anymore. Like, I'm so exhausted from the grind that I have to pick something else. And oftentimes we hear people come to Pinterest after all of that.
- [15:45]
B
It's my favorite. I've, I've experimented with everything now at this point, and Pinterest is by far my favorite, especially with my goal. I know everybody's goal is different since I'm trying to get traffic to a website. There's nothing better than Pinterest. Um, I know for some businesses Instagram's probably great, but yeah, just the, it's just, it was like night and day trying to keep up Instagram versus Pinterest. Like, I have two kids, I have so much other stuff. I have to kind of manage that. Instagram felt like I had to be on 24 7, whereas Pinterest, it feels like I could, you know, it's more normal, traditional kind of work hours and it just wasn't worth it. I really don't think even in the long run, what I was making is not worth where my blog and the income I could make over there could be. So. Took me a while to realize that, but. And I also think there's a personality thing. I see some people who I've, I've personally watched for years and they never like, take a break. They're just on all the time and they seem fine. So there's got to be some people, personality wise, that that kind of feed off of that energy more than others. And for me, it was just, it's too much. Instagram was too much.
- [16:56]
A
Yeah, 100%. I'm with you. We're in the same, like, Instagram sucks the life out of us. But let anyone not be fooled. I still open up the app all the time and scroll it and I have a hard time letting it go. So there's that. Okay, so that's a perfect place for us to leap into. You made this decision based on your time, based on income, to lean into Pinterest. So here's how I kind of enter into your story. Last May. I am a be divine partner. I work with their partners. I help support them when it comes to Pinterest. And there was. In May, Pinterest had moved the visit site button, or for some people, they added it. Whereas before you could click on a pin image and then it would go to your website, now it was kind of pushed down a little bit and it was visit site. Now there's some speculation as to, like, why people, why Pinterest did it. Is it the AI race and people, you know, pushing AI down and pushing good content up? All of those things. But I, I saw a video that you had done, and I think Mediavine was in the title. I kind of can't remember it, but I thought it was so good at the time. And it, you know, I started following you and you came on my radar. Well, two weeks ago, I was, I go into YouTube a lot to look at stats, and you had a video, and as we all do, you had a great thumbnail because that's what you have to do on YouTube to get people to click. And I watched it and you were talking about three things that you're doing. And as you presented these three things, and they were three things that aren't really talked about as much anymore, but they were like things that you're willing to explore. And you said in the video a couple of times, like, these are things that are working for me. I can't say if they're going to work for you, but I want to at least share about them. And in my head, what clicked for me was curiosity. And in a landscape right now where there's a lot of people who are asking, is Pinterest still the place for me or, or especially as bloggers and creators, it, it feels like it's changed so much. There's a lot of AI slop. There's all these things going, happening. You stood out to me as a beacon of curiosity because you said, like, I want to fight for this to be something that is going to fulfill the goals of my blog. And you have this previous experience with Instagram and you fought for that for a while and you said, like, this is not for me, me now, this is for me, so I'm going to make it work. So I want to touch a little bit on that curiosity and how you, before you answer this question and I hope I'm not going to like drag this out too long, but I want to, I want to make this point too, is that when people get curious, it's very easy to get into this line of over gamification where suddenly we're doing all these things on a platform, right? A little bit kind of to the Instagram story. Like we're doing so much to. Of the platform that we kind of forsake the content that we're creating, right? And there's things that the content, when people land there, is really truly what makes you money. Right? Because that's where the ads live. That's where people. You want people to stick around. And we can get into this like $1 task versus $10 tasks. So I guess one, I'd love to know like what started getting you curious. And then two, how do you follow like that or how do you stay away from that line of going in too deep, you know, to the gamification piece of spending all your days trying to figure out the platform.
- [20:37]
B
I think to answer the second part, the way I don't get too caught up in just overthinking everything with Pinterest, I've kept it very. What's the word? Almost like no strategy at all. So what I do, I watch. I kind of watch a lot of YouTube videos. I'm definitely. I absorb a lot from other people and I think that's super important for all of us bloggers. Anybody really learning something we always like. I think it's important to save some time here and there to like go actually like research and learn. So I would. Anything to do with Pinterest, especially on YouTube, you know, that's how I found you. There's a lot of good people that put out really good information on just their experience with Pinterest, different tips. So now, I mean, over eight plus years of using it, I've just tried everything. I've never really been afraid of trying something. My thought was basically, what's the worst that could happen? No one clicks on it or, you know, there really wasn't any like huge downfall to experimenting with, with different things. And I also, this is kind of, I don't know if this makes me a little bit different, but one thing that, that was very common that I heard from a lot of people is how many pins you should be pinning a day, how many new pins. I would see people putting out, you know, all these really big numbers. Like you should put out 20 pins every day. 40. There's. There's so many crazy numbers. And it's funny because I think 200.
- [22:04]
A
Before, by the way.
- [22:05]
B
Yeah, that's. That always just to me, like, wasn't even an option. And I'm sure that there's tools, and I always did kind of mean to. To spend some time. I'm learning one right now. I'm sure that there's, you know, ways that. That people were getting this done, but to me, that wasn't what I wanted to focus on. I didn't want to focus on overdoing it. And maybe that comes from my experience with Instagram. I didn't want to, like, spend all of my time on making pins. I want to spend my time on content and making good content, and I felt really confident in my content. I'm not sure, talking to you, I almost think that maybe that had something to do with it. So I. I knew that I wrote something good, and I just really tried to make, you know, a few. In the beginning, I was just making one image for every blog post, which I know is crazy. I mean, that's like, nobody agrees with that. And I know that I could have gotten more traffic if I was, you know, putting out even more. Just like, you know, if I could do 20 pins a day, I can imagine maybe the traffic that I would have. But it was never. It was never doable to me. And since I had that experience with Instagram, I knew I did not want to get to the point where I was just breaking myself trying to keep up with a platform. So that was my mentality from the beginning. I never even tried to follow the advice of those people with just really high numbers of pins you should put out. I kind of, for me, found an amount that worked. I kind of found a. You know, by trying all these different things, I found a little routine that seemed to be working for me. And I would go into my analytics, and to me, the most important thing is outbound clicks. So as long as those were always going up or, you know, going the right direction, that's really all that mattered. I never got lost in, like, worrying about followers or really too much else. I tried really hard to, like, tune out the. All the people saying how much you should pin. And it got easy. At some point. At some point, I just knew that wasn't in my schedule. I just knew I couldn't do it. Let me do what I can do and do what those pins. Just make them really, really good. You know, just try and master what I'm doing. And it. That was working really, really well for me. I'm Doing a lot more now. But even just that with just putting all my time and energy into my blog post. And then I did put a good amount of time into making nice pins, like I said, one in the beginning. Now maybe I make three at the most for a new blog post. But making them really good quality, it's really hard to use AI for me because they're recipes. Like, I have to take the pictures of the food, so. And I'm against using it in my area, like, in recipes. But that's just. Personally, I'm still gonna make the recipe and actually take a picture of the food. So it's really hard for me. It's a very manual process right now doing my pins, which, again, is why I can't do the number that people are saying. But I think just, like, really getting good at that, at my recipes, at my writing, at my pictures, and then at pin design, I think that that helped. Just making sure those were all good quality. And then I was consistent in my Pinterest plan, even though it was different from everybody else's, I did stay consistent with it, which I know everybody says, and that part's definitely important. So even if I was pinning only, you know, a new image every week, I was still making sure every week, you know, I was on there doing these things. It was just much less volume than people. Than people. Stress, but. And not saying everybody else is wrong.
- [25:43]
A
True. Well, and I think one of the things that you. That was so great that you called out here was you said, this is what I could do. And I knew other people were doing all these things, but, like, one was really good. And then you got intentional about pin design. Design. And so often I think people brush over those two things, right? And they say, I want to get to three images right away. I want to kind of. I've written all this great content. I've taken all the pictures. I've been really intentional about that. Let me just create a pin. Pinterest image and call it good. And you really took that whole creative arc all the way to the end to say, no, I'm going to create great content. I'm going to create one really good image. And when I can, I'm going to do three. But when I do that, they're all going to be really good. And I think that's the thing that we see with Pinterest marketing, is that people tend to rush the process, especially those who are new. Like, I'm thinking of new food bloggers who have started within the last two years. And they're listening to thoughts and advice from people who started their food blog in 2010, 2015, 2000, even 2020. Right. And they have had all time to be in the industry and they're, it's almost like they don't know which way is up anymore because they're just so confused.
- [27:12]
B
Yeah, I think it's so important, just like mastering your content first before because my, my, I don't know my opinion, I guess If I make 50 images for one post that are just, you know, average looking versus three really good ones, if those 50 aren't going to get clicked on, then it doesn't really matter how many I'm making. If they're all not, they're not going to get clicks. So I'm experimenting with a tool right now and that's my experience. The tools weren't getting the pins to look the way I want them and I'm very picky. As much as I've tried the, the automation in these tools just isn't there yet. I'm trying to kind of play around with working some in, but I still go and do the ones I like manually on every single post. And I think, like you said, I don't think that's something people think matters that most. But man, that pin image is everything.
- [28:05]
A
Yes. It's the only thing people on Pinterest see. I mean, they don't read, whereas they do on Instagram. They're only going to size up that image in a second or less to say, yes, I want this or no, I don't want this. So why not put a bow on it if you will, of all this amazing content that you've created so that people will connect with it now to take that to the next level. You have been really intentional with this whole process and now this curiosity point of like strategy tactics and strategies that kind of work throughout Pinterest. How what guides you, what guides that curiosity and what you lean into, what.
- [28:45]
B
You take the next step with, I think what content. Seeing what content is performing well kind of is one way that's guiding me. But also just kind of life stuff, I guess you could say with being, you know, kind of a full time stay at home mom, that's really number one. But as I get more time in my day, as my kids get older, just as life stuff provides me more time to do this, that's where I can kind of focus more on growing the business and more strategies, which is kind of what happened recently. I probably like a month ago. I want to say, well, when they went back to school is when I sat down and really tried to come up with a new way to grow my blog. Because I kind of reached the goal I had and I've been sitting at that goal for a while. I hadn't really come back to it and set like a new plan to grow more. So that's really. It's kind of when the, when the time allows, I guess for me personally, but then also being intentional about it because it can be really easy to just get stuck in the motions every day of either writing your post, making some pins pinning. But, you know, I've learned there really should kind of be a overall like a bigger picture strategy. Um, and for me, it, you know, I just came up with. With a new one. And since I was doing so few new pins per post and I was actually posting way less often, I was only doing new posts maybe once every two weeks. That's all I could get done because I was, you know, put so much time and effort into these recipes. But now I'm even putting out content faster. I. But I made that like an intentional goal. Okay. If I'm going to grow, I need to hopefully get a little faster at putting posts out and maybe start really thinking about getting some more new images per post. Never 2040. I. I can never do that much. But at least with some, totally with some of my time, be. Be a little more intentional on the growth aspect now. Now that I can. So I am kind of just recently I kind of sat down and I do have a new, new strategy with Pinterest and just my blog and SEO in general to kind of grow it even more. Oh, I'm excited.
- [30:59]
A
I love that. And you don't hear that excitement very often right now. So for me, thank you. That's a gift to me to hear your excitement. But I think like two is you're coming up with a plan. And I often use this phrase, like, you see horses with those blinders on and they're not looking right or left. And that's what I also hear in your story, is this thing that's laser focused on your numbers, your. Your content, your result. So in that the question is how often do you check in with the data? Like, and what data points guide you?
- [31:36]
B
So I look at the most. The biggest number or most important is outbound clicks. I'll look at that probably a few times a week just because it's so easy. You know, when you just click over to analytics, it'll be one of the numbers you see right there. So I don't do, like, too much of a deep dive. I just kind of always keep an eye on it, make sure it's not taking a big dip for any reason. And then I also. This kind of goes to one of those points that I've made in that video that I use group boards. So that's a big, big part of my strategy. And I like in the analytics, where it shows you your top performing boards, you can, you know, break it down. I can see which ones are getting me the most outbound clicks. So that's the other area I look at the most, which boards are performing the best. Because it took me a while to realize all that information was there. And I realized, okay, I could be pinning to some boards that are getting me nothing versus these other ones that I should be putting more, you know, attention and putting more or pinning to more. So I think those two are really, like, the biggest things I look at. I don't drill too far down unless I'm sitting there and going to look into, like, some seasonal content or doing some research on a certain topic. But just, you know, for overall, for my blog, it's really outbound clicks and then looking at which boards are getting the most activity.
- [32:55]
A
Yeah, I love. I actually loved that, like it. And that probably is the point of your video where it clicked for me with the curiosity that you had was that idea of group boards. Because we've heard, you know, there's been hit or miss for us with clients, whether or not they've worked or not worked. But what I love is that you leaned into something that you paid attention to in your analytics that was really counter to what maybe a lot of people see or even a lot of people still look into. Right? And I always want to be that person who challenges even my norms. And like, you and I were talking before we hit record, I'm really also super careful with what I broadcast or what I say because I don't want to lead a group of people, people down a path. But I think you telling your story and the way you told it was to say, this is what is working for me. But this is because I discovered it in my data. Like, and the data told me the story, not a group of people told me the story. And I have huge respect for that because that is you being a business builder of your content and no one else, no one can take that away from you. Right? Like, no one can come to you and say, megan, these group boards don't work. Like, don't you use them? You're like. Well, it says they are right here. Yeah. Which is, I think, amazing.
- [34:19]
B
There's quite a few things that I've learned. Like I said, I'm always, I'm still, even now I'll watch other people's videos, see what's working for them. But I, I definitely can see what I'm doing differently and there's quite a few things. So no, it's important for me and I'm, I guess because the whole YouTube thing happened on accident too. But it's been a blessing as far as learning from other people that blog or have blogs or websites. It's been amazing. But that's my big thing. I'm just a blogger like all of you. I'll share what's, what's helping me. But it, it, you know, it might not help for you. And it's hard when everybody's content is different. There's definitely, you know, yes. Content that does better on Pinterest than others. And I think people don't always remember that too. But. Yeah, no, I lost my train of thought.
- [35:08]
A
Yeah, no, that's okay. I was gonna say even in the food space actually there's so much variety, right. Like you can have people in the food space who do very, very high end. Their photography is very like dark and stormy, right. And that's a certain type of person that's going to engage with their particular content. And then you have the people who are every day or budget, which is very important right now, giving how expensive groceries are. You have cooking for, you know, kids at home. And then you have people who are cooking for people who are doing freezer cooking that might be empty nesters or college students. We've seen that as well with some of our food content creators that when we look into their analytics, they're serving this strange like boomer crowd and Gen Z crowd like at the same time, which is really interesting. So yeah, I agree. Every single person and how they create content, who they're creating content for is so different and such a huge variety. And so I mostly wanted to have you on this podcast just to one say well done. Right. Like that's really great that you have really followed where that beacon is going and not like you need me to say well done to you, but like I thank you for that gift of watching the video that you did in order for me to go. Yeah, I love watching people get curious. And in this moment of online negativity, whether it's aimed at Google, whether it's aimed at AI, whether it's aimed at Instagram. There is opportunities for us to turn that on its side and say, I'm going to get curious. I'm going to lean in to what the numbers tell me, and I'm going to go down that path. And that, I think, is to be commended in this landscape.
- [37:04]
B
I really appreciate that. And hopefully I can be an example, because I remember starting out in the recipes, I thought I was crazy. I'm like, okay, there's so many websites out there with recipes. Like, who am I? How am I gonna stand out? This is. There's no way this is gonna happen. But again, I think just thankfully, I didn't get stuck in that bot. I just really stayed focused on learning. Okay, how do I take better pictures? How do I get better pictures of my food? Making sure I'm writing the recipe good, making sure the recipe is good, that I'm making it, that I taste it, that, you know, someone else who makes this is gonna like it. Just really getting that down and just staying focused on that. I feel like, helped so much because then at some point I did start, you know, ranking with Google, and I feel like the better at my content I got, then the rest kind of started happening. I mean, obviously I had to put effort into SEO and Pinterest, but I think that if you. If anybody starting out can just get really good at what their content is, that'll already just be a step ahead of everybody else, because there's a lot of people that just aren't spending that time on it, and they're just pumping out just kind of some garbage to make money. But I think in the long run, people. People will see that, and that's not what they want. So if you can really get good at your. Your content, master that, I think that's where then the people will come.
- [38:24]
A
Yes. I love that. That's the perfect note to end on. Megan, where can they connect with you both for, like, all the things that you're doing with your food blog and then also with some of your teaching that you're doing as well?
- [38:38]
B
Yeah. If you're interested in learning blogging, I'm just sharing all, you know, the tips I can that I've learned along the way on YouTube. It's electric mommy. Understand underscore. Same with Pinterest. Everything's electricmommy underscore. You can find me over there or electricmommy.com if you want to take a peek at my recipes. I love it.
- [38:55]
A
We'll have all the links down below in the show notes so people can go check that out and I'll link this specific video, too. That kind of peaked my, like, excitement over curiosity that you had, and that was really great. So we'll make sure and link that below. So thanks again for being willing to just share your story, share your, your journey, and just, you know, put it out there and encourage people as you go along. So thanks again. I appreciate it.
- [39:21]
B
Yeah. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you.