172: Dreaming Big with Olena Osipov

In this episode, I share my favorite type of photos and we talk to Olena from iFoodreal about her success story as a food blogger. Hey there everybody. This is Bjork Ostrom. You are listening to the Food Blogger Pro podcast and the podcast is brought to you by WP Tasty. If you haven't checked out WP Tasty yet, be sure to go to wptasty.com to see the plugins that we offer for people specifically in the food blog space. Now, maybe you don't have a food blog. Maybe you have a fashion blog or a DIY blog or a craft blog. There are some plugins that still would apply to you, so I'd encourage you to go ahead and check that out specifically. I'm not even going to talk about the plugins, but specifically go check those out and then check out some of the testimonials from some of the people that use those plugins. You can see how they use them, what they like about them. And we have a huge pool of testimonials from people that have used the plugins from wptaste. Today's Tasty tip is all about photos. And a lot of you that listen to this podcast are people that take photos. But I actually wanted to talk to you about using other people's photos and specifically a favorite type of photo and a favorite type of stock photo. And that is the photo from or the photos from unsplash. It's just unsplash.com and many of you know stock photos. These are photos that somebody creates that you would use. Maybe if you are putting together a post and you want to have a picture of mountains or you want to have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge or something like that, you probably don't have that yourself unless you've made a recent trip to somewhere that has mountains or to San Francisco. So you need to use stock photos. But the hard thing is a lot of times stock photos can be really hard to find, high quality ones and then really expensive once you do find those. And Unsplash is an awesome site to find super high quality free stock photos. And you can see if you go to the about page on Unsplash, they have this little link to something called do whatever you want. And that's what type of license you get with unsplash photos. And all photos published on Unsplash, they say, can be used for free and you don't have to attribute them. So these are just generous photographers that have opened up their library and specific photos that they have for you. To use. So if there's a, a certain type of post that you're doing where you need a stock photo, you can go to unsplash and look for those. An example of one that we used was on Food Blogger Pro. If somebody signs in and their membership has expired, they see a little photo of a pug wearing this like wraparound blanket thing in the desert and we have a little message for them. And that wasn't one that we took. We just found that from Unsplash. So there might be some creative ways that you can find or that you need to, to use photos that aren't necessarily food photos or photos that you would take. And a great place to get those would be unsplash. And a great combination would be unsplash with Canva where you can add some text and improve those photos and create some really, really cool designed elements for free. And if you want to find the photo that we have, I think it's, I think if you searched pug blanket, you'd maybe, maybe find the one that we're talking about on unsplash. So even if you don' use it, you can try and find that photo. So that is the tasty tip. It is the go to place for free stock photos. And not only just free stock photos, but free high quality stock photos. All right, on today's episode we are talking with Olena Osipov and she is from ifoodreal and Olena's been somebody that we've been connected with through the years and she reached out recently and said, hey, it could be interesting podcast interview to talk about kind of some of the things that I've applied from the Food Blogger Pro podcast and the result that that has had on growing and regaining some of the traffic that I had lost, but then also growing the amount of traffic that she had. And she's going to talk about what those specific episodes were, what she did to implement the things that she learned and implemented, the impact that that had. At the end. She's going to talk about where they're at now. She's working full time on her blog. She's going to talk about her husband coming on and kind of a cool update, a big transition that they're making that has to do with kind of finding this next step for what they're doing. And she's going to talk about what that is and give some really great advice as long as, as well as inspiration along the way. So excited to share this interview with you, Olena. Welcome to the podcast.

Hi, thanks for having me Bjork.

Yeah, we have traded some emails back and forth, but this is the first time for us ever, quote, unquote meeting. It's not officially meeting yet, but as we were talking about and kind of formulating the plan for this interview, I just got more and more excited about it because I think people will find a lot of inspiration from it. Not just about your blog with your story, but also the story of your life. Like you said, you've kind of lived a couple lives and I'm excited to talk about that as well because I think that's important to hear about. So let's start with this. You are currently in Canada, but you always weren't in Canada. Before that. You lived in Ukraine and made a really big move before you were in your 20s, you were 19 years old. So take us back to that point and talk through what that was like doing a cross country move.

Sure. Yes. I was 19 when I immigrated from Kyiv, Ukraine to a small town in Canada in Alberta, Red Deer. And it was not my wish, but I was a teenager and my mom decided that we should go and live a better life. Everybody knows America is a land of opportunity. So I ended up in Red Deer. I had to quit university in Ukraine. I already was taking like I took two years and I had to quit. And once we came to Red Deer, we had no money. I literally had hundred dollars and we lived in a basement. My sister already lived in Canada by then, so stayed with her and I had to go to work. I had a few jobs. My first job in Canada was a cleaner in a casino. And then I moved up to a waitress and then to a bartender. And that allowed to save me a good amount of money. And I was able to start a business program at University of Calgary the next year. So I moved to Calgary and I got my business degree in accounting. And I met Alex when I started university. Alex is my husband and he is Russian and we got engaged. And yeah, once I graduated from university, I started working in oil and gas. Calgary is a huge oil and gas industry and accounting was never really my passion. It was more for my mom.

What do you mean by that when you say it was for your mom?

Well, Eastern European parents, they want you to be safe. And because Ukraine is not a land of opportunity, you have to go for a job that will always bring you income so you will be able to survive. It's really survival mode. So she said, oh, that's going to be great. Everybody needs accountants all the time. But I never really liked it.

Sure.

So I was working as an accountant and I had my first child and lived in Calgary and we were not super happy. There was not much to do and Alex was like, why don't we move to Vancouver? So we packed everything, sold our house and we moved to Vancouver. Once we got to Vancouver, there was no oil and gas industry and that's what my specialty was. So I said, well, accounting doesn't look like an option. I don't really like it. Let's try selling real estate. So I went and got my realtor license and I started selling real estate for I would say four years.

Okay.

It was okay. It was great learning experience because you go from an office employee to being self employed and it's completely different world.

Yeah.

And at that time I had my second child and as I had my second child, I realized real estate is not a good career for me because the hours are hectic and you have two little kids at home and we have no family to help. So I couldn't be that flexible and I was running out of patience. Real estate is very customer service oriented career and I didn't realize that. And my kids needed more and more of me and I'm like, I don't think I like real estate anymore. And at that time, I don't know how I came across Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income podcast and I could not believe that a guy is making money offline. That was 2011. Just back then I thought of sitting at home and getting deposited into your bank account was completely. It was so bizarre.

Yeah. I think it's a really common thing for people to have this realization once they have somebody that kind of lays that out and says, here's in the case of Pat, who's a great teacher and blogger and has a great podcast and he's been on the Food Blogger Pro podcast before. So be sure to check that out. But we can have a similar story where there is a couple of these influential people that were like, hey, this is something that you can do. And it kind of opens that door up in a way that you didn't even know existed before. And it sounds like that was kind of the case for you.

Yes. And I could not believe that it is possible. Like you have this guy, he tells you that's what he's doing, but until you see that money coming to your account, you sit and stare at it and you go, is it real money? So it was really eye opening. But at that point I was like, oh, what do I do? Like, I don't know. I'M not good at what Pat is good at, so you have to find your own thing. And that's how I came across inch of yum. And then I started seeing your monthly income reports and I go, hmm, okay, well, if I could replace my even back then accounting job at the office, which was $45,000 a year, that's like $2,000 a month. I should be fine. And I can stay home with the kids and work at my own time and have flexibility. That was super, super appealing.

It's interesting. Just real quick there, I think one of the things, that moment where you see this somebody doing it and then you kind of crunch the numbers a little bit and you say, okay, if I have this job that's paying X amount, maybe you're getting paycheck $2,000 each time. And you say, okay, what would it take to kind of replicate that? One of the things we talk about is this egg carton method. And if you haven't seen that, we'll link to that in the show notes for people that are listening, but you kind of are able. You have that moment of saying, I see somebody else doing this. I know that if somebody else does this, then I can do that. But what exactly does that look like and what does it take for me in order to get there in terms of a numbers amount? So before you even started your blog, were you kind of thinking in that way? Were you it sou like even earlier on you were going to business school, you were doing accounting. Were you always somebody who was kind of entrepreneurial and had that interest?

Yes. Once I started real estate, I started to promote myself online through different third party marketing real estate websites. And I really, really enjoyed it. And I go, wow, this is cool. This is so much fun. Because it's really up to you. You can put in this much time and get more reward. Whereas if you go to an office job, you're so limited, you get your set salary and that's it. Where here sky is really the limit. So yes, I was always interested in that. But the problem for me was that I was in Canada. We get maternity leave for a year and it's paid. So I did have that. And to start a blog and not go back to work, you're losing that income, right? So I'm like, how do I make a jump and wait out those year or two before I start making those $2,000? So I did my math and I came to conclusion that if I keep my kids at home, I save $1,300 a month. On daycare and then I save so much money on office cl, and then I saved so much money on commuting and so I did my math and then I'm like, well, I'm just a little bit off. So I applied to be an exchange student host family. So we, for a couple of years, to supplement that income, we hosted students from Mexico, Japan and China. And that's how I did it.

I think that's so, it's, it's so cool to hear how intentionally you were at that and to say, okay, if I'm going to do this, if I want to make this work, here are the ways that I can help bridge that gap. For Lindsay and I, our story was one of like this very slow transition where we had our full time jobs and we had our side hustle. And the side hustle was really early morning lunch and then evening, and then that tipped over into like our part time hustle where it was, you know, we still had our, our regular jobs, but we kind of reduced our hours. And then eventually it got to the point where it said, okay, now essentially we're working two full time jobs. How do we just fully transition this over? So we're just working on this. And it sounds like kind of a different version of that for you was saying, I know that I want to do this. I want to have flexibility in what I'm doing. I want to build my own thing where my raise becomes effective when I do, like, the more effective you are, the better the thing is that you build the more you earn from that, which is such a great thing to feel. And so you said, okay, how do I do this? One of those pieces was saying, I know that I won't be able to bridge that gap as quickly as I want, so what are the ways that we can add to that? And saying, okay, hosting exchange students and folding that in as part of the kind of income stream to replace what you were doing. So you're kind of thinking creatively around it. It sounds like even with your blog, when you first started it, were you thinking, hey, I want to start this as a business and grow it into an income producing asset.

I just wanted to replace my $45,000 and I would have been completely happy. Alex, I happen to marry a web designer. So Alex is a web designer IT developer by now. And he told me, why don't you start a blog? It's not going to cost you anything. Here is what Pat is saying you should do. It's not going to cost you anything. Start a blog. And then I was so into fitness and eating healthy because I had the weight to lose after a second child. And he's like, look, take your passion, what you like to do, and let's put it online. And that's how it went.

And that was in 2012, is that right? So that's when you started?

Yes, it was November 2012.

Got it. So launching things off, kind of thinking, okay, maybe I can be intentional about building a business with the initial goal of I want to see what I can do to replace the income from my normal job. At what point in the journey of that or along the way did you say, hey, I'm actually kind of starting to get some traction? Or I think this might work, because a lot of people will get into it and they'll kind of fizzle out and say, oh, this is so much work, it's not going to happen. But how did you stay motivated? And at what point did you. Did you think to yourself, hey, I think this might actually be working?

Alex says that I am the most determined person he has ever met. He's like, I never met a person that is so dedicated and just keeps going and just doesn't give up. You just have to stay on your course. And I just kept seeing this month, and I started with Google AdSense, which generated $30 a month, and then I saw it generated $80, and then, oh, my goodness, it's 150. So you do see this potential, and you just understand that it can be more. You just don't know how much more, but it can be. So I just kept going.

Yeah, it's one of the things that I think is so encouraging for people who are early on is just that proof of concept, meaning you create something and you put it out there, and whatever it is, whether it's a product or a website that has ads on it or, you know, a piece of software. I distinctly remember the first time we ever created anything and had it for sale. It was a Photoshop action, and it allowed you to create a little collage of photos, and it was due to do it in an automated way, which there's lots of online software that does that now, so it's not something that we stuck with. But I remember the first time anybody ever purchased that. And I thought, oh, this is possible. And it sounds like for you that those early stages of even $30 from AdSense was this confirmation that, hey, this thing is possible. But you didn't stop there. You also built on that. So can you talk about how you continued? Because for so often people can get stuck in these ruts and they have these plateaus. What did you do to continue to, number one, stay motivated but number two, to continue to grow. What were the things that were most helpful?

Well, just to let you know, I did hit my plateau later and I will talk about it later. When you have two kids and a mortgage payment, you have to stay motivated. So at a harsh reality, it was either this keep going or going back to the office for 45,000. And I really, really, really didn't want to do that. I have to say that after I had my second child and even after I listened to Pat Flynn and everything, I did go try for a couple of months a marketing job for a local finance company that was helping women with money. So I was their marketing person and that didn't go really well after I tried to sell real estate for so many years and I was self employed. So I got the taste of freedom as being my own boss and I really, really struggled working for somebody else. And that was another just we confirmation for me that I have to make this happen. And I kept going. I just saw traffic growing. I remember posting chocolate protein cake around Christmas 2012 and there was eight people looking at it through Food Gawker. I go, wow, yeah, it's amazing. Eight people are interested in my cake and it's high. You get high from it.

What do you mean by that? And for those that aren't familiar, so in Google Analytics there's this area where you can see live analytics and you can see who's on your site right now, where they came from and what they're looking at. And I think I know what you're getting at when you say there's kind of a high that comes along with it. But what was that like for you and what did that do for you when you logged in and you saw that?

It makes you feel good, it makes you feel important. And if you love what you do, you want to do it even more. It's a little bit, I will be honest and say that it does touch a little bit on your ego. It's like social media, right? The more people follow you, you go, wow.

Yeah, for sure.

It's the same. It's human nature. And I just kept going. And then at that time I saw my traffic growing slowly. It was Food Gawker and taste spotting and Pinterest. Pinterest started to be so big then. And that was my mistake. I relied on Pinterest 100% to bring.

Me traffic and around what Year was this. So when you say then it was a few years after starting 2014-2015-2014-2015 was.

The peak of Pinterest traffic. Yeah, Organic. You take a picture. So you do your post recipe, you submit it to Pinterest and right away you can see in Google Analytics 15 people coming from Pinterest to look at it. That will never happen again ever. So it was really my majority of my traffic came from Pinterest. And then you see this instant gratification for the recipe, and that's really inspiring.

And there's something about. And I think what's interesting with that is I think as much as we can tap into those things that, you know, you called it ego, but I also think other people would just call it like, or not call it, but would consider it to be the kind of thing where it's kind of like playing a game and it like Monopoly in the same way that it feels good to land on and be able to buy, you know, Park Place and Boardwalk and then you kind of have that corner. There's something fun about business building where it maybe is a. Something you could compare to like a board game where there's a. There's a game to it. And one of the ways that you measure games is by numbers. And what you're talking about is one of the ways that you look at numbers and finding those things for you, for some people, it's not numbers. For some people, it's connecting through their writing or it is getting a photograph just right. But finding those things for you and then really leaning into those and letting those be the thing that encourages you and is the thing that you measure or keep track of. And it sounds like for you, one of those things was, hey, looking and seeing, okay, this many people are on my website right now. And when I put it on Pinterest, it works. And that kind of became something that allowed you to stay motivated and interested in doing what you were doing.

Absolutely. And you can't quit at that point because you see it's working. And yeah, you see 100 people on your website and you go, wow. Yeah, it's a great, great feeling.

So at, at what point along the journey? We were talking kind of 2014, 2015, and have kind of started to figure things out a little bit. It sounds like relying on Pinterest a little bit. But was there a point where you said, okay, I'm kind of seeing. Maybe I'm getting close to this point where I can kind of release this idea of going back to the job that you kind of dreaded that, that job that you didn't want to go back to and said this blog thing, this website thing actually might work out for me. What year was that or about at what time did that start to become a reality?

I would say yes, 2015. But more 2016, I was 100% sure. I'm like, it's good. I don't have to go back because 2015 traffic really changed from 2014. But I saw in 2016 it stayed similar. So it is kind of stable. Ish. Yeah, this can work.

I think one thing that's really interesting and important to point out there is. So we talked about starting in 2012 and then 2016 was the point where you said, hey, I'm kind of starting to see and feel confident about this being a thing like that. It could be income producing to the point where it can be my full time thing. That's a lot of time and energy. That's four years of working on something before you get to the point where it has enough speed and momentum to be your full time thing. And it was kind of a similar story for us. And I think especially with a content driven business like a food and recipe website, that's really, really common. I have a friend who we're actually interviewing for the podcast coming up and he has a. It's a men's fashion site and he said he analyzed people that were doing this and said, hey, it really takes about five years. So that was the number he gave himself. He's going to work hard on it for five years and see if he can get it to the point where it's a full time thing and it is now and he has a team and he's working on it. But I think it's important to point that out. It takes a long time and it's something that you have to put a lot of time and energy into. So along the way, what were the things that kept you motivated? So you talked about kind of some, you know, looking at other people and reading what they're doing. You talked about tapping into some of the things that gave you inspiration with numbers and looking at that and saying, okay, I can see some continual growth here. Were there other things that you said, you know, you being a determined person, what were some of the stories that you told yourself that helped you to continue going?

You know, I was following, of course, Pinch of Yum and your monthly income reports. And I was not listening to all food Blogger pro podcasts, but some. And it's being a Food blogger, or even Realtor or in many cases a salesperson. It's very lonely job. You are by yourself, there is nobody else, and it's all up to you. So you do have to stay motivated by listening to inspirational stories and examples. And that's how I kept going. I did read the income reports and I did act upon the things that you guys did. Like let's say an ebook. I tried that and Food Blogger Pro, sharing other stories. So that was my main source of motivation. And some other blogs I just read and see what they're doing and I just kept going.

Yeah, it is. I think being able to connect with other people that get it and that understand is such an important piece of it. And I think a lot of people that listen to the podcast will be familiar. So for a period of time we did income reports, said and traffic eventually as well, and talked about, okay, really specifically here are the things that we're spending money on that we're creating income from, places where we're getting traffic, new things that we're trying and offering kind of a sneak peek into what it looked like to build a blog and a website. But I think the thing that is unique and important to point out in what you're saying is reading those, understanding it and then doing it, like actually implementing and taking action on it. And that is one of the most important things that you know. Everybody has access to this information and whether it be Food Blogger Pro, podcasts, a membership site, YouTube, you know, there's all these incredible resources, but the hard part is actually jumping in and doing it. So. So when you look back at the growth that you've had and the things you've implemented, what are the things that stand out as especially important? And it could be concepts, general concepts, or it could be really tangible changes that you made or things that you implemented with your blog or website. What stands out as the most important?

Up to now, yeah, I would say everything was going well, but in 2016, I noticed that I hit a plateau with traffic. And because I was running a business before and just I have a business degree and it's just common sense. I know. Well, if my traffic is the same as last year, I have to grow. I saw your pinch of yam traffic and it steadily grows like steady growth. And then I hit 2017 and my traffic was lower than 2016, which is.

It's not a great feeling. But what I love about what you're saying is saying, okay, how do I fix this?

Oh, yeah, that was reality check. By that point I have to say, honestly, I got relaxed, I got comfortable. Oh, this is money making website. I'm good. I don't have to learn. I quit learning. That was my biggest, biggest mistake. I stopped learning. So in 2017, I think it was early on because how it goes for a food blog, first three months of the month, especially for healthy food blog, are the busiest. So January, February, your traffic is skyrocketing because everybody is trying to eat healthy. New Year's resolutions, March, it's good too. But then come April, it starts to slow down and summer is really slow. And around Christmas, it's not busy either because Christmas people don't eat healthy. April 2017 came and I realized my traffic is dropping and I have to fix it because by that point I really didn't want to go back to work.

Yes, you know what it feels like to not be there. And when you see that potential in the distance, it's a good motivator.

It's very good motivator, honestly, to sit in traffic for hour and a half commuting downtown Vancouver, I'm like, no, I cannot do this. So that's when I said to myself, I put on my big girl's pants and I said to myself, alina, let's do this. So I went to Food Blogger Pro blog and just started scrolling through all the podcasts. And the one that really struck me was I believe it's 92 with Began Hill of Culinary Hill, where she's talking about defining her niche and really concentrating and rebranding. Kind of like this kind of thing. Because I go, oh my goodness, that's for me. Because I felt so lost. I don't know the feeling I had. I don't know what to do. I don't know who I am. I have this blog. I have this cauliflower crust pizza that brings half of my traffic, but I don't know what I should be concentrating on. What kind of recipes? Healthy recipes. But then there's such a huge competition. Healthy Ukrainian recipes. But how many Ukrainians really are in the world that want to eat healthy? So I was completely confused. But Megan's podcast, where she shares how she contracted Lori Buckle of Cooked Media and how she made it clear. And the most helpful phrase that Megan said was that when I wake up in the morning, I have a clear vision of what I should be doing today. And that was like, oh, my goodness, I need this. I need Lori, I need Laurie in my life.

So.

And that's when I contacted Lori. I just went and googled cooked media And I contacted Lori and I said, lori, please help me. And at that point, that was an investment in your business because it does require some investment. It's not the most cheap option, but I have learned that you have to invest in your business, and that was fine with me. So Laurie said, yes, I can help you. And over the course of last summer, we did three or four interviews. And after that she came up with a clear plan. What my blog is, what is my tagline, what I should be blogging about, and how to redesign the website.

That's great. So I think that was episode 93. That was the interview with Megan. So you can go to foodbloggerpro.com 93 to listen to that. And then we actually interviewed Laurie as well in episode 132. So you can go to Foodotcherpro.com 132 to check out that podcast. What was it? Talk through that process. What it was like for you, kind of the before and after. What did the kind of rebranding or establishing the new site do for you? And in doing that, you can share a little bit about what this site was like before and then, what your blog was like after.

Well, Lori came in and she analyzed my back then website. And Lori is big on creating a story which was completely new to me. And that's whatever Lori talks about in episode 132. Right. That was exactly what she worked on with me. And she said, alina, you need your story. And you do have your story, like, very unique story, but you have to tell it. Like, you have to say it and you have to be the face of the brand. I was really intimidated and scared to put my face out there. It's scary. You hide behind the posts and it's really scary to go out there and even Instagram stories to show your face. You're so. Do I look okay? Is this hair okay? Is it okay if I have like cutting board with bread on it behind me? Like, you know, but once you start doing it, you have to. And once you start doing, you get comfortable and people do want to see real you. And that's what she told me. Have to get out there.

How did you get through that? What was the most helpful thing to get to the point where you felt comfortable?

You put on your big girl's pants and you just do it.

Yeah, it's exposure therapy. It's saying, okay, I'm scared of doing this. I know that I need to. And one of the best ways to not feel scared to do it is to do It. Which is kind of the irony of so many of those situations is that. And I can think of specific examples, like recording a course for Food Blogger Pro or recording a podcast episode where I don't feel a tinge of nervousness before recording now, but I can distinctly remember the first episodes that I recorded and how nervous I was. And it's the only way that I got from there to here is by doing it. And it sounds like that's what you're saying as well.

Exactly. And I go, okay, wait a second. I'm a grown up, I'm an adult, I'm a mother of two children. I can do this big deal. So just by doing it, that's the only way to get comfortable and nobody else can do it for you.

One of the things that you said as we were trading emails back and forth was that, and I would guess that it was from this point you said visitors and page views have grown 60% compared to the same time last year. Which is awesome. And it's such a testament to saying, okay, I know something is off here. I need to move forward and implement some things in order to correct this. And you talked about kind of the rebranding process as being a really important piece of that and working with Lori and Cook It Media. What were some of the other things that you said or learned or implemented that helped you along the way? And there's actually some podcasts as we were trading emails back and forth that you mentioned. And feel free to mention any of those as well that were especially helpful as you kind of thought about improving and bumping your traffic back up.

Yes, sure. I would like to say something about the 60% growth. And actually from the time I sent you email a month ago, right now we see 75% growth.

That's awesome.

Yes. But the time I contracted Lori last summer, summer of 2017, and it took us three to four months to work on rebranding. And my traffic growth I saw only starting this April 2018. So I just want to point out there is no instant gratification. It takes time and it's a lot of work. Yes, but it can happen. Yes. At the same time, 2017 was an eye opening for me because my traffic was dropping. So at the same time as I started working with Lori, I started listening to more and more of Food Blogger Pro podcasts. So one of the helpful ones was optimizing recipes for SEO with Yoast. That's number 91. And believe it or not, in 2017.

I didn't have Yoast, which is a big, quick win.

Oh, my goodness. I don't know how I got there. And I have a web designer husband, but he was working full time. He was just helping me out as I needed him. And at that point, we had an older website with a custom keyword field and a custom description field. So we thought, oh, we don't need. Alex doesn't love extra plugins if we don't need them because they slow down your website. So he said, we'll have this custom. But that website, it was built in 2014, so I didn't have Yoast. So installing Yoast was good.

And what were some. When you installed Yoast, what were some of the things? And for those that aren't Familiar, that's episode 91. Yoast is a plugin that helps with search engine optimization. They have a free and a premium plugin. And what were the things that you focused on when you installed Yoast?

I think I focused on to have a keyword for each post and stay around it to make sure my URL has the same keyword in it and my title. Yoast is not installing Yoast did not fix all my SEO right away. It just helps you to keep on course. And at the same time as I installed Yoast, I was getting emails about someone promoting SEO services, and I contracted out this guy. He was based in San Francisco, and he agreed to give me consultation on SEO for a couple hours. So I took that at same time as I installed Yoast and that helped as well.

Do you remember some of the recommendations that he gave that were helpful?

Yes. What? He said that your keyword, your title should be the same and your picture names should be the same. And I asked him, SEO is very confusing. And I asked him, what if I want to say, for example, I'm working on a recipe, healthy beef and broccoli. Can I say 30 minute healthy beef and broccoli recipe? And he recommended, no, you keep your post name Healthy beef and broccoli. Just what you want to rank for. Keep it the same way.

Got it. So kind of some recommendations around, like titling your images and saying, okay, if you have an image that's a picture of healthy beef and broccoli, like make sure that the image file name is that as well as the alt text that you're describing, what the image is and what is in the image, titling your post and how important that is, so the keyword is included in the title. And then obviously Yoast has some of those recommendations for other things that you should be doing. From an SEO perspective. So sounds like kind of some two different things that you implemented as part of your system. Again, not things that like you change and update and then tomorrow it's suddenly like, hey, there's this big impact. But over time those things, those small wins can really add up.

Yes. And you also have to do your keyword research. There is what I completely neglected and that was one of the reasons my traffic was dropping is I was posting recipes that I thought were awesome and tasty. And they were, and they were cool, but nobody's searching for them.

Sure.

Like frozen vegetables, stir fry. There is 100 people, maybe less, looking for it every month. So how are you going to generate traffic if nobody is looking for that keyword?

And what was the tool that you used for keyword research?

Well, back then I just keyword tool by AdSense.

Got it.

And then I used Google Trends at same time to predict the seasonality and really how many people are searching if it's trending or not.

Got it. And so for those that aren't familiar, Google Trends shows you not necessarily search traffic, but the different seasons that trends would peak. So like Apple Crisp would be more popular in the fall than, you know, in the dead of winter or Lemonade would be more popular in the summer. So it'd be, you see where the trend is over time and also seasonality. And then the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is kind of changed through the years, but it was slash is a tool that allows you to see like the search volume of a certain keyword. There's other paid tools. One that we've started to use a little bit is called ahrefs, I think is how it's pronounced. A H, R E F S if anybody wants to check that out. Or there's some other ones as well. Moz is one of them. But that's a little bit deeper on the keyword research. So it sounds like you're kind of doing a combination of a couple of those things along with so understanding the popularity of the content you're writing and then also starting to be intentional about the kind of, they would call it technical SEO kind of some of the how you're structuring things on your website and so implementing some of those things sounds like was one of the wins that you had along with the branding from working with cookit Media. What were some of the other things that were influential around that time?

Well, we redesigned. Lori said we need a new website and we knew that at that time. So Alex built a completely new custom website. For me, and it took him about four months. We launched just around Christmas time, 2017 last year. So that was huge for us.

And the big thing with that was the branding that came from it, or was there other helpful things from, like a traffic perspective with that launch?

I think the crucial difference was that Laurie said, your website right now, blog style, everything is very hidden and people don't see it. It's hard to find content. So she said she recommended, and that's exactly what she talks in her podcast interview with you. To have it like a magazine, she said, olena, it's not a blog anymore for you. It's online cooking magazine. You have to have all the recipes, like, kind of like the kitchen.com, because Lori has consulted for the kitchen, I believe. And everything should be on a homepage. It should be right there when people get there. So we built this homepage in verticals and by categories that I can change depending on a season. And when a user gets to the website, there is already like 30 or so recipes they can pick from, and they're trending right now. So that was really big for us. So concentrating more on user experience versus about me.

Yeah, And I can see that even when you go to the site. So you can see there's new recipes, but then there's dinner, there's chicken, there's popular recipes, grilling. And what I hear you saying is you can go in and change that. So let's say if it's seasonal or maybe around a holiday, you can switch that out. So you're supplying. And it could be older content, but in the niche that we're in, it doesn't matter, because a good recipe is a good recipe and that'll last forever. But you want to make sure that you're surfacing the right stuff seasonally and also having kind of that cohesive brand. Which makes sense.

Exactly. And older content was very hidden on my website. And it's a good recipe, but nobody can see it. And with losing traffic from Pinterest, you have to concentrate mostly on Google. And that's how people. People come to your website. And that's what I also did. I have to say, a huge part of the traffic growth for me was going back to old recipes and updating them, retesting, taking new pictures, adding step by step and republishing them.

Got it.

That was huge.

And what was huge about that? Why do you think that worked well as a strategy?

Because new pictures, if you take picture from 2013, updated with my 2018 skills.

For sure. Yeah. And I think everybody can kind of relate to that as they know their photography evolves. Did the benefit from that come from search or social media or both? What was most beneficial about updating those older posts?

No, it was mostly search. First of all, it helps you jump up in SERPs and just the user experience, but mostly definitely search. I after all the algorithm changes that we went through with Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram, I put time into my own website. I really cut back on social media and I mostly concentrate on Google.

Yeah, that's great. And speaking of another one of the podcast episodes that you mentioned was episode 133 as kind of being influential in your campaign to regain traffic. And that was the episode with Casey Marquis from Mediawise, who's a food blogger pro expert. Can you talk a little bit about anything that you remember from that podcast episode as being especially helpful?

Yes, Casey is good. Those episodes were helpful. I don't remember exactly what he was saying.

Sure. And I can just jump into. So episode 133. You can get there by going to foodbloggerpro.com 133 Casey talks a lot about the great thing about Casey is he's kind of become known in the food and recipe niche. So he like really understands not only search, but search specific to food blogs and recipe sites. And so if you have a food blog or a recipe site, anything that you're publishing recipes, that would be great episode to talk to, check out because he talks a lot about some of the really important things that are happening with search engine optimization as it relates to recipes and how they show up and tied into that you had mentioned 136 as well. So that episode foodbagpro.com 136 if you haven't caught onto that trend by now, but about optimizing for search results on Google and Pinterest and for those that didn't listen to that episode, can you talk about kind of the difference between optimizing on Google and Pinterest and maybe as you thought about that with your own site, some of the things that were helpful with that.

Yes. Now that you mentioned kissy, I pulled up the episode number 133. I look, I see what helped me destructure data and as we believe it or not, and you're gonna laugh at this, we did not have we were not using recipe plugin in January 2018. We were, but we were still using zip list that went out of business four years ago and was not updated. So I go structured data. What Are those stars? I go, what are those stars that they have? Alex? He's like, I have no idea. So we started looking into and he goes, you need a recipe plugin. I'm like, zip list won't cut it. He's like, no, free zip list will not cut it anymore. It's not updated. So that was a big eye opener that you have to have structured data to rank well in Google. And that was one of the biggest problems for us, why we're not ranking and that's when we got tasty recipes.

Did you notice that with that change, did you track along with structured data like the results in search and did you see a change and if so, how long did that take in terms of what the results look like and how they're displaying?

Yes. Right now our Google traffic is 67% of our traffic together. So yes, since we installed and the star ratings do help and the structured data. Yeah, which it's a slow process and it's slow growth. I hired somebody to calculate all the nutritional info. We use nutrifox as well. Because I was like at a point, I'm like, oh what the heck, let's get it all. Let's get tasty recipes, nutrifox, Tastypins. Then we got on because it's really, if you look at a big picture, those tools are really helpful and they cost very, very little, but they help you so much. And I was so at the point where, listen, if Google says that you have to have it and it's recommended, let's just have it all and see what happens.

Yeah, and I think that's great. And one of the things that's, I think important to point out that you said is with anything search related in any of these updates that you're talking about, the important thing is making those, implementing that, sticking with it and knowing that it's not necessarily something overnight, but over time as you practice some of these best practice things that it kind of snowballs. And the thing is with the snowball, it starts out really small and but you pick up little pieces and it builds over time. And that's such an important piece of this puzzle is sticking with it, learning like you said, implementing and over time seeing some of that kind of slow and steady growth. The last thing, last pod. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I just want to say one more time, there is no instant gratification and you don't know when it's coming. You just have to keep going at it. But once it snowballs, you go what you Go. Excuse me. And it's just completely mind blowing. One of the biggest mistakes I made and really, really want, like, everybody, like, really take my advice and dream big. Like, you can dream big, and you should dream big because we're in America, like, it's. Anything is possible, and anything is up to you. And honestly, it's not that hard. You just have to listen and put in the work and keep going. And many times I found myself, I'm my own, own worst enemy. I'm standing on the path of my own success. I have this voice in my head, no, no way. This cannot be true. I cannot do this. No, this is too good to be true. But I have Alex. Alex is a total dreamer. He's a guy and he's an artist and he's a web designer. He's a dreamer, and he dreams. And I'm the most practical person ever. So we're a good combination. And not. So he is dreaming and I put him back down on earth and then he pushes me back up.

So that's great. And I feel like it's such an important thing. And I think one of the things that's so great is, you know, it's. It's the power of this tool that is the Internet. And whether you're in Canada or the U.S. or Mexico or Europe or Africa, like, obviously each one of those places has different government and how you operate and what it looks like to run a business. But as much as possible, within the constraints of where you are, figuring out, how do you pursue something that you're passionate about and interested in, and how do you set those dreams and those goals? And then for us people that listen to this podcast, how do you use the Internet then to achieve that and to give your voice to the world and to create content and to help people. And that's something that you've done, which is so encouraging and so fun to see. You know, as we followed along with your story and been connected with what you're doing, it's. It's so fun to have this moment, this kind of check in and say, okay, this is something that is. Is so inspiring for people and so encouraging for us to know that it's something you're still doing and having a lot of success with. And this is. You're. You're going to have a big reveal on your blog with this. But it's gonna be after or it's gonna be before this podcast comes out, so we can talk about it here. But you had. Speaking of dreams and dreaming big, you had you've purchased a new house, which is so exciting. And you're making the move where you have a studio for your blog as well. So this is a really big move. You're doing this full time. Is Alex working with you full time on it now as well?

Yes, he is. Now we reached the point where we both worked together now, which is a different story. Working with your spouse for sure.

Yes.

So Alex is concentrating on video and we're still trying to figure out our position on video. And again, it was one of those cases where you just have to start and it's not perfect and it's scary, but we're still working on it. And now we have completely outgrown our kitchen. Our kitchen is not designed to make food videos in it. And now Alex said to me, we have to move. And I said, I don't want to move because I don't want to move.

Yeah.

And he's like, well, why not? We can. And this is one of those cases where I'm standing in a way of my own dreams. She's like, you have to have a studio. I'm like, I cannot afford a studio. He's like, you can. And he took me literally. I'll tell you a story. We live in suburbs of Vancouver, BC, which is in Canada. And in May, he took me to Vancouver Island. I don't know if you're familiar, it's a huge island with a population close to a million off of mainland off Vancouver, accessible by two hour ferry. He took me to the island and he found me a house waterfront. He's like, we have to live a dream. You live only once. You will have regrets. Go for it if you can. And I go, okay. So he took me to a house which is completely outside of our budget. And he's just, just come and look. Just come. I'm like, I'm not moving my kids from school from France across the ocean. I already moved enough. It's enough. I want. I want it quiet. I just want to work in my kitchen. And he takes me to this house and it's an acreage. And as I come in, I see all this freedom. And then I see a studio above garage. It's a caretaker suite. It's old, it's older, it's 26 years old. But no work has been done. So it does need a lot of work. But I see this perfect studio above garage with big windows and it's completely separate from the house. And then I see a house and I go on the backyard that backs onto Pacific Ocean. And I look at him and I go, sold.

And so that was it. So you guys have.

That was it.

So you have purchased a house and you're making the move.

We have. And this is the most mind blowing part to me where I still wake up in the morning and someone please tell me this is a reality of. You have to understand, I was 19, I came to Canada with hundred dollars in my pocket. And 17 or 18, late 18 years later, I'm gonna live on a waterfront property facing Pacific Ocean. And that is all thanks to iFoodreal. And it's just amazing and mind blowing. And this is why I say you have to dream big. Because maybe if I dreamt big sooner, I would have got there even sooner. I just didn't. I didn't think it was possible, but it is. But now we're super excited because we're at the point where we cannot really work in our family kitchen anymore. So it will be so nice to have a setup studio, kind of like pinch of yam. You have a set table, you have lots of light. We really struggle with light. We don't have enough light. And just you have a setup and you just come into work and you have this line between work and family, because right now we don't. And it's very, very. It's hard. I built my business on a couch in my family room. Literally.

Yeah. And I think a lot of people can relate to that.

Yes.

So.

And it's really gonna. I feel it's gonna take us even to the next level and it's an investment in our business.

Yeah, I think that's great. That idea of allowing yourself to think and dream really big and whatever that might look like, whether it's your blog or for your family or for, you know, goals and ambitions that you have to say, what, in my mind, what do I imagine that being like, what do I imagine myself striving for? And what would it look like if it was, you know, a little bit beyond that? Or what it would look like if it was two times that or ten times that. And just to allow yourself to go there to see what that feels like and to see how that impacts the way you think and operate and how you approach things. And I feel like it's. It's a great thought and concept to end on and a really inspiring one as well. As is your story overall, Olena. So if people want to connect with you, if they want to learn more about your story, if they want to see the post where you do this big reveal Of. Of your house. I know that you haven't published it yet, but if they want to check that out, what's the best way for them to see that and then also just to follow along with you in general?

Sure. My website is iFoodreal.com and you can find me on Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube at iFoodreal.

Awesome. And before we wrap up, what's the backstory with the name of your blog? That's one of the things I wanted to ask, but I did.

Yeah, that's a good one. We were brainstorming for a name, and Alex being into all the technology and iPhone and everything, he's like, look, it's real food, but real food taken by Dan. He. And he's like, it's like, ifood real. I cook real food.

Yes, there it is.

And it's catchy. And he's like, it's like, yeah, we had. We started with Bskinny me. That was our original. That lasted about two weeks, and I'm so happy it didn't. So then we switched. Yeah, it's just to do with Apple. Alex is huge Apple fan.

Got it. Yep. Which makes sense. Cool. Well, we'll make sure to link to all of those in the show notes. And so excited for you and your story and what you guys have been doing and the hard work that you've put in and to see how that's paid off through the years and then for sharing that with the audience here. So thanks so much for coming on the podcast, Alena.

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Bjork. Thank you.

Hey.

Hey.

Lovely listener Alexa here, and I'm here to say thank you. Thank you for tuning in, for downloading, for listening, and for making the Food Blogger Pro Podcast podcast part of your day today. I'm also here to redo the review of the week, and this one comes from itunes from somebody named Heymade. And it says, I get excited to commute an hour to work so I can listen to the Food Blogger Pro podcast. I listen to every single one of these podcasts on my daily hour commute to work. I used to dread driving that hour, but now I get excited to set aside the start and ending times of my day to day to soak up knowledge from Bjork, Lindsey and other guests. I am accomplishing my dreams and goals to become a professional food blogger because this podcast gives you practical knowledge and encouragement to just go out and do it. Huge thanks to Bjork for making this experience for me and many others. Well, thank you so much. Hey Maid, this is such a great review and we appreciate you making the Food Blogger Pro podcast a part of your daily commute. How cool is that? I was the same way before I started working here at FoodBloggerPro. When I had a commute to work, I was always listening to the podcast, so it's really cool to see that others have had similar experiences. So thank you again for tuning in. We appreciate you guys so much. And until next time, make it a great week.

Sam.