How Alejandra Graf Runs Her Bilingual Blog in English and Spanish | The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

When you started out, did you know, hey, you're going to start with writing all your content in English or writing in Spanish and talk a little bit about what that's like? Because you have two different sites, but the same content, but different languages. What is that like?

Yeah, different sites, and they're two different languages and two different voices. Right? Because there are things that you say in Spanish that if I said in English, they will be like, what is wrong with this girl? Right, so.

Totally. So do you have an example of that? Like, what would that be one of the things you would, would or wouldn't say?

I mean, not. Well, not in the blog, but with my life. Once my. One of my friends went to my house to my. My daughter had a play date, right? So she went to drop her daughter to my house, and I was just back from Mexico because we had a wedding there. And so I was standing at the door. I mean, I. I laugh every time I tell this story. I was standing at the door in my house, and she was in her car, and she just put down the window, and she was like, how was the wedding? And I was like, oh, God, I got intoxicated. It was so bad. But imagine me screaming from my door to my car, and I could see her face, like, turning white and, you know, like, doubting, should I leave my daughter or not? And I was like, that's weird. What's going on?

I don't know.

Right? So she left her daughter, and then she came like, an hour earlier than she said she was going to come. And I was like, yeah, what's up? And she was like, oh, I think you meant food poisoning, right? And I was like, yeah, I got sick. I mean, I ate something and I.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Versus her thinking, like, you just had so much to drink and this completely irresponsible person and.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you could see her face, like, changing. And I was like, what's wrong? I mean, I'm the one that was sick, not you.

Yeah, right, right.

But examples like that I have, like, a million. Like, I always mix up words or like. So what I did is, like, I started in Spanish because of my friends were calling me, like, from Mexico. Like, what do you do this and how do you do that?

Literally, like, you being able to. Somebody asks you, and instead of you writing an email, you write a blog post. Like, I think that's a good way to think about it. That happens even with me where, you know, in my family and kind of circle of friends, I'm Known as like the tech guy. So like my brother in law is like, hey, should I buy the new imac or the old one that's a little bit bigger with an intel chip? And it's like, what do people thank you for? Like, what do people ask you questions about? And I could, if I didn't know what content everyone wanted to write about, I could write like a blog post and analyzing the difference between those two things. And it sounds like that's what you did. And because your friends who were asking you, if you were to connect with them, you'd speak Spanish, you wouldn't speak English. You started your site in Spanish, is that right?

Yes, yes, that's it. So I started in Spanish, but then I noticed that to it was kind of expensive to maintain the vlog and the cameras and all of that. So I needed to, even though I knew it was going to be a business, I didn't realize that so early. I needed to start working and to cover the costs, right? So then I noticed that people were hiring me for my. They, they hired, they liked the recipes and they hired me. But they were like, can you write them in English? So, so I started writing them in English and they were bad, but I mean really, really bad. At the point that one editor just told me, you know, your writing is so weird. And I was like traumatized for a life.

Totally.

Yeah.

Who were these people that you were writing for? Were these like brands doing sponsored content or like for other companies?

Like other like companies. Magazines on Internet, like mom bloggers, like what's like networks. Like networks. So yeah, they were, they were hiring me to showcase the Mexican side of a recipe or for Mexican Independence Day that it's today also and stuff like that. So. But it was bad. So I had to learn. It's not only that I wrote in English also. I had to learn how to write in English because with. I mean I grew up in a bilingual school and lived in Boston and lived all over the place, but I never knew the vocabulary for the culinary world, you know what I mean? So I needed to do that. So that's when I noticed that I need to start earning more money and that it could be a business. That's when I started to write more in English and that's when I decided to also instead of calling it biloncija vanilla, that's what I call it, Brown sugar and vanilla English side. Because my friends here in the United States were like, what's your blog? And it was like, I mean, I never thought about that.

So, yeah, but they would look at it and be like, wait, how. What is this? How do you pronounce it versus, like. Yeah, you know, if. If you translate that, it's, oh, brown sugar and vanilla. Like, okay, I know what that is.

Yeah, totally.

So when you. When you go through the process of publishing a recipe, are you. Do you. My guess would be you write it in Spanish first. You have that all established, you publish it to your Spanish site, and then you're taking that, translating it, publishing it to your English site. Is that correct?

Yes. I have the multiple language plugin for WordPress. So that has made it really easy because I just press a button and it says, copy the content from the Spanish side. So it copies it. And then Google Translate has been an amazing tool for me and I also use Grammarly and. But now I also have an amazing editor that she's been helping me a lot because I always mix up my prepositions or I invent, like, sayings. Like, instead of in a pinch, I used it in a totally different way. And she's so lovely. She's like, you know, ale, this is not the way we use this expression. So she's been really, really lovely. And I've been learning a lot with her.

I feel like languages. I remember this in high school, learning Spanish. It's like after I got done with Spanish one, I was like, I'm pretty good at Spanish. But it's like, with languages, the more you learn, the more you realize you have no idea.

No idea. Yeah.

And so much respect for anybody like yourself, who's able to not only be bilingual, but then also to create content that reaches both audiences.

It's like being bicultural because you know, the culture here and the culture there. It's two different things.

And you would. You would interact different, you greet people different. I remember my wife Lindsey and I lived in the Philippines for a year. And there's all of these really small things that you don't know. A super specific example is like, one of the ways that somebody would, like, affirm or say yes, would they? They'd just be like, raise their eyebrows, almost like a nod. And. And when you don't know that, like, it's a really weird interaction. When you ask a question somebody, like, affirms by saying, yes, raising their eyebrows, but you don't know that that's what it is. And so there's all those little nuances that exist. So you can understand how that becomes difficult when you're trying to, you know, whether it be a little quip or phrase and just used in the exact right way. It's kind of.

I know, I know.

So one of the things you had talked about, and it's actually a tool that I use as well, Grammarly, which is just this incredible tool that gives you kind of real time feedback, even on tone and things like that.

Yes.

I think the way that we write is such an important piece. Like when we look at hiring, it's so important. Any of the content you publish, so important. So I think that's important to point out. I'm curious to know with the two sites, so you have Google Analytics probably running on each site you do, you kind of run them as two separate things. And like, will you know that something will be popular? Like a Spanish version of it will be popular, but the English version won't. And then I'm also curious about seasonality because I'm guessing that there is certain seasons where it'd be like, hey, this is the perfect timing for this recipe in Mexico, but it wouldn't be the perfect timing for that in, like Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I know.

Will you still publish a recipe on both sites despite it being like out of season on one, or does that not matter as much?

No. Yes. And I think I'm still learning. It's been a huge, huge learning curve for me, all of that, because, I mean, I, I am Mexican. So in Mexico, we feel different how we play, we do not how we feel, we, we plan different for seasons. We're not as organized as we are here, that we plan for Thanksgiving months in advance. Especially with blogging, that you have to go way further. Right. So if it has worked that I like combine the two countries. Because, for example, as I said, today is Mexican Independence Day and it's also Hispanic Heritage Month. Right. So I started publishing all the recipes. But on top of that, I'm also vegan. So it's like difficult to understand that Mexico here in the states. Right. That I'm Mexican and that I'm vegan. And so it's, it's, it's another level. And I don't look Mexican, so that's another thing.

And difficult to understand because traditionally you wouldn't like Mexican recipes would include some type of meat. Is that what you mean?

Yes, yes. Here, here in the state, yeah. It's always meat, it always cream, it's always queso, it's always something. But in Mexico, it's not animal products. Always.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But in Mexico it's not. Because in Mexico there are a lot of recipes that are as you know, our cuisine is based in masa, right. In this corn flour. So there are a lot of things that are made with just masa or we use a lot of tomatoes and other vegetables. So we don't always include meat and dairy in our food. So it's been a long process to understand what goes, what resonates better with the people here. And. But also in Mexico, they're like 10 years behind on the vegan side. So it's also been like educating people that you can do a soup and make it vegan, you can do this and make it vegan. So right now I think that everything has worked in a good way. Favorable. Do you say favorable? Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

For me, yeah. Because as I said, Mexican independence is today and it's Hispanic Heritage Month. And then Mexico, it's growing its Halloween festivities and it's getting big and festivities. And then here in the States, the other muertos is getting big. So it's also a Mexican. So in a way it's kind of working.

Yeah. So I'm curious to know what does traffic to your site, let's say your English site look like in Spanish speaking countries and what does traffic to your Spanish site look like in English speaking countries specifically? I'm curious to know, like in the US there's a massive population of people who speak Spanish. And my guess is that it's a relatively, in the US at least in the food space, underserved market and. But maybe I'm off on that.

No, no, no, there's. But you know, the people that live here are also consuming information. They're used to consume information and blogs and everything in English.

Sure.

Right. So.

Yeah, yeah.

So my Spirit Spanish blog has an audience that it's from all over the world. I mean, Mexico is the first place and then Argentina is the second one and the United States is the third one.

Okay.

Because that's a Spanish. Right. And then that English side is all us. And it's growing. It's still growing. I mean, it's, it's not that much traffic, but I like to have the option. I mean, if I was just writing and looking at the numbers, it would make sense just to write in Spanish because I. It's a huge difference, but I like having the English version and I think it's going to catch up at some point.

The huge difference in that your Spanish site is more popular.

Yes.

Is that what you mean?

Yes, because I started it way before than the English one. Right, got it.

And the other thing I'm curious is what does that look like? You know, you've talked about kind of the transition to being a business. You knew that it was gonna be a business. It is. You have a team, an editor, people that you're working with. I'm curious to know, number one, when at what point were you like, oh, this is transitioning into being a business. You know, was it running ads? Was it getting a sponsorship? And then I'm also curious to know, are there things that are different in terms of like running ads on your site? Can you work with a traditional advertiser like Mediavine or AdThrive, and then also sponsorships. Are there companies that you're working with? And would you work with companies in Mexico who hire you to promote a certain product? And are there considerations around contracts or things like that? Yeah, just really curious to know what that looks like.

Yes, I am with Ad Thrive right now. And again, I have to say that you and Lindsay showed us a way. So I followed you, what you were doing. Yeah, I'm so grateful for you both. You showed, I don't remember, but you said like every month or I don't know how often you did it. You said you sent, like, this is what we earned or something. You had something like that, right?

Yeah. For a season we did reports where we said, here is. Later on we said traffic. And then here's kind of what we're spending money on. Here's where income is coming from.

Yeah.

I think for a lot of people it was like the four minute mile, where it's like, once you see somebody do it, then you're like, oh, okay, then you can do it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I'm grateful because you were like, oh, this is possible. You know, you showed us a way. At least you showed me a way. So I was like, oh, I have, I was running ads with, I always forget their name. It's blocker with blocker. Until I got the page views that you need for Ad Thrive, and then I got accepted in Ad Thrive and I've been working with them. And it's a challenge because I have to grow my US audience also. And, and, but I mean, I'm there and it's working, right? So that's a huge thing for me.

So can you run it, can you run it on your Spanish site? Or you. Yes, you can run it on both. Okay.

Yes, yes. Because they're, remember, they're the same side. They're just mirrors. Even though I write in different languages and with a different voice, it's like with the, with that plugging, it's like a mirror. You know.

This is helping me wrap my head around it. Even though the URL is the same, everything else.

Even though the URL is different.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Even though the URL is different, everything else with the site is the same. So even though I can pull up the Spanish version and the English version, those are viewed as technically the same site. Do you know, like, what's going on behind the scenes and how that that works or like, functionally. So do you have just one Google Analytics account and it shows you.

You know, with Google Analytics, you can have as many properties as you want as you want. So I have one for the whole site. I have one for the URL, the Spanish URL, and one for the. The. The English URL.

Got it. And so does it work in a way where. How does it. Is it based on the search term that you're using in terms of what shows up? Or like, if I'm sitting here in Minnesota, will it always be brown sugar and vanilla that shows up? Or if I search using a Spanish search term, that will be the version that shows up. So it's like Google's intelligent enough to know based on the term that I'm using what will. What.

Yes.

Post will display. Got it.

Yes. Because sometimes I even look for something in Spanish and my brown sugar and vanilla site comes first, then the Spanish one, because I'm here in the States.

And is that, Is that location based? Or would you also. Could you. If I switched my default language within Chrome or Google to Spanish, I wonder if that would impact it.

I think it's. I don't know. Probably you know more than I do, but I think it is location based.

Sure.

Because when I go to. Because my. All of my settings are in English because I never understand the Spanish that they use. I understand only the English and. But when I go to Mexico, I run ads in Spanish, so.

So I think it's location it knows. And when you, when you are in Mexico, would it be more likely to show the Spanish version of your site?

I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to.

Fascinating to me.

Yeah.

Because it's. It's an area that I don't really know anything about. And it seems kind of, kind of mysterious to me. But. But the point being the Spanish and English version, you're not logging. Are you logging into two separate WordPress accounts or it's the same WordPress account?

No, it's the same.

It's the same WordPress account.

It's the same. It's the same. And I can go like I have. I can show you the backend any day that you want, so you can take a look at it. But there's a little flag at the top, and there you can click like a Spanish or the English version. And there's also like a logo that I. That can show. That shows the whole site, both languages.

Sure, that makes sense.