The Vine Podcast

In this episode:

Over the last two years we started offering a new way to redesign your website with us called Crafted. These are semi-custom websites that allow bloggers like you to get a one of a kind look without the hefty price tag of a custom website. But if you've ever wondered what exactly semi-custom means and whether it's right for you, this episode is for you. I'll share exactly what we mean by semi-custom, how our approach differs from others in the industry and ultimately whether it's a good fit for you or it isn't. Let's jump in.

Key Points:

• What does semi-custom mean?
• What about our approach is sem-custom?
• Which parts of your project are custom?

Related content:

The Crafted Website Experience

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Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

Have you ever gone to a food blog and been super frustrated by the experience you had on their website? Creating a solid user experience is something I think we all want for our readers, but what do we need to do to make sure that happens? Today we're diving into some best practices, both things to do and not to do for better user experience. I'll share 6 key best practices of how to make sure your readers have a quality experience on your website and want to come back for more of your content.

Key Points:

• Limiting intrusions and distractions
• Having a Table of Contents for Long Form Posts
• Making your content readable
• Having multiples of the same thing
• Checking your website on mobile
• Adding helpful and unique pieces of content

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sign up to receive my FREE Blogger Playbook guide today!

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

Are you a food blogger feeling stuck in the cycle of relying solely on ad revenue? You pour your heart into creating new recipes and improving your food photography, but your bank account may not be reflecting the hard work you put in.

In today's episode, I'll be sharing over 10 ways you can monetize your food blog outside of traditional ad revenue. These income streams are a great way to increase your income as a blogger without having to rely solely on increasing traffic to increase your ad revenue. By the end of this episode, I'm sure you will have at least one or two new ideas to diversify your revenue streams and increase your income streams as a food blogger.

Key Points:

• Creating digital & physical products
• Monetizing your expertise
• Affiliate marketing & brand deals

Related Episodes:

Episode 190: Monetizing Your Expertise Through Digital Products with Jillian Leslie

My Interview on Food Blogger Pro

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

Do you ever feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything you need to get done? Maybe you decide to hire an assistant, thinking that will solve all of your problems! But now you have a bigger problem. Now you have to give your assistants tasks and feedback and now you have more on your plate.

If you have ever found yourself in this position, you have been the bottleneck in your business.

Today I'm going to unpack a few ways to untangle this web and help create a more seamless experience for you and your team.

Key Points:

• Give ownership not delegation
• Create systems around your bottlenecks
• Rely on task management systems
• Streamline your plan and goals
• Utilize other team members
• DO LESS

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Sign up for my Blogger Playbook freebie today!

Related Episodes:

Episode 101: The Standard and Systems Your Food Blog Needs With Jillian Dolberry

Episode 147: How to Create More Content

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

What is social proof? Essentially it's the trust that a reader has in your blog or recipe because they've seen other people like it.

Social proof is really important these days because of how much other social proof is out there already between Amazon reviews, restaurant reviews, etc.

If you've been wondering the best way to showcase social proof on your blog, listen in for these creative ways you can share your readers feedback and engagement on your blog!

Key Points:

• Add recipe rating stars to your header
• Optimize Commenting
• Showcase a reader comment in blog post
• Add social sharing plugin and display total number of shares
• Encourage people to share when they make your recipes

Related Episodes:

Episode 194: 3 Quick Wins for E-E-A-T

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

If you want to be successful as a food blogger you cannot afford to blend in. Personal branding is the way that you can stand out as a food blogger and it's incredibly important that you focus on that more than ever. In this episode you'll hear why personal branding is an essential part of risk proofing your food blog.

Key Points:

• The importance of establishing a unique niche beyond just "food blogging"
• Crafting and sharing your personal story to build authority and trust
• Choosing authentic ways to connect with your audience across various platforms

Actionable Tips:

• Define your specific niche using a three-layer approach
• Showcase your expertise and experience on your About page and homepage
• Incorporate your brand message into CTAs and recipe card blocks
• Update your social media bios and create pinned content highlighting your story
• Consider starting a podcast or email sequence to share your brand's origin

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Personal Brand Checklist

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

If you feel like this year has flown by at record pace, you are not alone. This year feels especially chaotic with everything going on in both our industry and the world. After the mid-point in the year, checking in and adjusting your goals is a great way to get back on track and make the most of the remainder of the year. Whether you set goals back in January and need to review and adjust them or you need a process for setting some goals for the rest of the year, tune into this episode!

In this episode, we'll discuss:

Finding and reviewing your goals

• Whether you have them digitally in a task management tool like Asana or you wrote them down on a piece of paper, gather them so you can analyze them.

Analyzing your goals

• What status are your goals? For the goals that are not completed, analyze why.

Deleting or Resetting

• Now that you know what your previous goals were, you can choose to let them go (or delete) them or to reset them to be more realistic and achievable.

Adding new goals

• If you set goals during another quarter or month, they may not be relevant for the upcoming season. Add in any new, relevant goals that you need for this season.

Related Episodes:

• Setting SMART Goals for Your Blog
• Setting Quarterly and Monthly Goals
• Setting Weekly Goals
• Summer & Beyond: Prioritizing and Surviving

Resources mentioned in this episode:

30 Different Things You Can Do To Prepare Your Blog For Q4!

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

Do you feel like you're just treading water keeping up with your business over the summer? There can be multiple times throughout the year where it just all feels like too much. When those seasons come up, there are a few ways you can prioritize, set boundaries and ultimately feel on top of your workload despite the chaos of the season. Listen in for how you can prioritize and get the most important things done in a crazy season!

In this episode, I'll share about:

Setting aside intentional work time

• I'll share from my own experience of setting aside protected work days as a working mom to insure that I spend designated time on my business each week

Reviewing and resetting goals

• I'm going to be sharing a whole process on the next episode, but for now, I'll say that it's incredibly important to revisit your goals often but especially at mid-year or before each quarter. Try setting goals for one season at a time to help you stay on top of your tasks and priorities!

Setting better boundaries

• The nature of our businesses being online means we have about a million things to distract us at all times. When we have less time to work in the summer, it's incredibly important to be diligent with your boundaries!

"Taking care of the crying baby"

• When you are prioritizing what to do, you take care of the baby that is crying first. When you have limited time, you have to prioritize and triage your tasks for what is the most important.

Planning ahead

• By taking a step back to analyze and categorize content on your site, you will be able to laser focus on the direction of your blog, and therefore the type of content you need to start creating, to further fill out those categories.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Subscribe to my Blogger Playbook today!

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

Let's talk about categories! One of the conversations I always seem to have with my clients is around how to properly use categories to organize their blog. Listen along as we discuss the importance of categories, how many you should have, and what to do if you've never considered your categories before.

In this episode:

Categories VS Tags

• I'll hash out the difference between a category and a tag, and how to properly utilize both of them

How to organize your categories

• Start with thinking about your niche, make sure you have this nailed down and stick with it! With your niche in mind, you can start to choose which categories make the most sense for your blog. The next step is to look at how your website is organized. Thinking about your user experience can really help you to start to wrap your head around what categories you might need.

How many categories do you need?

• First look at how many blog posts you have in the first place. Feast Design Co has a guideline of a 1:10 ratio of categories to posts as a guideline. So that means if you have 200 posts, it would be okay to have upwards of 20 categories. Ultimately, it's about drilling down specifics as many levels down as possible, so that it is easier for visitors to find what they are looking for.

Fully fill out your category pages

• It's a good idea to have an outlook on the number and types of categories you think you will want to fill out eventually. You want your categories to be as filled out as possible and you don't want to have categories with one or two posts unless you plan to be building those posts out in the next few months.

How to fix old categories

• By taking a step back to analyze and categorize content on your site, you will be able to laser focus on the direction of your blog, and therefore the type of content you need to start creating, to further fill out those categories.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

EP 18: Figuring Out Your Niche as a Food Blogger

EP 27: What Should Be On the Homepage of Your Food Blog

EP 30: How to Customize Your Recipe Index

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.

In this episode:

If you have been blogging for a handful of years it's likely you have hundreds or thousands of blog posts in your archives. If you have ever wondered if you should delete old content or revise and update them, this process of deciding and taking action will help!

In this episode:

1. Review the traffic
2. Research keywords
3. Think about your audience
4. Choose what to do

Connect With Madison

Instagram | Website | Show Notes

Work with Grace + Vine in 2024:

1. Design Services for Food Bloggers

2. Our newest way to redesign your website! Learn more here.