We have a brand-new Quick Win for you today all about Tips for Making Recipe Reels on Instagram!

Have you heard? Video is having a real moment on social media right now, and Instagram Reels are a beginner-friendly way to experiment with recipe video content.

Because Reels are still relatively new, Instagram seems to be favoring original Reels in its algorithm, which can help you reach a new audience, grow your following, and improve engagement.

This is the first Food Blogger Pro course from yours truly (Emily ) and I hope you’ll learn a ton of practical information that you can start using ASAP!

In this Quick Win, you’ll learn:

• Tips for setting up to film a recipe Reel
• Lots of Reel ideas for food bloggers
• More about recipe Reel audio (voiceovers, music, and cooking sounds, oh my!)
• How and why to customize your Reel cover
• The tools you need to film and edit Reels
• Some bonus rapid-fire tips
• And more!

While this course is primarily about Reels, most of these tips can be applied to other platforms, like TikTok or Facebook, and you can always repost your videos across platforms, too.

Check out the full Quick Win for yourself here.

As a reminder, Food Blogger Pro courses and tools are available for all Food Blogger Pro members. If you used to be a member, you can rejoin by following these instructions. If you’re not a member, you can join and get instant access to this course, as well as all of our other courses for food bloggers, today!

The post New Quick Win: Five Tips for Making Recipe Reels on Instagram appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

We test recipes, edit photos, write blog posts, schedule content for social media, republish old posts… and the list goes on and on!

That’s why it’s great to use some kind of content planning tool to map out, outline, and manage all your upcoming content. It’s hard to keep track of all that information in your head, so why not use a tool to make your life easier?

So, without further ado, here are a few of our favorite tools that will make content planning a breeze!

1. Google Calendar

Are you a big Google Workspace fan? Then you might consider planning out your content calendar in Google Calendar to keep everything in one place.

Using Google Calendar to plan and schedule your content can help you see everything at a glance. You can easily tell what post is going live the next day, as well as what meetings and obligations you have coming up.

If you need to adjust the dates of any upcoming content, you can simply drag the events around to create a new schedule that works for you.

Plus, you can customize your calendar as much as you want! Add multiple calendars to keep track of blog posts vs. social posts, or share your calendar with your virtual assistant to make sure they’re in the loop on everything.

And if you want to get extra organized, you can color-code all your different tasks to make your calendar as beautiful as possible. Because if you’re anything like me, you’re more likely to stick to your content calendar if it’s aesthetically pleasing.

2. Asana

Asana is a fully customizable platform that lets teams organize, track, and manage their work. And here at Food Blogger Pro, we actually use Asana to plan out our blog content calendar!

One of the great parts about Asana is that you can structure your tasks in different ways. You can view them as a list, board, timeline, or calendar, which lets you easily visualize what content you have coming up in whatever way works best for you.

Asana might also work well for you if you have a team. You can assign tasks or subtasks to a specific team member to make sure everything gets done on time.

When planning out your content calendar in Asana, I’d recommend creating a new task for each piece of content, and then you can create subtasks depending on what you need to do to get that piece of content live.

3. Trello

Another great option to use when planning out your content calendar is Trello. Great for visual learners, Trello helps you ideate, plan, and manage your work all in one place.

When using Trello to plan your content calendar, you can use a kanban workflow to visualize a piece of content across its various life stages, from first thought to publication (similar to the board view in Asana).

As you develop a piece of content, you can move it from left to right across the various categories on your board. That way, you can easily see what steps still need to be taken to get a blog post out the door.

For each task, you can also add due dates, labels, descriptions, attachments, and more. And if you want to see a breakdown of your content calendar for the month, you can switch to the calendar view to get a quick overview.

4. Evernote

Evernote is an app designed for note-taking, organizing, and task management, and it’s another great option for planning out your content calendar.

Evernote is unique because you can use it in a variety of ways — you can jot down recipe ideas, write out proposals for brands, and plan out your blog posts for the month all in one place.

In Evernote, you can create and assign tasks within notes, clip internet articles that catch your eye, and even connect your Google Calendar to make sure you don’t miss any important meetings.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is unique because it lets you organize all your marketing efforts in one place. It’s a bit more involved than some of the other tools listed above, but it might be a good fit for you and your blog!

CoSchedule integrates with WordPress, social media scheduling tools, Google Calendar, analytics, and more, so you can see your upcoming blog content and social media posts all in one neat calendar.

You can even install the CoSchedule WordPress plugin to add a condensed version of CoSchedule to your WordPress dashboard. Your WordPress posts will automatically appear on your calendar, and you can view and manage your content calendar without having to leave your blog.

6. Loomly

Up next, Loomly is an all-in-one content planning and publishing platform that even gives you post ideas and inspiration.

It integrates with WordPress and major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, so you can manage all your upcoming content in one central place.

Depending on your preference, you can view your content calendar in a list-view or a calendar-view. You can also invite collaborators, so it’s a great option for creators who are working with others to develop their content.

7. InfluenceKit

Last but certainly not least, there’s InfluenceKit!

InfluenceKit helps you increase sponsorship revenue by proving your work’s value with gorgeous reports and an easy-to-use calendar.

InfluenceKit is really centered around your content calendar, so it’s the first thing you see when you log in. You can create a campaign for each piece of upcoming content and assign a due date, category, tags, and more.

But perhaps the most unique part about InfluenceKit is how you can use it to strengthen your partnerships with brands. With InfluenceKit, you can create automatically generated, beautiful campaign reports to show brands how your partnerships are doing. For each piece of content, you can easily analyze a report to assess how well it performed across your various platforms.

While it is a bit more involved, InfluenceKit is a great option for bloggers who make sponsored content a big part of their monetization strategy.

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There are a lot of tools out there that can help you plan out your content calendar. And while it can feel overwhelming to choose the right option for you, just know that you’re not stuck to something forever. Try one tool out for a bit, and if it doesn’t work for you, move onto another one.

And when it comes down to it, creating high-quality content that resonates with your readers is what’s most important. Scheduling and organization tools like these just help you do your job more effectively!

Now we’d love to know: What do you use to plan out your content calendar? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 7 Tools to Help You Plan Out Your Content Calendar appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Let’s be real — we’ve all been there!

As food bloggers and content creators, it can sometimes feel really overwhelming to come up with new recipe ideas time and time again. So what do you do when you need to hit publish on a new post but can’t think of anything?

To help you out, let’s explore some of the unique ways you can find inspiration for recipes and get those creative juices flowing again.

1. Jot down ideas as they come to you.

Whether your most amazing recipe ideas come to you when you’re trying out a new restaurant in town or when you’re falling asleep, it’s important to write them down!

And the best part? You can do this anywhere. Scribble down your thoughts in a notebook, add them to one of your Asana boards, or type them into the Notes app on your phone.

Just make sure to record all your ideas so you can reference them later when planning out your content calendar. That way, you’re not starting from scratch when deciding which recipes you want to test next.

2. Research and experiment with new flavor pairings.

The more you develop your own recipes, the more you’ll learn what flavors pair well together.

Chocolate and peanut butter? Obviously! But what about a pairing like salmon and mango? You might not realize how beautifully they taste when paired together unless you do some experimenting in the kitchen.

And if you’re looking for something to pair with a particular ingredient, my go-to resource is this amazing book called The Flavor Bible.

It has thousands of ingredient entries that are organized alphabetically and cross-referenced based on what flavors pair well together. Whenever I can’t decide what recipe to try making next, I like to comb through my copy to get new ideas that I might not have thought of on my own.

By deepening your understanding of flavor pairings, you’ll start to come up with fresh, exciting ideas and develop stronger recipes that your readers will love.

3. Learn about culinary ratios.

A culinary ratio is a fixed proportion of one ingredient or ingredients relative to another.

Culinary ratios are oftentimes more applicable when it comes to baking (rather than cooking) because baking is such an exact science, but they’re important for any chef to keep in mind when planning out recipes.

For instance, the culinary ratio for bread is 5:3 — five parts flour to three parts liquid. So if you’re experimenting with a new recipe for pumpkin sourdough, you’ll want to use this ratio as a guideline, then add in your additional flavors or ingredients to spice things up. But by following that basic ratio, you’re more likely to have success with your recipe.

Here’s a quick overview of some common culinary ratios:

When you’re brainstorming ideas for new recipes, having a basic understanding of culinary ratios helps take the guesswork out of recipe writing. Plus, it can be helpful to research different culinary ratios to get some new ideas for what types of recipes to try next!

4. Explore around on Pinterest.

Without a doubt, Pinterest is a gold mine for recipes. And that means it can be a great place to explore when looking for new recipe ideas!

For instance, let’s say you’re planning out recipe ideas for the upcoming autumn season. You can log into Pinterest and search ‘fall recipes’ to see what comes up. You might see that pumpkin and apples are a common theme… what if you considered working on a pumpkin pappardelle recipe or an apple chai macaron recipe?

While you’re not researching on Pinterest to copy other people’s work, it can be helpful to see what recipes are trending and think of a way to put your own unique spin on them.

5. Think about what foods are trending or in-season.

Seasonal food is typically tastier, fresher, and packed with more nutrients than food consumed out of season, so why not showcase those seasonal ingredients in your recipes?

Take a trip to your local farmer’s market and stroll around to see what produce is available. Also, don’t forget that readers will be searching for recipes featuring in-season produce! By sharing recipes featuring those ingredients, you’ll be creating content that your audience will love.

And don’t forget to think about any upcoming holidays, events, or occasions when planning content! Think about what your readers are currently focusing on and create recipes that will excite and energize them in that current moment.

Whether that’s back-to-school lunch ideas or simple Thanksgiving desserts, it can be so helpful to think of content ideas with your audience in mind.

Now we’re excited to hear from you: What’s your favorite way to get inspiration for new recipes? Let us know in the comments below!

The post How to Find Inspiration for Recipes as a Food Blogger appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

However, you don’t necessarily want to be the person working directly with advertisers to get ads enabled on your site, and that’s where ad networks come in. Ad networks make it incredibly simple for website owners to add, track, monitor, and tweak website ads.

In this post, we’re going to dive deep into the wonderful world of ads, as well as some of the most popular ad networks for food bloggers. Let’s get into it!

What are display ads and ad networks?

Display advertising is one of the most familiar income sources for food bloggers. Display ads are commonly found:

• in the blog header
• in the sidebar
• in the footer
• and the body text of a blog post

Here’s an example of what display ads look like on our food blog, Pinch of Yum:

Most display advertising is paid based on a CPM or CPC basis. Depending on the time of year, you can expect to earn between $1-$3 for high quality CPM based ads and $.25-$1.00 for CPC ads (for a food blog).

Meanwhile, ad networks are platforms that serve as an intermediary between publishers (aka bloggers like you!) and a group of advertisers.

As an individual publisher, working with an ad network releases you from the burden of having to manage your own ads. The ad network does all the heavy lifting for you!

Should you enable ads on your site?

It’s important to keep in mind that there are both benefits and drawbacks when it comes to enabling ads on your site. While ads will help you earn income, they can also cause a more negative user experience for your readers and even sometimes slow your site down.

And if you’re still in the initial stages of building your site, display ads might not be the best fit for you. Until your blog gets a bit more traction, it might be helpful to focus on building your traffic and establishing a level of trust with your audience. You don’t want to scare away any potential readers with lots of ads before you’ve given your site time to grow.

All that being said, ads can be a part of an effective blog monetization strategy. Just spend some time thinking about your own unique situation and decide if you want to implement them on your site.

What’s the best ad network for food bloggers?

The short answer is: it depends!

The online world is always changing, and the best ad network for you depends on your niche, your blog itself, and how much traffic your site gets on a monthly basis.

While we’re not going to say whether one ad network is better than another, we’ll give you an overview of some of the most popular options for food bloggers, as well as their requirements.

Here are some of the most popular ad networks for food bloggers in 2021:

• AdSense
• Monumetric
• Mediavine
• Raptive (formerly AdThrive)

AdSense

Google AdSense is currently the most popular advertising program online, and since it’s relatively easy to join, it’s widely used across the internet.

AdSense offers a variety of different ad types that you can run on your website, and you can choose where to display the ads. Once you get AdSense up and running, Google will display targeted ads on your blog that are relevant to your content or are based on a user’s search history.

While AdSense is a popular choice for many bloggers, it has a minimum payout of $100. Once you hit the $100 minimum payment threshold, Google will pay you during the next payment period. Therefore, if you don’t have enough traffic to hit that payment threshold, you might consider waiting to join AdSense until you build up a bit more of a following.

AdSense Requirements

• No traffic requirements
• User must be 18 years old or older
• Unique and interesting content
• An active Gmail account

Learn more about AdSense here.

Monumetric

Formerly known as The Blogger Network, Monumetric is a publisher-friendly ad network. They offer four different programs that you can join depending on how many pageviews your blog gets per month.

You only need 10,000 pageviews per month to get started with Monumetric, so it might be a good option if your traffic is in that range.

However, if your site has less than 80,000 pageviews per month, Monumietric will charge you a one-time $99 setup fee. If you have more than 80,000 pageviews per month, this fee is waived.

Monumetric Requirements

• At least 10,000 pageviews per month
• WordPress or Blogger site
• At least 50% of your traffic comes from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia

Learn more about Monumetric here.

Mediavine

With over 7,000 publishers, Mediavine is one of the most popular ad networks for food bloggers.

Since you do need at least 50,000 sessions per month to be accepted by Mediavine, it’s a great option to consider once you build up a bit more traffic. While Mediavine will optimize ad placements for you, you can also request certain ad layouts if you have any specific preferences.

They also offer an exclusive Facebook group where you can connect and troubleshoot with other Mediavine publishers and employees.

Mediavine Requirements

• At least 50,000 sessions per month
• Good standing with Google AdSense
• Original content in any niche as a lifestyle publisher
• Content is long-form and engaging

Learn more about Mediavine here.

Raptive (formerly AdThrive)

Last but not least, Raptive is a great option to consider when choosing an ad network.

Since you need at least 100,000 pageviews per month to be accepted to Raptive, it’s one of the more selective ad networks out there. They also have a pretty rigorous vetting process, and only about 15-20% of applications get accepted.

But don’t let that scare you away! Raptive is one of the best ad networks for CPM-based advertising, so it has great revenue potential.

And side note: we actually use Raptive on our own food blog, Pinch of Yum. We haven’t personally worked with all of these ad networks, so we’re not saying Raptive is the best — it’s just the one that we personally use on our blog at the moment.

AdThrive Requirements

• At least 100,000 pageviews per month
• Majority of traffic comes from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand
• Content is unique, original, and engaging for audiences and a great fit for advertisers
• Site is secure (HTTPS)

Learn more about Raptive here.

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As a blogger, implementing ads can be a great way to earn passive income and diversify your revenue streams. If you’re considering joining an ad network, we hope this post gave an overview of the different available options.

And if you join an ad network and don’t love the experience, you can always switch to another one! Since there are so many ad networks to choose from, it’s important to find the best fit for you and your blog.

Now let’s chat: Do you have display ads on your site? Is there a particular ad network that you love working with? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Most Popular Ad Networks for Food Bloggers (2023) appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

If you’ve been blogging for a while, chances are you’ve experienced burnout.

Because when you’re living that solopreneur life, the process of starting and growing your blog can get overwhelming. The countless tasks, to-dos, and responsibilities can really add up over time, leading to a sense of fatigue and overwhelm.

And when those feelings of burnout hit, it can feel really easy to throw in the towel and get discouraged.

What is burnout?

While burnout is actually a diagnosable medical condition (learn more about that in this podcast episode), this post focuses more on the general state of burnout that many bloggers experience.

Essentially, burnout happens when you feel exhausted and experience a lack of interest in blogging. You may experience a sense of disillusionment with the work you’re doing and feel like you can’t really carry on.

While burnout can feel overwhelming, there are a few mindset shifts that might help you combat these feelings and start feeling motivated again. Let’s get into them!

1. Think about your activity monitor

On an Apple computer, there is a program called the Activity Monitor where you can sort all the different programs that are currently running by CPU percentage.

If your computer is working really hard, you can usually pull up the Activity Monitor and see that one program in particular is a major CPU hog. And if it’s something that shouldn’t be running, you can quit out of it and things will settle down.

And honestly, we all have our own personal activity monitors that are running each and every day!

If you’re not feeling excited about the work you’re doing, think about your personal activity monitor and start to analyze your work. What’s the one task that’s taking up a lot of your mental real estate?

Take some time and rank all the tasks you’re currently working on from largest to smallest. Oftentimes, there’s one specific task or problem that’s running, and if you stop doing it, it can help improve your relationship with your work.

2. Track the action, not just the result

Another way to combat blogger burnout is to track the action that you’re taking, not just the result.

We can get so wrapped up with results — Google Analytics, followers on Instagram, ad earnings — but oftentimes those results don’t come for months or even years down the line.

Because the reality is that it takes a lot of time and work to develop your craft and gain momentum with what you’re working on. But by tracking the action instead of the result, you can tangibly see how much progress you’re actually making.

So, instead of waiting and hoping for a pin to go viral on Pinterest, spend five hours each month really learning about food photography. Go through a few courses on composition for food photos, invest in a new tripod for your camera, and learn a few new tricks in Lightroom.

As you’re learning and growing along the way, you’ll feel the satisfaction that you were craving when you were just waiting on the result.

3. Spread some frosting on the cracker

When it comes down to it, we all have lots of dry crackers in our lives — the work that needs to get done that maybe isn’t enjoyable.

And how do you make a dry cracker more enjoyable? Well, you can spread some delicious frosting on top of it!

Because while you’re always going to have work that isn’t your passion, there are ways that you can approach that work to make it a little bit better.

For instance, a task that you might dread is end-of-year tax work. What’s a way that you can spread some frosting on that cracker and make it a little bit better? Go to your favorite coffee shop and order your favorite drink, then settle into a cozy booth and grind out the work.

By just making the task a little bit more enjoyable, you can change your relationship with the work and help keep yourself moving in the right direction instead of standing still.

4. Align to your journey, not your destination

Oftentimes, we can get too focused on the destination — where want to go and what goals we want to achieve. And we don’t feel fully accomplished until we’ve reached that destination.

But, a lot of times, you’ll work really hard, get to your destination, and then you just create a new destination. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed as you keep moving that destination out again and again, it might be time to think about aligning to the path that you’re on.

Here at Food Blogger Pro, we’re all about the idea of 1% infinity — making a little bit of progress, every single day, forever.

It can be helpful to switch your perspective from the big picture to small tasks that you can do each day. It’s less about reaching a huge milestone and more about asking, “What is it that I want to be doing today? How do I get better at that?”

So when you start to feel rundown and unmotivated, work on shifting your perspective and align your journey to who you want to be and what you want to focus on. That’s how you’ll work towards your goals more quickly and more effectively.

5. Highlight that it’s a highlight reel

When you’re looking at someone’s Instagram Story or reading through a blog post, what you’re consuming is a highlight reel.

While some people do live these incredible lives, it’s also important to realize that normal life is okay. And even if someone is transparent and honest about their struggles, it’s oftentimes just a glimpse into what they’re going through. Because when it comes down to it, is anybody really interested in consuming someone’s lowlight reel?

We are all collectively on this path of highlights and lowlights, wonderful seasons and difficult seasons… but you don’t see all that online. Oftentimes, all we see online is the best of the best.

So, spend some time thinking of how you can get yourself out of this comparison trap — maybe it means limiting your use of social media or focusing on your current wins.

When it comes down to it, all that really matters is your highlight reel.

6. Hang out with friends who don’t care

Not friends who don’t care — just friends who don’t care about blogging.

Oftentimes, you can have some of your greatest escapes with friends who aren’t involved with your work. They’re the friends who care about you as a person but aren’t super interested in what you’re doing professionally.

Maybe it’s your group of friends you play softball with. Or maybe it’s your group of friends who get together each month to chat about the latest Marvel movies.

When you hang out with these friends, they can offer different perspectives and provide a fresh take on problems you’re struggling with. Because honestly, it can feel so refreshing to spend time with people who don’t care about your work!

7. Take a break

Last but not least, it might be time to consider taking a break.

Sometimes it feels like we have to feed the beast and create content day after day, forever. But it’s okay to take a break and come back to the work later.

We know some bloggers who take an extended break — three months, six months, or even a year — and in some instances, they come back feeling reinvigorated and ready to double down.

And in some instances, they don’t come back at all. And that’s okay.

It’s equally as important to be in a place where you can continue to do something for a long time as it is to continually produce content each week. And if taking a break is what you need to feel that way, it might be something to consider doing.

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Whether you’ve been blogging for a few months or a few years, you will most likely experience burnout at some point. Because just because you love what you do doesn’t mean that you can’t fall out of love with the work that you’re doing.

So when those feelings of burnout arise, we hope that these small mindset shifts will help you stay motivated and working towards your goals. You’ve got this!

Let’s chat in the comments : What do you do to combat blogger burnout?

The post 7 Mindsets to Combat Blogger Burnout appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

That being said, I know writing recipes can be difficult. While you can have an amazing idea in your head, it’s tricky to get all those thoughts onto paper and communicate them in an effective way to your readers.

Luckily, there are a few easy ways that you can write better recipes as a food blogger. Let’s get into them!

1. List ingredients in the order that they’re used in the recipe.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to recipes, I like them to be as clear and straightforward as possible.

Therefore, to avoid confusion, it’s best to always list ingredients in the order that they’re used in the recipe. This helps make sure that those following the recipe don’t accidentally leave out ingredients.

Writing the ingredients in the correct order also helps the recipe flow more effectively. Like a book, you can easily read a recipe from top to bottom and understand what the end result will look like.

2. Write recipes in your own voice.

When you’re writing your recipes, don’t be afraid to let your voice shine.

The more you write recipes, the more comfortable you will get with your own voice and style. Do a bit of experimenting and decide how you like to make your recipes sound — are they informative and educational, or are they a bit more clever and humorous?

And if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to finding your voice, this article might help you out. When thinking about your voice, consider this: what do you want your readers to experience when they read your content?

All that being said, keep in mind that there can be too much of a good thing. If you’re too witty, your readers might have trouble following the steps and not completely understand what they need to do. Find your happy medium and stick with that!

Pinch of Yum is an awesome example of this — their recipes have a unique voice while still being informative and easy-to-follow. When you read through one of their recipes (like the Vegan Crunchwrap Supreme recipe shown below), you can immediately tell it’s a Pinch of Yum recipe. It’s witty, engaging, and unique, and all their recipes have a similar vibe.

3. Use both weight and volume measurements.

If you live in the United States, chances are you write ingredients using volume measurements such as cups and tablespoons.

But did you know that most of the world prefers to write recipes using weight measurements like grams and ounces?

That’s why I recommend writing recipes with both weight and volume measurements! By including both, you can make your recipes more accessible to anyone from around the world.

Plus, there are a few perks to including both weight and volume measurements:

• You can create recipes that are accessible to everyone, regardless of their volume or weight measurement preference.
• Your recipes will be more accurate, which means your readers recreating the recipes will have more success.
• You will be able to scale recipes more easily. What’s easier to double: 3/4 cup or 100 g?
• If you choose to measure using the weight measurements, you will have fewer dishes to clean up in the end. Yes, please!

Interested in learning more? Check out this blog post to dive deeper into this topic and learn how to convert volume to weight measurements.

4. Get specific about doneness.

If you were making a recipe for roasted potatoes, which instruction would you prefer: ‘Cook until done’ or ‘Cook until browned and a fork can easily be inserted’? I know which one I would choose!

The best recipes are recipes that leave nothing to chance. They give the reader as much information as possible, including when and how to know when the food is ready.

And while you might know when certain types of food are done by just looking at them, your readers might not. Make sure to explain exactly what to look for (are you aiming for a certain color or temperature?) to make your recipes that much more helpful.

It’s also important to keep in mind that each person is going to have a unique setup in the kitchen. If a recipe needs to be cooked in the oven, a lot of ovens are different — some run hot, some run cooler, and some are fan-assisted. By breaking down exactly what to look for with doneness, you are ensuring that anyone can have success with your recipes, regardless of how high-tech their kitchen appliances are.

5. Offer substitutions when possible.

While this won’t always be an option, it’s oftentimes helpful to offer substitutions for certain ingredients or equipment when possible. This helps accommodate all of your readers, regardless of their dietary restrictions or preferences.

Here are a few scenarios to consider:

• If your original recipe includes chicken, can you offer a vegetarian substitution using tofu?
• While you recommend cooking a particular recipe using an Instant Pot, can you add cooking times that might work for a slow cooker?

In my opinion, it’s best to add these substitution instructions into the notes section of your recipe card. That way they are explicitly stated, but they’re not going to get lost in the recipe instructions.

Here’s an example of how Pinch of Yum handles substitution options on one of their recipes:

While you don’t necessarily have to list your substitutions in the exact same way, it might be something to consider adding into your recipes moving forward.

6. Include storage instructions.

When you’re making a recipe, chances are you’re not going to eat every last bite in one sitting — that’s why I get so excited when recipes include storage instructions.

Whether you’re eating a vegetarian lasagna or a lemon chiffon cake, each type of food will have unique guidelines when it comes to storage. By spelling that out in your recipes, you can help eliminate food waste and let your readers enjoy the food for that much longer.

Here are some important questions to answer when providing storage instructions for a recipe:

• How should the food be stored — in the fridge or at air temperature?
• How long will the food stay fresh?
• Can the food possibly be stored in the freezer for a few months?

7. Give credit where credit’s due.

While sometimes you’ll come up with a 100% original recipe and write it entirely from scratch, other times you’ll take existing recipes and modify them to create something new. And that’s okay!

It’s just always important to give credit where credit’s due and give proper attribution to the original source.

As a general rule of thumb, here’s what you should do when adapting recipes from other sources:

• In the recipe itself, explicitly state where it’s adapted or modified from.
• Include a link to the original recipe or cookbook.

And when I say adapting a recipe, I don’t mean copying and pasting the ingredients and instructions! Make tweaks and adjustments to the recipe to create something new, and always write recipes in your own words.

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Like anything else, recipe writing is a skill that you grow and improve over time. I hope you’ll take these tips and keep making engaging, informative recipes that your readers will recreate and love.

So all you need to do is just keep thinking of new ideas, challenging yourself in the kitchen, and sharing your love of food with the world with your recipes. You’ve got this!

Now we’re curious: What are some tips you’ve personally learned over the years to write better recipes? What are some of your struggles when writing recipes? Let us know in the comments!

The post 7 Ways to Write Better Recipes as a Food Blogger appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

From TikTok to Facebook to Instagram Reels… the list goes on and on!

While each social media platform has its own advantages, one great way that food bloggers can connect with their followers is through Instagram Live.

What is Instagram Live?

Instagram Live is similar to Instagram Stories, but it allows you to go live and interact with your followers in real-time for up to four hours at a time.

Lives are a great way to directly interact with your audience, and they provide a great opportunity for your audience to ask you questions, see you cooking a complete recipe from start to finish, and more.

And the best part is that Instagram Live videos don’t have to just disappear! They can be saved and shared on your grid or repurposed as IGTV videos for followers to watch later—learn more about that process here.

Now that’s what I call a win-win. (Or, as Michael Scott would say: a win-win-win.)

Why Go Live on Instagram?

Besides being a fun new way to connect in real-time with your followers, there are a lot of advantages when it comes to Instagram Live.

In general, going live can lead to more engagement—people are more likely to interact with an Instagram Live because it’s just fun to see your comment pop up and have one of your favorite creators read it!

As a creator, doing an Instagram Live also gives you another piece of content to post to your feed. After wrapping it up, make sure you save it and post it to your Instagram grid for people to watch later.

Finally, Instagram Live just provides you a new opportunity to get in front of more people. Instagram’s algorithm rewards live streaming by placing the live event at the front of the line in users’ Instagram Stories feed. Plus, Instagram users can even find top live videos on the Explore page, so you never know who might stumble upon your content.

Tips to Level Up Your Game on Instagram Live

I know it can be a bit scary to host your first Instagram Live, but it can be such a fun and rewarding experience! And it’ll keep getting easier and easier the more you do it.

Here are a few tips that can help the process run as smoothly as possible:

1. Make sure your followers know when you’re going live.

In the days leading up to your Instagram Live, make sure to tell your followers about it on Instagram and elsewhere. You will increase your chances of people tuning in if they know when to find you.

If you’re up for it, you can even poll your audience on Instagram Stories to see when most of them would be around and available to watch an Instagram Live.

Quick tip: put a countdown sticker on your Instagram Stories to alert people of the date and time when you’re going Live. You can also tell them to save it in their calendars!

2. Give people a taste of what you’ll be doing.

Cooking a recipe? Tell people what the recipe is so they can either cook along or take a look at it ahead of time.

Want them to ask questions? Ask your followers to think of some questions ahead of time so that they can come prepared.

3. Test your lighting.

Before going live, do a test run with your phone to make sure the angle and lighting look decent. While you won’t always be working in perfect conditions, it’s better to check beforehand just so that you’re not making adjustments when people are starting to join.

Quick tip: consider getting a phone holder or tripod to make things even easier. Add in a small ring light to look even more professional!

4. Prepare as much as you can beforehand.

If you’re cooking a recipe, make sure everything is laid out and ready to go so you aren’t trying to scramble for ingredients last minute.

Put the dog in another room, make sure everyone in your house knows what’s going on, and maybe even give yourself a pep talk if that’s your jam. This will help ease your nerves and make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible!

5. Make sure to look up!

When you’re doing an Instagram Live, you really want to connect with your viewers, and that’s hard to do if you’re looking down at your recipe or computer the entire time.

Want an easy solution? Print off your recipe and notes and hang them up behind your phone so you can still look at the camera and interact with your viewers.

6. Interact with your viewers.

It can sometimes be hard to get people to interact on Instagram Live, especially if you only have a few people tuning in live. That’s okay!

Just keep on chatting and cooking and pretend like you’re talking to a good friend who came over for dinner. You always want to show up and be your best self for your audience. And while it can sometimes be intimidating to go live, people like seeing real people doing real things like making mistakes, creating a mess when they cook, etc.

If things don’t go perfectly (and let’s be real—they probably won’t), that’s totally fine.

If your dog barks in the background, why not tell a funny story about that crazy experience last weekend at the dog park? Make light of things that are happening and just move on.

7. Have fun with it!

Last but not least: make it easy, chat with people, and just remember that everyone is there to have fun and learn from you.

Get your viewers involved and ask them questions like what they are drinking, what their favorite weekend brunch recipe is, etc.

People like feeling as if they are chatting with a real person, so make it feel as casual as possible!

A Few Great Examples

Looking for some inspiration before going live? Here are a few food bloggers absolutely killing it on Instagram Live:

What’s Gaby Cooking

This is the crème de la crème of a blogger making the most out of Instagram Live!

Gaby (@whatsgabbycookin) is casual, fun, and consistent. She goes live once a week, and people looking forward to seeing her cook a dish and show them her personality.

If and when something goes wrong, she just rolls with it! Her husband does the taping, she chats as she’s making the recipe, and it honestly just feels like you’re sitting in her kitchen watching as she cooks dinner.

Plays Well With Butter

Jess (@playswellwithbutter) has done Instagram Lives pretty consistently and is always really fun to watch.

She checks off all the boxes: she shows you how to make a recipe, promotes it well in advance, and saves the Instagram Lives to her IGTV for later.

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Instagram Live can be challenging and intimidating, but it’s worth a shot! Above all else, it’s just a fun way to connect with readers and promote your recipes.

But, if you try it and don’t love it, that’s okay too! Every type of social media is worth trying out at least once, right? You never know what will be the right fit for you.

Now, over to you: are you a fan of using Instagram Live? Do you have any tips or tricks of your own to share?

The post How Food Bloggers Can Use Instagram Live appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Either way the show must go on. A recipe needs to be made and a post needs to be published to your blog.

So where you do go when you’re fresh out of ideas?

Here are five places you can look to find inspiration for popular and trending recipes. Not only will these recipes give you inscription and ideas for creating your own adaptations, but they’ll also give you an idea of recipes that are currently popular or trending.

Note: Just a reminder that recipes should never be directly copied. When using the ideas below, you should think of yourself as an artist visiting a museum. You’re looking to find inspiration that spurs you to create your own unique and inspiring art, not directly copy the painting that’s hanging on the wall. You can review this episode of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast if you’re looking for clarity on the subject.

1. The Food Blogger Pro Blog

Yep! You can find out about trending recipes right here!

We started a “Trending Now in Food Blogging” series on the FBP blog a few years ago, and it’s a great place to find what’s new and trending in the world of food.

In these articles, we uncover annual trends and current popular food searches in the hopes that it helps you create content that your readers are (potentially) already interested in and excited about.

These articles are posted on the last Thursday of every month, aka. the perfect time to start planning your editorial calendar for the following month!

2. Google Trends

Google Trends allows you to see how popular a search term is relative to the total number of searches done on Google. If you’re a food blogger, you can use Google Trends to see the best time of year to post a certain recipe.

Here’s a screenshot of the five-year results for the search term “snickerdoodles”:

The graph makes it clear that the most popular time to search for the keyword “snickerdoodles” is in December each year.

Google Trends will also show you related search terms and search terms that are rising in popularity. It’s a slick way to brainstorm ideas for new recipes!

3. Pinterest Trends

Pinterest Trends isn’t 100% food-specific, but it’s a great place to find some food-related topics that are trending on Pinterest.

Not only will Pinterest Trends give you an idea of what type of recipes are currently popular on Pinterest, but it’ll also give you an idea of what type of images are popular on Pinterest.

You can click on a specific trend to learn more and to see some of the popular pins related to that keyword.

According to Pinterest, Pinterest Trends only shows the search terms that are popular in the US, UK, and Canada within the past 12 months. That said, even if you’re outside of those countries, you can still use this tool to learn more about the trending keywords on Pinterest.

Bonus! Top Pins of The Year

Pinterest also has a “Top Pins of The Year” board that showcases the top pins in certain categories from the previous year. There aren’t any specific food boards from 2020, but you will be able to find some food and recipe pins amongst the different boards!

4. Simple Pin Media

Speaking of Pinterest, Simple Pin Media, which owned by Food Blogger Pro Expert Kate Ahl, is an awesome site that, among teaching you the ins and outs of using Pinterest as a content creator, can help you uncover trending searches and topics.

We love Pinterest (it’s one of the top traffic-drivers for our food blog, Pinch of Yum), and Pinterest users use the site to develop their cooking skills, find new recipe ideas, and learn more about different cuisines.

You can download Simple Pin Media’s FREE Pinterest Keyword Guide for content recommendations for each season, and be sure to check out their podcast and blog content about different kinds of pin trends throughout the year.

5. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is a relatively new tool that’s helpful for identifying super trendy food trends. They say that their tool identifies “exploding topics” before they actually take off, so by using this tool, you can potentially be one of the “first movers” for a specific keyword or term.

They have a whole section on their site dedicated to food trends, and you’ll see that there are different labels applied to each trend:

• Regular – The term’s popularity is growing at a normal pace
• Peaked – The term’s search growth has already reached its highest point
• Exploding – The term is experiencing steep, hockey stick-like growth

You can read more about how the tool works here.

What about you?

Where do you go to find recipe inspiration? Any other tips you’d suggest for finding popular or trending recipes?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post 5 Places to Find Popular and Trending Recipes appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

Well, there’s a reason for that!

Weight vs. Volume Measurements

Before we get into it, let’s first break down the difference between weight and volume measurements.

Volume is a measurement of the amount of space that something takes up. We’re talking measurements like gallons of milk, teaspoons of cinnamon, and cups of brown sugar.

On the other hand, weight is a measurement of an object’s heaviness. Grams of cornstarch, pounds of potatoes, and kilograms of dark chocolate are examples of weight measurements.

Why You Should Measure Ingredients by Weight

The most accurate way to measure ingredients is by weight because minor differences in measuring can lead to substantial differences in the final outcome of the recipe.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re making a homemade chocolate cake for your brother’s birthday, and the recipe you’re following calls for 2 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.

When you pull out your bag of flour from the cabinet and use your measuring cup to portion it out, the actual amount of flour in that cup depends upon a number of factors:

• Was the flour spooned in?
• Was the measuring cup dipped into the flour? 
• Did you level off the flour by packing it down?
• Did you scrape off the top of the measuring cup with a straight edge?

That’s a lot of variability, right? So if you pack the flour into the measuring cup too tightly, your chocolate cake might end up tough and chewy because you’re actually using more flour than the recipe called for.

And that’s where weight measurements come in.

Benefits of Measuring Ingredients By Weight

In addition to being far more accurate, there are a lot of other benefits to measuring your ingredients by weight, such as:

1. It will save you time in the end.

The beautiful part about using a digital scale to weigh your ingredients is that you can make use of the tare feature.

Most digital kitchen scales come with a tare feature, and pressing the tare button will reset the displayed weight to zero (this is also sometimes called zeroing out!). The tare button is helpful for two reasons:

First, you can “zero out” the weight of whatever container you’re measuring your ingredients in so that the weight of the container isn’t included in your final weighted measurement. This ensures that you’re measuring only the weights of your ingredients.

Second, after weighing your first ingredient, you can press the tare button and reset the weight to zero. Then you can simply add in your second ingredient, tare the scale, add the third ingredient, and so on, helping you measure the weight of each individual ingredient.

Quick tip: If you place your container on the scale before you turn it on, the scale will automatically subtract the weight of your container without you having to press any buttons.

2. Weight measurements make it a lot easier to scale recipes.

If you want to double a recipe, what sounds easier: doubling 175 grams of sugar, or doubling 3/4 cup of sugar?

Weight measurements make it waaaay easier to scale recipes, and you’ll probably have less errors when doubling or tripling ingredient amounts. Save that brain space for something else!

3. You’ll have less dishes to wash later!

I don’t know about you, but anything that means fewer dishes is a winner in my book.

If you use a digital scale to measure out ingredients for a recipe, you might have one or two bowls to wash in the end. That definitely beats washing every single measuring cup that you own!

How to Convert a Recipe to Weight Measurements

With all that being said, how do you go about converting volume measurements to weight measurements? It’s actually pretty simple!

If you’re creating your own recipes, we actually recommend writing your ingredients with both weight and volume measurements.

Here in the United States, the vast majority of recipes have volume measurements. That said, the rest of the world oftentimes prefers using weight measurements! By including both in your recipes, you can make your recipes more accessible to anyone from around the world.

Luckily, there are a few different ways you can go about converting ingredients to weight measurements, including:

1. Weigh the ingredients out yourself.

Pull out that kitchen scale and weigh each ingredient individually, then record the amount in your recipe. This can take a bit more time, but it’s a good practice to follow when creating recipes from scratch.

2. Use an online tool to convert the measurements.

If you search online, there are tons of online tools that can help you convert volume to weight measurements.

And if you’re using a recipe plugin on your site, it might be able to do this conversion for you!

3. Whip out that calculator and start converting yourself!

If you’re going to convert ingredients from volume to weight measurements, you’ll probably find yourself looking up individual ingredients frequently. 

Here are a few conversions for some common kitchen staples:

• Granulated sugar: 1 cup = 7 ounces = 198 grams
• All-purpose flour: 1 cup = 4 1/4 ounces = 120 grams
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon = 4 grams
• Baking soda: 1/2 teaspoon = 3 grams
• 1 large egg: 1 3/4 ounces = 50 grams
• Butter: 1/2 cup = 4 ounces = 113 grams

In case you’re looking for the weights of other ingredients not listed here, this Ingredient Weight Chart is a fantastic resource.

What about you?

How do you like to write the measurements in your recipes? Do you use weight or volume measurements (or both)?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The post The Importance of Measuring Ingredients by Weight for Your Recipes appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.

An unfortunate reality of publishing content online is that sometimes people and other sites steal your work. Is watermarking your photos the best way to counter this behavior? Let’s discuss.

What is a watermark?

A watermark is a small and semi-translucent text overlay on a photo. Content creators sometimes add watermarks to their photos to prevent others from stealing the photos and using them as their own.

Photographers can watermark their photos with their website, blog, or business name, their own name, their website URL, or a combination of the above. A typical watermark looks like this:

Watermarks are usually placed in the corners of photos, but they can also be curved around certain elements in your photos (think: bowls, spoons, plates, etc.) to make it tougher to crop out.

Should I watermark my food photos?

There’s no right answer here because it’s up to the creator. Ah, the ever-so-frustrating “it depends” answer.

On the con side of the argument, watermarks can potentially take away from the overall artistic “feel” of the image. They tend to take viewers out of the “immersive” food photo experience, so whatever benefit the watermark might add may actually impact it’s “shareability” on social media.

Not only that, most watermarks can easily be cropped out of the original image; if someone is going to steal your photos without giving you proper credit, they’ll most likely find a way to do it whether or not you have a watermark there.

On the “pro” side, watermarks can potentially decrease the probability of someone passing your work off as their own.

They’re also pretty simple to add to your photos, especially if you use Lightroom or Photoshop to edit. You can even add watermarks with a free program like Canva.

Already dealing with someone stealing your content? Check out our post about takedown notice forms.

How do I add watermarks to my photos?

Luckily, it’s really simple to add watermarks to your photos if you decide you want to!

Watermarking with Lightroom:

Note: Watermarking is only possible with Lightroom Classic. If you use Lightroom CC and you’re interested in watermarking your photos, you can export your photos and import them into a program like Photoshop or Canva.

Click Lightroom in the menu bar, and then click Edit Watermarks.

Add your watermark either in text or graphic form, edit the watermark, and then click Save.

When you’re exporting your photos, make sure that the Watermark checkbox is checked to apply your watermark.

Watermarking with Photoshop

Add a new layer onto your photo using the horizontal Text tool.

Add your text, reposition it using the Move tool, and adjust the font, size, and color using the Text tool.

Finally, adjust your text’s opacity in the Layers panel.

Watermarking with Canva

Import your photo and add text using the text tool.

Making sure that the text is selected, adjust the color and font as desired. You can also adjust the Transparency.

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As with most things in blogging, it’s ultimately up to the creator whether or not they want to watermark their photos. They can help protect your photos from certain thieves, but they may not be entirely effective against all efforts to steal your content.

So we’re curious: do you watermark your photos? Why or why not?

The post Should I Watermark My Food Photos? appeared first on Food Blogger Pro.