Eat Blog Talk Megan Porta

In episode 566, Carrie Tyler teaches us how to establish a strong brand position and why this is essential to  understand and meet our target audience’s needs.
Carrie Tyler is a brand positioning and brand marketing expert with over 20 years experience in Consumer Brand Management for large consumer goods companies. In 2018, Carrie launched her food blog, Talking Meals focusing on easy dinner recipes for busy families. In 2022, Carrie launched a second niche food blog and continues to run both blogs successfully today. Carrie has applied her brand positioning expertise to her own two food blogs and now helps other food bloggers to do the same. Through in-depth customer targeting and using a Food Blogger Brand House Model that she developed, Carrie helps food bloggers narrow in on their customers needs and how they uniquely solve those needs.
In this episode, you’ll learn the benefits of brand positioning, such as increased email list growth, return traffic, and product sales and practical ways to create a memorable brand for food bloggers.
Key points discussed:
- Brand positioning is crucial for food bloggers to stand out in a crowded market: Establishing a clear brand positioning can help food bloggers differentiate themselves, connect with their target audience, and grow their business.
- Understanding the emotional needs of the target audience is key: Connecting with the audience on an emotional level, beyond just meeting their rational needs, is essential for building a loyal following.
- Brand positioning can improve focus and motivation: Having a clear brand positioning can help food bloggers prioritize their tasks and stay motivated, even during challenging times.
- Brand positioning can enhance website, email, and product/service offerings: Implementing brand positioning across various touch points can improve the user experience and help diversify income streams.
- It's never too late to establish brand positioning: Food bloggers at any stage of their business can benefit from defining their brand positioning, even if they've been blogging for years.
- Small changes can make a big impact: Implementing small, incremental changes to align with the brand positioning can have a significant positive impact on a food blogger's business.
- The "brand house" model provides a visual framework: Carrie "brand house" model helps food bloggers understand the different elements of their brand and how they work together.
Connect with Carrie Tyler
Website | Facebook

In this episode, we're going to talk about five ways to reduce blogging anxiety by setting boundaries online and finding a supportive blogging peer group.
Even after 14 years of blogging, I still experience blogging anxiety. It's part of the job, isn't it? There's so much pressure inside and outside of the blogging industry. Every year there are new strategies to increase our traffic and grow our audience. Every year, we scramble to keep up with changes in our industry. While outside of the industry there's pressure to make our businesses successful, and sometimes loved ones with the best of intentions add the pressure of doing so. Above all, we probably want to prove to ourselves and others that we’ve got this. We can be successful entrepreneurs.
And so the anxiety sets in... But there are ways in which we can minimize blogging anxiety!
Action Plan:
1 - Hire someone to respond to your comments to shield you from negative feedback and criticism.
2 - Join a quality mastermind group to surround yourself with a supportive, understanding peer group that can provide the encouragement you need to manage the ups and downs of being a blogger.
3 - Minimize time spent in Facebook groups to avoid any unnecessary drama and toxicity.
4 - Be selective about who you allow into your business circle whether it's on social media or in other online spaces, as negative influences can increase your anxiety.
5 - Set a timer for your social media usage so that you don’t get caught in the endless scroll which can fuel feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.
Get in touch with Megan if there is a specific mindset and self-care topics you'd like her to cover. Go down the outcome rabbit holes. Explore the worst-case and best-case scenarios of failure to put it in perspective.
Website | Instagram
Resources
Promote your food blogging services
Megan’s recommended books and resources

In episode 564, Megan chats to Anjali Shah about a unique affiliate marketing strategy bloggers can use to earn additional revenue by negotiating directly with brands they truly believe in.
Anjali Shah is a food writer, best-selling author, board certified health coach, nutritionist, mom of two, and an advocate for healthy, clean eating for individuals and families. Her work has garnered nationwide attention as she has been featured on Oprah.com, Women’s Health, Cooking Light, Reader’s Digest, CNN, Food Network, and more. Anjali grew up a “whole wheat” girl, but married a “white bread” kind of guy. Hoping to prove that nutritious food could in fact be delicious and desirable, she taught herself how to cook and successfully transformed her husband’s eating habits from a diet of frozen pizzas and Taco Bell to her healthy, yet flavorful recipes made with simple, wholesome ingredients. After becoming a mom, Anjali expanded her work to include strategies and techniques to combat picky eating in kids of all ages. Anjali started The Picky Eater in 2011 to make healthy food accessible, tasty, easy to make at home, and picky-eater proof. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
In this episode, you’ll learn what commission to expect from brands, how to pitch brands without coming across as salesy and how to approach SEO in sponsored posts.
Key points discussed:
- Affiliate marketing can be a significant revenue stream for food bloggers: It could make up as much as 70% of your income over time.
- Reaching out to brands directly can be an effective affiliate marketing strategy: Contact brands on Instagram to pitch collaboration opportunities rather than using email templates to make it more personal.
- Negotiating fair compensation is important: Ask for sufficient commission - around 20% - from affiliate programs, and be willing to negotiate for higher rates.
- Authenticity is key when pitching to brands: Focus on products she already uses or believes in, making the pitch feel more like a conversation than a sales pitch.
- Building long-term partnerships with brands can be beneficial: If you start now, you can establish potentially beneficial long-term affiliate partnerships.
- Keyword research for affiliate marketing content should target high-intent keywords: Look for keywords that indicate a user's intent to purchase, rather than just general category searches.
- The changing Google landscape may require adjusting affiliate marketing strategies: You might need to adapt your SEO-focused affiliate marketing approach due to recent changes in Google's search results.
- Asking to be paid for your work is important: Bloggers should ask for fair compensation, rather than accepting product as payment.
Connect with Anjali Shah
Website | Instagram

In episode 563, June Dick teaches us how to make the process of self-publishing a cookbook easy and efficient and how to avoid the mistakes she made.
June is the recipe developer and photographer for her food blog, Practically Homemade. Here you will find simple recipes for everyday families inspired by years of being a restaurant owner, high school culinary teacher and mom of 4. Now as an empty nester, June is still looking for shortcut ingredients and kitchen hacks to save time in the kitchen. Her life mission is to share them with you so that you can have time back in your life to enjoy the little things.
In this episode, you’ll learn about what June thinks went really well during her self-publishing process, what she would do differently and how to get help from your audience to put a cookbook together.
Key points discussed:
- Plan ahead for a cookbook project: Think about the end product and work backwards to plan the steps, rather than jumping right into creating recipes.
- Establish a consistent recipe format: Create a template for recipes to ensure consistency throughout the book.
- Involve your audience: Reach out to your audience for recipe testing. This can provide valuable feedback and help build excitement for the book.
- Consider outsourcing tasks: Outsource tasks that you don’t enjoy doing (e.g. layout, photography, editing), to free up your time for the parts you enjoy.
- Expect the unexpected: Be flexible as there might be unexpected changes you need to make.
- Prioritize your blog: Plan ahead and schedule out your blog content so you can focus on your cookbook project without going into burnout.
- Choose a topic you're passionate about: Select a topic you truly enjoy, as you'll be working on it for an extended period.
- Be patient with the process: Self-publishing a cookbook takes longer than expected, so be be patient and persistent.
Connect with June Dick
Website | Instagram
If You Loved This Episode…
You’ll love Episode 146 with Jason Logsdon - Self Publish Cookbooks To Launch Into A New Level Of Success 

In this episode, we're going to talk about five steps for dealing with failure when you start something new. I love this topic because failure is a given for entrepreneurs, and starting new things is essential for our success. If we cannot handle failure properly and if we don't start new things, entrepreneurship will be unsuccessful.
I've been an entrepreneur for 14 years, and I can say that most of the reason I've found success is because I've picked myself up again and again after many failures over the years. I'll share two of my biggest failures with you, so you never feel bad or stupid or worthless after failing. Failure is proof that you're trying, doing your best, and taking action. We don't learn anything when we succeed; we learn and grow when we fail.
Action Plan:
1 - Face the fear of failing: Sit with your fears and understand that failure is a growth tool.
2 - Go down the outcome rabbit hole: Explore the worst-case and best-case scenarios of failure to put it in perspective.
3 - Evaluate past failures: Reflect on previous failures and identify the valuable lessons and skills you gained.
4 - Make a plan: Set a goal and create guideposts to stay accountable and overcome your fears.
5 - Take action: Don't let fear paralyze you - take the first small step to move forward.
Get in touch with Megan if there is a specific mindset and self-care topics you'd like her to cover. Go down the outcome rabbit holes. Explore the worst-case and best-case scenarios of failure to put it in perspective.
Website | Instagram
Resources
Ghostwriter – Terrence Roche (terrence@plantpowercouple.com)
Promote your food blogging services
Megan’s recommended books and resources

In episode 561, Megan chats to Sophie Sadler about the strategy she implemented to rapidly grow her IG followers based on what she learned from Meta (Facebook) during multiple calls.
Sophie has been baking and cooking from as early as she can remember. From helping as a child in her Oma's kitchen in Germany to starting her own cupcake catering business and working in a handful of restaurants and bakeries while attending college in the USA. 8 years ago she found her calling with her authentic German food blog dirndl kitchen. Sophie has launched two online courses this year on German baking and will publish her first German cookbook in 2025.
In this episode, you’ll learn about Sophie ‘reel’ strategy including how to keep up with posting daily, overcoming creative blocks and focusing on serving your audience by being real and raw instead of wasting time perfecting content.
Key points discussed:
- Consistent daily posting on Instagram is key to rapid growth: You can rapidly increase your following if you post content daily that resonate with your audience.
- Authenticity and imperfection resonate with followers: Followers connect more with "real" and raw content rather than overly polished posts.
- Diversifying content beyond your niche can be beneficial: Viral reels don’t necessarily need to be about recipes and you can post about various topics related to your niche.
- Building an email list is crucial for long-term success: Grow your email list and redirect Instagram followers to a platform that you have more control over.
- Overcome creative blocks through a content idea bank: Keep a running list of reel ideas to reference when your struggling for inspiration.
- Focusing on a specific ideal follower can guide content creation: When planning Instagram posts, it can be helpful to think of your ideal audience and what they would enjoy and find helpful.
- Experimenting and not overthinking content is important: Try different types of posts without worrying too much about performance.
- Leverage Instagram growth to support other business goals: Instagram growth can help you land other business deals like brand sponsorship and book deals.
Connect with Sophie Sadler
Website | Instagram