Cooking Up Success: How Jennifer Draper Scaled her Food Blog for Growth

BySpark Media Concepts

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Do you want to scale your food blog for growth? Today’s episode of The Ultimate Blog Podcast is filled with inspiration and actionable tips from Jennifer Draper on how she did just that. In this episode, Jennifer steps into the guest seat to share her journey, the shifts she’s made in her business, and how she positioned her food blog for growth and long-term success.

Hitting a Crossroads in Her Food Blog

Jennifer started her blogging journey in 2013, building two successful food blogs: Slow Cooker Gourmet and Garnished Plate. For nearly a decade, she poured her time and energy into creating recipes, growing her audience, and monetizing her content. But by 2022, she realized something needed to change.

She was doing so many things – running her blogs, co-hosting The Ultimate Blog Podcast, and managing The Ultimate Blog Roadmap – and while she enjoyed all of it, she was constantly working and overwhelmed. 

That realization led Jennifer to ask herself some tough questions: Do I want my blog to just sustain itself, or do I want to grow it into something more? She realized she wanted growth, but she also wanted to create a sustainable, fulfilling business that also allowed her to  do the things she wanted to do (including volunteering with a local animal shelter to foster cats and kittens).

The Shift: From Hustle to Strategic Growth

One of the biggest changes Jennifer made was getting clear on her goals. Rather than trying to juggle everything, she started analyzing her blog’s performance and identifying where to focus her efforts.

She recognized that consistently creating high-quality content was key. She needed to optimize and repurpose old content, outsource where she could to free up her time, and streamline her systems to allow her to work smarter, not harder.

By making strategic decisions based on data, Jennifer was able to create efficiencies and focus on what would actually move the needle in her business.

Treating Her Food Blog as a Business

Jennifer realized that her food blog isn’t just a creative outlet – it’s a business with long-term value. For a long time, she was just focused on maintaining – but now, she thinks about her blog as a business that can generate wealth and create opportunities down the road.

How Jennifer Streamlined Her Food Blog to Scale

Initially, Jennifer struggled with the idea of giving up control over parts of her business. However, after a podcast interview with Micala Quinn about hiring virtual assistants, she realized it was time to take the plunge. She had previously received help from family members and virtual assistants in small capacities but needed specialized support to truly remove tasks from her plate.

Investing in Specialized Help

In mid-2023, Jennifer committed to hiring professionals in three key areas to set her business up for a smoother 2024:

SEO and Keyword Research Expert: Jennifer hired an expert to help her focus on improving her highest-earning blog. The SEO expert identified which posts needed updates and what new content should be created and made technical improvements to enhance her food blog’s performance on Google.

Content Writer for Blog Posts: This was a huge help in freeing up Jennifer’s time. A content writer took over writing posts while still maintaining Jennifer’s voice and authenticity. This allowed Jennifer to focus on other aspects of the business.

Digital Business Manager: A digital business manager oversaw Jennifer’s day-to-day operations. She made sure blog posts were scheduled, responded to emails, and kept Jennifer on track using ClickUp for project management. She also provided marketing and social media support.

The Impact of Outsourcing

For nearly a year, Jennifer focused on delegating tasks while still handling recipe creation and photography. Although this required a strict schedule, outsourcing freed up time for business growth and improved efficiency. By making these strategic hires, Jennifer positioned herself for long-term success while maintaining the quality of her blog.

Hitting a Plateau and Reassessing the Strategy

For the first half of 2023, Jennifer was testing strategies, and figuring out what was working. But as she headed into 2024, she noticed her Pinterest traffic had taken a hit. She reassessed her approach and realized that her previous Pinterest strategy wasn’t working anymore. Like many bloggers, she had to go back to the drawing board and decide where to focus her efforts.

Jennifer chose to focus on Google traffic. She did get a Pinterest audit and made some slight adjustments, but she knew she needed to concentrate her time and energy on one platform at a time. This allowed her to see a steady increase in Google traffic, which, in turn, led to higher ad revenue.

Making Smart Investments in Her Food Blog

As her traffic increased, Jennifer faced another big decision: Should she continue handling all the food photography for her recipes, or should she outsource it? Photography had been a major part of her journey – she had even taken a course to refine her skills – but she realized that outsourcing this could free up her time to focus on growth.

After carefully considering her options, Jennifer decided to hire a photographer. It wasn’t an easy decision, as photography was something she had been passionate about, but she knew it was the right move for her business. And it paid off – her increased revenue covered the costs of outsourcing, and she was able to take another task off her plate.

From 2023 to 2024, Jennifer’s main food blog, Slow Cooker Gourmet, saw an 83% increase in revenue. Her second food blog, Garnish Plate, nearly doubled its income as well.

Leveraging Tools for Efficiency and Growth

To streamline her workflow and maximize her blog’s potential, Jennifer also invested in tools that could help her work smarter. She started using Hubbub, a tool designed to help bloggers track content performance and optimize their publishing strategy. By using Hubbub, she could easily see what was working and where she needed to improve, saving her time and effort in the long run.

Another strategic move was implementing Grow on her site. This tool helped boost engagement by improving user experience and making it easier for readers to share her content. These small but impactful changes contributed to increased traffic and revenue without requiring Jennifer to spend more time manually optimizing her content.

In this episode, we covered: 

  • Jennifer’s journey in starting her food blogs
  • When Jennifer knew it was time to make a change
  • How Jennifer made her business work with her life
  • What areas Jennifer outsourced in order to scale
  • The results of Jennifer’s outsourcing
  • The tools Jennifer used for growth

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

We hope you loved this episode about how Jennifer scaled her food blog! What did you think of this episode? Please leave us a comment and let us know your biggest takeaway from this episode!

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