Rachel Tiemeyer and Polly Conner had been simply two mothers, residing in Missouri, every engaged on their very own blogs. As destiny would have it, they ultimately crossed paths once they labored collectively at their native church.
As they grew to become associates, they realized that they shared not solely an entrepreneurial spirit, but additionally a ardour for running a blog.
In 2011, they determined to affix forces and create a weblog collectively, Thriving Dwelling, the place they might assist different dad and mom and likewise earn an revenue.
Collectively they’ve turned Thriving Dwelling right into a thriving enterprise, incomes over $10k per 30 days, publishing two cookbooks, showing on TV and in main publications, and serving to numerous dad and mom by way of their content material.
Hold studying to seek out out:
- Why they determined to create a weblog collectively
- What content material was extra fashionable to start with
- How their e-book deal advanced
- The place their revenue comes from
- Their foremost advertising and marketing methods
- Their ideas on Website positioning
- How they strategy key phrase analysis
- How they create content material
- How they’ve grown their electronic mail checklist
- Their ideas on their partnership
- The sources and instruments that they use
- The primary problem they’ve confronted
- Their most essential accomplishment
- Their largest mistake
- Their recommendation for different entrepreneurs
Meet Rachel and Polly
Thriving Dwelling was created in 2012 by me, Rachel Tiemeyer, and my good friend Polly Conner.
I grew up in Jackson, MO, and attended the College of Missouri to grow to be an English instructor. I met my future husband, Nathan, there and took a job proper out of school in a kids’s and pupil ministry for a neighborhood church.
I labored there for practically 20 years in some capability. In 2008, with a love of writing and a want to virtually assist households, I started sharing recipes and residential and parenting tips about my private weblog. I stay with my husband and three kids (ages 13,15, and 17) in Columbia, MO.
Polly grew up in Camdenton, MO, and attended the College of Missouri to grow to be a college counselor. As a substitute, she bought employed to take my job at their church after I determined to remain house part-time with my first little one in 2007.
Polly met her future partner, Austin, bought married, and started to share house DIY initiatives and ultimately parenting tales on her first weblog in 2008. Polly lives together with her husband and three kids (ages 7, 9, and 12) in Columbia, MO.
After every gaining a small on-line following individually, we determined to group as much as create Thriving Dwelling. Our intent from the very starting was to create a web based enterprise. We by no means dreamed it could grow to be our full-time job someday!
Why They Created Their Website
After assembly by way of our first job expertise and changing into associates, we shortly realized we shared an entrepreneurial intuition and curiosity in running a blog and loved creatively sharing what we had been studying with others.
We started to listen to tales about bloggers, like Crystal Paine from Cash Saving Mother, who made an revenue from their blogs by way of advert placements, model sponsorships, and affiliate earnings.
Within the fall of 2011, we determined to mix our running a blog content material and abilities right into a mother weblog that might set us as much as earn revenue whereas additionally serving to different dad and mom.
Thriving Dwelling was the title we settled on as a result of it was broad sufficient to incorporate every kind of home-related matters but additionally mirrored the specified final result we needed for our personal households and readers.
We every pitched in $90 of our personal cash to get began with a web site host–which was an enormous deal on the time as stay-at-home mothers on a decent price range!
We started the arduous activity of designing and establishing a website on WordPress, migrating content material over from our outdated private blogs, and establishing social media accounts. We additionally arrange a authorized settlement to be 50/50 companions and created an LLC for the enterprise.
Selling Thriving Dwelling to our present audiences from our private blogs and social media helped us achieve readership proper out of the gate.
On the finish of 1 ½ years, we earned our first cost from Google AdSense adverts on our website. It was so thrilling!
Inside about 3 years, our website was persistently netting 1 to 2k per 30 days from the adverts and Amazon affiliate earnings, and it steadily grew from there.
Though we revealed content material that ranged from recipes to sensible house tricks to parenting articles, we observed that our freezer cooking content material and recipes bought essentially the most web page views within the first 5 years.
On the time, each of us had been in freezer golf equipment with associates—bulk cooking month-to-month for one another’s households and writing about it. We might additionally throw freezer events for teams to assist inventory one another’s freezers. It was actually enjoyable and we discovered quite a bit!
Our readers cherished the idea and needed to study extra.
In 2016, a number of publishers reached out to us about writing a cookbook about freezer cooking.
By way of the recommendation of a blogger good friend and cookbook writer, we linked with a literary agent who coached us by way of writing a e-book proposal. The agent then pitched the e-book proposal to a number of publishers.
That very same 12 months, 4 publishers bought right into a bidding conflict over it, and we landed a e-book deal that we’d have by no means dreamed of!
Our first cookbook, From Freezer to Desk, was launched in 2017. Earlier than that e-book was launched, our literary agent secured a deal for our second cookbook, From Freezer to Cooker, which was launched in January 2020.
Almost 40,000 cookbooks have bought since then and their releases led to us being featured on Hallmark Channel, in Folks journal, and in lots of different information retailers.
The discharge of our cookbooks and subsequent PR, rising our electronic mail checklist by way of the usage of freebies, and beginning to study Website positioning finest practices in 2019, helped our website develop from 4.2M annual readers in 2017 to 7.8M in 2022.
We had 8,266,037 web page views prior to now 12 months (Oct 2022 – Sept 2023), which is the very best it’s ever been.
How A lot They’re Incomes
It varies from 12 months to 12 months, however Thriving Dwelling’s common web revenue over the previous three years has been about $130,000 per 12 months. (We do give away over 10% of that to charities, like Compassion and native nonprofits that assist the homeless and foster households.)
Right here’s the share breakdown of our revenue streams:
It’s been a gradual and regular race for us, with some ups and downs alongside the best way.
To get to a full-time revenue stage (whereas working solely 20-25 hours every, which is the best way we would like it) for each of us, has taken about 10 years. We love that this quantity of labor hours permits loads of time to be accessible for our households!
We even have one worker, who works about 15 hours per week, and we work with a contracted photographer who shoots 2-3 recipes per 30 days, a social media administration firm who runs our social media, and an accountant who helps with payroll.
Their High Advertising Methods
Whereas we’ve got experimented with Fb/Instagram adverts and Google adverts through the years, our electronic mail checklist has at all times been our foremost advertising and marketing technique.
Our emails construct belief and a relationship with readers, ship site visitors to our website, and embrace both sponsored content material or gross sales pitches.
Our second most profitable advertising and marketing technique has been our cookbooks and word-of-mouth.
Whereas writing cookbooks took years of our time and did pull our consideration away from rising our web site content material for some time, in addition they established our authority within the freezer cooking house, generated fairly a little bit of free press on the time of their launch, and now proceed to drive word-of-mouth suggestions.
Their Ideas on Website positioning
Website positioning is totally integral to our enterprise technique and requires fixed studying and vigilance to remain on high of the perfect practices.
In truth, within the subsequent 12 months, we’ve got a aim to return by way of over 500 outdated posts and ensure every one is totally optimized.
Search site visitors makes up about 60% of our site visitors, so that is important to our enterprise.
Key phrase Analysis
At present, as a result of we’ve got over 600 weblog posts on our website, Casey Markee from High Rank Hat suggested us to undergo every bit of content material to ensure it’s totally optimized, every recipe is the “better of the perfect,” and the photographs and writing are top-notch.
It’s a bit like going by way of your whole “home” and purging, organizing, repainting, and updating all the place! After we end this massive mission, we are going to return to creating new content material.
Our Website positioning course of for that features brainstorming recipe/article concepts that we’re enthusiastic about and that can assist our readers utilizing a instrument known as Semrush to analysis key phrases which have a excessive search quantity and low competitors, after which creating a recipe and/or writing an article centered round the perfect key phrase(s).
Whereas writing with Website positioning in thoughts, we wish to at all times think about our readers first…so consumer expertise is #1.
We wish our content material to be extremely useful, interesting to the attention, and user-friendly.
Hyperlink Constructing
That is an space we wish to develop in. Proper now all hyperlink constructing is totally natural. Fortunately, as a result of we’ve got been round so lengthy and since we did a lot PR for our cookbooks, we’ve got a reasonably large backlink community.
We do plan to pursue extra podcast interviews and PR alternatives sooner or later to assist with this aim, nevertheless.
Their Content material Creation Course of
We’ve over 600 articles and recipes on our website.
As I discussed, we’re at present updating and republishing each article to ensure every little thing on Thriving House is Website positioning-optimized and top-quality content material.
Nevertheless, once we return to creating and publishing new content material, that is our course of:
- Brainstorm: Polly or Rachel gathers concepts we’re personally enthusiastic about, that fill a gap in our content material, and/or will probably be useful to our readers.
- Website positioning Analysis: Polly or Rachel does key phrase analysis utilizing Semrush and Google to see if there are any key phrases or phrases which have a excessive quantity of search and low competitors. Generally we begin with this step and create content material based mostly on our findings.
- Improvement: Polly or Rachel develops and researches recipes/content material. Assessments recipe a number of occasions and writes an in depth recipe.
- Photographs/Movies: We determine if Polly will {photograph} the recipe or whether or not to delegate it to our contracted photographer, who additionally does video content material.
- Weblog Publish Draft: Our group member, Carla, begins the construction of a weblog publish, inserting all photographs, movies, the recipe, and including the primary Website positioning parts.
- Writing and Modifying: Rachel or Polly fills in the remainder of the article and sends it to a different group member to edit.
- Publish and Promote: We publish the article on the high of our weblog, hyperlink the brand new article to different locations round our website, put it on our social media calendar, and embrace it in a future electronic mail.
Their E mail Record
We’ve about 40,000 subscribers.
To construct our electronic mail checklist, we provide electronic mail opt-ins by way of our web site and on social media, akin to printable freebies like our 7 Rooster Marinades cheat sheet or a useful electronic mail sequence like High 5 Crock Pot Recipes.
We attempt to match the opt-in to the content material the reader is on or to the season we’re at present in (i.e. again to high school), making it as engaging and useful as doable.
We clear up our electronic mail checklist about 3x/12 months, ensuring to take away inactive customers so we don’t pay for them and to enhance the deliverability of our emails.
Working as a Crew
One of many issues that we predict is actually distinctive about our enterprise is that we’ve remained 50/50 companions for 12 years now.
We’ve seen many co-owned blogs and small companies come and go throughout this time and realized early on that we’ve got a singular enterprise partnership.
Fortunately, we’ve efficiently navigated the challenges of sharing a enterprise collectively, which requires making monetary and enterprise selections collectively whereas additionally figuring out private variations.
We’ve come to actually respect each other’s strengths and lean into these, whereas every making up for one another’s weaknesses. We share an identical work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit however have totally different presents with regards to how we work.
We joke that “Polly will get crap finished whereas Rachel cleans it up.” The important thing to this relationship has been open communication, believing the perfect in each other, not taking issues too personally, and caring for each other greater than the enterprise.
Their High Assets and Instruments
We’ve discovered essentially the most from the Meals Blogger Professional podcast through the years. We’ve additionally discovered quite a lot of assist by way of non-public Fb teams that embrace meals bloggers.
As for the instruments we use, I’d spotlight:
- Semrush, for Website positioning analysis
- Clariti, which helps us to arrange initiatives associated to our website’s content material and monitor the way it’s doing after we make enhancements, and
- Trello, which is what we use to arrange our editorial calendar and initiatives for our group
Their Greatest Problem
The net content material house is at all times altering, which could be discouraging and overwhelming at occasions. Being a blogger means always maintaining with algorithm modifications and know-how modifications (or hiring individuals who may help you with this).
We’ve additionally discovered to be affected person and hold transferring ahead throughout downturns in site visitors and advert income, which wax and wane throughout totally different seasons and years.
Additionally, since our website has been round since 2012, we’re always having to determine what to do with underperforming/outdated content material.
It’s solely prior to now few years that we’ve actually prioritized Website positioning. Whereas this has helped, there may be quite a lot of “baggage” that retains us from rating excessive for some search phrases.
Their Most Essential Accomplishment
First could be lasting this lengthy within the meals content material area of interest by way of many ups and downs and making meals running a blog a full-time revenue for each of us.
Second is publishing two cookbooks that we’re very happy with!
We’re additionally actually happy with the truth that we did a nationwide TV section on Hallmark Dwelling & Household and had been featured in Folks Journal.
What They Want They Knew When They Began
Running a blog has modified a lot since we started 12 years in the past. It initially was extra like a web based journal.
Most of our content material was based mostly round what we had been doing, studying, having fun with, and cooking. Nearly all of it held no Website positioning worth.
If we may return, we’d have been way more selective within the form of content material/recipes we selected to publish so we wouldn’t have to return by way of every little thing and replace it now.
We additionally would have narrowed in on a distinct segment (i.e. freezer cooking) a lot sooner.
Their Important Mistake
Though this was simply a part of our journey of studying what readers actually needed, we predict it was a mistake to make the content material on our website so broad.
It might have been a lot better to slim in on a particular subject space to be consultants in a lot sooner. However, we didn’t actually know what that was to start with!
We additionally want we’d have linked with extra bloggers and gone to conferences to study from others. It might have been wonderful to have a small group of bloggers to be on this journey with.
Their Recommendation for Different Entrepreneurs
No matter content material or product you create, make it the “better of the perfect.”
Ask your self and others, “Is that this tremendous useful to my readers or prospects? Does it remedy an issue for them? Is it simple to make use of? Does it look interesting?”
Producing content material/merchandise like this can actually assist folks (which is so fulfilling and what it’s actually all about) and concurrently trigger prospects/readers to belief and suggest you to others.
Proceed to work on your online business slightly day-after-day.
Take the lengthy view, not the brief and quick view. Constructing Thriving Dwelling has been a marathon, not a dash.
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