Publisher Spotlight: Pinch of Yum

How long have you been blogging about Food, and how did it get its start?
Pinch of Yum started in April of 2010, so we have been at it for 3 years. Lindsay always had an interest in food and sharing recipes with friends and family. One day we were talking and discussing turning her hobby into a blog. We finally decided to jump in. With a full time job as a teacher, Lindsay dedicated nights and weekends to Pinch Of Yum. Lindsay began posting pretty consistently, and the blog just grew from there.The initial year of Pinch of Yum was the why is everyone so awesome and our blog isn’t year. We had a lot of conversations about how to grow a blog, how to get readers to interact, and what needs to be done in order to increase your audience. A big milestone for us was switching from Tumblr to WordPress. This gave us a lot more creative control, and we were able to give Pinch of Yum more personality.
What has been your favorite experience?
For both us, we continually try to figure out what it means to have a food blog, and ask the question, “is there really any good coming out of this?” We love hearing that people enjoy a recipe we share, and it is very fulfilling to know you are an inspiration to your readers, but my favorite experience runs deeper. Lindsay and I spent a year in the Philippines working at an orphanage in 2012, and since then, readers who have found us on Pinterest and read or story about the orphanage are interested in getting involved and helping. For the blog to be the medium that connected someone to this orphanage was something that was really cool for us to experience and gave our blog meaning. Differentiating can be difficult.
How do you make sure to stand out?
Standing out is always difficult. We have found that it is a balance between seeing what other people are doing, and then being genuine. This sounds like two opposite things, but it is important to observe and understand what the people that are successful are doing, and then replicating those things but making sure they are genuine to who you are. We have found a voice that connects with our readers, and we make sure to always stay true to that. We have also created a forum to help new food bloggers begin their endeavor called Food Blogger Pro, which is a site designed to help bloggers learn how to start, or take their site to the next level.
Where have the major obstacles been?
In general, the biggest obstacles were less of learning how to use WordPress or taking better food photos than how to be and stay confident moving forward. I am reading a book right now called The War Of Art, which focuses on teaching you how to overcome your resistance. In our case, that was always an issue. We would come close to doing something creative or new, but would fear that people might not like it and respond negatively. It is a lot easier to make excuses as to why you can’t move forward, than pushing your boundaries and taking a chance. That has been our biggest obstacle throughout this endeavor.This is the biggest obstacle we see with the bloggers we work with as well. Public response is intimidating, but you need to have faith in your abilities.
What has been the largest driver of traffic to your site?
We see the majority of our traffic from Pinterest. In the month of July, there were a total of 250,000 pageviews that came from Pinterest. We have learned that it is important to make your content really easy to pin. The Pinterest Goodies page explains how to add a Pin It button to your post, which I highly recommend.
Any parting advice?
The one thing I would want bloggers to know is that if someone else can do it, you can do it too. For us, when we were at the point of creating our blog, we were comparing ourselves to established bloggers, and it seemed impossible to get to where they are. Again, nothing is impossible and everyone had to start from the bottom before they got to the top. Make sure to step out of your comfort zone, and while it may be easier to call it quits, take that next step and keep moving forward!