International Food Blogger Conference

Rise Above the Noise and Listen to Your Site

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 This guest post is by IFBC19 speaker Christine Pittman of COOKtheSTORY

When I started blogging, it was just for fun. I had no idea what I was doing and it didn’t really matter. But then my blog started to get a bit of traction, a bit of traffic. It was exciting. I started poking around trying to get more. I didn’t realize that I had a plan. I didn’t realize that I had a strategy. I just kept doing things, playing around in my stats and online, and coming up with ideas for recipes. My site kept growing.

Then, when I decided to make a serious stab at it, to turn my food hobby into a jobby (see what I did there? Ha!) something changed. It was back a few summers ago when I hired a high school student to help me with content creation for the summer. We were going to cook recipes and shoot pictures all day, every day, so that I had tons of content ready to go for the fall and winter. Cool, right? But what recipes should we make?

That’s when I realized that I had been following a blueprint, a serious content creation strategy, for years but hadn’t realized it. That’s right, when I suddenly needed to come up with 150 recipe ideas, I knew exactly where to turn. Where did I go?

Facebook? No. Pinterest? No.

My analytics? Yessss.

I used my site’s data to guide my content.

That’s what I’m going to be talking about at IFBC19. It’s the blueprint I used to grow one site from 250,000 page views a month to 1.2M a month in under two years (it’s now over 2M a month); to launch a new site and grow it to 100,000 page views in just nine months (it’s now above 500,000 a month); and to launch a third site that is on target to hit 10,000 monthly page views in six months — the same pace that each of the other sites met on their ways to success. My blueprint worked, not just for my first site but for two others as well.

That’s the technical side of why I want to present at IFBC. But there’s a more personal side. Over the years I’ve been to many talks and listened to many bloggers speak about their methods. I’ve picked the brains of numerous friends about their strategies. People have been raw and honest with me and have really shared their inner stuff. And I’ve learned so much from them. I want to give back.

But there’s something else. As much as these friends and colleagues helped me, I also often felt a bit alienated at these talks and in these conversations. I was hearing from people who had a particular niche, or who started blogging in 2005, or who got a huge Pinterest following in the very beginning. I didn’t have any of these things and wasn’t sure how their advice worked for my site.

That’s why, I think, I wound up developing techniques that don’t look outwards at blogging trends, social media trends, or food trends. They look inward at your own site, your own stats. You get to know what does well for you, and you learn how to maximize that. I feel like my techniques have allowed my sites to speak to me, and I want to help other bloggers rise above the noise and hear what their sites are saying to them.

Thank you for having me as a speaker at IFBC. I’m honored and excited to share what I know and I look forward to meeting you all in ALASKA!

Alumna Interview With Michelle De La Cerda Nash From The Complete Savorist

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This is the second interview with food bloggers who were new to the International Food Blogger Conference but attended last year in New Orleans. We welcome the thoughts of Michelle De La Cerda Nash from The Complete Savorist.

Why/How did you start your blog? Tell us about your brand/ mission.

Michelle: For years I had been asked by family and friends to start a blog. I did, but shortly after starting it, I found myself going through a divorce with an infant. I let it go. A couple of years later I went back to it with a renewed focus and purpose. It’s my goal to help the adventurous home cook and the burgeoning foodie make international cuisine at home by sharing the history of a recipe or the traits of specific ingredients. My blog has led to starting other businesses within and around the food influencer realm.

What were your thoughts and feelings about the conference before you actually attended?

Michelle: That 1) I was getting to check it off my conference bucket list in a bucket list city and 2) I hope I come away with actionable items.

What was your experience like at IFBC?

Michelle: The excursions were awesome! I loved the sessions. I felt like the speakers actually gave real tips and actionable items versus just theory. I’ve attended other conferences over the years and the speakers tell you to do things but don’t tell you how; that wasn’t the case at IFBC.

What would you like to tell food bloggers who have never attended the IFBC but are considering doing so?

Michelle: Do it. There are a lot of awesome conferences to attend. There are even awesome food blogger conferences to attend, but IFBC is worth the investment because of what you will take way from it. There is a genuine sense of support among attendees.

Alumna Interview with Leanna Pierre of Mrs. Island Breeze

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We have a list of 3,787 active food bloggers. Most have, of course, never been to the IFBC nor likely to any food blogger conference. So we decided to contact a few of our 2018 attendees who were new to the IFBC to ask them how they found last year’s conference. Here is the first of those responses, provided by Leanna Pierre of Mrs. Island Breeze.

Why/How did you start your blog? Tell us about your brand/ mission.

Leanna: I started my blog as a creative outlet from my day job. I love being an attorney. It’s challenging and exciting, but it can also be quite stressful. In searching for an outlet to relieve my stress, I realized that I was happiest when I was in my kitchen. Mrs. Island Breeze is an ode to my love for cooking and cuisines from all across the globe. I believe that food is something that unites us all across time, space, race, and culture. My goal with Mrs. Island Breeze is to get people back into their kitchens, creating memories, and trying new things.

What were your thoughts and feelings about IFBC18 in New Orleans before you actually attended?

Leanna: I was excited, but also very nervous. At the time, my blog was barely over a year old. I wondered whether my blog was too “young” for me to attend a conference like this. I wondered whether the topics would go over my head and I would not be able to really get the most out of the experience. But I was also excited to meet fellow foodies and, of course, enjoy fabulous food in New Orleans.

What was your experience like at the conference?

Leeana: My experience was fabulous! Honestly, it was even better than I expected. The hotel on Bourbon Street was amazing. The scheduled tours and excursions were interesting and well thought out. I was able to visit Liberty’s Kitchen, which added a fantastic social responsibility and community improvement aspect to the conference through the lens of food.

The actual sessions were full of information that was not only relevant, but digestable and applicable regardless of where a particular attendee may be in his or her blogging journey. The
speakers and panelists were all incredibly knowledgeable, honest, and accessible. And, without question, the highlight of the conference was meeting Michael Twitty. I had a full on fan girl moment. I’m talking running down the hall, calling his name, just to snag a picture. It’s a moment that I will treasure forever.

What would you like to tell food bloggers who have never attended the IFBC but are considering doing so?

Leeana: Do it! Don’t worry about all the what ifs. Just do it. You won’t regret it and you’ll make
some fantastic foodie friends along the way. I keep in touch with quite a few of the 2018
attendees. And let’s be honest. When else are you going to go to Juneau, Alaska?!

The Complete List of Food Blogs

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We have decided to publish what we are optimistically calling The Complete List of Food Blogs.

We know our list is incomplete. There are likely twice the 3,787 food blogs on our list. And new food blogs come daily and disappear weekly.

But we do think we have a pretty good list and have spent hours keeping it up to date. We find most lists of food blogs on the internet are full of out-of-date blogs. By contrast, we have tried to go through and cull out any blogs without a post within the last nine months.

This list is in PDF form for the moment, on purpose. We don’t want a bunch of marketing companies snagging the URLs and attempting to contact all of you. In the future, we might make this list more usable – for example, searchable by name or location.

We have included a form for you to add a blog that we missed or edit information for a blog we have listed incorrectly. Please share this list and help us improve it!

Is the IFBC for Beginner or Advanced Bloggers?

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Is the International Food Blogger Conference best suited for beginner or advanced bloggers?

As organizers, we do not steer the conference towards one group or another. And the subject is not so black or white – one blogger might be great at social media while terrible at search engine optimization, for example. Plus, our attendees are not just bloggers but also social media influencers and food writers.

But we do tend to see several distinct groups attending the conference:

  • Beginners: We are not sure why beginner food bloggers and influencers are comfortable signing up for the IFBC but we have heard this to be the case. And we try to accommodate. For example, this year we have a one hour Intro to Food Blogging course taught by Shannon Epstein of Fit Slow Cooker Queen and myself. Shannon attended IFBC18 in New Orleans and afterwards reached out to tell us she noticed quite a few beginner bloggers were not doing the basics on their blogs. This session will help get newer bloggers up to speed fast before the conference begins.
  • Entrepreneurs: We also have a reputation for being focused on helping influencers monetize their blogs, grow and profit from their social media followings, or launch from a blog to a personal business. I know better why this is one of our specialties: as the owner of Zephyr Conferences, I am an entrepreneur myself and believe this sort of content is very engaging and worthwhile for our attendees. You will always find content of interest to those of you on the entrepreneurial path.
  • Advanced Bloggers: We have a sizable group of attendees who are quite advanced. This includes most of our alumni and most of our speakers. In fact, even though we try each year to provide advanced content, we are always hearing from our attendees they want us to take it to a higher level. In 2019 we are addressing this by labeling seven different content sessions as specifically for advanced attendees.

So I hate to provide a non-answer to the question in the subject line, but our goal is to be inclusive to all types of bloggers and we work hard to do so.

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