The 2020 International Food Blogger Conference Virtual Summit took place on June 17-19, 2020. We will be doing a second virtual event on January 15, 2021. Please add your email address to the Stay Updated box to the right and find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Wednesday, June 17
Purchase Replay 7:00 AM PT/ 10:00 AM ET Attracting Your Dream Audience on Instagram: Too often we see that our followers on Instagram are not seeing our content. In this session, Jenny Melrose of The Melrose Family will teach you how: 1) Instagram stories can help your current followers actually see and engage with your following. 2) You can beat the Instagram algorithm by using simple strategies on Instagram Stories. 3) To get your audience to take action from stories by clicking through to your website and actually buying your products and services. 4) All this can be done without having swipe up or a large following.
Purchase Replay 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Real Talk With Foodies of Color: Join us as we have a candid conversation with three ethnically diverse food bloggers and explore what it means to be a Person of Color (POC) and woman in a predominately and historically white food industry. Our panelists will discuss their personal experiences, why space for voices, recipes and stories like theirs matters, and their thoughts on the systemic racial injustice occurring in the United States and across the globe. Our panelists include Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack from Muy Bueno Cookbook, Leanna Jordan Pierre from Mrs. Island Breeze, and Raj Thandhi from Pink Chai Living, with moderator Lauren McElwain from Cooking As a First Language.
Purchase Replay 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET Beyond The Ad Network: Exploring Creative Ways to Make Money From Your Blog: Most bloggers take advantage of ad networks and sponsored posts to monetize their blogs, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. Come with Jason Logsdon of Amazing Food Made Easy and explore the variety of techniques he’s used over the last decade to create value for his readers and learn how to implement them on your own blog, including creating and selling online cooking courses, self-publishing cookbooks, forming a patronage campaign, creating custom kitchen tools, publishing e-books, producing branded t-shirts and aprons, along with many more. Leave with a plan of attack to better serve your fans, grow your income, and get the most from your blog!
Purchase Replay 1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET How to Connect With Your Audience Through Your Website: Your website is the most valuable piece of real estate you have for driving connection with your audience. It is the hub for your blog content, your email list and social media. In this presentation Madison Wetherill of Grace + Vine Studios, web designer for food bloggers, will cover the importance of a unique website, how to define your own unique brand and ways to connect with your audience through different areas of your website.
Purchase Replay 3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET No Time No Problem – How to Make More Money From Your Business When You Only Have a Few Broken Bits of Time: In this session, Caroline Vencil will help you focus on the right things for your blog or business to see ultimate success. Whether you have small kids, a full-time job, or just very limited time, there are ways to prioritize and ultimately make more money from your blog or business, and Caroline will show you how.
Thursday, June 18
Purchase Replay 7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Featured Q/A with Francis Lam : Our featured speaker at the 2020 Virtual Speaker is Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table on American Public Radio and is Editor-at-Large at Clarkson Potter. Francis is also former Eat columnist at the New York Times Magazine, a regular judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, and published writer in Gourmet, Bon Appetít, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Salon, Men’s Journal, and the Financial Times. Francis will have a conversation about the world of food media with food and wine blogger, veteran professional journalist, and IFBC board member Doug Levy.
Purchase Replay 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Get Paid to Write On Your Blog: Imagine for a minute making money on your blog without hoping for traffic or that someone will click on a link and buy something. Wouldn’t that be awesome?! Industry expert, Tracie Fobes from a Penny Pinchin’ Mom and TracieFobes.com, will tell you how it is possible when you do sponsored posts! In this session, you will learn how to find sponsors who are willing to pay you to write about them, how to know what to charge, and even what to do to make them want to come back and work with you time and again. Every blog can do sponsored work — you simply need to know how to get started!!
Purchase Replay 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET How to Do a Photoshoot Remotely – The Right Way: In this session, Christina Peters, from Christina Peters Food Photography, will cover how she has been shooting remotely with her clients for over 15 years. She will give you a step by step guide for how to shoot remotely for your clients, sponsors and personal blog so that things go as planned and you NEVER get asked to reshoot any of your images.
Purchase Replay 1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET 3 Ways to Win on Instagram brought to you by Valley Fig Growers: Phil Pallen has figured out the secret sauce to squeezing Instagram’s value for people and company brands. This talk will teach you how to simply and easily attract more followers, improve engagement, and rack up loyalty. Effortlessly maximize every facet Instagram offers for exposure, and stay visually on brand to create a consistent experience for followers. Get ready to increase your Instagram skills and impact—in only 45 minutes.
Friday, June 19
Purchase Replay 7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Digital Marketing Toolkit: Figuring Out What Works Best For You: All food bloggers are, essentially, small businesses. And all small businesses have an array of digital marketing tools at their disposal to consider when promoting their businesses (or themselves). These tools include search engine optimization, email marketing, social media, digital advertising, video marketing, and partnerships. But the key is to figure out where to spend your time and, if you have a budget for it, your money. Scott Fish of 32° digital will walk us through how to make these decisions.
Purchase Replay 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Using Research To Write The Right Content That People Are Searching For: Ty Kilgore specializes in Search Engine Optimization for food bloggers. We have all heard about SEO and know it can involve a lot: tagging, keywords, link building, conversion rate optimization, and much more. One of the simplest and most powerful aspects of Search Engine Optimization, however, is writing content that is similar to what people are actually searching for. Without this, everything technical is just window dressing. Ty will walk us through how to make sure your content appeals to what your readers (current and future) are seeking.
Purchase Replay 11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET Learn How to Overcome Your Fear of Live Video and Get the Raving Fans You Deserve: It doesn’t matter if you have never been in front of a camera or if you are looking for ways to improve your messaging – live video will help your business. Live video is one of the ways to get seen more on social media because they love it when you are on their platforms. It’s the perfect way to really show who you, and your brand, are and gives you an opportunity to be seen as an expert in your field. In this session, Kathy Hester of Plant Based Instant Pot, an established cookbook author and live video expert will give you the basics to get started in live video. The main thing to remember is the only way you will get better is to practice. She’ll talk about the foundations of going live, tips, and tricks to help you be more confident, and best of all – why messing up is actually a great way to get closer to your fans.
Purchase Replay 1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET What to Do When Your Pins Just Aren’t Bringing You Traffic…: There’s been a lot of chatter lately around Pinterest traffic being on the decline. Let’s talk about how to dig into analytics for answers and what you can do in the meantime to improve your stats. Our speaker is Pinterest expert Moriah Garnett, who specializes in driving traffic via this platform.
Purchase Replay 3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET The Safety & Future of Travel and Food Blogging Conferences: Allan Wright will discuss what we currently know about the transmission of COVID-19 and how it affects the safety of travel and group meetings such as food blogging conferences. Allan is the owner of Zephyr Conferences, which organizes five conferences per year including the IFBC, and has 23 years experience in the travel industry. This seminar will include a presentation of the risk factors of various aspects of travel and conferences, some predictions on what travel and conferences will look like in the coming months and years, and thoughts on how this has impacted and will continue to impact food blogging conferences. Ultimately, the information will help empower you to make good decisions as you contemplate travel and group meetings in the future. Allan has presented similar webinars twice recently with one viewer saying “This is the best webinar I have attended!”