Food blogger lifecycle

Feast has developed this lifecycle internally for gauging where a blogger is and how we can best serve them. Through informal conversations we've found that some people have found this useful as a roadmap, so we're publishing it as a reference.

This isn't authoritative and many many sites lie outside these definitions.

Jump to:

Phase 1 - Aimless

You start a food blog, are swimming aimlessly through tutorials and videos and not doing keyword research.

These sites are best described as "hobby" sites and use our classic themes.

A large number of sites never get past this stage.

Phase 2 - Ramping up

  • you understand that posting recipes without any search volume is a waste of time
  • you only write recipes with adequate search volume, and low competition
  • you have less than 200 recipes and/or are not monetized
  • your categories are all top level categories (no child categories), are fully filled out with descriptions, and you have somewhere between 10-20 posts per category
  • your recipes all have high quality images and process shots
  • you may want to have an SEO audit done with Casey Markee

These sites are perfect for the Feast Plugin or Feast Plugin Starter plan - the getting started guide is helpful for deciding where you are.

Phase 3 - Monetized

You're now monetized and have figured out your niche/audience, and are ready to begin scaling up by focusing on your "zone of expertise".

  • you outsource tech support to nerdpress to free up your time to focus on your zone of expertise
  • you may want to have an SEO audit done with TopHatRank to help reorganize your site/categories
  • you're usually between 200-500 recipes here
  • you have a grasp on seasonality and are scheduling posts 3 months ahead of time

This is where you want to upgrade to Feast+, which helps you define your brand, and style your website so that you can pursue sponsored content deals.

Phase 4 - Business building

  • you've outsourced your tech support to nerdpress, social posting,
  • you have a yearly or quarterly content schedule, and are batching posts for efficiency
  • keyword research is less important now, and you're making content that your audience resonates with across your email newsletter and social accounts
  • you're updating each post once per year according to the holiday schedule
  • you're getting yearly audits from Casey or TopHatRank to stay on continue to adjust course