Ep #32: Tips for Rebranding Your Food Blog with Erin Clarke

Did you start your blog with a flash of inspiration and then later realized your blog name has a lot of limitations? Don’t worry. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot. I’ve talked with so many bloggers who felt their blog’s name was holding them back. Maybe the name was focused on sweets. Or the name was about the kitchen and they wanted to expand beyond offering just food. No matter what the reason, my guest today, Erin Clarke wants to share with you these Tips for Rebranding Your Food Blog.

Look, a food blog can be a lot of work. If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. And if you’re blogging under a brand name you don’t love, it can be a problem. Now, sometimes you can grow to re-love your brand name. That happened to Cara Reed of the site Fork and Beans. In my interview with her, she said how she went through a phase of not really like her site’s name, but now sees the beauty in it.

But for others the lack of passion for their blog’s name turns into a real issue. That was the case for Erin Clarke, author of the book How to Rebrand Your Blog. She started her blog when her husband was in law school so she named her site, The Law Student’s Wife. Erin explains how it began as her blog as a hobby and had no idea that people could making a living from a food blog. When her blog started to take off and become her career, she realized the name just wasn’t working for her.

Once she realized she wanted to make a name change, she went through the difficult process of a site rebrand. One of the most difficult parts of that was choosing a name. Erin created a spreadsheet to help track all the different names she was considering and whether or not the corresponding social media handles were available as well.

Rebranding a blog can mean different things for different people. Maybe you want a new URL, or maybe you also want a site redesign to happen at the same time. The two sides of rebranding, as explained by Erin, includes how you want your site to look, but also the technical side of redirecting old content to the new site.

Erin talks more about some of the steps she went through in rebranding her blog in today’s podcast. Learn more about rebranding your food blog and rediscovering the passion you have for blogging today!

Featured Content – Tips for Rebranding Your Food Blog with Erin Clarke

Here are some of the highlights of my discussion with Erin, where we discuss:

• Why Erin decided to start her first food blog and why she decided to rebrand it
• The process Erin went through for rebranding her blog
• Erin talks about the progression of her food photography skills
• Erin shares how she loves hearing from her readers
• A site rebranding includes an extensive communication strategy for your readers
• Erin cautions that no matter how long you plan, there will always be some surprises in a site redesign. She shares some great tips for helping to deal with these surprises
• We talk about how food bloggers can be perfectionists and how to move forward with grace
• How Erin maintains ownership of her previous site
• Erin talks about her goal to find ways to manage the “rat race” side of food blogging
• Erin shares the conditions or questions you should ask yourself about before rebranding
• Erin gives a few tips about blogging in general, including her Number One Tip for Growing Your Audience!

Show Notes

This episode includes references to some resources you might find interesting. Here they are:

• Check out Erin’s site: Well Plated
• Read  more, including testimonials about Erin’s book How to Rename Your Website or click to buy it here.
• Give a shout-out to Erin and connect with her via Twitter and Instagram!
• Marly mentions the Food Blogger’s Guide of Where to Eat in Kansas City as it was published on the site Foodie Crush – check it out
• Erin used Lindsay at Purr Design for her site redesign.
• Marly mentions the Chopped Podcast episode with Monique Volz on Branding Your Food Blog
• Do you need  reminder to stop and enjoy the puddles? Marly talks about the video about a Little Boy and His Dog Walking Through a Puddle
• Erin’s favorite app on her phone is SnapChat.
• Erin’s favorite podcast is This American Life
• Connect with Chopped Academy Online:  Instagram  | Twitter
• Connect with Marly: Namely Marly |  Instagram  | Twitter
• Production, music, graphic art & sound design by Shawn Beelman

Announcements

1. Learn about future Chopped Podcast episodes by subscribing to the ChoppedCon newsletter. Just add your email in the subscribe section at the bottom of this page. You’ll be glad you did!
2. Tickets for the 2015 Chopped Conference are available. You can also attend a Food Photography Workshop with Matt Armendariz or participate in the dynamic Food Blog Success Summit. Take your food blog to the next level…learn more and buy your tickets today!
3. Next week’s podcast episode will feature Megan Gilmore of the site Detoxinista and we’re talking about a tips for getting a book deal. If you’ve ever thought how you’d love to write a cookbook, you’ll want to listen in on Megan’s tips. Subscribe today so you won’t miss it!

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