Hello, I'm Steph! Nice to meet you :)

[stephbauer]

I've been meaning to post here for a few weeks, I was trolling the forums at first, but it's really just been a very eventful life lately. I am a Food Blogger, but also a mom and I blog about mom types of foods. Home made from scratch classic foods mostly, though I'll probably branch out more as time goes on. I'm starting with what I know! My website is http://www.momsfoodblog.com I do have more than one site but that's the main project right now and my focus. I have been featured on more than one recipe website and my site is growing faster than I ever dreamed.

I am also a mother of 4, the 4th due to be born any day now! Which is part of the busy-ness. Also last week we were told my husband's position at work (where he's been for almost 6 years) is being eliminated and he'll be out of a job at the end of October. He's our families only source of income currently, and has a pretty specialized position (he's a Tier 3 engineer in the web hosting field) so we're both working hard to find him a new job. I have been planning to eventually monetize the blog but though I have been approached by one company about potentially doing so, I'd like to hold off until the little guy is home and settled in before cracking open that egg!

My father and 2 Uncles and Grandfather are all entrepreneurs but not in anything remotely computer related so this is purely my project. We are motivated people! I've been talking to my husband about Freelancing and starting a side business and we're making steps in that direction too. I have read some of MJ's book I am currently reading it and passing on as much information to my husband as I can (he's not really a reader) and learning so much.

It's amazing to be part of this community Nice to meet you, I'm Steph.

 

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[Jon L]

Welcome to the forum! I was 'laid off' from my last two jobs, and can honestly say that it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I'm not where I want to be financially, but I'm on the path to get there.

I'm betting the same thing will be true for you and your husband. There is nothing like the entrepreneurial journey. Get ready to learn a TON.

By the way, this forum is really good. Lots of supportive and knowledgeable people here. They've already steered me clear of a minefield I was considering walking through.

 

[Bellini]

I've been meaning to post here for a few weeks, I was trolling the forums at first, but it's really just been a very eventful life lately. I am a Food Blogger, but also a mom and I blog about mom types of foods. Home made from scratch classic foods mostly, though I'll probably branch out more as time goes on. I'm starting with what I know! My website is http://www.momsfoodblog.com I do have more than one site but that's the main project right now and my focus. I have been featured on more than one recipe website and my site is growing faster than I ever dreamed.

I am also a mother of 4, the 4th due to be born any day now! Which is part of the busy-ness. Also last week we were told my husband's position at work (where he's been for almost 6 years) is being eliminated and he'll be out of a job at the end of October. He's our families only source of income currently, and has a pretty specialized position (he's a Tier 3 engineer in the web hosting field) so we're both working hard to find him a new job. I have been planning to eventually monetize the blog but though I have been approached by one company about potentially doing so, I'd like to hold off until the little guy is home and settled in before cracking open that egg!

My father and 2 Uncles and Grandfather are all entrepreneurs but not in anything remotely computer related so this is purely my project. We are motivated people! I've been talking to my husband about Freelancing and starting a side business and we're making steps in that direction too. I have read some of MJ's book I am currently reading it and passing on as much information to my husband as I can (he's not really a reader) and learning so much.

It's amazing to be part of this community Nice to meet you, I'm Steph.

Hi Steph! ~ Welcome to the Forum

If you're into food I like you already


P.S. I noticed the picture of Himalayan Pink Salt on your blog. That's what I use at home!
It's become my favorite, besides Celtic Mineral Sea Salt.

 

[Andy Black]

I've been meaning to post here for a few weeks, I was trolling the forums at first, but it's really just been a very eventful life lately. I am a Food Blogger, but also a mom and I blog about mom types of foods. Home made from scratch classic foods mostly, though I'll probably branch out more as time goes on. I'm starting with what I know! My website is http://www.momsfoodblog.com I do have more than one site but that's the main project right now and my focus. I have been featured on more than one recipe website and my site is growing faster than I ever dreamed.

I am also a mother of 4, the 4th due to be born any day now! Which is part of the busy-ness. Also last week we were told my husband's position at work (where he's been for almost 6 years) is being eliminated and he'll be out of a job at the end of October. He's our families only source of income currently, and has a pretty specialized position (he's a Tier 3 engineer in the web hosting field) so we're both working hard to find him a new job. I have been planning to eventually monetize the blog but though I have been approached by one company about potentially doing so, I'd like to hold off until the little guy is home and settled in before cracking open that egg!

My father and 2 Uncles and Grandfather are all entrepreneurs but not in anything remotely computer related so this is purely my project. We are motivated people! I've been talking to my husband about Freelancing and starting a side business and we're making steps in that direction too. I have read some of MJ's book I am currently reading it and passing on as much information to my husband as I can (he's not really a reader) and learning so much.

It's amazing to be part of this community Nice to meet you, I'm Steph.

Welcome Steph. Nice intro.

Gosh, 4 kids soon? No wonder you're busy. We've 4 too, and there's some members with twice that! Best of luck with your big forthcoming day. Hope it all goes smoothly.

I've been a freelancer since 2000. I had a couple of jobs in that period too, and one finished after 11 months. So for me, freelancing was as stable if not more so than "permie" roles.

Tell your husband to listen to the book on Audible. I've read it twice and love reading books, but really found the audio version clarified things a lot. Having MJ in your ear as he's bending it adds an extra dimension.




Here's a good post to familiarise yourself with the forum:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/absolute-beginners-guide-to-tmf-tflf.54998

 

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[stephbauer]

Welcome to the forum! I was 'laid off' from my last two jobs, and can honestly say that it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I'm not where I want to be financially, but I'm on the path to get there.

I'm betting the same thing will be true for you and your husband. There is nothing like the entrepreneurial journey. Get ready to learn a TON.

By the way, this forum is really good. Lots of supportive and knowledgeable people here. They've already steered me clear of a minefield I was considering walking through.

Thank you Jon! That is definitely encouraging! I listen to Pat on SPI and it seems like everyone who comes on there and is successful has a baby being born as they start their entrepreneurial journey, or a lay off, and the way I see it I have both so maybe it's a huge stroke of luck not the other way around? I know my husband is at least a little relieved, he hasn't been the happiest at his job in a while and we've talked about him looking elsewhere but he hasn't been motivated. Now, he definitely is!! I love hearing that, I'm all about positive people! I used to be a sales manager and my team was 'Team Awesome', they really were, too! Unfortunately that entire department was outsourced to Manila and I lost my job there, but that's another story Positivity is what makes you take life and make it your own rather than just letting it happen to you, I was hoping that's what I'd find here of all places! I'm happy to hear I'm not mistaken.

 

[stephbauer]

Hi Steph! ~ Welcome to the Forum

If you're into food I like you already


P.S. I noticed the picture of Himalayan Pink Salt on your blog. That's what I use at home!
It's become my favorite, besides Celtic Mineral Sea Salt.

Thank you Bellini! I'm super into food. I post about it on the blog but I positively worship it on instagram, if you use it I'm at instagram.com/momsfoodblog. Pretty much everywhere on social media I snagged /momsfoodblog that's one reason I picked the handle, it was available everywhere! And YES I do use the Himalayan salt!! I love it. I use Kosher salt too in my salt pig for when I need to sprinkle or measure out salt but that pink salt is fantastic when the food is already made. I'm a big believer in salt, if your food isn't properly salted it completely ruins the meal and that includes sweets, too! I made some cupcakes last week (there will be a post about them, eventually too) and the secret in my buttercream frosting is just that; salt! In almost all baked goods salt is key I like the attention to detail, you're the only one who has noticed it in the background, it's lurking in more than one picture that has yet to be posted as well.

 

[stephbauer]

Welcome Steph. Nice intro.

Gosh, 4 kids soon? No wonder you're busy. We've 4 too, and there's some members with twice that! Best of luck with your big forthcoming day. Hope it all goes smoothly.

I've been a freelancer since 2000. I had a couple of jobs in that period too, and one finished after 11 months. So for me, freelancing was as stable if not more so than "permie" roles.

Tell your husband to listen to the book on Audible. I've read it twice and love reading books, but really found the audio version clarified things a lot. Having MJ in your ear as he's bending it adds an extra dimension.




Here's a good post to familiarise yourself with the forum:

• www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/absolute-beginners-guide-to-tmf-tflf.54998

Thank you Andy and you know what, that's a GREAT idea! He might actually do that! I bought the book on Kindle at Amazon, I think they have the option to upgrade to Audio too I'll look into it. You know what, 4 kids is great in my opinion. I was an only child (though the oldest of 10 cousins) and I always wished for siblings. My older two are 15 and 11 and the youngest is 21 months then soon to be youngest is due any day now. We took a 10 year and 6 day hiatus between the two in the middle so we sort of have two and two, rather than 4 if that makes sense. Though the older kids love the little guy and are looking forward to the next, they won't see each other as much as siblings as the two groups who grow up together. I love kids! They make life so much more incredible and interesting than I could have dreamed.

That is what I have been telling him, if he starts freelancing he can do that no matter what and build up a customer base. Even if he is just doing occasional work he will develop relationships and eventually have clients and it could turn into a full time gig and worst case scenario, he makes money on the side. So it's really win win! I know he's happiest when he feels useful and like he's heard and in his current position they have just let the whole department stagnate and now they've decided to eliminate it entirely; which is just sad. But we've seen them moving in a negative direction for a while, too. I have been telling him over and over again that in a year I think we'll look back on this as the best thing that ever happened to us, even though the short term is definitely going to be tough! He has to work out the last month and we were planning on him taking a few weeks off after the little guy is born, so I'll have my hands full at home with a newborn and toddler! Luckily I don't sleep much, I need to keep the blog up too

 

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[Christiano]

Tell your husband he'll be fine. I was out of work in April 2015 (work visa complications fixed in mid May) and spent 2 to 3 hours a day looking for work and applying for freelancing gigs. Kept getting the gigs and no work so I started my own company after the money came in mid June and never looked back.

I've had job offers during interviews to do gigs! Whether your husband goes short or long-term on the freelance thing, it's something he can take action on right now. Here are the active forums that I use in order of which I think are best:

1) www.upworks.com (most traffic, plenty of opportunity, check frequently as you really want to bid within an hour of post to increase chances here)
2) www.peopleperhour.com (UK client mainly, some US)
3) www.guru.com (diamonds in the rough here)
4) www.freelancer.com (terrible, but might get a few leads here)

I also encourage your husband to update his LinkedIn profile this way he can centralize his credentials in a platform independent way. From there, take a few simple gigs, get those 5 star ratings and it can snowball from there. Paypal account setup really facilitates money transfer across all the platforms as their back-ends vary.

Also, if he wants, he can use my LinkedIn as a template to fill in his stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianoferraro
(I got it professionally done first, then reviewed by someone with 30+ years in sales so that should be a good start)

Love your positivity! Message me if there is anything else I can do to help

 

[stephbauer]

Tell your husband he'll be fine. I was out of work in April 2015 (work visa complications fixed in mid May) and spent 2 to 3 hours a day looking for work and applying for freelancing gigs. Kept getting the gigs and no work so I started my own company after the money came in mid June and never looked back.

I've had job offers during interviews to do gigs! Whether your husband goes short or long-term on the freelance thing, it's something he can take action on right now. Here are the active forums that I use in order of which I think are best:

1) www.upworks.com (most traffic, plenty of opportunity, check frequently as you really want to bid within an hour of post to increase chances here)
2) www.peopleperhour.com (UK client mainly, some US)
3) www.guru.com (diamonds in the rough here)
4) www.freelancer.com (terrible, but might get a few leads here)

I also encourage your husband to update his LinkedIn profile this way he can centralize his credentials in a platform independent way. From there, take a few simple gigs, get those 5 star ratings and it can snowball from there. Paypal account setup really facilitates money transfer across all the platforms as their back-ends vary.

Also, if he wants, he can use my LinkedIn as a template to fill in his stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianoferraro
(I got it professionally done first, then reviewed by someone with 30+ years in sales so that should be a good start)

Love your positivity! Message me if there is anything else I can do to help

Thank you for the leads!! I had found all but Guru, but he hasn't done any jobs on them yet and the insight into them is invaluable, it also helps to know I'm on the right track! He's working on the LinkedIn Profile but I will definitely give him a kick in the @$$ to get on getting it finished, mine is super up to date but fat lot of good that does him Thank you so much for the link to your profile and information, that's fantastic! I will definitely use it as a template to help get his going! I was a recruiter for years before I was a sales manager so I have his resume cleaned up and updated (I did that the first day we found out this was happening) but LinkedIn wasn't really around back then so I have a lot less experience with it, other than just playing around with my own. I did set up a company site for my blog (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mom's-food-blog) but I haven't taken the time yet to look into what to do with it. If you or anyone has any insight on that I'd love to hear it too!

You have already been so helpful Christiano! Thank you so much!!

 

[Christiano]

Honestly, I would use Facebook as a way to drive traffic to your Food Blog as opposed to LinkedIn. Your content is much more favorable to that platform and Facebook provides an opportunity for far better demographic targeting as they have an unparalleled execution over information indexation (variety of data associated to a unique record like age, interests, gender, relationship status etc).

Also, I would pull up all social media that has the same name as your food blog. You can use this tool: https://www.namecheckr.com/

Ultimately you are either going to monetize your audience (email if you gather this information, native content advertising) or you are going to sell the blog. You can yield a higher value if you capture all the other social platform names for the buyer. The platforms worth capturing (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo).

FYI, the value of your blog is determined by three main things:

1) The size of your following
2) How much information you know about your following (age, gender, marriage status, w/wo children)
3) Engagement level of your following (average % of subscribers read your posts, like it, share it (by platform) + any other metrics as far as click etc)

Considerations:

Pinterest houses a lot of your target audience (90%+ women - don't quote me on the exact percentage, but it's up that high) and is the 3rd largest social platform. You could easily create an account and post the pictures you already post with a quick blurb you pull from the blog to gain a following there and push traffic to the blog as well.

Sent an invite to LinkedIn if you'd like to connect.

Hope that helps!

 

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[Jon L]

Before your husband writes out his profile, have him read through the first few pages of this post:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/

You're welcome.

 

[stephbauer]

Honestly, I would use Facebook as a way to drive traffic to your Food Blog as opposed to LinkedIn. Your content is much more favorable to that platform and Facebook provides an opportunity for far better demographic targeting as they have an unparalleled execution over information indexation (variety of data associated to a unique record like age, interests, gender, relationship status etc).

Also, I would pull up all social media that has the same name as your food blog. You can use this tool: https://www.namecheckr.com/

Ultimately you are either going to monetize your audience (email if you gather this information, native content advertising) or you are going to sell the blog. You can yield a higher value if you capture all the other social platform names for the buyer. The platforms worth capturing (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo).

FYI, the value of your blog is determined by three main things:

1) The size of your following
2) How much information you know about your following (age, gender, marriage status, w/wo children)
3) Engagement level of your following (average % of subscribers read your posts, like it, share it (by platform) + any other metrics as far as click etc)

Considerations:

Pinterest houses a lot of your target audience (90%+ women - don't quote me on the exact percentage, but it's up that high) and is the 3rd largest social platform. You could easily create an account and post the pictures you already post with a quick blurb you pull from the blog to gain a following there and push traffic to the blog as well.

Sent an invite to LinkedIn if you'd like to connect.

Hope that helps!

I do have all of those platforms except for Vimeo, and I published my first YouTube video this last week though I have much room for improvement! I have /momsfoodblog on all except of course Google+ and Youtube where it doesn't apply. I have Facebook but it's incredibly hard to gather a following on there anymore, though I still regularly post to it (facebook.com/momsfoodblog) and engage on it often. I hope to eventually monetize and keep the blog going, I do also have a related side project but I don't plan to really launch that until at least January.


Pinterest is gold. I am working on building my following there and I actually really like the platform so that's a benefit too (pinterest.com/momsfoodblog). I accepted your connection on LinkedIn and looked through your profile, mine needs some updating and I'm working on that too but you're right, it's not really my best platform. I do have Jetpack set up to post regularly to every one of my profiles regardless and I am getting more engagement as I go. I have only had the blog up for 3 months but I did a lot of preparation beforehand and I have gotten a lot of traction quickly and I'm growing!!! Any insight and tips you have I am more than willing to listen, I love nothing more than learning new things and I am having an exceptionally good time with all of this!

 

[stephbauer]

Before your husband writes out his profile, have him read through the first few pages of this post:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/

You're welcome.

Before your husband writes out his profile, have him read through the first few pages of this post:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/

You're welcome.

I will, or I will read it to him in any case

 

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[Christiano]

Great that you have the social locked down!

Ok so then some potential ideas to play around with is the content. I'll summarize these into two areas:

Themed Series (Goal: Increase engagement)

Make a brief announcement that for the next x posts you are doing a spin off of the recipes with a focused theme such as "On the Run Series" where every recipe feeds 4 people, tastes good and done in 15 minutes or less. The premise behind the themes is to resonate with some of the challenges that mother's have revolving around limited time:
-less time investment (quick recipes)
-greater value for time (2 hrs makes x meals for y people and last z days)

Native Content: (Goal: Monetization)

Finding any food or condiment companies that have an interest in advertising to your following. Creating recipes that revolve around their ingredient. This pushes their product in a subtle way without compromising the integrity of your feed. Copyrighting skills are of value here. Charges for native content really have to do with big traffic, but can be big $$$ if negotiated properly.

That's all I got for blogs so hope that helps!

 

[stephbauer]

Great that you have the social locked down!

Ok so then some potential ideas to play around with is the content. I'll summarize these into two areas:

Themed Series (Goal: Increase engagement)

Make a brief announcement that for the next x posts you are doing a spin off of the recipes with a focused theme such as "On the Run Series" where every recipe feeds 4 people, tastes good and done in 15 minutes or less. The premise behind the themes is to resonate with some of the challenges that mother's have revolving around limited time:
-less time investment (quick recipes)
-greater value for time (2 hrs makes x meals for y people and last z days)

Native Content: (Goal: Monetization)

Finding any food or condiment companies that have an interest in advertising to your following. Creating recipes that revolve around their ingredient. This pushes their product in a subtle way without compromising the integrity of your feed. Copyrighting skills are of value here. Charges for native content really have to do with big traffic, but can be big $$$ if negotiated properly.

That's all I got for blogs so hope that helps!

Thank you Christiano! Those are fantastic suggestions! I have a lot of holiday posts coming up the next few months, but I think the themed series suggestion is PERFECT for when there are no holidays to bring in new traffic ie- no already built in themes. I plan posts ahead of time (sometimes I'll move them back to move others up if they're more relevent) so I'll start planning some for early 2016. I am very interested in doing posts around products and I'm going to look around some more for information on how to get in on that! I love cooking (if you can't tell) and can easily plan a new recipe and post highlighting a food product, provided it's something I can work with (ie not Twinkies or something icky) I love the feedback and suggestions, this forum has already proven invaluable.

 

[stephbauer]

Before your husband writes out his profile, have him read through the first few pages of this post:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/

You're welcome.

Follow up - Jon I spent a few hours last night going through the post you sent (I even came across a post by you saying you were going to refer people to the post, which I got a kick out of ) and we learned a lot!! I am going to try to get through all I believe it's 23 pages eventually but I wanted to thank you again for referring me to it it is pure gold. I particularly enjoyed Lex's quote "Clients don't care about your degree, and they don't care about your experience. They care about what they care about, and if you don't show em' you care about the same, then you're not getting shit." My husbands weekend starts tomorrow, we're going to start working on his profile and aim for some low key jobs to get him good reviews! We have 5 weeks until his position is eliminated, let's see what we can accomplish before then!

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

Tell your husband to listen to the book on Audible. I've read it twice and love reading books, but really found the audio version clarified things a lot. Having MJ in your ear as he's bending it adds an extra dimension.

This.

Reading is great, but not the primary way people learn -- especially boys/men.

Getting the audible version makes it just so much easier to consume the knowledge.

Pinterest is gold. I am working on building my following there and I actually really like the platform so that's a benefit too (pinterest.com/momsfoodblog).

My suggestion: buy a slab of white quartz. Get good lights. A decent (maybe even iphone) camera. Put all of the food on that. Then take pictures before uploading to Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

White backgrounds are known to increase engagement and have someone take an interest (look at Amazon for example). They also make you look extremely professional (even though it's super easy to do).

Here's an example of what I mean:

Notice how the product is pretty dumb. It's a bottle with fruit in it. But then add to that the gold watch, the gold on the bottle, and the marble background, and suddenly you go from "stupid bottle" to "Why Everyone is Going Crazy For Drop Bottle".

 

[Red]

Welcome! It's always nice to have a little more estrogen on here.

 

[stephbauer]

This.

Reading is great, but not the primary way people learn -- especially boys/men.

Getting the audible version makes it just so much easier to consume the knowledge.



My suggestion: buy a slab of white quartz. Get good lights. A decent (maybe even iphone) camera. Put all of the food on that. Then take pictures before uploading to Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.

White backgrounds are known to increase engagement and have someone take an interest (look at Amazon for example). They also make you look extremely professional (even though it's super easy to do).

Here's an example of what I mean:

Notice how the product is pretty dumb. It's a bottle with fruit in it. But then add to that the gold watch, the gold on the bottle, and the marble background, and suddenly you go from "stupid bottle" to "Why Everyone is Going Crazy For Drop Bottle".

Thank you for the tip! I have been thinking a lot about White granite counters, I see a lot of food bloggers use them. We were planning to buy a house in the next year or so (the layoff might make that a bit more complicated!) and I was hoping to invest in some nice counters then. Right now we're renting, I DID buy a nice big butcher block cutting board that I use for the background of a lot of my pictures



And we bought a new kitchen table 6 months ago for the white background (and because we needed a bigger table, 6 people in this house!) Which works really well



You're definitely right about the white quartz but I'm trying to make do with what I can for now The lights I've been thinking about for a while, I have a handheld LED light but almost all of the pictures I have so far have been taken with natural light, there's a window by my kitchen table where the above picture was taken and a window in my kitchen where the cutting board is (the first shot of the dough). I am usually cooking in the middle of the day, when the best light comes in and we have a sky light in between which helps too

That white background sure does look beautiful, I'm working on making a 3ft x 3ft staging board (I actually already made the board but being super pregnant I haven't had a chance to paint it yet so I'm making do with the above) that I am going to paint white and distress for a little variety and more white until I can get those counters too. I am not sure where I'd go about getting a slab of granite but I am hoping to make do until I can get those beautiful counters!

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

You're definitely right about the white quartz but I'm trying to make do with what I can for now

No need to overcomplicate things. You only need 1 tile. Something like this would work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINTCRAFT-4...LF-ADHESIVE-/400795901459?hash=item5d514c1e13

If you have time, drop by the local tile/flooring shop. Say you're browsing for your bathroom and need a nice white marble tile. Then purchase a 1ft x 1ft piece. If they ask, say you need it to show your husband.

Or buy on ebay.