807: Why AI Gets Worse Over Time (And How to Fix It) with Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju

Megan chats with Taryn Solie about navigating traffic declines, revenue loss, video, AI and business simplification as an experienced food blogger.  Taryn has been blogging at Hot Pan Kitchen since 2018 and began the Grill Like A Mother podcast in 2022. She participated in several of Megan's masterminds and worked behind the scenes at EBT before stepping into the role of community manager. Taryn loves bringing her knowledge and connections to the EBT community to help other food bloggers reach their goals! In her downtime, she enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with her husband, twin boys, and their labradoodle, Pretzel. Things are shifting quickly for food bloggers, and pretending everything is business as usual is not helpful. In this episode, Megan shares what it has looked like to navigate a 40 percent ad revenue drop, simplify her business, lean into video, use AI more intentionally and make decisions that feel both strategic and aligned. Key Topics Discussed: • Stop relying on Google traffic as your only growth engine. • Let the data guide your next move, but do not ignore your gut. • Use video to strengthen your brand beyond the blog. • Cut tools, tasks and expenses that no longer serve the business. • Use AI to reduce workload, protect profit and make faster decisions. • Build a simpler business that gives you room to adapt.  Connect with Taryn Solie Website | Instagram | Facebook

Megan chats with Shruthi about using AI beyond basic prompting, building smarter workflows, and protecting your unique voice as a food creator. Founder of Urban Farmie (vegetarian-global niche, 2M visits a year, AP syndicated). I spent 12 years at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and left as a Partner in February to run the food business full-time. Stanford MS-MBA, former engineer, TED speaker on food systems. I also just launched Mise en Claude, a Substack on how working food bloggers can use Claude as part of their operating system. Summary & Takeaways Most food bloggers use AI as a simple writing tool. Shruthi explains why the biggest gains come from treating AI as a strategic business partner instead. This episode explores project-based AI systems, prompt maintenance, voice development, and practical ways to use AI without sacrificing originality or expertise. Key Topics Discussed: - Organize AI projects by purpose to prevent instruction overload. - Review and clean AI project instructions every month. - Use AI for repeatable tasks, not strategic business decisions. - Define your voice before teaching AI to replicate it. - Build systems that protect lived experience and expertise. - Focus on one major business initiative each quarter. Mise en Claude Substack Connect with Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju Website | Instagram | Facebook

Julia Bocchese teaches us how to optimize food blog content for AI driven search and stay visible as the search landscape evolves.   Julia is an SEO, Pinterest, and AI Search Consultant for creative small businesses at Julia Renee Consulting. Her goal is to make SEO, Pinterest, and AIO strategies approachable and easy to implement for all small businesses so they can reach their ideal clients organically.   AI is changing the way people discover recipes and content online. In this episode, Julia breaks down what food bloggers need to know about AI search, how it differs from traditional SEO, and the practical steps you can take now to strengthen your visibility across platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. If you want to future proof your business without chasing every trend, this conversation will help you focus on what matters most.   Key Topics Discussed: - Build strong SEO foundations before focusing on AI search. - Use audience specific language consistently throughout your content. - Strengthen brand authority through mentions, interviews, and collaborations. - Make important recipe information easy to find near the top of each post. - Improve user experience by removing barriers that interrupt recipe access. - Demonstrate expertise clearly through credentials, experience, and social proof.   Connect with Julia Renee Consulting Website | Instagram | Pinterest

Megan chats with Mika Kinney about the Instagram strategies food creators can use to grow reach, attract followers, and turn attention into revenue.   Mika is the creator behind Joy to the Food, a whole-food recipe brand with 470K followers on Instagram. She and her husband built the business over the last 5 years and now earns through ads, brand partnerships, affiliates, and a membership community enough to support them both full time. She's going to talk about why she stopped chasing followers and started chasing revenue instead, and what that looks like in practice.   Instagram is evolving quickly, and many food bloggers are seeing lower engagement despite consistent posting or high follower counts. In this episode, Mika breaks down the difference between content that drives growth and content that drives monetization, along with practical ways to improve reach, build a loyal audience, and create new revenue opportunities without relying solely on website traffic.   Key Topics Discussed: - Focus on reach before trying to monetize. - Optimize the first three seconds of every reel. - Give followers a clear reason to follow you. - Use stories to build trust before selling. - Charge brands based on reach and engagement, not follower count. - Analyze performance data and repeat what works.   Resources Mika Creative - Mastermind, Instagram audits and more Guest Details Connect with Joy to the Food Website | Instagram

Megan chats with Casey Markee about the massive shifts happening in SEO, AI search, semantic content, and what food bloggers must do now to stay visible and profitable. Casey Markee is the owner of internet consultancy Media Wyse. An SEO for over 25 years, he has been working exclusively with food and lifestyle bloggers since 2015. During that time, he's worked with thousands of bloggers across every recipe niche imaginable. He likes long walks to the refrigerator and back and believes bacon and candy corn are gourmet foods. SEO is changing faster than most food bloggers realize. In this episode, Casey breaks down why Google has shifted from keywords to intent, how AI is changing search behavior, and which outdated SEO practices are quietly hurting rankings. He also shares practical strategies for improving recipe content, increasing visibility in AI search, and building a site that can compete long-term in a rapidly evolving landscape. Key Topics Discussed: - Google now prioritizes intent and semantic relevance over exact match keywords. - AI summaries and AI buttons can increase visibility and referral traffic. - Thin and outdated content weakens the overall strength of your site. - Readability matters more than optimization scores from SEO tools. - Internal linking strategy directly impacts rankings and topical authority. - Popups consistently hurt crawl quality and search performance. Resources Google "What is Semantic Search" AI buttons: Smart UX play, risky GEO tactic, or both? Blogging, AI, and the SEO road ahead: Why clarity now decides who survives Google's Guidance on Performing Well in AI Search Google's NEW Guide on AI Search (including Myths) Most recent "Search Quality Rater Guidelines" Ryan Jones SerpRecon Tool (offers a 7-day trial) Feast AI Buttons Hubbub Action Buttons How to Audit your Robots.txt File to NOT block AI Book an Audit with Casey Guest Details Connect with Media Wyse Website | Instagram

Stephanie Moon teaches us how to build an author platform that creates visibility, strengthens audience trust, and supports long-term cookbook sales without burnout.   Stephanie has spent over 15 years in book marketing and publicity, leading campaigns for New York Times bestsellers and working with publishers including Chronicle Books, HarperCollins, Scholastic, and Hardie Grant. She teaches authors how to sell more books by building real relationships and communities.   Most food bloggers underestimate how much marketing matters after a cookbook is published. Stephanie breaks down what builds a strong author platform, how to create meaningful audience relationships, and why visibility is a long game. This episode gives experienced food bloggers a smarter, more sustainable approach to cookbook promotion and personal branding.    Key Topics Discussed: - Community matters more than follower count. - Owned platforms create stability outside social algorithms. - Podcast interviews build deeper audience trust than short-form content. - Visibility grows faster when personality leads the strategy. - Book marketing requires long-term energy planning. - Engaged audiences outperform inflated follower numbers.   EBT Listeners use code EBT2026 for a FREE Mini Momentum Call The FAQs: Ask Stephanie ?s | Substack    Connect with Stephanie Moon Website | Instagram

Megan chats with Yumna Jawad about building a multi-revenue food blogging business through cookbooks, partnerships, affiliate marketing, speaking opportunities, and physical products. Yumna Jawad, who was born in Africa to Lebanese parents and moved to the US at 11 years old, is beloved by millions of fans globally on Instagram, TikTok, and her website, Feel Good Foodie for her unique, delicious, creative and easy recipes that often go viral on social media. She has grown her massive following from scratch the past decade and has recently founded a new culinary venture, Oath Oats, launched in November 2022. Yumna's viral food trends have been featured by Live with Kelly & Ryan, The Today Show, Good Morning America, PEOPLE, Vogue, and the New York Times. A graduate from the University of Michigan Business School, she now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband and two kids. Yumna's parents are both Lebanese so she proudly features Lebanese, middle eastern and Ramadan recipes as part of her heritage. Her first cookbook, The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook, launched in May 2024 (Penguin) and is filled with over 100 approachable, unique and delicious "Middle Eastern meets Midwestern" recipes for the entire family. The cookbook hit the bestseller lists on Amazon, USA Today and Publisher's Weekly. Ad revenue is no longer enough to support a long-term food blogging business. In this episode, Yumna shares the exact ways she diversified Feel Good Foodie into a recognizable brand with multiple income streams. This conversation is packed with practical ideas for experienced food bloggers who want more stability, visibility, and long-term growth. Key Topics Discussed: - Build revenue streams before traffic declines force you to. - Long term brand partnerships outperform one off sponsorships. - A cookbook strengthens authority far beyond direct sales. - Affiliate income grows faster when personality leads the content. - Email works best when it builds relationships instead of pushing recipes. - Video creates stronger audience connection than static content alone. Connect with Yumna Jawad Website | Instagram

Jeanelle Castro breaks down what is working with YouTube Shorts right now, including how to create faster, stand out, and turn short form video into real blog traffic.   Jeanelle is the creator behind Jeanelleats, a food and travel brand known for story-driven videos. She uses her Filipina-American heritage and love for travel to share lesser-known foods around the world, making the 'unknown' feel familiar to her audience. She blends her background in marketing into every corner of her business. She operates the recipe blog jeanelleats.com with her husband, and launched MyMusubi, a uniquely designed musubi mold for her community of over 2 million subscribers.   Short form video is no longer optional if you want to stay competitive. This episode breaks down exactly how to use YouTube Shorts as a fast, effective marketing engine without overcomplicating the process. If you are an experienced food blogger looking to increase visibility, test content ideas, and build a stronger brand, this gives you a clear path forward.   Key Topics Discussed: - Start with Shorts to test content ideas quickly and identify what resonates. - Focus on title, hook, and thumbnail as primary growth drivers. - Repurpose one piece of content into multiple videos with different angles. - Show your face to build trust and stand out from generic content. - Prioritize consistency over volume to avoid burnout and maintain momentum. - Treat YouTube as a long-term marketing engine, not just an ad revenue stream. Connect with Jeanelle Castro Website | Instagram

Kristen Wager introduces a new method of monetizing recipes called Recifix and shows us how to build a more stable and diversified food blog business in the face of AI and traffic volatility.   Kristen is a PhD-trained consumer insights leader with deep expertise in the creator economy. Over the past decade, she's led research initiatives at Kellogg's Company supporting top CPG brands like Special K, Cheez-It, and Morning Star. Most recently she built research programs for the top 100 food creators at Raptive where she gained firsthand insight into the food creator ecosystem and the challenges creators face. That experience led her to create Recifix - a cleaner, calmer way to find, plan, and share ad-free recipes, all while supporting the creators behind them.   Relying on Google traffic alone is becoming increasingly risky. This episode explains what is actually changing in search, why AI is accelerating that shift, and how experienced bloggers can build stronger revenue streams that are not dependent on algorithms.   Key Topics Discussed: - Traffic from search is not owned and can disappear without warning. - AI is reducing clicks by delivering answers without sending users to blogs. - Real diversification means adding new revenue streams not just new platforms. - Email lists and direct audience relationships protect your business. - Subscription based models create compounding and recurring income. - Trust with your audience is your strongest long term competitive advantage.   Connect with Dr. Kristen Wager Website | Instagram Recifix - [email protected]

When is the right time to start hiring out tasks in your food blogging business? Erin Jensen teaches us when to start building a small team and how to make sure you hire the right people early on.   Erin created The Wooden Skillet in 2016 to have a creative outlet after long days working as an attorney and raising her young family. In the years since, Erin has built a team and steadily grown her website, social media presence, and most recently, Substack presence. Erin's main goal is to help women get excited to cook dinner with her easy and flavor-packed recipes. Erin is the recipe developer and food photographer for all of her recipes and has been featured on Kare11, Food52, FeedFreed, CountryLiving, Shape, Elle, Self, and The Plan To Eat Podcast.    Experienced food bloggers hit a ceiling when they try to do everything alone. This episode breaks down what it actually takes to hire, train, and retain the right people without burning out or losing control of your brand. It is a practical look at turning your blog into a real business with support systems that last.    Key Topics Discussed:   - Overwhelm is the clearest signal it is time to hire. - Start small with subcontractors before committing to hiring employees. - Trust and reliability matter more than prior blogging experience. - A simple task audit reveals exactly what to delegate. - Hiring locally can unlock efficiency in photo shoots and production days. - Long term team success comes from slow growth and consistent communication.   Connect with Erin Jensen Website | Instagram