How a Blog, Search / SEO, and Pinterest together can grow a massive tribe with Bita Arabian EPISODE 6

In this episode with Bita Arabian, How a Blog, Search/SEO and Pinterest together can grow a massive tribe, Bita shares how her blog and social media audience began small, as do most all blogs and social media followings. As a family health and nutrition coach, she began by wanting to create written and picturesque content for her clients, as well as interested family and friends. She named her blog Oven Hug. After some time, she became inspired by hearing other food bloggers on podcasts, where she heard them reveal that content creation consistency, was key. Bita shares how she improved Oven Hugs performance (meaning growing it’s reach or discovery) on Google and Pinterest by growing her team in order to BE reliably consistent. She also emphasizes her realizations in Google search keywords or SEO, as they tie to her blog copy after facing some challenging questions about finding her niche. Pinterest has become the social media platform facilitating much of her business success and we get into some of the nuances of Pinterest in this delicious episode.

Welcome to episode six, how a blog search SEO and Pinterest together can grow a massive tribe with Bita Arabian. Bita is a creator of a recipe blog called Oven Hug. Her day job is a family nutritionist and health coach for teens, kids and families. She's a Michigander , like myself, and we met in the 6th grade. Can you believe? And we grew up in Michigan, both ended up at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and ran around campus studying like crazy and doing some other things too that we enjoyed on the Lake. But Bita has since then moved out to Silicon Valley, and has a teaching background, and really has gotten into the whole space of blogging and has been wildly successful, especially with her blog and on Pinterest. So, Bita, say hi to everybody, and I'm so happy you're here.

Bita: Hi, Carey. Hi, everybody. Oh, my goodness. I'm a huge Carey Sperry fan, we go way back. And I'm just so happy to be here to be featured among your first 10 podcast guests. I'm grateful for this opportunity. Thank you so much for having me.

Carey: Thank you for being here. I'm so excited to talk about this stuff. So, let's just start though first by, I shared a little bit about you, but can you share some with us about you and your business, Oven Hug?

Bita: Yes. Oven Hug started out as just an extension of my day job, my coaching practice. As you said, I'm a family nutritionist. What I do, day in and day out, is to help them to learn to make better food choices and plan out daily exercise. My students were asking me how to do this and specifically how to prepare healthier snacks and meals at home. So, going about five years ago now, I started the blog more on a small scale just to address my students' questions. At the time I was thinking, just again, of that small and narrow space. I was just trying to better serve the families I was helping in my coaching, so I began Oven Hug, a healthy recipe site.

Carey: Ah, yes. That makes sense.

Bita: Perfect sense.

Carey: And you've always been a cook and a chef, just like myself. That's one way you and I really bond and share the love of cooking. And your parents are always cooking in the home, I remember going to your house and it smelled so delicious of wonderful Persian foods and really, really healthy foods, too. So, can you talk a little more about how you went about actually becoming a blogger at the beginning? Because a lot of people think about it and see other people doing it, but how did you go about actually putting pen to paper, so to speak?

Bita: Great question. Sure. Yes. So, first of all, if anybody is thinking of starting a blog, or maybe as an extension of their business, adding some content with a blog, I would say just get started. That's what I did. Just basically, I had dabbling in it in my previous career, which was a school teacher and an art teacher. It's always been a creative outlet for me, and so I wanted to share ideas and DIY. So, my first blog, when I was a school teacher, was in that space, the arts and crafts and DIY. Again, I just kind of self-taught. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube, which is a fabulous resource to learn just about anything, as you well know. I did spend so much time though on that, just teaching myself, trying to teach myself all the aspects of it. It was super time consuming then in the beginning.

At the same time, I was working for a startup here in Silicon Valley, which was awesome and I learned so much there. I wore so many different hats. I think that's when I started it up. Again, when I got into health coaching and switched the gears to Oven Hug, sharing the recipes. I did have that experience in my back pocket with the crafting and DIY, so it was easy for me to then start a second blog, Oven Hug. But again, I was doing it all. I was creating the recipes and the content, I was doing the photography in the food staging, I was doing all my Pinterest boards for both the business I was working for, the startup, and for Oven Hug. At that time, I was also doing Facebook. I would throw up a post on the blog, I'd throw it up on Facebook, and then also Instagram, of course. I wasn't able to do this all consistently, but I was doing that all on the side of my day job.

Carey: That's a lot. That's a lot. But that's, for a lot of people, how they catapult to the next level with making it a business and really focusing and getting really good at it as they do so much, and then they learn it all, and then you realize, "Yikes. If I really want to take this to the next level, maybe I should get some help." But I want to back up before we get into that, because I know that something that you're really passionate about, your growth this year, is partnering with outside sources. When you started writing your blog and you decided to be more consistent to it, because you realized that it significantly contributed to the success and people finding your website through search on Google. A lot of people don't connect that all the words written put in to the blogs, and then the words changes on the blog feed the Google algorithm and in search. So, when did that all click for you and you decide to learn more and dive into posting more regularly?

Bita: Yeah, that's a great question. I always tried to post around a post a week. It didn't always happen, but I had that goal that I wanted to try to share one a week. Again, it was just an extension of what I was doing at home, the healthy habits that we were practicing at home. So, it was relatively easy for me to do that. But then again, in the beginning, I was just thinking of my small little audience of students that I was coaching, some family and friends. I started listening to podcasts and getting inspired by successful food bloggers out there.

And I thought, "Well, gosh. How do you go from just throwing up some ideas to this small audience, to be one of the players?" I just got curious, and I think that listening to the podcasts motivated me. I realized that in order to get to that next level, the successful food bloggers started to think of their blogs as a business and investing in it and outsourcing when needed. They stopped trying to do everything themselves, especially when they had day jobs. And I also started to hear again and again how important it is to focus on SEO. SEO, SEO, you always hear SEO. It is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. I'm sorry if you know this or people out there know this, but I'll just break it down because I-

Carey: Some people don't.

Bita: I didn't. I didn't really fully understand it. But it's like when you go on Google and you're in the kitchen and you want to get a healthy pumpkin bread recipe. So, you type in to Google healthy pumpkin bread. How many people sit there and go through page after page once the search results come up? Not very many. You're probably going to look at the first one or two that pop up.

It's like, "Oh." And you see an image, or you see a title that strikes you, maybe you see some star ratings. And so you click on that, and then you try it. That's what I do, right? And I think more and more people are doing that. They're just using their phone, their iPad, whatever, in the kitchen, and they're looking up a recipe and they're making it. They're trying it, or they're getting inspired and they're getting ideas or clicking around in different recipes. And so it clicked for me that, oh my goodness, like how do I get to be... Maybe it isn't it about doing everything myself. Maybe it's about how to get to be one of the first or second that people pull up on their searches. Oh, yeah. That's how you do it.

Carey: Totally. Yeah. The light bulb went off it sounds like, and that happens to a lot of business owners and it's kind of this magical thing going on behind the curtain. And it's like, "How do I do that?" And there's people that all they do is specialize in SEO. It is a art and science and it's really... You can learn it all yourself, but it'll take way longer than getting someone to help you. So, then what then made you treat your blog as an integral to the success of growing your customer following and monetizing it through things like affiliate marketing? You do some affiliate marketing, right, Bita?

Bita: I do, a little. I have the ability to put links in so that, for example, if you're on my How To Make Persian Rice In A Rice Cooker and you're really inspired by adding saffron to it by just using a saffron spray, I have a link to ordering saffron spray and that'll take you right to Amazon. I get a few cents, I don't know, from that. But it just made sense because I was putting those links in anyway and especially with my healthy Persian easy recipes, some of the ingredients are harder to come by and so I was putting those resources in any ways and I figured that why not start to go down the road of monetizing? I wanted to first grow my audience and grow my number of views before, I guess, going after brands. That's something in the future for me. Success for me has been more in gaining more traffic, which sounds funny because living in Silicon Valley, very anti-traffic, our area's getting way too busy. But in terms of the website and the blog it is about getting more traffic.

Carey: Yeah, that's the work. Yeah. Not that kind of traffic. Not the traffic that requires gas. (laughs)

Bita: Exactly. No, it's all about building your audience, as you know.

Carey: For sure. For sure. And it's getting the attention of people to stop when they're in traffic too. So, that's another thing. You're a few years growing your blog and you're growing your followers, getting more traffic on Instagram and Facebook. And you decide to grow your team and use some outside sources to help you connect, be more niche, or niche as people say. And also with that, like we mentioned earlier, being more consistent, so that you could really grow and really monetize even more your blog and how many people you're helping. So, I've heard you talk before about how this is where you made a change in your mindset in your business, and you touched on that a few minutes ago. What has that done for you and Oven Hug? And how much faster have you been able to gain the attention of more people in the traffic?

Bita: Yeah, good question. So, I think that it happened for me... The small startup that I was working for, basically an app tool, it's an app company and coaching program where we coach kids, teens and families, which had always been just a great, great opportunity for me in terms of both working for a startup and getting to really embrace and learn about being a family nutritionist. Well, our little company got acquired and swallowed up by huge multi international company and all sorts of changes came along with that, including that many of my job functions became automated. And although I'm still with the company, I started to feel insecure about my day job and thought, "You know what? I want to focus more on my blog as a business. I really want to take it to the next level and invest in it a little bit."

So, it was around December, January, of last year that I started to hire a team to help me out. The first person I hired initially was just to redo my logo and update my site. Like literally just update the theme of my site. And she turned into just an integral part of the team. She forced me to think about by answering questions and questions and questions. "Okay, you're a healthy food blogger. Well, that's a very competitive space. It's a huge space. It's a somewhat over saturated space. Like good luck." Although it's not that I couldn't do it, but you know, she got me to think it was almost like having an identity crisis. Like who are you? What makes you unique and special?

Well, it comes down to the fact that I was raised by an Iranian family, my mom made Persian food. I married into an Iranian family, my mother in law is an amazing chef as well. And my girls are teenagers now, grew up also eating beautiful, healthy Persian food. And that's something that's unique. And I know enough about nutrition and enough about Persian food that my focus is now, it's basically, how to make easy, healthy Persian food. My new tagline of the blog, of Oven Hug, is modern Persian recipes. Easier, quicker, healthier.

What that does then... I was going to go on to say that what that does then by narrowing my niche, it makes me unique. And when someone now goes in to search for something... For example, I always give the example of, okay, if you went in and you did a search for overnight oats, you would get hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of overnight oats. You'd get blueberry overnight oats, you'd get... Everybody in the world is making healthy overnight oats. Well, if you put in Persian chicken and rice casserole, guess whose post comes up as number two? So, it just really kind of puts me in the game and makes me more of a player.

Carey: So, it's a niche but it didn't require you to reinvent your business and your blog. You didn't have to completely do something different, but it really went into a more specific way that people can think about you. And you can then tie the words of the titles, what you're baking or cooking, and the words inside the blog itself and the recipe, to allow people to find you and for you to land on the first page. So, can you talk with us a little more about Pinterest? Pinterest, for those of you that don't know too much about it or are not on it or just like very randomly go on, it is a visual platform. So, if you have a brand that that's like Bita, something like food, fashion, travel destinations, it's a definite fit because of the customer intent when they go to Pinterest. People want to see the visuals and click through to see and read more.

But Pinterest also now is even effective with B2B. So, Business To Business - because Pinterest has grown into a useful search engine. So, customers go there so that they can learn and discover more or they can be inspired. So, marketers, including B2B now, they've proven to be effective. While Pinterest has been assumed to only be business to consumer organization, to provide visual ideas and inspiration, like there are absolutely B2B success. And so when you add keyword descriptions and tags are added or images appear in the Google search, they allow you to potentially help drive new organic traffic to your website. Even if you're a computer company or whatever, that's not sexy, you can get people to your website from Pinterest.

I did write a blog on it early of August this year, that businesses targeting men should know that 50% of Pinterest users sign ups now and, well, in 2018, were men. It might even be higher than that now. So, dads are going on Pinterest, browsing things, looking for things like outdoors or home projects or something to do with their kids at home, or whatever. And their household income is high too. Those are really important things to know, so don't just think, "Oh, I'm not a food blogger. I don't have anything sexy to offer in my images on Pinterest." You should still pay attention. But I wanted to ask you, Bita, to talk through more why you dedicated your strategy to Pinterest and how it ties to customer engagement and customers discovering your blog.

Bita: Sure. Yeah. I could talk about Pinterest for hours. I love Pinterest. I have a pretty, I don't know, rich history with Pinterest as a user. I was kind of addicted to it. I used it as a user, like I said, and I think that that many people use it this way and that's why it is, I think, so popular. But standing in the line at the grocery store, it's like looking through a magazine. If you don't know what Pinterest is, I know for my husband he still has a hard time really getting it, like what it is or how to use it.

Just imagine bulletin boards or vision boards, and finding images and ideas in magazines and putting them up on subject related boards, common subject related boards. That's sort of what it is. It's like a way to bookmark something for later and put it in an organized chapter or board. And then when it's time for Thanksgiving or the holidays or setting up your new kitchen remodel, you can go into that and find those ideas. That's from the user standpoint.

Well, from a business standpoint, why wouldn't you do it? There are more than a hundred million monthly active users on there and that's an audience just ready to go in and get help, get resources, get more content. So, it's interesting that you talked about the men because traditionally it has been over 70% of Pinterest users are women. But it sounds like you have some more current data that... Of course, I know I have followers that are men, but I think that primarily.

Carey: The new sign ups- So, the new. Yeah. So, the number of new signups, the men has really spiked in 2018. 50% of the new user signups. So, kind of like how I own SnapChat stock. That's hard to say. And part of the metric of investors in SnapChat want to see how many new users are signing up each month or each day or each week. Because it's an indicator, well, if they're not signing up there, then where are they going? So, that going in an upward trajectory shows that men are migrating toward that platform as opposed to others.

Bita: Interesting. Even better, right? So, for food bloggers... Yeah, for food bloggers, or the food industry, maybe chefs, it's absolutely... It's essential. Again, I think people are on there looking for recipes. And so again, the reason that I started to focus on this and added a person to help me in this function on the team is because it's one of my top ways of getting audience views is through Pinterest. So, what happens is they later then click in there for a recipe that takes them to my site, right? And then that turns into an active audience. I could speak on the tools that I use. I use a virtual assistant to help, again, this helps with being able to be consistent. And if you'd like, I could speak more on sort of the tools that we use and how that works. But I've gotten to the point now where we have over a hundred thousand views per month on Oven Hug Pinterest boards. I'm so excited.

Carey: Yeah, that's a lot. And that takes a lot of work and a lot of expertise. And just to learn one platform is a lot. I always encourage our clients to instead of trying to be everywhere on every single platform, all at once, just get really good at one or two and make sure that's where your customers are. Be where your customers are. And I just wanted to mention, you mentioned how people will go to Pinterest and then find your blog, but it's also in the reverse, right? In the customer online journey, if they find you through your blog... Let's say you spoke at an event and they go to your blog, straight to your blog, or they might Google and find your blog. And then you put a Pinterest button in your website, so that they can then go to Pinterest to follow you and get alerts and stuff. Is that how it works?

Bita: Yes, absolutely. And then within Pinterest we use a tool called Tailwind, the Tailwind app. There is something called Pinterest tribes, and not to overwhelm or give you too much information, but the Tailwind tribes are... It's just such a robust platform. It's basically... You know what tribes are. It's a way for like minded people to support each other and pin each others pins and grow numbers even further. So, basically since I started to put this consistent focus in to Pinterest, hiring a virtual assistant and using Tailwind to consistently pin and post, our traffic for Oven Hug on Pinterest is up 350%. So, it's been absolutely worth it.

Carey: That's awesome. Congratulations. And now you're turning your blog into a book, that is so exciting. Can you tell us a little bit about your book? And then we'll part here.

Bita: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, we have a series of books that we're really excited about. They're called Eat! E-A-T! (exclamation point.)  And our first one is scheduled to come out mid 2020, is Eat Breakfast! I have a fabulous coauthor I'm putting together recipes with, Michelle DeWolf of The Festive Table. And I am just beyond tickled to be working with her because she has 14 years of experience teaching cooking in her home. So, her recipes are tried and true. I have my favorite recipes on the blog that the Oven Hug audience has come back to time and time and again, and we're just happy to put it out there. It's something that you can hold in your hand.

And again, like I said, it's going to be a first in a series. So, we'll have Eat Lunch!  Eat Dinner! Eat Healthy Snacks! And then something more specific to my niche is I'm going to be doing my first ebook, which is Eat Persian Food! So, that that'll be coming out early 2020 and that'll have a great resource in there, which is just essential Persian food pantry items. And so if you were to say want to have a dinner party and serve Persian food, you could easily go to the Persian pantry reference in there and figure out what you need. No complication there, just easy, easy.

Carey: And not just Persians eat Persian food y'all, I'm just going to say. We have so many Persian restaurants here now, and there's one where our offices are at the Avalon and you have to wait forever to get in. It's such a nice atmosphere and the food is just amazing. But the fact that you can help people cook it at home, including myself, is just such a gift. Thank you so much for being here, Bita. Can you share with everyone where else they can find the Oven Hug blog and where they can find you on Pinterest and Instagram real quick?

Bita: Absolutely. Thank you, Carey. I could talk to you all day. Thank you so much for having me. So, my social media handle is Oven Hug. My website is Oven Hug. I'm Oven Hug everywhere, I even have it on my license plate.

Carey: Haha! Awesome. So, go to Oven Hug on Instagram, Facebook as well. And Bita, thank you so much for being here. Have a great rest of your week everybody!

Thank you. Bye bye