#197: How to 10x Your Traffic Using Facebook Groups

In this episode, with Emily Eggers from the food blog, Legally Healthy Blonde, we’re talking about how to 10x your traffic using Facebook Groups.

Over the last year, Emily grew her blog traffic from 1,000 sessions to 100,000 sessions by strategically targeting Facebook groups on niche food topics with millions of members.

She figured out how to share her recipes in these groups, and optimize them for maximum engagement. And she’s done this by only targeting 3-4 groups!

Topics Emily and I discuss in this episode:

• How to target the right Facebook groups
• How to structure your posts for maximum engagement
• How often to post and when
• How to convert your Facebook traffic into email subscribers and affiliate sales
• How to work on SEO at the same time

Ready to 10x your traffic? Don’t miss this episode!

Show Notes:

• “How to Get Paid for Your Knowledge” Workshop
• MiloTree
• MiloTree Easy Payments
• Free MiloTree Blog Post Checklist
• Legally Healthy Blonde
• Mediavine
• Food Bloggers Central Facebook Group
• Casey Markee
• Cooking with Keywords Course
• Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group
• All Blogger Genius Podcast Episodes

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Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie 0:11
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Jillian Leslie. And I want to invite you to a special workshop I’m hosting with my friend, Alisa Meredith, she’s a marketing expert.

Join our Nov. 17th Workshop to Learn How to Get Paid for What You Know

And we are hosting a workshop to teach you how to set up a paid workshop in under two hours, using MiloTree Easy Payments.

I’ve been asking in my Become A Blogger Genius Facebook group. By the way, if you are not a member, please go to Facebook and join.

I’ve been asking people, if you could set up a paid workshop easily would you do it? And the answer I’m getting is a resounding yes. So Alisa and I decided to host this $10 workshop.

So, we’re doing a paid workshop to teach you how to run a paid workshop. We’re going to go step-by-step it is much easier than you think it is. And I’ll show you how to use MiloTree Easy Payments as the best and easiest way to get paid for it.

What are the advantages? One, you start monetizing your audience. Two, you start learning from your audience. Three, you start to build out other products like other workshops or a membership just by doing it up.

And four, this is going to give you the drive to get out there and just start. So, head to milotree.com/paidworkshop to get on my email list. And I will email you all of the details.

It’s going to be November 17th, at noon Central Time, but you’re going to get a recording of the Zoom call afterwards. I’d love you to show up live but you do not have to.

We’re also going to give you a PDF that steps you through setting up your paid workshop. I think this is going to be super cool. I would love to see you there. So, head to Milotree.com/paidworkshop and you will get all of the details.

How to 10x Your Traffic Using Facebook Groups

For today’s podcast episode I have Emily Eggers on the show. She is the blogger behind Legally Healthy Blonde, and she is a food blogger, as you can tell.

And she reached out to me and she said, “Hey, I have grown my traffic from 1,000 sessions a month to 100,000 sessions a month in less than a year using Facebook groups.” And I was like, I don’t know, is that really true? Well guess what it is.

And Emily so generously shares all of her strategies. This blew my mind. And of course she was able to get into Mediavine, get lots of opportunities, start growing her list.

If you are trying to grow your traffic, this is the episode for you. And it’s all about strategically using Facebook groups. So, without further delay, here is my conversation with Emily Eggers. Emily, welcome to the show. It’s great having you.

Emily Eggers 3:24
Thank you for having me.

Jillian Leslie 3:26
So, I know nothing about you. You reached out to me, you said, “I’ve grown my traffic. I’m using Facebook groups to do it. Do you want to know how I’m doing this?” And I said, “Yes, I do. I really do.”

So, before we get started and before we launch into tactics and strategies that you’ve discovered, will you share your entrepreneurial journey and where you are today and what you blog about?

Emily Eggers 3:53
Absolutely. So, I am a food blogger. Most of the stuff that I blog about is typically plant- based recipes but not totally strict on it. I like to say plant-based not vegan to just kind of keep it open.

Starting as a Food Blogger in 2016

So, I technically started blogging back around 2016 but that blog is not the same blog that I have now. I got really into cooking right when I got to college and so I was like I want to start a food blog but I had no idea what I was doing.

I think it was on like a WordPress hosted.

Jillian Leslie 4:29
WordPress.com.

Emily Eggers 4:29
Yes, and just really didn’t know what I was doing. And I was freshman in college and I didn’t have the time for it so kind of just went away after that.

And then later on in college, I was still really into cooking and food and I was like I want to take pictures of all this stuff. So, I kind of rekindled my old Instagram for it and just was like I’m just going to do an Instagram just for fun.

And then after probably like a year of just posting things for fun, I was like I want to try this again. So, August of 2020, I officially started my Legally Healthy Blonde website, on all the right platforms and everything.

Getting Serious as a Food Blogger in 2020

And I really started getting serious about it probably March of 2021.

Jillian Leslie 5:17
Wow, wow. Okay.

Emily Eggers 5:20
So, very new still to all of it. And I still feel like there’s so much I learned every day when I look at what other people are doing. Like, do I need to be doing this? What’s going on? So, yeah, definitely still very new. But I’ve kind of dabbled in the area for a while.

Jillian Leslie 5:35
Okay, so you start your food blog, and you’re going to do healthy kind of veganish recipes. And what did you set up? So, you’ve got your WordPress blog? What did you do this time that you didn’t do last time?

What were the decisions you made that you were like, “Oh, this is the right way to go?”

Emily Eggers 5:57
So I definitely, I would say, I looked into it more. I googled a lot more, try to figure out what the right way to do things were. Everything said, go WordPress, like, full one. I started out on Bluehost.

But then I think also in March of this year, I switched over to BigScoots. And then, probably also around March, I joined a food blogger Facebook group that has just been like, the most informative group I’ve ever found.

And I’ve just combed through that and taken all the advice I didn’t know.

Jillian Leslie 6:31
Do you know what it’s called, what that Facebook group is called?

Emily Eggers 6:34
Yes. It’s Food Blogger’s Central.

Jillian Leslie 6:35
Oh, I remember that. It’s huge, right?

Emily Eggers 6:38
Yes. Tons of people. And it’s like, if you have a question about literally anything, someone will probably answer you, or it may have already been asked. But there’s all kinds of really good information in there that helped me a ton.

Because I feel like a lot of it is specific to food bloggers, you can look up blogging information that might not necessarily apply in the same way.

Jillian Leslie 6:59
Okay, so you start creating recipes. How did you create your recipes? For example, did you do keyword research to figure out what recipes to create?

Were you creating videos? I’m assuming you have a recipe plugin. Are you thinking about SEO? How were you promoting this on social media?

Emily Eggers 7:20
Absolutely. So, at the beginning, I really wasn’t doing any of that. I had no idea what keyword research was. I knew what SEO was, but I didn’t really know anything about it beyond what it stands for.

And I was really just like, coming up with recipes that I thought were cool and fun and sharing them on Instagram. And that was about it.

Then, in March, I booked an audit with Casey Markee for SEO. And I also just listen to literally every single podcast he’s been on.

Jillian Leslie 7:51
He’s even been on my podcast, yes.

Emily Eggers 7:54
Everything he’s ever said I listened to that. So, that helped a lot even before the audit, which didn’t happen until August of this year. And then I really have started getting into keyword research lately. That’s something I wish I would have started a lot earlier.

Jillian Leslie 8:11
What would you say your three biggest takeaways were from your audit with Casey Markee.

Biggest Takeaways From Casey Markee’s Food Blog Audit

Emily Eggers 8:17
So, he recommended the keyword research course that I took, which was Cooking with Keywords, was really helpful. So, that was definitely one thing that he was really like, you need to focus on this kind of thing.

And then also, backlink profile is a huge thing for me, because my blog is still relatively new. So, I have a pretty low one, which just makes it that much harder to rank on Google and for your recipes to show up higher.

So, that’s definitely something I’m working on. And then honestly, I didn’t have too many technical issues. We tweaked a lot of things in the audit, which was nice. He just went on and did it right there.

But yeah, just kind of fine tuning the template and making sure all the little details are right.

Using Keywords Intentionally When Creating Content

Jillian Leslie 9:04
Got it. Okay, so you start this blog. And as you continue on you start to kind of go, “Oh, I need to not just wake up in the morning and go, what do I want to cook today, but I need to be more intentional about this.”

And then you start thinking, “Wait, I need to drive traffic to my blog.” And so, you think to yourself, “How am I going to do this?” And then how did you discover ways to drive traffic, especially when it came to your Facebook group strategy?

Emily Eggers 9:34
So, partially because I wasn’t doing keyword research and I have a low backlink profile. I just wasn’t getting the Google traffic. I think around June, May or June of 2021. So this year, I was sitting at around 1,000 sessions a month, which is not very many.

Jillian Leslie 9:54
Now, were you using Pinterest? Was Pinterest driving traffic?

Emily Eggers 9:58
Yes, I was using it. It wasn’t given me a lot of traffic, though. And it’s still one of those things I plan to work on a lot on in the future. But it hasn’t been like overnight, tons of traffic for me. I was still just kind of around 1,000 sessions.

And there were a few other bloggers that I had seen that had gotten into an ad agency, specifically Mediavine before they increased their sessions requirement. And I talked to them and was like, “What have you been doing that’s been so successful?”

And a few of them said, “Facebook groups.” And so I just looked into that a lot more. Because I was posting in Facebook groups, but I was just randomly posting, I would just, say, “Here’s this recipe.”

How to Use Facebook Groups to Grow Traffic

Jillian Leslie 10:45
So, were you posting in Facebook groups that were specifically for people to drop links?

Emily Eggers 10:54
No, I don’t think I was ever part of those, because I just don’t think that those work as well, to get traffic of regular people.

Because those people normally aren’t in groups that have link dropping things they are in groups where they want to just actually find recipes.

Jillian Leslie 11:16
So, you said to yourself, I need to be where the people are, which, by the way, I love that strategy. It’s like, do not reinvent the wheel, always figure out. So, for example, the holidays are coming up, let’s say, and it’s like, okay, how can I ride that wave?

How can I ride whatever wave is coming, that I can then attach my content to? Put my own spin on it. And then hopefully, be able to milk that because it’s back to school, let’s say, moms, are going to be thinking about snacks.

Or they’re going to be thinking about easy dinner recipes, or whatever it is. So, you say to yourself, I need to be where the people are? And then what do you think to yourself? Like, where are you going?

Emily Eggers 12:03
So, I was in a few vegan vegetarian groups. And a few random healthy recipes groups, and I actually had one post, just kind of like take off in a group, this was before I really had a specific strategy, I just got lucky with one post and got tons of traffic on it.

And then after that, I was like, “Okay, so this can work. Let me just figure out what I need to do to make it work.” And so specifically, finding the right groups, I think, is the most important part. So definitely, niche groups.

Jillian Leslie 12:39
How many people in these groups?

Find Large Facebook Groups to Target

Emily Eggers 12:43
My most successful ones, mostly have around a million plus people, which there aren’t that many of those. So, I could do one post in that group and it might do way better than five in another group.

I think the first one, maybe it was around 900,000 or a million or so. But then I found a few more that are a million people even one with 3 million people those ones are just great.

Especially because you can repost things because it’s a totally new set of eyes, because they’re just so many people in there.

I think the way the Facebook algorithm seems to work, it’s harder if there’s only say 50,000 people in a group or less than that. It’s such a small fraction of them that are going to see your posts.

Jillian Leslie 13:31
Right. So, a small percentage of a very large number becomes a large number.

Emily Eggers 13:36
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 13:37
So, if you’ve got a million people and let’s say 5% are going to see it that’s what 50,000?

Emily Eggers 13:46
A lot. So, that’s way more than that same percentage in a smaller group and that’s not to say smaller groups can’t work. I’m sure if there was like a really really engaged audience in a smaller group it could. I just haven’t found any of those really.

The ones I’ve found success with, have tons of people in them.

Jillian Leslie 14:05
So, what you did was you found these large Facebook groups around healthy eating. How many groups are your go to groups? How many have you identified?

Targeting Four Facebook Groups

Emily Eggers 14:16
I still test out a lot. So, I would say I probably have four that I can reliably expect a good amount of clicks and likes and comments on. I’m still parts of others.

Oh, I just joined this one recently. So, I don’t really know how well it’s going to be and I have to test it out a few times to kind of see. But I definitely have one that I’m like if I only have one post I can get out this week.

I’m putting it in this group on Monday or Sunday when a lot of people are on Facebook looking for recipes, and that one is by far like the best and that’s the one that has 3 million people in it. So definitely that is the biggest one.

Jillian Leslie 14:58
Do you know the name of the one with 3 million people?

Find Large Niche Groups to Get More Engagement

Emily Eggers 15:01
Yes. So, that’s an Instant Pot recipe group. That’s another thing is, finding niche ones. So, like the ones that are just general healthy recipes, they don’t have a lot of engagement because it’s very generalized.

Jillian Leslie 15:19
So, like air fryers.

Emily Eggers 15:21
I don’t do anything with air fryers, but I want to just because I think that would have such great potential. So, I’m a part of a few Instant Pot ones, a few like plant-based vegan ones.

And I’ve been trying to find some good crossover groups, but there’s not a huge niche there. But I think there’s potential for that for like other things.

How to Find Facebook Groups to Target

Jillian Leslie 15:42
Now, first of all, how are you finding these groups? Are you going to Facebook and going in like the group’s tab and typing in like healthy eating or vegan or Instapot? How are you finding the groups?

Emily Eggers 15:54
Literally, I just go in and search, what I am making recipes for, like the kind of recipes I’m making. And I just scroll through and say, “Look at how many people are in them.”

Some of them, you can see the actual group content without joining. And some of them you have to join to see the group’s content. But I usually just look at the number of people that are in it first.

And if it’s a really large number, and I haven’t found it yet, I’ll just join it and try it out and see if it works.

Jillian Leslie 16:24
So now, let’s talk about the strategy for adding links in the group without seeming like you are spamming the group.

Emily Eggers 16:34
So, I also think when finding a group, it’s important to pay attention to how many bloggers are in the group. I think it’s good for there to be bloggers in the group, because that shows that the audience is receptive to blogger recipes.

Because I think I’ve heard that there are some that people just won’t click on bloggers’ recipes, or the moderators might not even allow bloggers to post. So, definitely make sure it’s like a blogger friendly group.

Jillian Leslie 16:59
And the way you do that is like you’re looking at the kinds of posts that are in the group already?

Emily Eggers 17:06
Yes, like if someone says, here’s this thing, also, here’s my link to it, and you can tell it’s the same person posting it. That’s usually a good sign. But also you don’t want every single post to be from bloggers.

Then there probably aren’t a lot of regular people that are engaging with it and viewing it and posting in the group as well. So really, that Instant Pot one is like my golden example, because there are a good bit of bloggers in there.

But there’s also a lot of just regular people who will post things that they’ve made even with no link, they’re like, “This is just a thing I made.” Lots of questions, lots of just like genuine engagement.

Jillian Leslie 17:49
Got it. Okay. So, let’s say you start and you see bloggers are in there posting links to recipes, and regular people are posting their own recipes. How do you craft that post?

Again, because so many of the Facebook groups I’m in, which are more business-y related that kind of thing, or like you cannot put links to yourself or your services or blog posts or anything like that unless let’s say it’s a Facebook group.

Where they go, okay, on Fridays, you can put a link to something you sell, or you can put a link to a blog post or something like that. I have a Facebook group as well.

And I try to be really mindful of not just this being a place where everybody can just post links every so often, I’ll be like, “Hey, you’ve got something to sell. Post a link to it. Hey, you’ve got a blog post. You’re excited about, post a link to it.”

But I really wanted to be much more about engagement.

Emily Eggers 18:49
For sure. And I think that’s a difficult line to tow to find those groups. Because if there is organic engagement, the moderators don’t really care if you do that, because they’re like, “Oh, it’s fine.”

I also think specifically with recipes; it doesn’t come off as I’m trying to sell you something. It comes off as I made this really good recipe and I think you guys might like it too.

So, I’ve seen those groups and I honestly just haven’t even tried to post in those kinds of groups. But that hasn’t really been an issue. At least that I’ve noticed.

Jillian Leslie 19:29
So, give me a recipe that you just made that you’re excited about.

Emily Eggers 19:35
So, this one I made probably a few months ago, but I repost it in a group yesterday. It was an Instant Pot, vegan jalapeno cheese grits recipe.

Jillian Leslie 19:44
A cheese what?

Emily Eggers 19:45
Cheese grits.

Jillian Leslie 19:46
Grits, cheese grits. Okay, that sounds good. So you say, I’m ready to post this and what do you do?

How to Structure Your Post in a Facebook Group for Maximum Engagement

Emily Eggers 19:54
So, I always start the post out with a question and that’s something that I’ve toyed with not doing and I’ve looked at other posts that didn’t do that. And it really does seem that the questions help a lot with engagement.

And that’s probably the part of the post I focused the most on is what kind of question I’m going to ask. Because the content of the post helps too if it’s actually an appetizing recipe versus something that people just aren’t interested in.

But aside from that, I think the first opening question is really important. Doing something that’s intriguing and maybe even a little controversial in like a safe friendly way.

Jillian Leslie 20:36
Okay, so what kind of question did you create for your jalapeno grits?

Emily Eggers 20:42
So, this one I kind of figured this question out because I being from the South apparently some people put sugar in their grits. I didn’t know that was the thing. I’ve never done that. I think it’s not a Southern thing.

But on a previous post, I had heard people saying they put sugar in their grits. And that kind of caused a lot of back and forth in the comments. So, I started this one out by saying, “Do you like your grits with sugar or not?”

And then it went on to say, “Personally, I like them with cheese and butter and salt and all these things. And here’s my recipe, you can get it here.” But that got lots of comments of people saying I love it with sugar. I hate it with sugar.

Never put sugar in it. I always put sugar in it. All these things that just kind of keep it at the top of people’s newsfeeds as well.

Jillian Leslie 21:28
Okay, and so how long is your post? How many sentences?

Emily Eggers 21:32
Usually not too many. Always the opening question and then maybe two after that, maybe three if it’s necessary, but definitely not long. And then I always end it with like, “Get the recipe here,” and then just put the link in at the bottom.

And then I never do the link preview either. You know how, if you add photo it pops up.

Jillian Leslie 21:55
Nobody is seeing a photo.

Emily Eggers 21:57
So, I add a photo manually into the post. Because I just feel like it takes up more space on the feed and it just catches people’s eye a little bit better. And it doesn’t look as much like a blogger, here’s my recipe. It’s more like, look what I made. Also, here’s the recipe.

Jillian Leslie 22:13
Well, especially if other people are posting, let’s say their vegan meatloaf, or whatever they’re excited about, and they’re proud of that they’re like, hey.

It’s funny, because it is so true like when scrolling through Facebook, or Instagram, people love posting photos of things they’ve made and recipes. You know, look what I made today, I made bread, or whatever it’s like, whoa.

And it’s just so people can give you props. So, I get it like your vibe sounds like it’s trying to elicit that feeling of like, “Hey, here’s this interesting food question.” And then you’ve got your photo of your food, and then you’re like, oh, and get the recipe.

So it’s not super like just at the top, “Get this recipe. It’s the best grits ever.”

Emily Eggers 23:07
Absolutely. And I think that’s what I was doing before figuring this out. If I posted this, a few months ago, I may have just said vegan cheese grits, with a link to the recipe.

And not really thought anything of it or done something that might work on Instagram or Pinterest, but it just doesn’t work as well for true engagement there.

Goal: Get People to Engage with Your Content

I think specifically in some of these larger groups, it really works well to do something that will get people to comment on it. And not everyone’s going to comment, this looks good. Some people will and that’s great. And that’s helpful.

But something more than just “This looks good.” You want them to have an opinion, say something more about it to keep people commenting on it.

Jillian Leslie 23:52
Now, will you go back to these posts? And will you comment back? So, if somebody says, “Oh my God, sugar is disgusting.” Well, you go, “I feel the same way.” Or, “I like this kind of cheese.” And you’re like, “Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve never tried that.”

Are you in there? Or are you more or less just kind of, “Hey, here’s the thing.” And then the conversation happens without you.

Emily Eggers 24:18
A little of both. Again, it depends on the recipe. I have posted some with the exact same strategy that just don’t elicit as much conversation under them. And so, those ones it’s easy to respond to like a few comments because I might not get as many.

But on some where I’m getting 100 or more comments. Not going to go through all of them. I tried to do it on the first few. And then if someone has a question, like I always keep my eyes on the notifications and just pay attention to it.

If someone has a question. So, like someone in this one, they commented and they were like, “We just recently went dairy for you. This looks really good. What kind of cheese do you like, we’re having trouble finding a good one?”

That was way after I posted it, but I went back and made sure to answer that. Because I just feel like that was really like a helpful thing.

Jillian Leslie 25:09
Wait, I just have to interrupt for one second, this strategy got you from 1,000 sessions, to how many sessions?

Emily Eggers 25:20
So, I actually got all the way up to 100,000 sessions at one point from doing this. Within a 30 day period. So huge, huge growth. I have backed down a little bit because I was posting like a lot.

How Often to Post in a Facebook Group

Jillian Leslie 25:35
So that’s what I want to get into is how often you’re doing this and how you’re keeping track? Okay, but I just had to say that because I realized like I wanted to kind of tease the punchline, which is, this has been a huge strategy for you.

Emily Eggers 25:49
Yeah, it’s been super effective. Especially in the beginning, there were days when there would be like, 8,000 sessions in a day, which, prior to that I was having 1,000 per month. So, that was a huge increase for me.

I think on the one I posted yesterday, I probably got around 1,300 or so, which is still very significant. But that was also when I repost it. So, I just got a little bit less engagement than the first time that I posted it as well.

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Jillian Leslie 27:02
First of all, how often are you creating new posts, new recipes?

Emily Eggers 27:08
Also, I will say at the time that I started doing this, I was creating way more than most people are. To do the audit with Casey Markee, I had to have 80 posts, and I wasn’t there yet. So, I was really ramping it up at that time.

So, I had a lot more to post at the time as well. Now, I am going back and re-doing some older posts as well as a new post. So, my goal is to do two posts a week. And that’s on my blog post.

Jillian Leslie 27:35
Are these two new posts or one that you’ve revisited and kind of fixed?

Emily Eggers 27:40
Fix and then a new one. So, I’m kind of trying to keep it like, go back fix one post a new one kind of back and forth. So, I can post all of them in the vegan groups usually. And those do well, I have more of them to post.

Not all of them are going to be Instant Pot recipes, though. So like, the Facebook groups, I was making a lot more Instant Pot recipes back then.

I still am just not to the same extent, because I’m trying to rely more on Google than on Facebook now. I would say if I was keeping up with it as best as I could, I would probably post in the Facebook groups maybe two or three times a week.

Jillian Leslie 28:27
So let’s say you’ve got like four or five power groups, what would you say?

Emily Eggers 28:32
I probably have three to four that I would really consider.

Jillian Leslie 28:37
Okay. Let’s say you’ve got four of these power groups. How many times are you posting into each one per week?

How Many Times Do You Post in a Big Facebook Group

Emily Eggers 28:49
So, I would say of those four there are two that are like here. And two that are still really good but just less consistent. The other ones I’m sure to get engagement on. These ones I might.

If you want to post something, let’s say I only posted one recipe for the week. I’m definitely going to post it in those first two. If I have time I’ll go through and post it in the others as well.

Sometimes I can copy and paste but other times if it’s a different niche group I may have to rephrase the posts a little bit Instant Pot versus vegan is typically a pretty different audience.

So, I may promote the vegan part a little bit more and kind of hide it a little more on the Instant Pot one.

Jillian Leslie 29:34
Let’s say they were similar would you just literally copy and paste the same content like the grits one with the question about the sugar?

That’s a very specific post but it’s not like if you post it in the other group people are going to go like, “We know you. You were on to you Emily, we’ve seen you before.” Like that’s not going to happen.

Emily Eggers 29:55
I normally just copy and paste them. Now, if I’m reposting something thing that I’ve posted like a few months ago, I may change it a little bit, just to be more authentic and not totally copy and paste.

But if it’s the same posts on the same day, I’ll probably just copy and paste it and I haven’t really run into any problems with that yet.

Jillian Leslie 30:16
Okay, wait. So, let’s go back. So, you got your two power groups and your two power likes.

Emily Eggers 30:21
Decent.

Jillian Leslie 30:22
Okay, decent. So, you’re posting in these two power groups? How many times a week?

Emily Eggers 30:30
I would say like a good week would be two to three.

Jillian Leslie 30:33
In each one.

Emily Eggers 30:35
Yes.

Jillian Leslie 30:36
Okay, so two to three posts in the power? And how about in the kind of the good, but not terrific groups?

Emily Eggers 30:43
The two to three would also work. But I typically tend to do less, if I’m having a busier week, I’m just going to focus more on those top two.

And if, I have to get a post out tonight, I’m going to put it in that one as opposed to the other one, if I don’t have time to do all of them.

Jillian Leslie 31:01
Got it.

Emily Eggers 31:03
But I haven’t noticed necessarily that this strategy of schedule matters that much. In terms of how often you post.

I did one time run into a problem where one group wouldn’t let me post because it had been less than 24 hours since my last post and I was like, oh, okay, keep that in mind. I need to wait a little bit here.

But I will I feel like, at least for the highly engaged Facebook groups, the days that you post, it seems to matter more.

Jillian Leslie 31:35
Okay, so what days?

Emily Eggers 31:37
So, I almost never post a recipe on Saturday, because most people are not scrolling through Facebook looking for recipes on Saturday, some are. On Sundays, I have noticed by far they do the best.

I think more people are just on their phones, Sunday evenings or afternoons usually. And I think people are just looking more for things to make throughout the week, and some people may grab a plan and they just want to see more stuff.

So, Sundays by far have the best success. But I’ve also had really good ones on Mondays and Tuesdays. And then there are every once in a while I’ll see mine or someone else’s might do really well on like a Thursday or Friday.

So, it’s not an exact science, but definitely, again, if I’m only going to post two a week or something, going to focus on doing it Sunday and Monday.

Jillian Leslie 32:28
Got it. Now, are you thinking afternoon? Have you experimented with what if I do it in the morning? What if I do it in the afternoon?

Emily Eggers 32:29
Yes, I’ve experimented a little bit with it. But it’s hard to tell because some recipes just do better than others. So, it’s like there’s not a really good variable there. But I tend to do it like after five.

Jillian Leslie 32:50
After five? Okay, you’re East Coast?

Emily Eggers 32:54
Yes. And so, I just kind of assume most people in the group probably work a nine to five, especially, like the Instant Pot group is a lot of working moms. People that are busy that’s why they have an Instant Pot.

As opposed to another group where people might be a lot more like, into cooking, they aren’t necessarily looking for something fast. They might not care as much to have something like ready on the table in 30 minutes kind of thing.

Jillian Leslie 33:20
I know one group they won’t let you post until it’s been 24 hours. But have you ever just posted a lot, are you experimenting with like, hey, what if I did five posts in a day? What if I did one post I don’t know, every other day, that kind of thing?

Emily Eggers 33:42
Yeah, well, I think when I first started doing this was my experimenting with a lot of them because I was making so many and I was just really excited about the traffic that I was like, I just need to post every day.

I don’t think I did every single day, but I was doing it a lot. I would say I got more traffic then from them. But I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a correlation.

But it may be because I do think that Facebook shows people like if someone comments on my posts.

Jillian Leslie 34:17
Exactly.

Emily Eggers 34:18
And then they post again, they’ll see that at the top. So, it may have correlation. I haven’t tried that consistent lately. So maybe.

Do You Need to Be Active in the Facebook Groups?

Jillian Leslie 34:27
Now, here’s a question, are you going into these Facebook groups, and also just providing value like, hey, somebody has a question about vegan cheese, and they post that.

Are you in there as an expert like going, “Oh, this is what I recommend.” And this is no judgement, but like, are you only providing that value when it’s something that you’ve posted?

Emily Eggers 34:53
A little bit. So, I’m not an avid Facebook user. I would say that Facebook groups are probably the majority of the time I spend on Facebook, but because I post news groups so frequently, they also show up. Like the other posts will show up at the top of my feed.

So, if there is something that I think I can provide value, or a lot of times people, like regular people will go on and they’ll say, “I just recently found out I can’t eat dairy. Can someone, point me towards some really good recipes?”

And I might comment and say, “Hey, I have a bunch right here. Here’s a link if you want to.” If someone asks a question that I know the answer to, I probably will. That being said, I’m also not an Instant Pot expert. I like it, but I’m also very new to it.

So, like some really specific questions. I’m like, I don’t want to tell them the wrong thing here. Because pressure cookers are a little complicated.

Do You Need to Be Creating Video?

Jillian Leslie 35:46
Totally. Now for your blog posts. are you creating videos?

Emily Eggers 35:51
I have not started with videos yet. That is something I would like to do in the future. I just really haven’t gotten into it yet. I just haven’t really had much time to focus on that yet.

Jillian Leslie 36:02
Totally. But I always like that question. And I’m always impressed with people who go, “No, I want to get to it.” But you’ve had success without creating food videos, because I think people think if you’re a food blogger, oh, every post needs to have a video.

Emily Eggers 36:16
Yeah. And I see lots of posts that do. And I think they look great. It’s just not something I’ve had the time for yet. And I will say when you go into like the Google Search Console.

Jillian Leslie 36:26
Yes. They ask for your video.

Emily Eggers 36:28
Yes. So, some of them will say there’s a problem. And I’m like, “Okay, what’s the problem?” And it’s like, “You don’t have a video.” And according to Casey, as of August, he said, that’s not a big deal.

He was like, if you can get to it great. But don’t worry about it, there are more important things. That’s where I am with video.

I don’t worry about it. But I will say once I get to the point of doing video, I would be really interested to see how those work in Facebook groups.

Because I think that they could be really eye catching and get a lot of attention. But they also might be too curated. I see people post videos, but it’s like normal people and it’s just on their iPhone and they’re like, look at this cool thing I made.

And those seem to do really well. So, I don’t know if like a super high quality video but actually might not do as well.

Jillian Leslie 37:20
You know what you could do in your next recipe, take out your phone, and just do like a tiny video of it so that you can then add that so it does have a slight homespun feel to it.

Emily Eggers 37:33
Yeah, that’s actually a really good idea. I’ll definitely try that.

Jillian Leslie 37:37
It’s like an easy way. But it also humanizes you. I think one thing about food bloggers, is it can seem intimidating, when people do such beautiful stuff or stuff that seems really complicated.

Emily Eggers 37:52
Absolutely. And I think part of the key to success in some of these Facebook groups is being more human. And sometimes that might even mean being kind of corny. I will sometimes use, emojis and posts that I might not necessarily use on a daily basis.

They make me seem more real and normal, as if I’m not real. Also, and I haven’t run into this, but I have heard some people complain that their Facebook groups, if they have like really beautiful photography.

That those either don’t go over very well, or moderate or something like that. I think I have decent photography, but I’m not like super artistic with it. So, it’s like still clear, bright pictures. But it’s not like a beautifully extravagant setup scene.

Where that looks great on Instagram. It does a million, phenomenally on Instagram on Pinterest it may be intimidating to regular users who may look at and say, “Oh, I could never make that.”

Jillian Leslie 39:01
So, what I love about what you’re saying is, go where the traffic is, so we need to talk about what other social media platforms are important to you. And are they driving traffic?

Emily Eggers 39:16
Yes. I will say that social traffic has helped me a lot. I also will just make a caveat here. The ad agencies don’t love if you have only social traffic. And I think that’s a recent development because I know people that have gotten in with a lot of social traffic.

Google traffic is much more valuable than social traffic.

Jillian Leslie

Emily Eggers 39:40
Absolutely. And I was at like 92% social traffic when I applied to Mediavine and even though I had tons of sessions they were like maybe you just wait a little and get some more Google traffic.

So, the social traffic is great and I think it’s a great bump, if you need a little help that month. Or if you just want to get a whole new audience it’s great but don’t lean too much into it like I did.

But that being said, for me Facebook is really the only one I’ve gotten lots of traffic from. I haven’t done a lot with Pinterest and I need to that’s on my list.

I had almost given up on it and then I had one of their Idea Pins kind of go viral got a bunch of followers from it. So, now I’m like well now maybe if I actually post a pin with a link I might get traffic from it now that I have followers.

Why You Want to Increase Google SEO Traffic

But I haven’t really gone into that too much because again I’m trying to increase my Google traffic more so now. And then Instagram, I love using Instagram I think it’s a really fun place I get like negligible like almost no traffic from it.

And I know some people do if they have like hundreds of thousands of followers but overall I hear most people don’t get a lot from Instagram. But I still use it all the time. It’s probably what I actually use the most in terms of engaging with other people.

Jillian Leslie 41:05
Now, here’s a question you’re getting all this traffic? Is that the end goal? Or are you taking that traffic and say converting that traffic into email subscribers? Or are you putting products in front of them like affiliate products or your own products?

Because the one thing and I just said this in a previous podcast, a lot of times people will say things like oh, look I made this recipe and then it’s like oh, where did you get the recipe and somebody might go on Facebook or on Pinterest.

And it’s like well no, not exactly. You got it on Emily’s blog on Facebook and so it’s kind of like how are you working on putting yourself up front.

So, people start to, instead of I found this recipe on Facebook but like oh I’m starting to have a relationship with this blog with this blogger.

Growing Your Email List from Facebook Traffic

Emily Eggers 42:00
So, that’s the other side too I just kind of said the one downside of the social traffic but the upside is in the long run it can help with all of those things. My email list was super super small.

When I first started it was like maybe around 100 people on it and after that month alone I think it was like almost to 700 so I got tons and tons of email subscribers from it.

Which even if I post a recipe that I can’t post in that Facebook group for whatever reason, they’ll still get it when I send an email out about it. So, it’s a whole new set of eyes that gets to see it. I don’t really have anything that I sell.

Jillian Leslie 42:40
Yet.

Emily Eggers 42:42
Yet. I did do a virtual cooking class so that was another thing I could send to those people specifically. That was a really good audience because I know they’re engaged with my content.

And I do use affiliate links and I did by far seemed like the most money from that in those one and two months that I was really using social traffic. Because more people saw it, so more people clicked on it.

And especially if it had unique ingredients. I did one that had miso paste and a lot of people were interested but some people didn’t know what it was or where to buy it. So, that was one where a lot more people clicked and actually bought something from it.

Jillian Leslie 43:19
And are you optimizing your blog post for this, meaning you’ve got them on your site, you’ve got them in a recipe. Are you multiple times saying sign up for my list because you’re going to get this awesome opt-in?

Or hey, check out these products or are you directing them to do something that grows your business beyond just traffic?

Emily Eggers 43:46
I don’t do it. Like over the top because from what everyone says that’s not the greatest SEO strategy. You don’t want people to get annoyed on your page.

So, I do have one pop-up, which Casey Markee wasn’t a huge fan of, but it works really well for me so I kept it but it doesn’t pop-up until after 30 seconds. Which lots of people don’t stay on the blog for that long.

So, I actually think that’s a good thing because it doesn’t annoy people. If someone’s on there for 30 seconds, there’s a good chance they’re engaged in the recipe at least a little bit.

So, that pops up for an email and then I just do the affiliate links really naturally in it. I have a little thing that says, “This is an affiliate link” but it’s not like in your face. So, it just comes up more like a natural approach, I think.

Use Exit Intent Feature with Our MiloTree Pop-Up App to Grow Followers and Email Subscribers

Jillian Leslie 44:37
I just have to say a plug for us. So we have a pop-up, our MiloTree pop-up app where you can grow social media followers and email subscribers with it and Casey likes it and I recommend you look into it. It’s called MiloTree.

So milotree.com and you can grow your social followers with it and your email subscribers and we have a setting where you can have it pop on exit. It’s called “Exit Intent.”

So as soon as somebody is on your blog reading your posts, hey, they’re about to leave and click the exit out button and boom it pops is like a last way to go, “Hey, wait, if you like what you’re getting, don’t leave, do this thing, because you’ll get more content from me.”

So, that’s just something to look into. But Casey, we sent him all of our documentation about it to show how well we built this, how optimized it is, and it will not slow your site down. Just head to it.

Emily Eggers 45:30
I actually will definitely look into that because I like my email subscriber’s system a lot. I like the layout and the way it looks, but it doesn’t have exit only, which is my biggest complaint with it.

And that’s why I changed it to 30 seconds because I was like, well, that’s probably how long people are on my blog. But I would love an exit only one so I’ll definitely look into that.

Jillian Leslie 45:49
Do you send emails, how often are you emailing your list?

Emily Eggers 45:53
So I do emails when I have a new post. So, back in June and July when I was doing an insane amount. The people were getting emails a lot. Now it’s slowed down a little bit.

And especially with the ones I’m revamping, I’ve started like a content calendar. So I’m not necessarily sending the email exactly when I post the blog post, which is what I was doing previously. So I have a little bit of a strategy there.

But you definitely know more than one a day usually like maybe two or three a week depending on how many press feeds I have to share that day.

Jillian Leslie 46:35
Yes. Okay, so what about your business are you most excited about right now?

Excited to Grow Traffic

Emily Eggers 46:42
It sounds like a kind of cop out answer but I’m just really excited for it to grow. I’m really excited for the potential like all the keyword research and SEO stuff has because I know I can get the traffic from the social if I need a little extra boost, I know I have that route.

So, I’m really excited for the more natural organic sort of passive traffic to start happening, which it definitely has. I’ve seen huge increases in it and so it’s exciting to see it work like when you start doing it right and it works.

Jillian Leslie 47:16
I know is like magic. One last question. Do you keep a master spreadsheet of what recipes you’re sharing in what Facebook groups or is it more kind of ad hoc?

Emily Eggers 47:31
I wish I was organized enough to have a master spreadsheet that would probably be really helpful if I could actually keep up with it. But it’s very ad hoc especially if I haven’t made an Instant Pot recipe lately or I don’t have one to share.

I will go into a few those top few groups and click on my own posts and see how long ago did I post this recipe.

If it’s been over a month to a month and a half I’ll probably repost it, just because people probably forgot about it and is also a totally new set of eyes.

So I just kind of do it that way. But then if I have a new one, I’ll post it pretty soon after I have made the post just because I want that traffic boost. Because in the long run it does help with SEO.

Because in addition to email subscribers, I’ve gotten reviews and comments on my recipes as well as the little social sharing number has gone up so much on a lot of them. So, it just kind of gives it that boost right after you post it.

Jillian Leslie 48:39
I love that. Emily I love that you like stumbled upon this would you say?

Emily Eggers 48:46
Oh, absolutely.

Jillian Leslie 48:47
And then it worked.

Emily Eggers 48:48
Yes, I had heard other people do it. And so I actually went out and bought an Instant Pot because I had heard that like appliance groups worked really well. So, I’d heard about it but most of it was trial and error.

Jillian Leslie 49:02
Next air fryer. I don’t have one but I hear it’s good.

Emily Eggers 49:06
All my friends say that they’re obsessed with it and I’m like, “I need to get one I don’t have space for another thing.”

Jillian Leslie 49:13
I get it. I get it. Emily if people want to reach out to you with questions, comments, check out your blog. Where would you send them?

Emily Eggers 49:23
So, my blog is legallyhealthyblonde.com

Jillian Leslie 49:27
Okay, say it slow.

Emily Eggers 49:30
Legally Healthy Blonde.

Jillian Leslie 49:32
Legally Healthy Blonde. Okay.

Emily Eggers 49:33
Like the movie.

Jillian Leslie 49:34
Yeah. I love it.

Emily Eggers 49:36
And I’m really active on Instagram so, the same thing @legallyhealthyblonde is my Instagram name and DMs I’m always checking them.

I’m not the kind of person with like thousands and thousands and thousands of followers, so I’ll probably see your DM if you send one.

Jillian Leslie 49:55
Awesome. I just have to say I am so proud of you for all that you’ve done and how quickly you’ve done it, and I love that it’s starting to click and work for you. I think that is just so inspiring, for other bloggers and stuff. If you stay at it, it does start to work.

And you’re smart and you have a strategy and there’s intention, it can really work. Is this your full time job?

Emily Eggers 50:25
It is. So, I was working at a restaurant before this and as of August, I am now doing this full time.

Jillian Leslie 50:33
Good job. Wow. Well, Emily, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Emily Eggers 50:39
Thanks so much for having me.

Jillian Leslie 50:40
Okay, if you are a food blogger, this episode should be rocking your world but it does show you the power of Facebook group.

If you want to tap in to a community of people interested in your content, I would start there and I hope you will come to our workshop on November 17th at noon, Central Time, it’s just $10.

And Alisa and I will show you in one hour how to easily set up a paid workshop. Head to milotree.com/paidworkshop super easy to remember. And I will reach out to you with all of the details. I hope to see you there. And I will see you here again next week.

Other Blogger Genius Podcast episodes to listen to:

• Smart SEO Strategies To Get You More Traffic with Casey Markee (Rebroadcast)
• How a Facebook Group Can Catapult Your Business with Christina Jandali
• Why It’s Worth Growing an Engaged Facebook Audience Right Now with Melanie Ferguson

Imagine a world where growing your social media followers and email list was easy…

If you are looking for ways to grow your community whether that be email whether that be social media, right now head to Milotree.com install the MiloTree app on your blog and it will do the work for you. Let it do the heavy lifting for you.

Let it pop up in front of your visitors and ask them to follow you on Instagram Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, join your list, check out the exit intent but really get your community growing. And we’d love to help you with MiloTree. And I will see you here again next week.

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