Experience at 100daysofrealfood.com
My wife founded a real food blog in 2010 as a passion project, and I joined her full-time in 2012 to monetize and manage the business. We built a brand that has led to four books (including a #1 New York Times Bestseller), national media appearances, and millions of followers. I’m grateful that our success has afforded us the ability to travel the world. See below for examples of my work, and if you want to go deeper, here are some slides I presented at a few pro blogger conferences (which was a bit scary 😱, but mostly fun!).
Marketing & Monetization
100daysofrealfood.com began organically as a way to document my family’s 100 day pledge to cut out processed food. To spread our message, we intentionally sought attention through PR and social media while regularly publishing in-demand recipes and educational content, resulting in massive organic traffic. Yes, we got lucky with timing, but we also acted on it...
Marketing Channels
Web: Inbound marketing via 1.1k+ posts/recipes, 140 pages, and 234MM+ pageviews to date. Monetization via display ads, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, and promotion of our own digital and physical products (cookbooks).
Social: Organic Facebook (1.4MM followers), Facebook Groups, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. Paid Facebook and Instagram ads with retargeting.
Email: Manage a list of 75k subscribers including forms, automations, tagging, pruning, sender reputation, templates, CAN-SPAM compliance, and integrations with other tools. Send weekly newsletter and affiliate marketing emails interspersed with sponsored, affiliate, and sales email campaigns
Public Relations: Worked with Lisa to promote our business through local and national channels, including television, radio, satellite media tours, print media, podcasts, and events.
She also garnered major media attention co-sponsoring a petition for Kraft to remove artificial colors from their flagship macaroni and cheese product. Lisa prefers to be behind the scenes, but the coverage and backlinks are golden.
Marketing Case Study
Weekly Dinner Plans
We began providing free weekly dinner plans via email in May of 2022 to increase newsletter subscriptions, engagement, pageviews, and affiliate income. It’s been a resounding success!
- 2k new email subscribers/month via exit-intent CTA
- 295 affiliate link clicks/month with above average 8% conversion rate to paid meal plan subscription
- Return visitor rate increased 17% for email segment
- 14k additional pageviews/month (monetized by ads) of high quality traffic
- Positive user feedback
We’ve been receiving nothing but positive feedback since the dinner plans went out. Tons of emails thanking you for these, that it’s going to make their planning so much easier and less overwhelming. 🙂
Nicole Winslow, VA
Affiliate Marketing
We’ve sold approximately $10MM in Amazon products! We promote these and various meal planning services through natural link placement, email, social, onsite CTAs, and occasionally paid Facebook ads.
Digital Products
We’ve netted over $750k marketing our own digital products, but it almost didn’t happen...
Early on I was keen to push digital products, but our book publisher viewed them as competitive for pocket share. Lisa didn’t want to test the waters and harm that relationship — a good choice, given she inked three more book deals — so we had to get creative. Read about these adventures in the next section.
Products & Systems Integration
I’m the technical, marketing, and support lead for our school lunch meal plans (eBooks, essentially) and online course products. Over the years this has required integrating our WordPress CMS, various learning management systems, online checkout with upsells, payment processing, email, conversion tracking, physical cookbook order fulfillment, video hosting, and a chat box for support.
As mentioned, we had to overcome adversity and figure out a way to sell stuff. Here’s how we did it with our first product.
Product Case Study #1
School Lunch Meal Plans
We struck a hand-shake deal to sell school lunch meal plans (eBooks) for only a few weeks each year. The scarcity tactic actually drove sales, and everybody was happy.
Prior to launching our second product, we offered a free email based version and got 40k sign ups! We knew it was hot 🔥 but how to convince the publisher? 🤔
Product Case Study #2
6-week Online Course
I pitched offering a bundle option for the course + a physical cookbook, and they agreed. It was a win-win because psychologically the decision became which to buy (not if to buy), and we actually sold a lot of books, too!
Pulling it off was tough though. Eventually I found a fulfillment partner, negotiated low shipping rates, integrated our systems via Zapier, and developed support processes. Boom, we were in business! This resulted in $440k in sales revenue to date.
Creative problem solving and effective marketing really do pay! 🤑
Optimization
If it can be measured, it can be optimized. I’m not an expert in any of these fields, but I understand them and continuously develop my skills by taking online courses, reading industry newsletters, interacting with SMEs, and strategically applying optimization tactics to our business.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Qualitative and quantitative research using surveys, heatmaps, scroll maps, and Google Analytics. Optimization of sales funnels, sales pages, CTAs, frictionless checkout, and basket size through A/B testing and experiments using Google Optimize, Hotjar, ConvertBox, etc.
A/B Test Case Study: Jump to Recipe Button Color
A/B Test Example: Homepage Split URL Test
SEO
SEO Case Study #1
Batch Optimizing Old/Thin Content
Pilot Project Scope:
- Select high opportunity articles based on SERP and ad RPM
- Perform basic SEO on 50 posts
- Rewrite 25 posts (+300 words)
SEO Case Study #2
SEO for a Seasonal Post (How to Make Gravy)
Just in time for Thanksgiving, we updated a seasonal post by working in more keywords and optimizing the image Google was pulling for the featured recipe snippet. Checkout the results below!
Website
I monitor and optimize core web vitals, mobile usability, uptime, and user behavior metrics. I use Lighthouse, GTMetrix, and Webvitals.dev and work with a developer if I can’t fix any issues myself. Often it involves modifying caching settings.
Core Web Vitals
Uptime
Ad Revenue
I optimize ad layout, UX, overall RPM, RPM per page, time on site, and ad partners to maximize revenue.
I monitor and optimize list growth, click-through, and open rates. In fact, I recently pruned our list and improved open rates from 8 to 45% resulting in 3x reach!
Analytics
Data is critical for visualization, optimization, gaining insights, troubleshooting issues, communicating results, finding answers to questions, and on and on. I’m self-taught but would like to complete some Google Analytics courses in the near future to up my game.
I access these daily:
I use these as needed:
Website Design & Management
WordPress Design
Experience building WordPress sites with an eye for performance, flexibility, and functionality.
100DaysofRealFood.com: I used the Astra Pro theme for performance and Elementor page builder for design flexibility and advanced functionality on key pages, e.g. the recipe index. These designs were from scratch.
JasonLeake.com (this site): I again used the Astra Pro theme, but this time started with a template and built/modified pages with Spectra/Wordpress Gutenberg blocks to gain experience.
TinyHouseBigDesign.com: This was a quick and dirty site I built five years ago so I’d have a way to sell the designs for our tiny house after our kitchen tour went viral on Facebook/YouTube.
Site Mangement
I’m responsible for every aspect of WordPress CMS including design, hosting, domain, uptime, core web vitals, security, user management, plugins, taxonomies, feature development, and UX.
Operations
10 years of business management experience including all the boring stuff like legal, accounting, and insurance. 😴
People Management: Build and manage a small team consisting of a sales manager, virtual assistants, contractors, consultants, and vendors.
Strategy: Develop strategies and procedures for success in a rapidly changing industry while managing risk and remaining agile. Network with other online publishers via mastermind groups, conferences, and professional Facebook groups.
Financial: Perform operational accounting, process payroll and quarterly estimated tax payments, create cash flow projections, and create sales and annual reports.
Copy Editing
I’ve edited over 1.3k posts/pages, 600+ email campaigns, and all of our digital products and have strong attention to detail. At times I’ve had other editors working under me and helped develop their skills through a process driven workflow with feedback.
Project Management
Internal: I use tools such as Trello and Google Docs to organize, prioritize, and manage tasks. I manage a remote team and communicate using Slack, Zoom, Loom, and email.
External: Develop detailed project specifications, solicit bids, negotiate contracts, oversee implementation, perform QA, and learn from wins and mistakes.
Sample Projects: Product launches, three site redesigns, sitewide taxonomy reorganization for SEO and navigation, online course development and platform migration, email automation and platform migrations, SEO audits and implementation, multiple meal plan affiliate partnerships, site performance optimization, and eCommerce integration.
Living Intentionally
This is my favorite “job” because it spans all aspects of life (including work!). I mean, what’s the point in life if you aren’t present, grateful, and able to share some fun with those you care about?
Travel
We’ve logged some AMAZING domestic and international travel memories, thanks in a large part to my travel obsessed wife and master planner, Lisa. The kids don’t know how lucky they have it! Definitely good to get different perspectives.
Meditation
Meditation has been the most impactful path to personal growth for me. Bonus, it makes you a better person to be around!
Adventure & Nature
I take calculated risks to feel alive, improve my skills, and find peace of mind. I love the outdoors and the people that explore with me.
