The Bloggers Digest periodically interviews the interesting people behind the blogs we love.
This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Moncel from Budget Bytes. The Budget Bytes website and App focus on providing home cooks with recipes and tools for creating low-cost, healthy and simple home-cooked meals. My favorite part about the site (aside fom the awesome recipes) has to be those Kroger receipts. Those prices make me wish that we had a Kroger near me!
What surprised me most about Beth was that, despite running a website that reaches millions of readers, she takes the time to personally respond to each and every comment on her website and on social media, in a timely manner – something that she touches on a little more in the interview.
Blogging is no cake walk. Because bloggers face unique challenges, we like to ask a few questions that help give readers a glimpse into the amount of work it takes maintain a professional blog.
Q & A with Beth Moncel
Hi! Thanks again for offering to interview me. : ) Here are the answers to the questions:
About Beth:
Where is home for you?
I live in Nashville, TN. I moved here about a year and a half ago after living in New Orleans for six years, but I am originally from northern Michigan.
Tell us about a typical day in the life of a successful food blogger. How much time are you in the kitchen versus on your computer?
I would say it’s about 30% kitchen time and 70% computer time. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes with keeping a website running smoothly, not to mention keeping a business running smoothly, that it takes a lot more time to manage those two aspects than it does creating content.
On a typical day, I start off by answering social media questions and comments, moderating and answering comments on the blog, and answering emails over my morning coffee (this takes a couple of hours, starting around 6 a.m.). Then I usually take a break to get some exercise to get my blood flowing and give my eyes a break from the computer! After that, depending on the day, I’ll either spend about four hours cooking and photographing, or editing and posting a recipe. I like to break it up into separate days like that — one day in the kitchen, one day on the computer. By that time my dog is usually staring me down begging for a walk, so I take the opportunity to get some fresh air and a little more exercise. Once that’s done, I usually have a whole new inbox-worth of emails, so I’ll go through and address anything that is urgent. Between those tasks I may have to coordinate fixes to the blog (technology is always changing and always breaking), fetch and send documents to business partners, publishers, accountants, lawyers, etc. There are always a million little tasks to complete, but luckily I’m someone who thrives with lists! I usually have to check in with social media a second time during the day just to clear out comment and message queues so they don’t get out of hand, then I put a lid on the day. My brain usually peters out around 6 p.m.
Even though your blog is called Budget Bytes, what is your splurge?
Good cheese! There is nothing more satisfying to me than a selection of good cheeses and a good crusty baguette. I don’t have a favorite cheese, though. Instead I like to have a variety so you can have all the contrasting flavors and textures on your palate.
What are the blogs that you read consistently?
I actually don’t really read other blogs! I do follow some on social media, but I rarely actually go read them. After working with food all day, I don’t want to read more about food for leisure. : ) And usually as soon as I’m done with my online work I just want to be offline ASAP. Being online all day can be very draining.
What is something interesting about you that a lot of people don’t know?
I love medical science. I was a microbiologist before I went full time with my blog and my job was to grow and identify bacteria and parasites. I absolutely love microbiology, but working in a hospital is not nearly as fun as working at home. Maybe if I could run a blog about bacteria, that would be cool! … But I don’t really think there’s an audience for that. ; )
About cooking:
What is the best kitchen tool/gadget you ever bought? The worst?
I keep it pretty simple in the kitchen, so I think my best gadgets are the basics, like my slow cooker. I’ve had that thing for well over 10 years and it was only $25. The worst was my Ninja blender. Somehow social media made me believe that I needed a bigger, badder blender than my $15 single-serving-sized smoothie blender. I wasn’t about to drop a bunch of money on one of those super fancy blenders, so I got a Ninja. It’s just too big and too sharp and scary to ever use, so it just sits in my pantry collecting dust. I prefer my little cheap blender. : )
The most flavorful store-bought spaghetti sauce? Favorite cookbook?
I am so not particular about my spaghetti sauces. I just buy whatever and don’t look back. Haha!
My favorite cookbook is the old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that has been around for decades (the one with the red gingham cover). That’s the cookbook that I grew up with and the cookbook that inspired me to do step by step photographs on my blog. There aren’t a lot of step-by-step photographs in that book, but the few there are really helped me learn how to cook.
What’s a kitchen hack you wish someone had told you earlier? And one that you wish you had never tried?
I wish I knew that I could freeze whole citrus earlier. Fresh citrus is such a game changer in recipes. Lemons and limes are so much less expensive when you buy a whole bag, but I could never use them up quickly enough. Freezing solves that problem.
I wish I had never tried to make guacamole with peas. It is really gross and not even close to real guacamole in flavor or texture.
About Blogging:
What was your readership like one year, three years, and now 10 years after you started blogging? When did you realize it was going to be a full-time gig?
In 2012, three years into blogging, things were really starting to take off. That’s when I signed my book deal and the blog had been steadily (and quickly) growing for three years straight. I knew I had stumbled onto something big at that point, but I really had no idea how big. In 2014, I figured out how to properly monetize the blog and was able to make it a full-time gig soon after. I’m at 10 years now and my readership fluctuates between about 5 to 9 million page views per month, depending on the time of year (January is busiest for me).
You said in a video that “I think the hardest part about blogging is how fast it changes. Every couple of months something big changes and you kind of just have to go with the flow.” Could you elaborate more on that?
Technology changes very quickly, as do social media trends and algorithms. You have to stay on top of all these changes to stay within your audience’s view. When I started blogging, photographs barely mattered, as long as you had some. Then competition with photographs really ramped up and you really had to be a pro to get any social media juice. Then it all went to video. If you don’t have videos your content won’t go anywhere on social media. Those are examples of the big changes over the years, but there are 100 smaller changes in between that make you have to change strategy on an almost constant basis. Luckily I like to learn new things, so there is an enjoyable aspect to it.
Talk to us about the realities of food blogging. Sometimes blogging looks easy to people that don’t know much about it. Food blogging on this level requires expert photography, videography, web design. Tell me more about your team. How big is your team and how do you organize the workflow?
At some point you have to admit to yourself that you can’t be an expert at everything, and there aren’t 100 hours in the day, so you do have to hire help. The first person I hired was my social media manager. She stays on top of the rules, regulations, and best practices for each social media platform, all of which are constantly changing, and she helps me schedule posts to various platforms. I still answer all comments and questions on social media myself, though. I think that’s important for me to stay in touch with my readers and get feedback on my recipes.
I also have a business or operations manager that started with me about a year ago. She helps me manage my email inbox, coordinate projects, research opportunities, and brainstorm content (among 100 other things). She’s basically like my second brain because there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do everything!
I have a web designer, of course, because I wouldn’t be able to come even close to building a website myself, and I have hired services for things like website hosting, and WordPress tech support.
So far that’s all the help I have. I would like to outsource video production at some point, but I still kind of enjoy making videos so I’m trying to hang on to that one as long as possible.
Your site Budget Bytes looks fantastic, and I couldn’t help but notice that it’s designed by Purr (the same people who designed the Damn Delicious site and many others). Being a web design nerd, I’d love to hear more about your experience working with them and the design process.
Lindsay is AWESOME, and she happens to be right here in Nashville. I love her designs and since she’s an amazing food blogger herself (I don’t know how she has time to do both!), she really knows what we need in a website design. Her design process is very thorough and she really does a good job of communicating a brand’s personality through her designs. If she ever stops designing I’m probably going to panic a little.
Lastly, what’s new or coming up in the Budget Bytes world that our readers should know about?
I’ve been trying to get some meal plans put together for well over a year now, but they keep getting pushed aside due to more pressing issues. I hope to publish them in 2019!
The Bloggers Digest wants to thank Beth for taking the time to chat with us! You can find her wallet friendly recipes at Budget Bytes, Instagram and on Twitter.
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