How do you style the plate? What kind of background do you use? Should you shoot that chocolate cake with a bright, white background? Or do you go for a dark, moody layout? Those are the kinds of questions I took to food blogger Tieghan Gerard. She’s the fabulous blogger behind the site Half-baked Harvest.

Want to grow your blogging audience? Maybe everything you need is right in your back yard. I can say that because I'm from Missouri, a Kansas neighbor. But the point is, looking local is all too often a neglected part of growing your blogging audience. In today's podcast, learn tips for Growing a Local Audience for Your Blog with author and blogger Emily Paster. Emily is also co-founder of the Chicago Food Swap.

Well, we did it. We planned, promoted, and put together the very first Food Blog Success Summit. You remember me talking about that right? It was basically an in-person brainstorming master mind session of food bloggers. It was a powerful day and Tessa Arias is here talking with me about the Food Blog Success Summit Overview so you can join in on some of the discoveries we all experienced.

Seth Godin recently said, "As soon as you stop acting like you need every single vote, you can earn the votes of the people you seek to serve." Those are powerful words enforcing the notion that we can't be everything to everyone. Bridget Edwards is on the podcast today with the same message. Learn tips for Growing Your Niche Food Blog with Bridget Edwards talking about how she started her blog about cookies and has grown it into so much more!