This episode is sponsored by GRO.

Welcome to episode 574 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week, Bjork is back with part two of our GRO mini-series — this time chatting with Mika Kinney from Joy to the Food.

Two years ago, Mika Kinney had 1,000 Instagram followers. Today she has 480,000 — and both she and her husband work full-time on Joy to the Food. That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident, and in this episode, Mika breaks down exactly how she did it.

Mika started her site in 2021, left her job in September 2023, and went all in on Instagram in January 2024. What followed was a masterclass in understanding what social media can do for a food business — not just as a vanity metric, but as a genuine traffic and revenue source.

In this episode, Bjork and Mika dig into the super intentional content strategy behind her growth, how she uses GRO to capture the value of her Instagram audience and drive traffic back to her site, how she (easily!) increased her affiliate income, and why she and her husband recently launched a membership program — all without dramatically increasing their workload.

​See the show notes to find relevant links and/or leave a comment!

Three episode takeaways:

• What’s actually driving Mika’s Instagram growth — Mika breaks down the difference between videos that get reach and videos that get followers and the role of calls to action in Reels. She also shares why showing your face and bringing your personality to your content is one of the most important things you can do and how she structures her content schedule in a way that keeps her consistent without burning out.
• How Mika uses GRO to turn Instagram attention into real business results —Mika walks through how DM automation and story replies work to reduce friction for her audience, why carousels are her go-to format for reaching a large portion of her existing followers, and how conversational hooks have changed the way she thinks about content. Most importantly, she shares how direct traffic to her site has increased continuously because of GRO — including during a stretch of six to eight months without a single viral video.
• How Mika is diversifying her revenue without adding to her workload — From sharing two to three affiliate deep links per day (generating an extra $2,000–$3,000 per month) to launching a weekly exclusive recipe membership program with GRO, Mika has built multiple revenue streams on top of her existing content workflow rather than in addition to it. She and Bjork talk through how each revenue stream works, how the membership is structured, and why diversifying away from a single traffic or income source has become essential for food bloggers navigating the current landscape.

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Thank you to our sponsor!

Grow traffic and capture emails with GRO. Built specifically for food creators, GRO is the 'comment for recipe' platform designed to help you effortlessly grow your email list, drive more traffic to your site, and earn more affiliate sales. Head to gro.co and use promo code ‘podcast’ to get your first month totally free.

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