I’ve been eating out a lot recently, and have wanted to curb my restaurant expenses a bit and more importantly, eat healthier! I’m definitely not one able to just whip up something that tastes great, and needed a little (lots of) guidance. I found Hungry Girl, Lisa Lillien’s very fun healthy eating website and two cookbooks. I’ve heard a lot of buzz about Hungry Girl, and after taking a look at and buying both cookbooks, the recipes are actually healthy and pretty easy to make. I’m excited

Their site could be a bit more SEO-friendly by primarily cutting down the number of images used – it’s pretty image heavy. However, the popularity of  Hungry Girl is a lesson for other food bloggers out there, and the marketing tips encompass much more than SEO, but as we know, having a site or blog people actually want to come to, read, and tell others about and link to, can go a long way in having a very successful SEO campaign.

Timely Topics: Eating healthier is a hot topic right now, and sure, people are still hitting their local fast food joints, but healthy eating is getting more and more of the spotlight. Whether they actually cook the recipes is one thing, but searchers are looking for nutritious recipes, and posting about them is likely to get you a wider audience over time. Be sure to also post a photo and nutritional information for each recipe.

Share Your Recipes: Food blogging is much different than publishing a cookbook. Expect your recipes to be all over the Internet, and encourage your readers to share them. Have “Share This” or “Add To Any” buttons on each post to propel your readers to post your recipes on social sites or their own blog.

Give and You Shall Receive: Rather than allow your readers only a glimpse of your recipes, forcing them to blindly buy your cookbook, have a collection of full recipes available on your site or blog. There’s so many cookbooks out there, and potential buyers want to first do their homework and make sure your recipes are actually good. Post every few days with a new recipe separate from the ones in your book. This will encourage readers to buy your book for an extensive collection, and keep them coming back to your site, as well.

E-mail Marketing: The Hungry Girl has a “Subscribe” button on her site, where you can subscribe to her mailing list and receive even more great-tasting recipes! This again helps keep your blog fresh in people’s minds.

Contests: Want to increase the number of links to your food blog and increase buzz? Sure you do. E-mail your blog readers and post about a contest, such as who can create the best variation of your recipe on their own blog (linking to your blog in the post, as well), who can prepare a recipe of yours in the most entertaining way in a YouTube video, etc. Be sure to have an award for the contest, and more than likely you’ll get some exposure for having the contest.

Know Your Audience – The Hungry Girl’s audience is likely not 50-year old retirees. They know they’re targeting twenty and thirty somethings who want to eat healthy without toiling away at the stove. Select your target demographic, and make sure your cooking style and overall theme of your blog match that demographic.

Feel free to comment away with more food blogger marketing tips. Hmm, I seem a bit hungry all of a sudden, time to break out my Hungry Girl cookbook!