Feast has developed this lifecycle internally for gauging where a blogger is and how we can best serve them. Through informal conversations we've found that some people have found this useful as a roadmap, so we're publishing it as a reference.
This isn't authoritative and many many sites lie outside these definitions.
Phase 1 - Aimless
You start a food blog, are swimming aimlessly through tutorials and videos and not doing keyword research.
These sites are best described as "hobby" sites and use our classic themes.
A large number of sites never get past this stage.
Phase 2 - Ramping up
- you understand that posting recipes without any search volume is a waste of time
- you only write recipes with adequate search volume, and low competition
- you have less than 200 recipes and/or are not monetized
- your categories are all top level categories (no child categories), are fully filled out with descriptions, and you have somewhere between 10-20 posts per category
- your recipes all have high quality images and process shots
- you may want to have an SEO audit done with Casey Markee
These sites are perfect for the Feast Plugin or Feast Plugin Starter plan - the getting started guide is helpful for deciding where you are.
Phase 3 - Monetized
You're now monetized and have figured out your niche/audience, and are ready to begin scaling up by focusing on your "zone of expertise".
- you outsource tech support to nerdpress to free up your time to focus on your zone of expertise
- you may want to have an SEO audit done with TopHatRank to help reorganize your site/categories
- you're usually between 200-500 recipes here
- you have a grasp on seasonality and are scheduling posts 3 months ahead of time
This is where you want to upgrade to Feast+, which helps you define your brand, and style your website so that you can pursue sponsored content deals.
Phase 4 - Business building
- you've outsourced your tech support to nerdpress, social posting,
- you have a yearly or quarterly content schedule, and are batching posts for efficiency
- keyword research is less important now, and you're making content that your audience resonates with across your email newsletter and social accounts
- you're updating each post once per year according to the holiday schedule
- you're getting yearly audits from Casey or TopHatRank to stay on continue to adjust course