A Year in Review
Let’s all agree, 2020 was a roller coaster (and not a very good one at that). With the Covid pandemic rearing its ugly head and us being frontline healthcare workers, this year has been filled with uncertainty, trepidation, and isolation. Zoe and I being on different coasts this year has made it especially difficult. Despite these hardships, we have many things to be thankful for. Our families are well, we are now vaccinated, we have reason to be optimistic about 2021.
GradFood Update
Also GradFood is still going strong. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on this year from the perspective of our food blog. Here, we will walk you through what’s working well for GradFood, our goals for next year, and as advertised will have a compilation of our MOST POPULAR RECIPES of 2020.
In This Article:
- 2020 GradFood Progress Report
- Goals for 2021
- Top Affiliate Sales of 2020
- Top 15 GradFood Recipes of 2020
2020 GradFood Progress Report
We officially launched GradFood in April 2019 (see our About Us section for more details if you don’t yet know us). We’ve heard that many food blogs sizzle out in their first year, so looking back, we’re pleased and humbled by the fact that GradFood is still going strong and continues to grow month-by-month.
Our Focuses in 2020:
Photography: Initially, we were using Zoe’s Galaxy phone for our photography. However, as you may have noticed, our photos have dramatically improved in quality since our initial posts (see photos below for a comparison).
This improvement in food photography can be attributed to:
- Purchasing and learning from Pinch of Yum’s Tasty Food Photography EBook. A great resource and well worth the small investment in our opinion.
- Upgrading from using Zoe’s Galaxy phone as a camera to my Nikon DSLR (I already had this DSLR but it wasn’t until Zoe got me a “Nifty Fifty” lens (a versatile 50mm lens perfect for food photography) that we made the switch.
- Learning how to use Adobe Lightroom to help make food photos look as good as they do in real life. Another investment we are happy to make.
Publicizing: While the blog was initially started as just a way to share recipes with family and friends, we have since been working to publicize GradFood to the larger community. For a more in-depth discussion of what works for us, check out our article, 10 Tips & Tricks for Food Bloggers. Here are some ways that have helped the site grow in popularity:
- Word-of-Mouth. Some of our most dedicated followers continue to be our close family and friends. We aren’t shy about bringing up our blog in conversation when someone asks about recipes.
- Social Media. We’ve been mostly focusing on growing a strong base of followers on Instagram. We also post to Pinterest (we haven’t yet made the investment for Pin-Schedulers, TBD if we will try it out) and less frequently to Facebook (due to their new policies, if you don’t pay to advertise a post, it only gets seen by like 15 people and we don’t think this is worth the investment).
- Food Submission sites. Foodgawker > Foodyub > Yum Goggle. We were also using Fridgg but it stopped being a food submission site unfortunately.
- Other fortuitous opportunities. Once in awhile, other sites would help spread the word about GradFood, like when we were featured on FeedSpot’s list of Top 20 San Francisco Food Blogs or when Yummly gave a major boost to our Spiced Iced Chocolate Holiday Cookies recipe.
By the Numbers
Total recipes posted in 2020: 56 (while we were more or less productive posting recipes based on how busy things got at the hospital, we met our goal of publishing on average, at least once/week)
Total audience growth in 2020: 268% (via Google Analytics). Our acquisition breakdown is Organic Search >> Direct > Referral > Other > Social.
Total growth in email subscribers: 270% (check out the home page to subscribe if you haven’t yet!)
Total growth in Amazon Affiliate sales: 235%
Goals for 2021
GradFood is still considered a small food blog but it’s a work in progress and has lots of room to grow. Here are our 2021 ambitions:
- Continue to post at least one recipes per week on average over the course of the year.
- Increase our total audience by 300%. We may check out things like Pinterest schedulers to see if these investments will be worthwhile in the long-term.
- Continue working on improving our food photography.
- Start working on our next Cookbook (we’ve been dabbling with a few ideas for this, stay tuned for updates!)
- Currently, our only source of revenue is through Affiliate links (help support GradFood by making your purchases through these links at no extra cost to you!). We’ve been toying with the idea of joining an advertising network but at this point, we’re holding off on this until we have a sufficient audience to join a top-tier one.
Top Affiliate Sales of 2020
Top 15 GradFood Recipes of 2020
Without further ado, here is a compilation of the Top 15 GradFood Recipes of 2020, starting with the most popular. Of note, this list includes the top-performing recipes in 2020 although not necessarily originally published in 2020 (some are from 2019 but just happens to be performing really well this year).
This compilation of recipes comprised the majority of our traffic in 2020. We still haven’t discovered why exactly this recipe compilation beat out the others (perhaps good SEO, perhaps it was featured on a high profile site that we haven’t found but either way, we’re pleased!)
2. Teriyaki Air Fryer Beef Jerky
After getting an air fryer, we found that air frying isn’t the only thing you can do with it! Here, we used the dehydrate function to make the hands-down best-tasting beef jerky we’ve tried.
3. Pan-Seared Soy Sesame Arctic Char
Ok, we know this isn’t the sexiest photos (came from the pre-DSLR era) but it sure tasted great and was quite easy to make. Perhaps this recipe did so well because there aren’t a ton of recipes out there for arctic char.
4. Spiced Iced Chocolate Holiday Cookies
We published this recipe last Christmas. However, a few weeks ago I checked Google Analytics to find 700 individual pageviews in a single day, all driven by Yummly to this recipe. Perhaps we were featured on their front page but we definitely don’t mind the attention!
5. Sweet Spicy Thai Glazed Mahi Mahi
This Mahi Mahi recipe was a fun one to make. A true one-pan recipe with all your veggies going on the pan with the mahi mahi to be roasted with a delicious sticky glaze.
This recipe is one our all-time favorites to make (and probably one of our most frequently-made too!). Who could resist eggs poached in a fragrant tomato vegetable stew?! As Chef John says, this Shakshuka is Off the Hooka’!
This was one of the first things we tried with our new Air Fryer and it turned out AMAZING. So juicy and tender but made healthier since no actual frying was involved. A new and improved Panda Express copycat recipe 😉
9. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze
Brussels Sprouts are one of our consistent staples. After tinkering with several different recipes, we eventually settled on this one, making it our favorite way to make Brussels Sprouts. The balsamic glaze gives it the perfect sweet touch.
10. Air Fryer Turkey Potato Hash
This recipe started out as us cooking up the rest of the ingredients in our fridge and throwing them into a pot but it ended up being a great meal prep idea and has made it to the Top 10 GradFood Recipes.
11. Crab Ravioli with Mushrooms & Parmesan
After Zoe got me a pasta maker, I went through a pasta binge. Fresh pasta beats boxed pasta every day of the week. This happened to be one of our favorite ravioli recipes, made rich and gourmet with the addition of crab.
12. Balsamic-Glazed Caramelized Pear & Prosciutto Pizza
Pizza/flatbread is such a great way to experiment with different flavors/toppings, whether you’re hosting a dinner party or just making some meal prep for yourself. This pizza is decadent and bursting with flavor.
13. Brie, Pear, & Turkey Sandwiches
When you’re craving a turkey meal but Thanksgiving is nowhere close, check out this recipe. We don’t make sandwiches often but when we do, we make sure they taste extraordinary like this one!
14. Pumpkin Gnocchi with Walnuts & Creamy Sage Sauce
Gnocchi is super fun to make. Just egg, flour, and potato (and sometimes with an extra mystery ingredient like the pumpkin in this recipe). Perfect for a hearty fall dinner for pumpkin-lovers like ourselves.
15. Chicken Souvlaki Pita with Tzatziki
With fresh herbs, a killer homemade tzatziki sauce, and perfectly barbecued marinated chicken, this souvlaki recipe hits the spot on a summer afternoon. Really quite healthy too, for a well-balanced but delicious meal.
What are your Top 2020 Recipes?
Let us know what you think by commenting below! Have you had success making any of these recipes? Do you have any personal favorites? Any suggestions for recipes we should try in 2021? Or do you have any tips/suggestions to help GradFood improve? We’re always open to feedback. If you’re looking to collaborate, feel free to email us at gradfoodblog@gmail.com.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and perhaps it has inspired you to try out some of these unique recipes. And while 2020 wasn’t the greatest year, with any luck 2021 will be much better and filled with delicious cooking. So take care, stay safe, and cook on!!!
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