Episode 29Apr 30, 2022· 31:56
How Grumpy Olive Came To Be With Simona Rosano
About this episode
In this episode, Simona Rosano shares how she started her website The Grumpy Olive
Blog: https://www.thegrumpyolive.com/
Helpful Links:
How to Start a Blog in 7 Steps
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101 Ideas to Make Money From Home
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Full transcript
00:00
Welcome to the Blaget Friends show!
00:27
Simona, welcome to the show! I'm so glad that you could be here today. Could you tell everybody a little bit about your blog?
00:33
So I had started blogging under the Grand Piole alias in 2013, December 2013, and that was done
00:44
pretty much as a very good on and off relationship, mostly off and on. But you know, like I've started
00:53
then and then in 2020, so at the peak of the pandemic in August, I was made redundant from my
01:01
job and one of my sisters was like, well, you know, why don't you give it a shot again? I mean,
01:07
we're stuck inside anyway, so might as well. So both my sisters had a blog each and I was like,
01:18
look, I didn't think I'd feel confident enough to do it by myself. It's just going to be so much work
01:23
and I don't think I can not making it the way we had been chatting about. So I was like, why don't
01:30
you to join me? And yeah, so basically the Grand Piole relaunched as it is now in August 2020.
01:41
And yeah, so it's three of us, three sisters. I'm the eldest and then we've got Fred, who's the
01:48
middle sister, who's currently on a break from the blog because she started uni and then the
01:53
youngest is Christina. So right now is literally a two man band. Now, how'd you come up with the
02:00
name the Grumpy Olive? So basically, I was very confused and like getting a name that I would have
02:10
to get stuck with for so long was just like too overwhelming. So technically the name was
02:20
made by Fred. Back then she was like, you know, you hate olives anyway and the best of your
02:28
abilities when you're grumpy, you're terrible. So why not? So technically it was a very personal
02:36
name, but it never felt like that really. Like, yeah, I'm a grumpy person when I'm Grumpy Olive
02:44
now, but I think it kind of shadows all of us at the same time because like, you know, we can be
02:52
moody, we can be a bit difficult not to use other words. I like that though. So it's almost like a
03:03
personal inside joke. Yes. I like that a lot though. That's super fun. So now what exactly
03:10
do you blog about? So initially the Grumpy Olive was meant to be a food blog, food and nothing more
03:18
than food. I live and thrive on food. So recipe development and all that kind of stuff I love.
03:26
But when we discussed about putting everyone together, you know, everyone came from different
03:35
backgrounds, different things we loved. So it was only bound to happen that the Grumpy Olive became
03:41
a multi-niche site. So I would say you could say we're a lifestyle blog and within that lifestyle
03:49
you get food, coffee, because both Christine and Fred are coffee gigs. You get books. Christine is
03:57
the book lover of the family, but at the same time you get beauty, you get a bit of style, like just
04:05
like in that very small doses. So I would say food, books and coffee is the main focuses.
04:12
That makes sense. Okay. So is the website making money? If all three of you are working on it
04:17
together, you got to be doing something to make a living, don't you? Yeah. So basically we had
04:25
started with like this huge plan in mind where we'd be making so many figures within X amount of time.
04:33
It didn't happen, but as of the start of 2022, it's actually making a little money. I would say
04:43
the first three months of the year have made us roughly 600 pounds in British pounds. So I'm not
04:52
sure how much is it in the... So like we'd say roughly we go between 200, 250 pounds a month,
04:59
which so far might not be the way to go, but at the same time it kind of is making the blog
05:07
self-sustainable. So like everything we had to renew from hosting to that kind of like, you know,
05:15
Canva and all of that, it's now covered by money we have made through blogging.
05:19
So how are you making money on the blog? I would say there is a bit of affiliate marketing,
05:27
very minimal because no matter how much we've tried, we don't seem to be able to push it as much.
05:36
I think like what's worth remembering for us three is that we're very shy and with that comes the
05:46
whole layer of not promoting ourselves enough, not shouting through the top of the roof that like,
05:54
you know, we're blogging, we do this and this is what we want to do long term. So that has become
06:01
a very difficult way to kind of push even the content itself. So right now we're hiding behind
06:09
the alias we've got. No, are you doing...
06:15
We're just like, I think we're going to... That makes sense though. I mean, I totally get it.
06:20
A lot of people, you know, they get nervous about sharing what it is that they're doing because
06:26
it's very personal, especially whenever you're doing something with an alias. It's like,
06:31
how do you push it out to like friends and family and stuff if they don't know it's you that's
06:36
doing it? Are you doing any kind of advertising on it? Like, do you have Google Adsense set up?
06:40
No, we always wanted to try them, but it's always been something we've thought of and never pushed
06:51
for. So I would say affiliate marketing and then other revenue streams are like, we do offer
07:00
other bloggers advertising spots to grow their DA and all of that. Whoever is into blogging
07:07
knows what that is. And then what else have we done? We've been working on like sponsored posts
07:16
and like directly with some brands in order to get to where we are.
07:21
What are your plans for the future of the blog?
07:25
So ideally we want to make it a full-time role kind of end of the year, beginning of next year.
07:34
So we're planning to hopefully at least one of us to go into this full-time.
07:44
We broke up for just a second. So can we try that a little bit again? Sorry.
07:48
Well, that's fine. Basically we are trying to get at least one of us between Christina and I
07:55
to get into this full-time and make it worth our time just by being able to survive within it. And
08:04
that would exclude Fred based on the fact that she's starting uni anyway. So she'll be busy
08:10
enough with her stuff. How often are you putting stuff on your blog? So we currently post twice a
08:17
week unless we've got like a sponsored post or a guest post. So there might be an extra one every
08:24
so often, but Monday and Thursdays are the two days where we always post. Do you have like an
08:32
editorial calendar that tells you what you should be writing about or do you just kind of wing it?
08:37
No, we go with an advertorial calendar. We just make sure that like, you know, of course it will
08:43
change sometimes because something is like not trending anymore or like, you know, we have to
08:50
look at that kind of thing, especially with food. It's like insane, but we do have a calendar,
08:56
like, you know, making sure that we've got enough content like for Easter now. And then when Christmas
09:01
comes, you know, like we start working on Christmas in July, it's very much a set calendar that we
09:09
work on. Yeah. Do you ever have trouble coming up with ideas? Like where do you get your ideas for
09:14
the blog? It's definitely a difficult one because I would say we do look around. We kind of go with
09:25
what we can see is going to be trending. So a lot of Pinterest is like a right arm to us,
09:37
but at the same time, what I have tried to get Christina to get into as well is just try to blog
09:45
something that you really enjoy about. So like food wise, I don't know, this year is like cream
09:53
tea is trending and we should be making this and that, but at the same time, it's not something I
09:58
would feel confident with. So maybe rather than go for that, something that I prefer personally.
10:06
And so far so good. So, you know, instincts, first of all. So what is your promotion strategy? Like
10:12
how do you get people to your blog? We do a lot of promotion through Twitter. So, you know, like
10:23
there's a constant stream of old articles coming through with like hashtags and everything in order
10:29
to get them to the audience. And at the same time, we do a lot of keyword research. So some of the
10:39
traffic, I wouldn't say most of it, but like some of it comes through Google straight away. And then
10:46
of course we use the usual Pinterest, Instagram, but they're like a little more difficult because
10:51
of their algorithm changes. Those happen so often. Sometimes it's difficult to keep up and just be
10:57
like, okay, this is what we're meant to do. This is not what we're meant to do. But we did get some
11:03
help with Pinterest because we were honestly going insane. So yeah, it's a tough one because you'd
11:13
wish to grow organically, but at the same time, it's, I would say right now 80% of our time is
11:20
spent just trying to promote and push it and just get people to come through. Yeah. They say it's
11:25
like 20% content creation, 80% promotion. I wish it was the other way around because
11:32
it's more fun to produce content. Yeah. It's a lot more entertaining and I don't know, I just feel,
11:41
it feels completely different and like having to promote yourself, especially if like me,
11:47
you're an introvert and you don't like having to do that. It's draining. It's tiring. And like you
11:55
get to bed at night and you're like, oh my God, finally over. But you know, there is that like
12:01
tomorrow you wake up and there is, I don't know how many page views and stuff like that. So you'll
12:05
be like having a little party and stuff. But since you have such a fun name, do you have any plans
12:12
for like merchandise or, or using the, like a cartoon of some kind of a grumpy Alice?
12:18
Yeah. No, we never thought of that to be fair. I didn't think it's in the plan right now.
12:27
I didn't have this big business mind, but Christina on the other hand, and Fred is the same as me,
12:35
but Christina on the other hand, it's very much like everything can become a business. Everything
12:41
can just be something. And I'm sure that when she gets to listen to this, because she's hiding in
12:47
her bedroom, when she gets to listen to this, she'll be like, Oh, actually, you know what?
12:52
Ashley was right. We should do mugs and these and that's probably in the near future at this point.
12:59
Yeah. I mean, you could, uh, you could take like the idea to someone on Fiverr, have them create
13:04
a cartoon of a grumpy, all of it. And there's all kinds of stuff you could do. You could, you could
13:08
have, uh, uh, towels and spatulas and all kinds of stuff that has a grumpy, all of it. Amazing.
13:15
Yeah. It could turn into a whole brand. I know. That is brilliant. Thank you. You're welcome.
13:21
Write that down. Well, well, hey, since, since we're talking about it, is there anything else that
13:28
you want to know from me that I might be able to help with? Um, I don't know. I mean, you've been
13:34
on the website. What do you think? Like we, we love Cedric. Let's pull it up. Yes. We'll just do
13:43
a real time thing. Yeah. I love that. We literally changed our theme recently. I think at the end of
13:50
2021, we felt like we had to go a little bit more professional. That's no fun. I'm just kidding.
13:58
Yeah. I think that there's definitely some, some more you could do with like the grumpy olive idea.
14:02
Um, I just, I picture in my mind a, uh, like I said, a cartoon of a grumpy olive, I think that
14:07
would be so fun that you could play with. And, and there's then like that could become, you know,
14:13
almost the avatar that you use on your Twitter and your Instagram of if you turn it into, it's not
14:20
you and your sisters that are promoting, it's actually the olive itself promoting the blog.
14:27
Then, you know, then that could become something that an introvert hides behind and lets it become
14:32
it's like stage presence. Like Beyonce has her Sasha Fierce and you could be like, you could
14:38
embody the grumpy olive. That sounds amazing. And I love the Beyonce comparison. I wish, but
14:46
but that's what I'm saying. Make your grumpy olive your, your Sasha Fierce. Yeah. Thank you.
14:53
But other than that, I mean, like there, there is some fun content on here. And I like the fact that,
14:57
you know, since you are embracing the fact that it's a lifestyle blog, there's, there's different
15:01
kinds of content, but, you know, I just think that that's the big thing that's jumping out at me is
15:07
how much fun you could have with the cartoon idea of an olive. Yeah. I mean, if you keep on pushing
15:15
that, I might get it done at this point. I'm just going to get it done. Hey, even for you.
15:23
I would personally like to see it. I think it'd be funny because I've seen, like there's, there's,
15:29
there's some, I can't remember what it is right now, but it was like an orange and it was a
15:33
cartoon orange and it was like just this happy orange and it's like all smiley and it makes you
15:39
want to like know more. And you want to like see the orange engage with people. And I just, I,
15:43
I don't know. I think that kind of kitschy stuff is just hilarious. And yeah, that's why I just
15:48
keep picturing like an actual grumpy olive, like an angry olive, like chasing a martini for some
15:53
reason. When you try and type the grumpy, the first thing that comes up is always the cat.
16:00
Absolutely. Yeah. And like funny enough, we've got a Burman cat. So like he is a little grumpy,
16:06
but we've met him later than when we first started. So we can not blame it on him really,
16:13
but you know. Yeah. I'm just looking through some of the stuff that you've posted about like
16:18
the coffee and all that good stuff. So, okay. On your website, I see join the grumpy olive club.
16:27
What is the grumpy olive club? Oh, that is our newsletter. So when you sign up to our newsletter,
16:34
you get a first welcome email and there is a little freebie that changes seasonally, I would say.
16:41
A bit less right now because we're all working normal jobs anyway. So it's been a bit hectic,
16:50
but, and then you will get a monthly email with like some discount codes, some kind of a summary
17:00
of what we have posted through that month and what people had loved more than like, you know, just
17:08
a bit of a summary of what happened and what we're doing, what we're up to, what we're going to be
17:13
doing. Now these sponsored posts that I'm looking through, like I see you have an ad as your pin
17:21
tweet. Where are you getting your sponsored posts? Like how are you getting sponsorships?
17:26
So what we have done with sponsorships, we tend to either to do it two different ways. We either
17:35
approach a brand directly, which, you know, when we started at the end of last year, it was very
17:41
scary, still is because I'm assuming no one likes to get rejected. But the other way we have is we
17:50
are using websites like get blogged and there's other bits like interinfluence where you just go
17:58
on and you're like, okay, this is the work that I can find through them. And this is what they would
18:06
want you to write about. And it might be, I don't know, like the last one we've done was with a
18:15
brand called Adculp, I think is the pin tweet. And it's all about, you know, just trying the
18:24
product and reviewing it to try and get some sales out for the brand. So it really is a matter of
18:33
approaching, I guess, if you're confident enough, if you think you've got what it takes, because a
18:38
lot of the time the brands might not refuse you. They might just be like, okay, so maybe rather
18:47
than do this, we can do that instead. So, you know. Yeah. You never know what you're going to get. I
18:52
think for me, one of the big things that over the last few years is I'm trying to get a lot better
18:58
about just asking because yeah, you'll probably get a lot of nos and I definitely have had my fair
19:04
share of rejection. But the best is when you get that yes. You know, when you get that yes, it's
19:09
just exhilarating. You feel like we're at the top of the world and like nothing can go wrong. And
19:16
you've got it. And like, you know, we've had it with a couple of brands. We've got one particular
19:22
brand, which is like, we're planning to do something now for the summer and we're so excited
19:29
and like to get rewarded with also a payment for someone who does blogging. You know, right now
19:36
we're doing it pretty much part-time. It's just the best feeling. You're just like, oh my God,
19:44
I do get to work with brands I love and I do get paid for the work I'm doing. So it's not all just
19:51
about, you know, like we're doing something we're passionate about with brands we're passionate
19:57
about and we get rewarded for it. So like, you know, it's the best of worlds, I guess.
20:04
Absolutely. So when you promote, when you approach a brand, do you have like a template of stuff that
20:09
you use? So we, we kind of do. We've got sort of an email just because I am out of the three of us,
20:20
I am the one that can, can really write an email as in before they will come on to me.
20:27
Cause I know they're both ready to, I have my own way with words. I've always done
20:34
and I've always done it with Italian, which is our mother tongue. I always love writing.
20:42
So there's like just a way to get stuff out of me in some kind of what they both like to call a
20:51
sophisticated way, which I hate because I'm not sophisticated in any way. I'm like, you know,
20:57
I'm a cool chick, nothing more, but I love words. So when it comes to writing an email,
21:02
they will both expect me to at the very least go through it and pimp it up.
21:07
Cause they're like, well, you know, you can write, you're the writer, just do it. So I kind of built
21:16
something, but we always tailor it to the brand we're approaching. If it's, cause like,
21:22
I want to keep the Grumpy Olive as cool, cool and hippie and fun as possible. Like we live on
21:29
sarcasm, we thrive on sarcasm. So for me to approach you and be like a super posh person,
21:37
it wouldn't work. It wouldn't identify us. Cause then when it comes to putting work out on the blog,
21:44
we're definitely not a teaching person. We're not trying to teach you. We're trying to show
21:51
you what we like and what we do and what we enjoy using a very friendly tone. So yeah,
21:59
we kind of have a template of how the email should go, but nothing major because we tried to tailor
22:08
it to every brand and every PR, whatever that might be. That makes a lot of sense. So now what
22:16
do you wish that you had known when you started getting into the blogging world?
22:20
That it was this much work. I can't believe it. I think a lot of people think of content creation
22:28
as, you know, just snap the picture, put it out there and it's done. I wish that's definitely one
22:35
of the things we were like, what? Like you come through this stuff and you're like, pretty much
22:43
don't know anything about what's going on most of the times because there's so much learning to do
22:48
and there's always so much learning. Like it never stops. But yeah, I think the workload
22:55
behind the blog is definitely one of the most big issues as such that I would highlight.
23:02
Like it's not an issue, but you need to come into it thinking that you will be working your butt off
23:08
24 seven. So if you had someone come to you and they said they wanted to start a blog,
23:14
what's the first thing you'd tell them? Make sure you have the time. Like you didn't have to be
23:20
working on it constantly, but you have to know that it takes time. It won't happen overnight
23:30
and to not stop because you didn't see the results you want overnight. Because I think that's very
23:37
much demoralizing at the same time. Like, you know, you don't get to see everything right away. You're
23:43
not going to be on top page of Google within a day of the post being published. It takes at least
23:50
six months for Google to even acknowledge that post. But unless someone tells you, you're like,
23:56
well, why am I not doing well? So definitely just patient and being constant with what you do. So
24:04
if you set up to post once a week, then keep on going with that once a week, just bring quality
24:11
rather than quantity. Now you mentioned Google. I got to ask you, are you doing any kind of like
24:17
keyword research and trying to optimize your posts? Yeah. So we, of course we went into this blindly
24:25
and didn't realize anything about keyword research until I would say mid 2021. So by then we had like,
24:35
you know, 150, 180 blog posts that were just pushed out with no keyword research, nothing.
24:44
So that takes a lot of work now to fix and improve and like, you know, sort out. So yeah,
24:54
we have finally now we're kind of understanding what we're doing. Because like, even when we
25:01
started in the middle of 2021, we were definitely not sure about what we were doing. Like one main
25:08
example, Christina will kill me for this, but it was word count. So when you do keyword research,
25:15
part of the research you do includes how many words the average page one of Google has. So
25:25
like, you know, sometimes you would see 5,000, 6,000 words and you're like, you know,
25:29
that's a lot for a blog post. That's a lot of words.
25:34
Why to keep someone entertained for that long on a blog post. It's difficult. Like, especially when
25:41
it comes to recipes, I come in to get the recipe, not to hear, you know, what everyone says about
25:47
you talking about having done that with your grandma or your auntie 20 plus years ago. Like,
25:52
I don't care about that, which in a way it's understandable, but when you write for CEO purposes,
25:58
it's completely different. But at the same time, I think there's definitely becoming a shift,
26:03
you know, with the whole Google thing of they're so focused on user intent that, you know, the
26:10
websites that give you just the recipe and then later, like give you more information. I think
26:16
there's definitely something to be said about, you know, when I'm coming there for a recipe,
26:22
I do just want the recipe. I don't want to hear your backstory. So I like the jump to recipe button
26:28
and I also like the fact that Google is starting not to penalize websites that have just the recipe.
26:37
Definitely. Like it's definitely something that I sometimes found annoying because some blogs might
26:43
not necessarily have a jump to recipe button because they don't use the recipe card plugin,
26:49
which, you know, it's their choice. But at the same time, you're just like, oh, I only want to
26:54
see the recipe. I don't care about anything else. Just give me the recipe. Because like,
26:57
maybe you're in a rush. You're trying to get dinner sorted and you're like, out, I need this.
27:04
But I would say, yes, it's good on Google that they're not penalizing that because sometimes
27:11
like the blurb at the beginning, while we try not to do that as much as we used to, because
27:17
we're definitely guilty of that. When I was trying to get more like info on like the ingredients and
27:25
why do we choose this rather than that? And why did we get these? And why did we pick that? Like
27:31
if my keyword research is showing me that I have to write 3000 words,
27:37
that is going to be challenging. Yeah, I'm actually, I'm working on a, sorry, go ahead.
27:43
Of course, everyone tries to end up on page one. Like the ideal place where you want to be is page
27:51
one of Google. Cause this is where people will see it first. Yeah. The joke is that, where do you
27:58
hide a dead body on page two of Google? Cause no one looks there. Yeah. But yeah, I'm personally
28:06
considering launching or not considering, I'm actually working on launching a food blog myself.
28:11
And I definitely want to do a, you know, if I'm going to give the recipe and I'm also trying to
28:17
optimize it for keyword research, I want to give the recipe first. And then if you want to read
28:22
more, it's at the bottom. I mean, yeah, definitely. Like just something I'm not sure what, what, and if
28:29
you're going to pick a recipe card plugin, but like as long as you put that at the very top,
28:34
and no, it's a lot more in a way, it's a lot more user friendly. Yes. I clicked on that link. I
28:41
clicked on that link with your recipe in mind. So I want to read that. So I don't care about anything
28:46
else. Then if you've got tips and maybe, you know, you're like trying to entertain me. Yeah. As I said,
28:53
you can do that at the bottom and I will need to pick what I want to read and if I want to read it.
29:00
Exactly. Exactly. So I think that, I think we're going to see that shift a lot more in the coming
29:06
days. Like, you know, because Google is so focused on the user intent, even though we do all want to
29:13
write for SEO. I think that there's really something to be said about making sure that the user's
29:17
getting exactly what they came for and they're not getting annoyed because they wanted, you know,
29:22
a grumpy olive recipe and instead they got the backstory of how the grumpy olive was born.
29:28
They're like, you know what, we're not here for that. But yeah, exactly. Exactly. But then if
29:32
they want the story and the cute cartoon, they can keep reading. Am I cementing it enough in your
29:39
mind yet? Kind of like back then now is just like, I can picture it jumping around. Yeah.
29:47
And like, this is where you find these. This is where you find that. Exactly. I love it. I think
29:52
it's, I think it's a lot of fun. Is there anything I haven't asked you yet that you really want to
29:56
share? Yeah. Like the blog. Don't believe the people that say that blogging is dead.
30:02
Blogging, it's probably at its peak right now. Content creation in general, like there is so
30:09
much going on and you know, social media and all of that. Like it, it's at its peak. Don't shy away
30:17
just because you think you cannot do it. I like that a lot. It just needs, you just need time and
30:24
you just need to be consistent, patient consistency. That's all you need. Exactly. I love that. So where
30:30
can people find you online? So we are pretty much everywhere and anywhere we can because you know,
30:36
like we like to have plenty of parts on the stove. So we definitely are on the blog most of the time
30:44
and then otherwise I would say Twitter, Instagram. We're trying to set the talk, but you know,
30:52
we're planning, we're on Facebook, we're on Pinterest. Yeah. Well, we'll definitely leave all the links in the
31:00
show notes for that, but what is your website domain? Oh, it's the grandpiole.com. Fantastic. Perfect.
31:08
All right. Well, I appreciate your time today and I hope that anybody listening gets something out of
31:15
this. And well, my bloggy friends, I hope that you enjoyed everything that we shared today and until
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next time, may your page views be high and your bounce rate below.
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