Marye Audet is nothing if not resilient.
This stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of 8 started a hobby blog back in 2006 as a way to share her recipes with some of her kids, who had left home.
Through hard work and tenacity, she was able to grow it quite well, but she ended up putting that blog aside when a series of challenging events occurred. She ended up creating her second, more serious blog, Restless Chipotle.
On this site, she shares her own modern take on classic Southern and comfort food recipes.
Her blog peaked at $98k in a single month, but on average she earns about $40k a month and took home over $500k last year.
In this interview, this 64-year-old blogger shares an incredibly inspiring story about how she created and grew a thriving business and how she hopes to be an example for people—especially women—everywhere.
Keep reading to find out:
- Her background story
- How she got into blogging and writing
- Why she created both sites
- How she grew her main blog
- How her income has grown
- Where her income comes from
- Her marketing strategies
- Her thoughts on SEO
- How she finds keywords
- Her content creation approach
- How she grows her email list
- The resources and tools she swears by
- Her main challenge
- Her biggest accomplishment
- Her greatest mistake
- Her advice for other entrepreneurs
Meet Marye Audet
My name is Marye and I’m from just south of Dallas, Texas, where I live in a 115-year-old house I lovingly refer to as “4300 feet of potential.” It will look amazing when we have it fully restored… if we live that long.
We’ve got 3 rescue dogs and 2 rescue cats, and four of my eight kids live with my husband and I, so our house stays pretty busy.
After I graduated from high school in 1978 (yep, I’m 64), I did a quick season in the military as a Czechoslovakian linguist, got married to my first husband, and planned on living, what is currently known as, the “tradwife” life.
I’d been told I couldn’t have kids, but having a long history of not accepting “no” I said, “hold my beer,” and had my 8 kids (6 of them were homebirths).
I heard about a new platform called Blogspot or Blogger, I can’t remember, where I could have kind of an online diary.
I thought it would be cool to put my recipes up since two of my kids had moved out of the house and one was out of state while the other was in Japan in the military. I figured they’d have access to the recipes they wanted most that way.
In 2009, after 39 years of being married, my ex decided he was actually in love with his high school girlfriend, who he’d reconnected with on Facebook, and my entire life blew up in my face in the space of a few hours.
Why She Created Her Site
On my blog, Restless Chipotle, I share vintage recipes that I’ve updated to be quick and easy for modern families while still retaining the flavor and comforting qualities of those retro meals.
I had been a stay-at-home homeschooling mom for 39 years and never worked outside the home during that time. I had a high school diploma but hadn’t gone to college, and here I was with six kids still at home, no job, and a soon-to-be-ex who skipped out of state and didn’t pay child support.
I took on freelance positions for LoveToKnow, About.com, and other networks, writing 70 articles a month to keep us afloat financially. My little hobby blog, Apron Strings and Simmering Things, had caught the attention of someone at a network called b5media, and they asked me to come write their food blog, Baking Delights.
I did that for 3 years until I heard rumors there was going to be a shake-up, so I started my second blog, Restless Chipotle. Within a few months, all of us at b5media were locked out of our blogs.
My gig with them led to a book deal, which led to more traffic, and when b5media closed up shop in late 2009, my hobby blog had about 300k page views a month from there along with a nice following.
I think the original hobby blog is on Blogspot, but it’s awful.
I was still doing a lot of freelance work through 2010 because blogging wasn’t all that lucrative back then, and my new blog was tiny. I was making enough to support myself and the kids from freelance work, but it meant working until 12 or 1 am and then working on my blog, and then getting up, doing homeschool, and starting over the next day.
When the first Panda update hit in February 2011, I watched my freelance income drop like a rock as companies and networks struggled to come back from it.
I spent the time researching everything possible because I wanted to make sure that I was never in a position to have Google hit me like that again.
Plus, I realized that I was never going to be happy working for someone else, even as a freelancer, so I promised myself when I hit $2,000 a month in income, I’d fire all my clients.
In January 2015, I was able to go full-time without clients of any sort, and I never looked back.
I shared the recipes that I had made for my family and that my mother had made for me growing up. I mean, who can be mad at a recipe for baked mac and cheese, right?
I didn’t have a niche, and I really still don’t, other than the Southern recipes and comfort foods that I grew up with. I love to bake bread, so I shared my favorite bread recipes, and I also shared cakes, pies, cookies, casseroles—you name it.
When something seemed to become popular and get a lot of attention, I’d try to make something similar. So, if you liked my buttermilk sandwich bread (which was #1 on Google for over 10 years), then you’ll probably also like my cloverleaf rolls.
If my picky eaters liked something I made, then I figured everyone else’s picky eaters might like it, too.
My blog grew little by little. I had to Google how to do HTML code, I had to teach myself how to update plugins, change themes, and everything else. I didn’t hire anyone for anything until I knew how to do it myself first, or at least had a good understanding of how it worked.
So I really bootstrapped it at the beginning.
In 2015, I started hearing about SEO and I wanted to understand it, so I spent hours reading about it, teaching myself, and using trial and error to see what worked for me.
My keyword strategy was to choose the easy, small keywords and be number one for as many as possible. I still prefer to be number one for 500 tiny keywords that bring 100 page views a month than number one for 1 keyword that brings 50,000 page views a month.
I’ve grown by learning to pay attention to patterns on my blog as well as within my demographic and then make changes to accommodate them.
Rough economy? Share budget-friendly recipes. Are people going wild over Bridgerton? Share scone recipes.
It just takes being constantly willing to analyze everything to the nth degree.
How Much She’s Earning
In the past 18 months, my highest month was $98,000 and my lowest month was $22,000. On average, I make about $40,000 a month. Last year I did just a touch over $500,000.00 from all sources.
Most of that was ad income, but some was from coaching other food bloggers. My revenue in April 2016 (the first time I made notes) was $3,251.
In 2017, it was $6,272. In 2018, it was $11,284… in 2023, it was $33,584, and I anticipate it to be just a touch more than that this April.
March 2024 was $40,176. Basically, it took me 8 years to increase my income 1000x.
As a food blogger, I have huge revenue swings from Q1 to Q4.
As for traffic, I did get a small hit from the Google update in October and in March. Overall, I’m down about 20% from last year.
That said, I run about 600,000 sessions and 800,000 pageviews a month from all sources currently. Google is my #1 driver, followed by Pinterest and direct traffic and my email list.
Honestly, I don’t keep track of how much I’m working. I’ve tried to cut back to 10 hours or less a day, but I love what I do and it doesn’t seem like work to me.
Marye’s Main Marketing Strategy
This is a hard one!
I guess my only marketing strategy is that I am the same person if you meet me in Krogers or see me on TV or come to my house or read my blog.
I try to always be my real self and be transparent with my readers. I’m just as likely to show a sink full of dirty dishes on Instagram stories as I am a gorgeous cake.
My readers know that I have a life that’s not always fun (my eldest daughter has brain cancer and is living with us), but it’s always real. They also know they can email me about their lives and I will answer them. Maybe I can’t help but I can at least listen, right?
Having a personal relationship with my readers is my very best marketing strategy and I don’t think there’s any way to beat it.
Also, something unique I do is take vintage Southern recipes from my antique and vintage cookbook collection and update them to be quick and easy and understandable.
One original recipe called for a 5 cent Hershey bar, and another called for a piece of butter the size of a hen’s egg.
Those kinds of recipes need a little glow up to make them doable for today’s family, and that’s exactly what I do.
Her Thoughts on SEO
SEO is important, as long as it’s not my #1 focus. Maybe my blog would rank well for a giant keyword like avocado salad, but I don’t really eat avocado salad regularly and neither do my readers.
I’m better off choosing something that my readers will love, like a creamy chicken casserole or a not-so-popular Jello salad.
If it doesn’t fit with my blog and if it isn’t of interest to my readers, then I don’t do it. In the past, when I’ve tried to grab keywords from recipes that weren’t what my readers liked, it was a total waste of time.
As far as my overall SEO strategy I read each post aloud. If I hear the keywords and related keywords too much, I take a few out. I want my blog to read as if you were sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and we were chatting about our favorite recipes.
Keyword Research
I have over 100 cookbooks published from 1885 to the present day.
Sometimes my readers email me and ask if I can find a recipe for them because they remember it from their grandma or they lost their copy.
I go through those cookbooks regularly to spark my creativity and get ideas about what I want to make. Then I check KeySearch to see what the main keyword is and what other related keywords there are.
Or, if I have a super popular recipe, I might just make a different version of it. Maybe I’ll do a slow cooker version, a casserole version, or a top-of-the-stove version.
Link Building
I don’t do much outside link building, but within my blog I am very strategic about internal link building.
If I make a beef stew, then I’ll likely do a roundup of the best sides to go with beef stew. I make sure that each post has at least 3 links coming in from other related pages.
As far as external link building, I am involved in a couple of food blogger Facebook groups, where we share what recipes we’re looking for for roundups. Other than that, it’s 100% natural linking.
Her Content Creation Process
I have a template for my posts so I know I’m adding all the information that I want to put in the post. I have a writer at this point, although sometimes I do my own writing. I also have 2 photographers, although I also do my own photography.
If it’s a new-to-me recipe, then I will make it a couple of times to tweak it and make sure it’s good. If it passes all my tests, then I send it out to my photographer.
When it comes back, I have my writer fill in the template, I add all my personal stuff, and then it’s ready to publish. At that point I generally do a YouTube video, to go with it.
There are 1150 posts live on the site.
Currently, I publish 2 new posts a week and do updates on at least 5 more that need it.
Her Email List
I absolutely have an email list. It’s not huge, about 13,500 people, because I clear cold subscribers once a month. I only want people on the list who are really interested in hearing from me.
I send out daily emails with links to various recipes and a little bit about what I’m thinking or what’s going on in my life.
I usually get several emails back sharing information, asking questions, or letting me know how much they appreciate Restless Chipotle.
I have one opt-in and a popup. I honestly don’t work nearly hard enough on my list.
Marye’s Favorite Resources
I’ve been a big fan of Niche Pursuits for a couple of years. I usually watch on YouTube while I’m on the treadmill in the morning.
When I’m getting ready for my day I listen to Eat Blog Talk, The Vine Podcast, and Momentum podcasts.
As far as books go, I can’t recommend the You’re a Badass books by Jen Sincero enough. I read them or listen to them on audio at least once a year.
That would have to be my accountability partner, Deb from Bowl Me Over.
She’s not a tool, by the way, but I know I absolutely would not be where I am without her. We meet once a week via Zoom and then once a year in person at a hotel in Phoenix to strategize, encourage, and get stuff done.
She knows my blog as well as I do and I know hers. Having an accountability partner is my number one strategy.
I also use Trello to keep track of goals, information, and assignments that I give to my writer and photographers.
Obviously, Search Console—I’m on that numerous times a day. I hate the new Google G4 analytics, but they are a necessary evil. You’ve got to have a way to see what’s working.
Her Biggest Challenge
I am always my biggest challenge. Believing in myself, believing that I’ve got this and that I can and will be successful at it.
Being proud of myself. Asserting myself as a capable and successful businesswoman.
That probably sounds weird, right?
But women of my generation aren’t expected to be smart. Computer-savvy people are shocked when they talk to me and they’re like, you taught yourself that?
I get a lot of pats on the head in social situations when people find out what I do… oh, you have a little blog? Well isn’t that nice… I should do that, I like to cook.
I’m 64, I don’t have a college education, and I was a stay-at-home homeschooling mom for most of my adult life. How dare I run a successful business? It blows people’s minds.
Her Main Accomplishment
My most important accomplishment has been to inspire other women my age to start their own businesses, to encourage them that they can be successful, and that it’s not too late.
In the same vein, I hope that I am an inspiration to my kids that they can achieve their goals and there’s no reason to live in mediocrity.
What She Wishes She Knew When She Started
I wish I knew that I actually do know what’s best for my blog.
I have a tendency to think I need to do what other people tell me I should and it bites me in the backside every single time.
Confidence in yourself is everything.
It’s important to listen to others and to consider what they say, but ultimately it’s your blog, your business, and your decision.
Her Main Mistake
My main mistake is not having confidence in myself as well as isolating myself and trying to be the lone ranger blogger.
I am, by nature, an introvert. I hate going to conferences, so I spent years reinventing the wheel because I wasn’t communicating with other bloggers to know what they were doing that was working.
I didn’t have accountability and I didn’t have people to challenge me or bounce ideas off of.
I had no idea that it mattered what hosting company you used or that there were schedulers to help with social media. I didn’t know you could hire photographers…
I also was advised that, in order to make a decent income, I needed to create a course and have products. While I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, for me personally, I need to focus on one thing at a time. Currently, that’s my blog content and YouTube.
When I tried to do all the things, my blog traffic took a pretty good-sized dip.
I don’t think that those are bad things. I think you need to know yourself and know where your priorities lie, how you work best, and what your goals are.
If someone gives you advice, consider it carefully, don’t just assume because they have a million page views a month that they have all the answers.
Blogs are a lot like children: parenting advice and blog advice are great, but children and blogs are very individual and unique and what works for one might not work for another.
Her Advice for Other Entrepreneurs
Get an accountability partner!
Find someone you can meet with regularly and be totally transparent with. Someone who will tell you when you’re being stupid, who will listen to you whine, and who will celebrate your successes with you.
I’m not talking about a spouse or a friend, either. Someone who is in the business and understands all the little nuances that go into blog life.
