The Empty Nest Kitchen
Welcome to The Empty Nest Kitchen with Christine Van Bloem, where we're finding fun in the kitchen and navigating life after the kids have flown the coop. Join Christine around her kitchen table as we delve into insightful conversations with fellow empty nest women about navigating careers, side hustles, and the joys of food and cooking.
Whether you're embarking on a new chapter or seeking inspiration for your next culinary adventure, tune in for stories, tips, and laughter from women just like you.
The Empty Nest Kitchen
Thriving as a Hyperlocal Blogger with Pam Stultz
In this episode, I'm talking with Pam Stultz from Housewives of Frederick County. Pam shares her journey from starting a fun blog with her twin sister to becoming a content creator focusing on local events, restaurants, and lifestyle topics in Frederick, Maryland. As a recent Empty Nester, Pam discusses how her blog has been a lifesaver during this transition, while also detailing her strategies for community engagement and monetization. The conversation covers the importance of creating a website, building an email list, and focusing on content that resonates with the audience. Pam offers valuable advice for others looking to start similar ventures.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:41 Pam's Blogging Journey
02:08 Empty Nest and Business Focus
06:12 Starting a Hyperlocal Blog
18:38 Monetizing the Blog
27:31 Final Thoughts and Advice
Find Pam at Housewives of Frederick County.
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Well, hey there, hi, hello. I'm here today with Pam Stultz of Housewives of Frederick County. Hi, Pam. Hi,
Pam Stultz:Christine. How are you?
Christine Van Bloem:Oh my gosh, I am so happy. I love Pam's story so much. Pam, tell everybody what you do.
Pam Stultz:So I am a lifestyle blogger, or what they call us nowadays is content creator. And I have been running my blog Housewives of Frederick County since 2012. I started it with my twin sister just for a fun thing to do together. And we ended up monetizing it, you know, several years down the road. I write about like local things to do, best restaurants. Frederick, Maryland weekend activities, events recipes, just you name it, I write about it if it pertains to Frederick or lifestyles.
Christine Van Bloem:I
Pam Stultz:love
Christine Van Bloem:that so much. So it's really A hyper local blog and what I love about this is you are a recent Empty Nester. Yes. But you started this when your son was young and you have been going with it and by focusing all of your resources, your target market, your message, everything is super clear and super defined.
Pam Stultz:Thank you very much. I, that was not on purpose. It was because I'm not a marketer by nature or by education. And we just did it, you know, because we loved it. It's, it's just a passion. So
Christine Van Bloem:one of the things that I'm going to be doing with the podcast, and you're kind of going to whet everybody's appetite for it, is in January, I'm going to do a little bit of a focus of Empty Nest Women Owning and Starting Businesses. I love that. Because I, I think it's the perfect time and hasn't it kept you really occupied as you've been dealing with the new empty nest?
Pam Stultz:Oh my gosh, it's, it's been a lifesaver actually. I mean, I, I've, so I'm three months into an empty nest phase and I struggle because my son is my only child. And so to switch almost, it seems like overnight from full time mom to, you know, I need to leave him alone and let him figure things out having my business has been. Such a great thing for me to keep me occupied.
Christine Van Bloem:Isn't it so weird to go with them living in your house? Yeah. That, you know, you want to give them space. You want to honor what they're doing and you don't want to be on them all the time.
Pam Stultz:Yes, and it totally goes against my grain. I've always been very hands on mom. Some would say overbearing and Aren't we all Pam aren't we all It's like a fine line between overbearing and you know, just being there as his mom and now that he's he's 19 It's like He can't come running to me because he fell down and scraped his knee. I always called myself home base. You know, whenever he was hurt, he would, he would look for me and beeline it to me. Now he doesn't do that. So it's kind of like, I have to know what the line is between reaching out and checking in on him. And, you know, You know, just being too much there too much and letting him figure it out himself.
Christine Van Bloem:Yeah. Do you have any rules or any agreements with him about him contacting home?
Pam Stultz:Well, so we started with Sunday FaceTime calls. And so we were doing that, but I was texting him kind of too much during the week, and sometimes he wouldn't respond. And I'd be like, did you get that? And he'd be like, yes. And, you know, just very short responses. And I'm just feeling, I'm reading the book. It's called The Naked Roommate, Parents Edition. For parents only. It's written by Harlan Cohen. He also has a Instagram page and he gives great advice for college students, as well as the parents of those college students. And he pretty much says you know, you gotta let them figure it out and just kind of back off. And that's how they grow. So I'm really trying to stick with that. Although it's been a challenge.
Christine Van Bloem:It, it, it is. I mean, listen, my son went to college a decade ago, so things have changed a lot since then. And I think I was not a big texter occasionally, but I would try really hard to not, but we had the deal that we had to talk to him on the phone once. A week. So it would be Sunday night at 930 and the phone would ring and we'd talk for 10 minutes and that was it. And it was really hard, right? It was a really hard thing to do. But you're handling it like a champ and you're putting your energy into your awesome blog.
Pam Stultz:Thank you. I'm, I'm trying. It's I prepared, I, I have what you call anticipatory grief, or I had it. It was a year ago because I knew he was going to go to college and I was like, I need to prepare for this in advance. So I got a marketing coach and you know, decided I was just going to really take it to the next level and focus on growing what I have. So that's what I'm doing now. And it is. kind of consuming me, but in a good way.
Christine Van Bloem:Yeah.
Pam Stultz:Well, so
Christine Van Bloem:here's the question. What made you start and start with this concentration of just being hyperlocal?
Pam Stultz:Actually, from the very beginning Terry, my sister, she's my twin sister she's an occupational therapist and I was making jewelry at the time, stay at home mom, and we were like, we need to find a reason to get together. And do something, you know, productive. So we're like, let's start going to restaurants and writing about it. And let's take the kids to the park and take pictures and post about it. And so that's what we started doing. So it started Hyperlocal in the beginning. It's always been about our lives, you know, our existing lives. So we appeal to the people who can relate to us.
Christine Van Bloem:That's so clever. And if you were going to talk to a recent empty nester, and you were gonna say, they say to you, Pam, I'm gonna do what you did, but I'm gonna do it here in my town in Missouri, because I have somebody in Missouri that listens. So they say, I want to do my town. What, what are the steps you would give them to start their own?
Pam Stultz:I would say create a website and these days, so I've started on WordPress and I'm still on WordPress, but I think there's other, like you had mentioned, you're on Squarespace, Squarespace, there's, there's some really cool website platforms now that weren't available back then, but create a website that's kind of like your home base and then, Create your social media channels. It doesn't have to be all of them. You don't have to be all over the place, like TikTok and all that stuff. I tried TikTok, it just wasn't for me. So create the ones that you're comfortable with. For me my demographic is on Facebook, so that's like my biggest social media platform. And then Instagram. And then Start creating email lists. So start taking email addresses immediately because you're going to want to, they're your people and they don't get, they don't get affected by algorithms like, like Facebook and Instagram and even Google. Google changes. So I was relying on Google. Ad revenue through my page views, through traffic to my website, and everything changed. My traffic just, took a plunge this year. So I, I had totally relied on that before that. And that all changed, but my email list didn't. And so those are my people. That's, I send a newsletter once a week and can put ads on the newsletter and direct people who are reading the newsletter to my blog posts. And that, that gives me traffic. And it's just, it's not even all about. traffic and earning ad revenue and sponsored revenue. It's also just very rewarding. I feel like I have an impact on the community.
Christine Van Bloem:Yeah, I think that, I think that is the main point. I think if you're going to do something like this, you can't do it initially with dollar signs in your eyes. And I love dollar signs. I do too. I love them. Give me the pound, give me the euro. I don't care. Just give it all to me. But one of the things you said there is something I'm also really living by, which is you own your email list and it's the only thing your email list and your website are the things that are yours. Everything else is reliant on someone else, right? Everything is reliant on, I mean, Instagram, they've changed algorithms. They've changed things and it can really mess with people if that's where your center is. So in starting a good, I think starting anything, having a really solid email list and then being devoted to your subscribers, like not always selling to them or, you know, but really focusing on giving them
Pam Stultz:something that's worth clicking on. Exactly. For me, it's always been about just be a resource. That's like my main focus, be a resource. And then if you want to throw in, if I want to throw in some, you know, by the way, you know, this business is, and I feel like that's a resource too, even though a lot of times it's sponsored, they're paying me to promote them. I feel like I'm being a resource to my readers by introducing them to this business. So it's a win win win for everyone. Yeah, I
Christine Van Bloem:think you're right, because I love to hear about new places and new things that are opening. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I bet you're a lot like me. I'm always, you know, Like, I don't want to come off ever like I'm trying to sell something, like I'm trying to push someone. I think it's been a true resource in really loving your audience, and you love on your audience.
Pam Stultz:Yeah, I just, it's just I've always been one of those type of people that wants to help someone out. Like, if they, they have a problem they need solved, I want to help them. I'm called an empath or, you know, people have called me an empath where I just, I almost carry other people's desires or, you know, worries or whatever. Yeah. It can get overwhelming, but But it also can be so rewarding because I just feel so good when someone says, you know, where can I find a place to donate coats this winter? And so I created a blog post on coat drives in Frederick, Maryland. And it just feels good to be able to, like, if I see that question now, I can say, here's the list and it just feels good.
Christine Van Bloem:I just think that's so valuable. I think what you do, as somebody who benefits from all of your hard work, I think it's so valuable what you're offering. So, you offer a bunch of different sections, like, on your website. I would say you, I would really classify Housewives of Frederick County as a true resource. You were really putting it out there. What are the different areas that you focus on? So being a community
Pam Stultz:resource. Yes, community resource is the main focus. Also just a resource to women, and typically women my age, which is Past middle age. I can't call myself middle age anymore. We
Christine Van Bloem:are middle aged. I'd be over
Pam Stultz:100.
Christine Van Bloem:No, we are middle aged. I was talking to somebody because the next one is elderly, right? Isn't that the next one? Right? Yes, it is. Yes. And so I was talking to somebody. I was like, when am I elderly? Because I sure as heck don't feel
Pam Stultz:elderly.
Christine Van Bloem:I
Pam Stultz:don't either. I don't either. It's I think senior citizen, but I don't even want to call myself that.
Christine Van Bloem:That's 65. So I guess maybe you're a senior when you're 65. We are still middle aged. Okay. Okay. I like that. I refuse. I know we're not seniors. We don't get any of those benefits. That's true. We don't get any of those things. 65 plus discounts, baby. Hit me with those. I cannot wait for dinner at four o'clock. I love dinner at four o'clock. Oh my
Pam Stultz:god, I, I do too. You look, you don't have to deal with the crowds. You're done eating. You can walk it off. Have a glass of wine
Christine Van Bloem:in bed by 8 30. I love it.
Pam Stultz:It's a beautiful
Christine Van Bloem:thing. Okay. So you're doing community resource. I know you were doing the restaurants really as part of that. Do you include recipes on your site?
Pam Stultz:Yeah, I, I did a heavy focus on recipes for a while. Just because I love trying out new things and it really took its own life on with the crab recipes. And I think it's because we live in Maryland. Maryland has crabs. A lot of Marylanders follow me. And so I started a crab recipe, not, again, I'm not a marketing person. I'm not like strategic. I just wanted a crab recipe and it, it was always my highest reached post. So I was like, hmm, maybe I should make some more crab recipes. And so that's what I did. And. That's what's carrying my page views is those crab recipes because Frederick is only so big, but the crab recipes, anybody can, you know, relate to and use. So that, that was a, has been a big focus on my blog. Who doesn't love crab recipes? Yeah,
Christine Van Bloem:I think that's so smart. And Frederick is about an hour and a half from the bay, maybe an hour 20. But we get crab super easily around here. It is fantastic. And just by being a Marylander, we have a certain amount of respect that is garnered with access to the crabs.
Pam Stultz:Yeah, and just memories. It brings back memories for me. It's thinking about crabs. Reminds me of when I was in my early twenties, sitting at the table with my dad and my family, you know, cracking crabs and dipping it in butter and drinking beer and, you know, those were the days. And every time I think of crab, anything, it just brings good memories.
Christine Van Bloem:All right. So you've got the recipes. What other sections do you have on the blog?
Pam Stultz:Let's see. I have, I do have Maryland because I was creating a lot of crab posts and I thought I need to do more Maryland related posts. Smart. Super smart. Yeah. So I have a post on iconic foods and drinks to eat in Maryland. So it's a whole long list of just foods that, that you can relate to Maryland. So great. You have an
Christine Van Bloem:orange crush on
Pam Stultz:that, right? Totally. Orange Crush, Crabs the Thrasher's French Fries lots of Baltimore type foods that are iconic to Baltimore. That was really fun to write. Really fun. And I got some, you know, not on purpose, but I got some one, this market in Baltimore sent me a bunch of their foods. So I could try it. And because I told them they were going to be in my blog posts. So that was, that's a little benefit of, you know, writing about other businesses. That's
Christine Van Bloem:so much fun. And, okay, first of all, if you're listening and you have not had an Orange Crush, I want you to look it up. It's a quintessential summer Maryland drink. And it is Way too drinkable. My friend Carrie and I have determined that four orange crushes are too many orange crushes. They're so yummy and they make them with fresh squeezed orange juice. It has to be fresh squeezed. It has to be fresh squeezed. It has to be. And right now I'm like, maybe I'll make an orange crush tonight. Yes. But they are, they are so good. But what I love, Pam, is as part of your story here, you started this from your heart. And as you've gone through, you haven't been crazy strategic like planning and, and guiding it to a specific point and you have gone where the river has taken you, right? Exactly, exactly. I just, I think that's so amazing because you can listen to all of these podcasts nowadays that are all about strategy and, and I do have a little bit of a marketing background, right? Okay. And I think people get wrapped up in all of that and they don't go with
Pam Stultz:where the river takes them. Right? Yeah, exactly. And it's also not as fulfilling. Because I, I was following like, I even had an SEO online tool that I would use to make my blog posts SEO, you know, and it felt robotic and it felt like, okay, now I have to write about this because this, you know, people are searching for this. And so it felt very robotic and not fulfilling at all. And. Yeah, some of those posts did well. But in the end, after Google changed everything, it made me realize I need to do this for, from the heart, like you said, as a passion and not to try to chase the money.
Christine Van Bloem:Yeah. And well, can we talk about the money a little bit? Sure, sure. So you have are you with an ad
Pam Stultz:network now? Yeah, I got into Mediavine. So my sister left the blog several years ago to start her own business. And so I decided either I'm going to just close shop or I'm going to put my whole heart into this and try to monetize this because I was spending so much money on it, any, I mean, so much time on it anyway, that I thought I'd. I should make some money from this. And so my goal was to get into Mediavine, which is an ad network for content creators. And so I started focusing on the crab recipes because I knew those would take off and they did. And I got into the ad network and And it was a beautiful thing. You know, all of a sudden I'm making money. Of course, it wasn't total passive income, but once you write the blog post and it takes off, then it feels like passive income because you're making money off of it every month. Oh, how great is
Christine Van Bloem:that?
Pam Stultz:Yeah. Yeah. How great is that?
Christine Van Bloem:When you started, did you start with the idea of monetizing or no?
Pam Stultz:No, no, we, well, so we had known a girl who had started a blog and she was making money and we were like, well, she can do it, we can do it. And but we had no, like, no idea how she did it. And we were just, but, At the same time, we were just having fun with it too. So it was kind of sporadic, like, Oh, somebody wants us to, to promote them. Let's promote, let's charge them 50. And so we would make money here and there, and we'd have to split it because it was the two of us. So basically nothing. But but then once we realized, you know, we had a platform that people were willing to pay to be on We thought, you know, let's get something formalized here where we can see how we can make money.
Christine Van Bloem:How did you figure that out? Did you work with someone or did you start raising your prices?
Pam Stultz:Lots of blog Facebook groups, blogger Facebook groups That I followed at the time were saying, you know, I'm getting into Mediavine and, and I'd be like, what is this Mediavine and how are you getting into it? And so just the chatter online, I would see and now it's podcasts just figuring out like newsletter, you can monetize a newsletter. At first I was just writing it just, you know, to be a resource, get people to click back to my blog, but you know, businesses. can really benefit getting in front of my readers. So that's a form of revenue. And so I, I've just kind of figured it out on my own, but also through podcasts, through Facebook groups mastermind groups. I'm now in a Discord group, which I never thought I'd be in a Discord group. What's Discord again? Discord is like a like a message board type of thing. Yeah, okay. Did it start with video games? I think it did because my son was on it years ago and I was like, what is this discord? I had no idea what it is, but you, you have a channel that you have to be like invited into. And so I'm in a newsletter channel and these people are local. Content creators from all over the country who do monetize their newsletters and they talk about ways that they do it. So it's some of them are just newsletters. They don't have the blog or the social media. It's just the newsletter and it's just local news. to their readers. Wow. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. It's just amazing how as things progress online, how you can be a resource and have a business online. Well, and it sounds to me
Christine Van Bloem:like you are very good at using your resources.
Pam Stultz:Yeah, I just, I, especially now that my son is at college, my husband is working, you know, I'm home with my dog and cats and it's like, okay, I have time to really focus on this and, and hone in on it.
Christine Van Bloem:That's so incredible. All right. So what would you, what's your next goal for your blog?
Pam Stultz:I think the next goal is to get more subscribers to my email list. Right now, I have a banner on my website that says subscribe, and I get maybe like 20 average subscribers a week, which is pretty decent, but That's really good, actually, for hyperlocal. Yeah, it's pretty decent. But a lot of them are for the crab recipes. So when I, so I need to figure that out. You have to like kind of segment your audience and stuff. So when I send a newsletter all about Frederick, and someone's in California, who liked my crab recipe, they're going to unsubscribe. So You know that I have to kind of figure that part of it out to segment the audience and focus on getting Frederick subscribers who want to see Frederick content.
Christine Van Bloem:I, you are blowing my mind in so many ways. Did you ever see yourself talking about segmenting an email list? No,
Pam Stultz:not at all. Not at all. And I had heard so many times. It was noise in my head for so many years, create an email list. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, you know, I'm, I'm working on Facebook and whatever else I finally started and now I see the benefit of it. And I love it.
Christine Van Bloem:Oh, it took you that long.
Pam Stultz:Yeah. It
Christine Van Bloem:took me a while. Yeah. I had, when I owned the kitchen studio, I had. I had an email list of, I don't know, between four and five thousand. That amazing. Yeah, and I never treated them right. I used it simply, I mean, times have changed, right? And the kitchen studio is closed four and a half years now. So, Times have changed and I did it just as a, here's what's happening at the school, here are the classes, rather than keeping it a regular thing and doing, here's a great recipe or, you know, I didn't serve my audience. And now my email list, of course, is much smaller because you can't just take one list from one place and then use it for a new place. That's not fair. Probably wouldn't Well, you know what I did? I, because I am I am vigilant. I am crazy about the, you know, not doing anything that would be sketchy.
Pam Stultz:Like privacy. Yeah,
Christine Van Bloem:the privacy. I just wanted to, I mean, it's all me, but if you signed up for my in person cooking school, my online classes, May not appeal to you. That may not be the thing. And man paused meal plans may not be your thing. Right. So I sent out an email to everyone and said, Hey, I'm, I've got something new and it's great. And here you go, but you have to opt in. Right. Right. That's the way to do it. It was. And then I sent them one more and I said, this is the last email you'll ever get. from me, on this list. You know, do I still have the list somewhere on my computer? Absolutely I do, but I got more people to sign up and then I pushed it away because I don't want them reporting me as spam and Right, right.
Pam Stultz:No, that was the right way to do it. That was the right way to do it.
Christine Van Bloem:Yeah, I, you know, I try, but I really, I really value
Pam Stultz:everyone. And I know you do too. I do. Oh my gosh. I, and so I do weekly newsletters and I used to be kind of sporadic about it, but now I'm, you know, I'm very consistent now especially because I do have ads on there from local businesses and they rely on that. And so it keeps me accountable, but there's been times that I have missed a week. And I always at least get one subscriber email me and say, do you have my right email address? I didn't get your email this week. Can you make sure I'm on your list? And so it's, and it's people, I have no idea who they are and I'm like, Oh my God, thank you so much. This, that alone is feedback that it's possible. Yeah. That's so great. Pam,
Christine Van Bloem:any part, well, first of all, before I ask you your last piece of advice, what's your most popular crab recipe? Hot Crab Dip. Maryland Hot Crab Dip. Hot Crab Dip! Everybody loves a hot crab dip.
Pam Stultz:Yes, and that was my first, I think that was my first crab recipe. And it still outperforms. Cream of Crab Soup is up there, but Hot Crab Dip does really And tell everybody what your your website address is. It's housewivesoffrederickcounty. com. All right. It's long. That's all right.
Christine Van Bloem:You gotta go through the long letters to get to the good stuff. So, Pam's Hot Crab Dip is on there and you can find it. Pam, what is Your final piece of advice to someone who's in your boat, they're ready, they want to start something fun. They want to be dedicated to their readers. I mean, what's, what's
Pam Stultz:your advice? Just jump in. Just, you're never going to be totally ready. Just jump in. I've learned that over and over and over, you know, when I've tried different things just do it. And, and if it doesn't resonate, pivot, you know, just keep pivoting until you find your sweet spot and you'll get there. Pam, that's the best advice. Thank you.
Christine Van Bloem:I think a lot of people want to have every duck in a row and everything lined up and you got to just jump in.
Pam Stultz:You do. You do. And then you might be surprised. You might fall on your face, but get back up and try something else and It may just work. Pam,
Christine Van Bloem:thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I think you're handling this Empty Nest thing pretty darn well, personally. It might not feel like it, but wait until winter break, then it'll feel like it. Oh boy, oh boy. Coming up soon. Awesome. So I'll have all of Pam's information. in the show notes so that you can find her on social. A link to the website so you can get that awesome hot crab dip. Hot crab dip is the thing around here, just so you guys know. But that'll link you to everything and thank you so much for joining me. Thank you, Christine. I love my gosh. Oh my gosh. Thank you, Pam. You're a peach. And everyone else, stay awesome and I will see you in the kitchen.