On this week’s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Carrie Forrest and I discuss how Google and AI have changed the math for content sites, especially food blogging. Carrie isn’t even talking from the sidelines. She built a site that got nearly 1 million page views a month, and has since suffered a decline.
This is what makes this conversation worth noting. With the kind of traffic and income most bloggers dream about, Carey moved on from a business that looks very different now, with less traffic, less revenue, and a much greater focus on email, video, and direct audience connection.
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The rise of search-driven business
Carrie has been blogging since 2009, and her site, Clean Eating Kitchen, grew out of her personal health story. She later earned a master’s degree in public health, became a nutritionist, and turned her site into a content business, profiting significantly from SEO and search demand.
By the time she first came across Niche Pursuits a few years ago, the system was working. Keyword research, steady publishing, and increasing site authority helped them rank quickly for articles that matched search demands, even when those topics weren’t particularly central to their brand.
Some numbers show how big the business grew:
- Carey said he started leaning toward SEO and keyword research around 2016.
- Around 2022, their site was reaching 1 million page views per month.
- He said that traffic level translates to about $20,000 to $30,000 in advertising revenue per month through Mediavine.
- His 2022 Amazon Associate 1099 was worth approximately $35,000.
For a while, that model seemed hard to beat. Search traffic boosted ad revenue, affiliate clicks added another layer of income, and the site had enough authority that new content could rank faster.
Fall of the old formula
Then the ground slipped. Carey attributes most of the losses to AI oversight, declining organic click opportunities, and broader Google changes that have left fewer spots in search results for independent publishers.
Its summary was blunt. Its traffic had fallen by about 80%, and because about 90% of its revenue was tied to page views, the decline in income was almost gradual. The current numbers tell the story in clear terms:
- Mediavine’s revenue dropped from approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per month to approximately $4,000 to $5,000 per month.
- Amazon’s revenue dropped from thousands per year to about $150 to $200 per month.
- Monthly page views increased from about 1 million to about 200,000.
It’s still a worthwhile business, but it’s very different. Carey is still full-time, still publishing, and still earning, yet the margin for error is much smaller than in the peak search years.
The strategy that lost steam
One of the most interesting parts of the interview was hearing that this once promising strategy no longer holds its old value. For Carey, web stories are a clear example of this.
When she first appeared on the podcast, web stories were a major source of traffic. He said they received hundreds of thousands of page views per month for about two to three years, but around 2023, they largely disappeared from their former position in Google, and eventually they no longer indexed them on their site.
Some conclusions emerge from that change:
- Web Stories looked like a strong channel while Google supported them.
- Once that placement fades, the traffic value fades with it.
- Carey’s experience is a reminder that publisher growth built on platform feature may be temporary.
This pattern is also visible in the type of SEO content that drives traffic once printed. Carey gave the example of a post about “yellow fruit,” which performed well because keyword data showed that people were searching for it. It brought traffic, but it wasn’t the kind of content that her core audience found very useful, and she has moved away from producing that style of posts in large quantities.
Monetization experiments that failed
Carey didn’t spend the last year sitting quietly. She’s testing ways to replace lost income, and the strongest part of this episode is how honest she was about something that didn’t go very far.
Paid workshops generated some sales, but not enough to offset search-driven revenue. She typically prices them at $10 to $20, says she can get 20 to 30 participants, and notes that a $300 workshop can seem small if you factor in preparation time, delivery and promotion.
Notable details from his workshop experience included:
- They used email as the main sales channel.
- He recorded some sessions and later sold a replay, which also included an introduction workshop, for about $7.
- He chose low-cost options because his audience is used to receiving content for free and also faces high everyday costs.
She also tried asking for tips through a “buy me a coffee” style setup, and the results were minimal. Carey said it brought in less than $100 a year, making it a small addition compared to the actual revenue line.
AI-generated videos also did not become a success for them. He tested YouTube’s AI video tools after attending a workshop and found the tools to be impressive. Despite this, her audience did not respond well, and the format felt inauthentic for the kind of connection she wanted to make.
Channels are showing better signals
The more promising part of Carrie’s story is that not everything is heading in the wrong direction. She was clear that some parts of the business are still a work in progress and, in some cases, are becoming more important than ever.
Email is at the top of that list. Carey has been building her email list since 2014, but she describes it as far more central now because it gives her a direct line to readers without relying on Google to send them first.
She is doing serious work on that channel:
- She uses automated email sequences that send messages every two to three days.
- She segments readers based on interest groups like the Instant Pot and sugar-free topics.
- She sends a weekly broadcast to the entire list while refining the automation and offers almost daily.
This matters because email does more than increase clicks. It also gives Carrie the space to repurpose older content, promote workshops or replays, and include affiliate links where allowed, all while still staying close to the readers who already want to hear from her.
Private affiliate deals are another great place to start. Working directly with affiliates has yielded much higher commissions than Amazon, which pays 20% or more, Carey said.
This approach comes with its own workload, but it has some obvious upsides:
- Products are closely connected to its audience.
- Direct brand relationships can generate stronger margins than marketplace affiliate programs.
- Promotions can be linked to brand sales and timed email campaigns.
New role of video
Carey sees more potential in short-form video than ever before. This is a notable change because during his highest earning years, it made more sense to focus almost entirely on articles.
Now she’s using shorter clips more strategically, especially around dishes that have already taken hold. He said some of those videos rank prominently on Google. While the direct click path on platforms like Instagram or YouTube Shorts isn’t always clear, the extra visibility appears to increase visibility for nearby content on her site.
Some specific points make the strategy clear:
- She is making short videos ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- She uploads clips through MediaVine and places them inside relevant blog posts.
- It has seen a particular craze for juice-related content, including beetroot juice.
It’s not the same as the old Web Stories wave, but it gives him another way to combine media formats. A post, a video, an email, and a social clip can now work together instead of sitting in separate silos.
lean business behind pivot
A less visible part of this change also matters. Carrie has drastically cut expenses and abandoned almost all the subcontractors she once trusted. She also moved from a large-scale publishing machine to a much smaller, more personal operation.
At one point, he had about 13 subcontractors supporting the business. He said that in 2023 he published or republished about 350 blog posts a year. Now, that number is closer to 50, and those posts are written by him rather than outsourced.
Despite that slowdown, the site’s scale still remains intact:
- Carey said there are about 1,000 posts on the site.
- She still reviews how much traffic she’s getting and updates photos or content where needed.
- His time is now divided about a third between blog and SEO work, emails and videos.
That slow pace has changed the nature of business. It’s less of a publishing sprint and more of a brand-focused operation built around her voice, her expertise and her direct contact with readers.
Big achievement for bloggers
If there’s one theme that came through clearly in this episode, it’s this: The old search-only model can no longer be considered safe. Carey built a large source of income from a system that rewarded content production and keyword targeting, and when that system changed, the fallout was severe.
But this was not just a story of loss. It was also about what happens when a publisher removes the parts that no longer work well and focuses on channels where trust still matters, whether that’s email, direct affiliate relationships, or videos that put a real person in front of an audience.
final thoughts
Carrie Forrest’s story is a difficult one, but also a useful one. She grew Mediavine from nearly 1 million monthly page views and $20,000 to $30,000 in ad revenue to about 200,000 page views and $4,000 to $5,000 per month, with Amazon’s revenue shrinking to less than a fraction of that.
These numbers show how much Google and AI have impacted publishers. Their response also shows something else: a site’s value can persist even after a major decline. However, the way forward may rely less on massive search traffic and more on audience trust, tight governance, and content that feels so personal that no machine can easily replace it.
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