On this week’s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, Carrie Forrest and I discuss how Google and AI are changing the math for content sites, specifically food blogging. Kerry doesn’t speak from the outside either. He once built a site that was getting about 1 million page views a month, and he suffered the subsequent decline.
That’s what makes this conversation worth paying attention to. Carrie went from the kind of traffic and income most bloggers dream of to a business that now looks very different, with less traffic, less income and more focus on email, video and direct audience engagement.
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The rise of search-based business
Kerry 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 that benefited significantly from SEO and search demand.
When I first came to Niche Pursuits a few years ago, the system worked. Keyword research, consistent publishing, and increased site authority helped her rank quickly for articles that matched her search query, even if those topics weren’t particularly central to her brand.
Some numbers show just how big the business is:
- Carrie said that in 2016 she gravitated towards SEO and keyword research.
- Around 2022, his site was approaching 1 million page views per month.
- He said that traffic level translates into about $20,000 to $30,000 a month in ad revenue through Mediavine.
- His 2022 Amazon affiliate 1099 was about $35,000.
For a while, it seemed difficult to beat that model. Search traffic increased ad revenue, affiliate clicks added another layer of revenue, and the site had enough authority for new content to rank quickly.
The Dissolution of the Old Formula
Then the place changed. Carrie attributed much of the damage to AI Views, narrowing organic click opportunities, and broader Google changes that left less of a blip in search results for independent publishers.
His brief was open. Its traffic dropped by about 80%, and since about 90% of its revenue was tied to page views, the revenue decline followed almost in step. Today’s numbers tell the story clearly:
- Mediavine’s revenue dropped from about $20,000 to $30,000 a month to $4,000 to $5,000 a month.
- Amazon’s revenue has dropped from tens of thousands of dollars a year to about $150-200 a month.
- Monthly page views increased from about 1 million to about 200,000.
It’s still meaningful work, but it’s very different. Carrie is still full-time, still publishing, and still earning, but the margin for error is much smaller than it was in her peak search years.
Tactics that lose steam
One of the most interesting parts of the interview was hearing that once promising tactics no longer carry their old weight. Web stories for Carrie are the most obvious example.
When he first appeared on the podcast, web stories were a major source of traffic. He said that for about two to three years, they were getting hundreds of thousands of page views every month, but by about 2023, they had disappeared from their former position on Google, and as a result, he did not index them on his site.
Some points of this shift attract attention:
- Web stories seemed to be a strong channel when Google supported them.
- After that placement went down, the traffic value went down with it.
- Carrie’s experience is a reminder that publisher growth built on a platform feature can be temporary.
This pattern also showed itself in SEO content that once drove traffic. Carrie gave the example of a post about “yellow fruits,” which performed well because the keyword information said people were searching for it. It brought in traffic, but it wasn’t the type of content that felt very useful to his core audience, and he moved away from mass-producing that type of post.
Monetization Experiences That Fall Short
Carrie hasn’t spent the past year sitting still. He’s experimenting with ways to replace lost income, and one of the episode’s strongest parts is how honest it is about those who don’t go far enough.
Paid seminars generated some sales, but not enough to replace search-based revenue. He typically priced them between $10 and $20, said he might get 20 to 30 attendees, and noted that a $300 workshop might seem small after factoring in prep time, delivery and promotion.
His seminar experience included notable details:
- It used email as its primary sales channel.
- He recorded some sessions and later resold them, including an introductory workshop that cost about $7.
- It chose lower price points because its audience is used to getting free content and faces higher daily costs.
He also tried asking for tips in a “buy me a coffee” style, with minimal results. Carrie said she brings in less than $100 for about a year, making it a smaller supplement than her true income line.
AI-generated video wasn’t a breakthrough for him either. After attending the workshop, he tested YouTube’s AI video tools and found the tools effective. However, his audience did not respond well and the format was impractical for the type of connection he wanted to make.
Channels Showing Better Signs
The more hopeful aspect of Kerry’s story is that things didn’t go in the wrong direction. He was clear that some parts of the business still work and in some cases become more important than ever.
Email is at the top of this list. Carrie has been building her own email list since 2014, but she now finds it more central because it gives her readers a direct line first, independent of Google.
He does serious work on this channel:
- It uses an automated email sequence that sends a message every two to three days.
- It divides readers by interest groups, such as Instant Pot and sugar-free topics.
- It sends a weekly stream to the full list and offers it almost daily while improving automations.
This is important because email does more than drive clicks. It also gives Kerry space to re-post old content, promote workshops or recaps, and include affiliate links where allowed, all close to readers who want to hear more from her.
Private affiliate deals are another bright spot. Carrie said that working directly with the respective companies earned higher commissions than Amazon, with payouts of 20% or more.
This approach comes with its own workload, but it has some obvious advantages:
- Products are closely related to its audience.
- Direct brand relationships can generate stronger margins than affiliate programs on the market.
- Promotions can be linked to branded sales and timed email campaigns.
The New Role of Video
Carrie also shows more promise than she once did in the short-form video. This is a notable shift, as it made more sense to focus almost entirely on articles during his top-earning years.
Now he uses short clips more strategically, especially around recipes that already have a base. He said some of these videos are prominently featured on Google. Although the direct click path on platforms such as Instagram or YouTube Shorts is not always clean, the additional visibility increases the visibility of nearby content on his site.
A few features make the strategy clearer:
- It produces short format videos from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- He uploads the clips through Mediavine and posts them in relevant blog posts.
- He saw particular traction in juice-related content, including beet juice.
It’s not the same as the old wave of web stories, but it gives it 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.
The finer business behind the pivot
There is also a less visible part of this transition. Carrie cut costs drastically and let go of almost all of the subcontractors she once relied on. It also shifted from a large-scale publishing machine to a smaller, more personal operation.
At one point, he had about 13 subcontractors supporting the business. In 2023, he said he published or republished about 350 blog posts in a year. Now this number is about 50, and he writes these articles himself, not from outside.
Even with this slowdown, the site still has scale:
- Carrie said there are about 1,000 posts on the site.
- He still reviews what traffic is driving and updates photos or content as needed.
- His time is now roughly split between blog and SEO work, email and video.
This slow pace has changed the feel of the business. It’s less of a publishing sprint and more of a brand-centric operation built around his voice, expertise and direct contact with readers.
A bigger way for bloggers
If there’s one theme that runs clear in this episode, it’s this: the old search-only model can no longer be considered safe. Carrie built a huge revenue stream from a system that rewarded content production and keyword targeting, and when that system changed, the decline was severe.
But it wasn’t just a story about loss. It’s also about what’s left when a publisher removes the parts that no longer work well and focuses on channels where trust still matters, whether it’s email, direct partnerships, or videos that put a real person in front of an audience.
Final Thoughts
Carrie Forrest’s story is challenging but rewarding. It went from about 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 a month from Mediavine, while Amazon’s revenue has dropped to a fraction of what it was.
These numbers show just how hard Google and AI are hitting publishers. His answer also shows something else: a site can still gain value after a big drop. However, the way forward may rely less on massive search traffic and more on audience trust, tighter transactions, and content that feels too personal for a machine to easily replace.
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