How to Use Yummly

Yummy is a great way to collect and organize recipes for the everyday person and a great platform to help bloggers to reach a wider audience and get more traffic to their food posts.  Read on if you want to know the ins and outs of how to use Yummly.

I have been promising myself for quite awhile now that I will start doing more posts on blogging.  I have many friends and others reach out to me for tips and with questions.  I really do love blogging and have fun thinking and strategizing on how to create better content that can reach more people and I have been able to be fairly successful in my short blogging career.

One thing that makes almost ALL bloggers roll their eyes is a new social media platform.  To a blogger it is one of those – you can’t live with it, and you can’t live without it things.  Social media is what we live and die by to promote our content through connecting with our readers.  It can be absolutely an ALL CONSUMING time suck if you let it though.  There are days that I have a million things on my list but I sit down and start responding to Facebook or updating Google+ with my lastest post or start digging into my Pinterest account and all of a sudden half the day is gone and I haven’t accomplished anything.

All of that to say when another social media platform rolls around it is hard to jump behind without knowing if it will be effective and around long term.  So when I first noticed Yummly showing up in my traffic referrals I was skeptical.  But then it stayed there… And I had to check it out.

It took about 24 hours to be hooked!  Both from the standpoint of sharing my recipes with a wider audience of food lovers (aka MY people!) and from a personal veiwpoint of having a place to find new dinner ideas and having a good way to organize them, I was in love.

How to use Yummly

My favorite part of Yummly is absolutely the simplicity.

To start on Yummly as a blogger or just a lover of food, all you need to do is to sign up quickly and easily for an account.

Once you are signed up you can add the bookmarklet to your toolbar to make it easy to yum any recipe you come across on the web.

Every recipe you Yum, whether it is on Yummly or from your toolbar on any website will be put into your recipe box.  You can organize your recipe box into more specific collections according to how you want to see it.

Like I mentioned, simplicity is key.  Once the recipe is YUMed, the photo is auto-populated, the recipe is auto-populated, and it is in the Yummly database. No need to add it again, change the picture, create a catchy  title etc.  All you have to do is YUM!

Now that the recipe is in Yummly it can show up in their feed, or can be found through their search.  Yummly also features recipes on their Facebook page, Intagram and Twitter account.

The more you YUM recipes, the more Yummly understands what kind of food you like and will make recommendations for you when you log in on your desktop or mobile app.  You can also search by ingredients, or recipes without certain ingredients, or even by holiday, special event, or food restriction.  The sky is the limit!

How to Use Yummly as a Blogger

As a blogger Yummly has quickly become one of my top traffic sources and is continuing to grow as I add new recipes to my collections.  If you wanted to get started with Yummly I would recommend these steps:

1. Sign up for an account at Yummly
2. Add a YUM button to your post area so it will be easy for your readers to YUM your recipe {More YUMs equals more traffic!}
3. Start YUMming things that you think look delicious, both on your blog and others.
4. Fill out the form to get your blog listed as an official publisher. {Makes you eligible to be featured ie MORE traffic}
5. Go here to get your profile personalized and a picture added.  Makes you all official and fancy!

FAQs:

Can I add a recipe again? No, it goes in once then you just need people to YUM it to make it more popular.

Can I change the photo or description? It is autopopulated, but I think if there is an error you can contact the Yummly team to get it fixed.  I hear they are great to work with.

Is there a penalty for YUMming my own recipes?  The general consesus is no, so make sure an add your recipes so they can be yummed!

Are you really getting traffic from Yummly?  YES!  Go do it now!  There is no simpler tool to use to get your recipes seen!  It is one of my top referrers daily.  I have heard you get even more traffic if you get featured. {Fingers are still crossed on that one!}

How do I get featured by Yummly?  I have not been featured… yet! From their website, join the Yummly publisher network.

If you have other questions, feel free to throw them out!  I am no expert but I have enjoyed figuring out and starting my Yummly collection and also enjoyed the new readers it is sending to my site.  I am happy to help or do a little research to come up with an answer for you!

***Oh and before you go, don’t forget to visit The Pinning Mama Yummly page and YUM your favorite TPM recipes! ***