Melissa Riker is founder, recipe developer, and photographer behind The Happier Homemaker, a lifestyle blog focused on everyday recipes and home management for busy families.
Melissa Riker is a former cancer researcher who left her career in the laboratory after having the first of three sons. She started her first blog in 2007 to keep in touch with family as a military spouse living far from home. The blog evolved to DIY and decorating as she and her husband undertook projects in the houses they bought, rented or built each time they relocated.
Melissa absolutely knows the stress that comes from managing a home: school, lunches, jobs, spouse, children. She founded The Happier Homemaker in 2011 with the hope of inspiring families to find joy in their homes again. Over the years, Melissa has grown her food blog into a six-figure business while moving four times in eight years, including a year spent abroad in the United Kingdom.
She and her husband Randy launched Riker Media, a lifestyle media company, in early 2019 and recently purchased a second, established food blog, Shaken Together Life, to add to their portfolio of websites.
When not behind the camera or laptop, Melissa travels extensively. She also enjoys her pets, gardening, bird watching and time behind her easel, painting.
Melissa Riker Show Notes
Contact:
The Happier Homemaker
Shaken Together Life
Pinterest
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Book:
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Favorite tool:
Kitchen Must Have:
Camera and Lens:
Sony Alpha a6400 Mirrorless
35mm
Popular Posts:
Apple Cinnamon Bread
How to Clean Your House Fast
Questions:
What did you do before you started food blogging?
What did you go to school for?
Where did you live in Italy?
Did you enjoy it?
How many years were you there?
Did you do that up until you started blogging?
Why did you start food blogging?
Did it always have that name?
Did your neighbors end up going to your blog?
Did it take you long to figure out the name of the blog?
When you first started, how many times did you publish a post?
Did you continue that every single week?
When you were publishing so many, where you writing a whole blog post?
Why did you start doing process shots?
Have you found that it added much time to photographing recipes?
How many drafts do you have in place to be published right now?
Once you started, how long did it take for you to start making money?
You bought a second website, why did you do it?
Do you post to the new blog?
What does your media company do?
Was there anything that you took away from the experience of buying a new blog?
How long did it take from the time you reached out to her to the time that you purchased it?
Do you feel really organized in your life?
Do you have people that help you with your company?
When did you first find you needed the help?
Where in your house do you photograph your recipes?
How long does it take you to photograph an average recipe?
What is the hardest thing you find about blogging?
What do you love about blogging?
What is your favorite social media platform and why?
Why did you say that Facebook hates you?
What do you use for backgrounds?
You use natural light?
What kind of camera do you have?
What do you like about it?
What is your favorite lens?
What is the cleaning post?
Do you have a favorite marketing tool or something that helps you with blogging?
What is the most surprising thing that you’ve found since you started blogging?
What is your biggest food failure?
What exactly happens?
So you just didn’t have it on that day?
What is your favorite cuisine?
What would be your last meal?
What is your favorite Greek meal?
What is one thing you can’t live without in your kitchen?
Do you have a favorite cookbook?