The Surprising Strategy Carrie Forrest Used to Bounce Back from an 80% Traffic Drop

Ever wondered what happens when the SEO winds shift so dramatically that a site once pulling nearly a million page views a month feels like it’s caught in a storm? Well, Carrie Forrest has lived that reality — and it’s anything but a simple tale of rise and fall. In this week’s episode of the Niche Pursuits podcast, we dive deep into how Google’s evolving algorithms and AI’s growing footprint have rewritten the rules, especially for food bloggers like Carrie. She’s not some bystander watching the chaos unfold; she built a genuine powerhouse that delivered traffic and revenue numbers most bloggers only dream about — and then faced the harsh reality of losing 80% of that traffic. But here’s the kicker — instead of throwing in the towel, Carrie pivoted toward savvy strategies focusing on email, video, and building an authentic connection with her audience. It’s a lesson in adaptation, resilience, and, frankly, a wake-up call for anyone still putting all their eggs in the SEO basket. Curious how she rebuilt her business on sturdier, less volatile ground? Dive in and get the inside scoop. LEARN MORE.

In 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 in food blogging. Carrie isn’t talking from the sidelines either. She built a site that once brought in nearly 1 million page views a month, and she has lived through the drop that followed.

That is what makes this conversation worth paying attention to. Carrie went from the kind of traffic and income most bloggers dream about to a business that now looks very different, with lower traffic, lower revenue, and a much heavier focus on email, video, and direct audience connection.

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The Rise of a 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 that benefited significantly from SEO and search demand.

By the time she first came on Niche Pursuits a few years ago, the system was working. Keyword research, steady publishing, and a growing site authority helped her rank quickly for articles that matched search demand, even when those topics were not especially central to her brand.

A few of the numbers show just how large the business became:

Carrie said she began leaning into SEO and keyword research around 2016.
Around 2022, her site was approaching 1 million page views per month.
She said that the level of traffic translated into roughly $20,000 to $30,000 in ad revenue per month through Mediavine.
Her 2022 Amazon affiliate 1099 was about $35,000.

For a while, that model looked hard to beat. Search traffic fueled ad revenue, affiliate clicks added another layer of income, and the site had enough authority that new content could rank fast.

The Collapse of the Old Formula

Then the ground shifted. Carrie tied much of the damage to AI Overviews, shrinking organic click opportunities, and broader Google changes that have left fewer spots in the search results for independent publishers.

Her summary was blunt. Her traffic had fallen by about 80%, and because roughly 90% of her revenue was tied to page views, the income drop followed almost in step. The current numbers tell the story in plain terms:

Mediavine revenue fell from roughly $20,000 to $30,000 a month to around $4,000 to $5,000 a month.
Amazon’s income dropped from tens of thousands per year to roughly $150 to $200 per month.
Monthly page views went from nearly 1 million to about 200,000.

That is still a meaningful business, but it’s very different. Carrie is still full-time, still publishing, and still earning, yet the margin for error is much smaller than it was during the peak search years.

The Tactics That Lost Steam

One of the most interesting parts of the interview was hearing which once-promising tactics no longer carried their old weight. For Carrie, web stories are the clearest example.

When she first appeared on the podcast, web stories were a major source of traffic. She said they drove hundreds of thousands of page views per month for roughly two to three years, but by around 2023, they largely disappeared from their former place in Google, and she eventually noindexed them on her site.

A few takeaways from that shift stand out:

Web stories looked like a strong channel while Google supported them.
Once that placement faded, the traffic value faded with it.
Carrie’s experience is a reminder that publisher growth built on a platform feature can be temporary.

That pattern also showed up in the kind of SEO content that once printed traffic. Carrie gave the example of a post about “yellow fruits”, which performed well because keyword data said people were searching for it. It brought traffic, but it was not the kind of content that felt deeply useful to her core audience, and she has moved away from producing large amounts of that style of post.

The Monetization Experiments That Fell Short

Carrie has not spent the past year sitting still. She has been testing ways to replace lost income, and one of the strongest parts of the episode is how honest she was about what did not go far enough.

Paid workshops produced some sales, but not enough to come close to replacing search-driven revenue. She typically priced them at $10 to $20, said she might get 20 to 30 participants, and noted that a $300 workshop can feel small once you factor in prep time, delivery, and promotion.

Her workshop experience included details worth noting:

She used email as the main sales channel.
She recorded some sessions and later sold a replay, including one intro workshop priced around $7.
She chose lower price points because her audience is used to getting content for free and also faces higher everyday costs.

She also tried asking for tips through a “buy me a coffee” style setup, and the result was minimal. Carrie said it brought in less than $100 over roughly a year, which makes it more of a small extra than a true revenue line.

AI-generated video did not become a breakthrough for her either. She tested YouTube’s AI video tools after attending a workshop and found the tools impressive. Despite that, her audience did not respond well, and the format felt inauthentic for the kind of connection she wants to build.

The Channels Showing Better Signs

The more hopeful part of Carrie’s story is that not everything is moving in the wrong direction. She was clear that some parts of the business are still working and, in a few cases, are becoming more important than ever.

Email sits at the top of that list. Carrie has been building her email list since 2014, but she described it as far more central now because it gives her a direct line to readers without depending on Google to send them first.

She is putting serious work into that channel:

She uses automated email sequences that send messages every two to three days.
She segments readers by interest clusters such as Instant Pot and sugar-free topics.
She sends a weekly broadcast to the full list while refining automations and offers nearly daily.

That matters because email does more than drive clicks. It also gives Carrie a place to reintroduce older content, promote workshops or replays, and include affiliate links where allowed, all while staying close to readers who already want to hear from her.

Private affiliate deals are another brighter spot. Carrie said working directly with relevant companies has produced commissions much higher than those from Amazon, with payouts of 20% or more.

That approach comes with its own workload, but it has some clear upside:

The products are closely tied to her audience.
Direct brand relationships can create stronger margins than marketplace affiliate programs.
Promotions can be tied to brand sales and timed email campaigns.

The New Role of Video

Carrie also sees more promise in short-form video than she once did. That is a notable shift because during her highest-earning years, it made more sense to focus almost entirely on articles.

Now she is using short clips more strategically, especially around recipes that already have a foothold. She said some of those videos rank prominently on Google. While the direct click path isn’t always clean on platforms like Instagram or YouTube Shorts, the added visibility seems to boost visibility for nearby content on her site.

A few specifics make the strategy clearer:

She is producing short-form videos ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute.
She uploads clips through Mediavine and places them inside relevant blog posts.
She has seen particular traction around juice-related content, including beet juice.

This is not the same as the old web stories wave, but it gives her another way to connect media formats. One post, one video, one email, and one social clip can now work together rather than sit in separate silos.

The Leaner Business Behind the Pivot

There’s also a less visible part of this transition that matters. Carrie has cut expenses hard and let go of nearly all of the subcontractors she once relied on. She also moved from a large-scale publishing machine to a much smaller, more personal operation.

At one point, she had about 13 subcontractors supporting the business. In 2023, she said she published or republished roughly 350 blog posts in a year. Now, that number is closer to 50, and those posts are written by her rather than outsourced.

The site still has scale even with that slowdown:

Carrie said the site contains around 1,000 posts.
She still reviews what is getting traffic and updates photos or content where needed.
Her time is now split roughly into thirds across blog and SEO work, email, and video.

That slower pace has changed the business’s feel. It’s less of a publishing sprint and more of a brand-centered operation built around her voice, her expertise, and her direct contact with readers.

The Bigger Takeaway 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 treated as safe. Carrie built a large income stream from a system that rewarded content production and keyword targeting, and when that system changed, the drop was severe.

But this was not just a story about loss. It was also about what remains when a publisher strips away the parts that no longer work well and focuses on the channels where trust still matters, whether that is email, direct affiliate relationships, or videos that put a real person in front of the audience.

Final Thoughts

Carrie Forrest’s story is difficult, but it’s also useful. She has gone 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 a month from Mediavine, with Amazon income reduced to a fraction of what it was.

Those numbers show how hard Google and AI have hit publishers. Her response shows something else, too: a site can still have value after a major drop. However, the path forward may rely less on mass search traffic and more on audience trust, tighter operations, and content that feels personal enough that a machine cannot easily replace it.