Customer Stories: Ashley Covelli of Big Flavors From a Tiny Kitchen

It’s no secret we’re big fans of our customers. We love catching up with them and getting a behind the scenes peek into how they organize their blog content. We thought you might be interested too, so we are sharing their stories right here on the blog.

Tell us about yourself

Hi! I’m Ashley and I’ve been writing about food and developing recipes over at Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen since 2006. I moved to New York from the Midwest after I finished art school back in 2004. I currently live in Ossining with my husband (Dino), son (Ian), and our cat (Hermione).

When I’m not cooking, photographing food, editing content for my website, or teaching virtual cooking classes, I’m usually playing video games, exercising (Zumba and walking outside are 2 of my favorites), enjoying live music, or reading. I absolutely love living here in the Hudson Valley and have a lot of fun exploring this area.

How were you organizing your content before Clariti?

I was using a cobbled together combination of spreadsheets, Google docs, calendars, and notes (both paper and digital). Not to mention the things that only lived in my head that I figured I’d get to “some day”.

What made you decide to give Clariti a try?

I heard Björk mention that it was in the works on an episode of the Food Blogger Pro podcast and immediately emailed to get on the list to be notified when it was available. It sounded like it would be hugely helpful in making informed, data-driven decisions and updates to my content. As a creative, I tend to prefer the more artistic parts of what I do, and sometimes the technical stuff like digging through Google Analytics makes me glaze over.

What is the number one way Clariti has helped you and your blog so far?

Clariti has helped me create a concrete plan of attack for working on content: updating, optimizing, and coming up with a schedule for promoting posts on my website.

I love that I can come across an old post on my website (I’ve been blogging since 2006, so I have a LOT of content), decide if it’s a good candidate for a facelift, then add it to my list. In other cases, I’ll see a post that’s getting a lot of traffic and realize it could use some TLC.

What business goals have you reached since using Clariti?

I’ve been able to work on refreshing old content and creating new content for my website while juggling my virtual cooking classes and alllll the other things that my business requires on an ongoing basis.

Making headway in multiple areas while not feeling like I’m constantly trying to keep up with things has been so refreshing! I haven’t had as much “overwhelm” since being able to look through the filters and projects I have set up in Clariti.

What is the best or most helpful Clariti Project that you’ve run so far?

I have a project that’s purpose is to track old posts that I want to revamp. Since I have so many posts on my website, it’s been immensely helpful to be able to track which posts I’ve worked on and where I am within each of those posts. Since I juggle so many things at once, being able to dive right back into where I left off on any given item is huge.

Within this Clariti project, I’m able to track things I want to revamp or update — like testing the recipe, reshooting photos or video, editing photos, updating (or adding!) a recipe card, converting the post to the block editor in WordPress, creating pin image(s), checking alt text, making sure I have a horizontal featured image, etc.

Prior to Clariti, I’d have to locate which spreadsheet or document I had last updated for a post, figure out where I was, and then pick it back up. Clariti helps me clearly see exactly what’s next for my projects.

What’s your favorite feature in Clariti?

I like being able to see a timeline of when I’ve updated things on a specific post. So, for instance, seeing that I converted a post to blocks in Gutenberg & rewrote the recipe card in May, added new photos in June, rewrote the post in July, etc. It gives me a good sense of how the post has evolved over time, and what changes have made an impact.

What is one key takeaway or insight that Clariti has given you?

Being able to use data-driven information inside of Clariti to inform my decisions of what to tackle and when — as well as seeing how much progress I’m actually making — has been a game-changer!

For anyone looking to learn more about your business, where can they find you?

You can find me online at bigflavorstinykitchen.com, or on social media @bigflavors everywhere (except on Twitter it’s @bigflavorsblog).