Addison LaBonte had her athletic dreams derailed after college. However, while finding a solution, she ended up on the path of building a thriving online business.
This article tells the story of how Addison turned her gluten-free recipes from an Instagram hobby into a portfolio of websites making over $17,000 per month. She did this with no prior experience in coding, blogging, or SEO optimization.
By sharing specific strategies, mindsets, and tools, this article provides an inspirational case study and actionable advice for anyone looking to build a successful online business around their passion.
Addison's Backstory: From Soccer Star to Marathon Runner
Addison LaBonte was a standout college athlete. She played Division I soccer for four years, graduating in 2016. Like many other student-athletes, Addison's identity was closely tied to sports. So when her college soccer career ended, she looked for new athletic challenges. Addison decided to start training for long-distance running. Her initial goal was to complete a marathon.
However, Addison soon ran into a major obstacle. During training runs of just several miles, she experienced debilitating pain and numbness in her legs.
After consulting multiple doctors, Addison was diagnosed with Compartment Syndrome. This condition causes increased pressure in the muscles, restricting blood flow.
Doctors gave Addison two options:
- Give up running completely
- Get surgery on both legs
Giving up running altogether would mean the end of her athletic dreams. But surgery was also unappealing - it was invasive and only solved the problem temporarily. Still longing to run, Addison felt desperate for another solution.
The Gluten-Free Breakthrough
Around this time, Addison's aunt (an avid marathoner herself), suggested a dietary change: try going gluten-free. She reasoned that while gluten-free wouldn't cure Compartment Syndrome, it might help with Addison's symptoms.
Willing to try anything, Addison adopted a completely gluten-free diet. Remarkably, this cleared up the leg pain and numbness that had plagued her training.
Over the next two years, Addison was able to run pain-free. She completed two half marathons and two full marathons - achieving goals she feared would be impossible after college.
For Addison, gluten-free living was life-changing. It allowed her to keep running and feel normal day-to-day. She became passionate about sharing gluten-free recipes through social media. This passion eventually grew into a thriving online business. But the road to success as a food blogger was filled with twists and turns.
Laying the Instagram Foundation
After a couple of years of being gluten-free, Addison decided to create an Instagram account. She wanted to share the recipes that made adopting a gluten-free diet enjoyable.
Posting photos of her gluten-free creations daily, Addison quickly got thousands of followers.
The audience engagement showed a clear demand for gluten-free recipes. With enough content and followers, creating a blog was the obvious next step.
Launching OrganicallyAddison.com
Addison had no coding skills or experience building websites. So she hired a web designer to create a custom site from scratch.
After trying out some initial designs, Addison and the designer settled on a layout focused entirely on the user experience.
For Addison, this meant:
- An easy-to-use interface
- A functional layout makes recipes easy to find
- Loads fast with great visuals
After about 3 months and $5,000 invested, OrganicallyAddison.com launched. It gave Addison's growing audience a home on the web for her gluten-free recipes.
Growing through Consistency
With the website up, Addison focused relentlessly on producing new recipes multiple times per week. She knew consistency was key — her audience expected regular, high-quality content focused on their gluten-free needs.
Addison also focused on engaging with her audience across platforms:
- Responding to comments on Instagram and the blog
- Asking for feedback to improve recipes
- Building relationships, not just gaining followers
This consistent engagement helped build loyalty. When readers know what to expect, they keep coming back.
Cracking the SEO Code
Another breakthrough came when Addison learned keyword research and SEO optimization. Previously, she posted recipes randomly, with no strategy behind topics. But keyword research showed her exactly what people searched for around gluten-free cooking. So she could create content purposefully tailored to that demand.
Implementing SEO best practices helped those recipes rank higher in search engines. This newfound discoverability took Addison's traffic to the next level. Now instead of relying only on existing social media followers, her recipes were getting found by new audiences.
Expanding Her Reach
On top of her website and Instagram account, Addison expanded her social media presence:
- She created accounts on Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube
- Built engaged followings by cross-promoting content
- Adapted her content style to the strengths of each platform
This gave Addison access to hundreds of thousands more potential readers and subscribers each month.
To convert readers into subscribers, she added:
- Email signup forms
- Prominent calls-to-action across her properties
- Lead magnets like free ebooks
- Weekly email newsletters with new recipes
Remember — an email subscriber is much more valuable than a one-time website visitor.
Optimizing for ad Revenue
Addison monetized her websites purely through display ads and affiliate marketing. She focused on creating valuable content first and monetizing second. Never making money at the expense of user experience.
To maximize ad revenue, Addison:
- Used ads.txt to gain access to higher-paying ad networks
- Experimented with ad placement and types to find what converts best
- Ensured site speed and user experience weren’t affected
This optimization helped Addison earn over $12,000 per month from her main site alone.
Buying Existing Sites to Scale Faster
Instead of starting niche sites from scratch, Addison accelerated growth by acquiring existing food blogs. She took over their hosting, domains, and content libraries. Then optimized them to her standards. This strategy allowed her to instantly scale an audience and diversify income streams.
Addison now owns four separate food blogs collectively earning over $17,000 per month.
Lessons Learned Turning Passion into Profits
Reflecting on her entrepreneurial journey, Addison shared some key lessons:
- Just start — Don’t wait for perfect timing. Starting gives you leverage to find solutions.
- Find mentors — Successful mentors can provide invaluable guidance to avoid pitfalls.
- Outwork your competition — Consistently producing great content is table stakes. You need to go above and beyond competitors to win.
- Analyze your data — Use analytics to double down on what converts and improves weak points.
- Take smart risks — Hiring a web designer without experience was risky. But it enabled Addison to focus on her strengths.
- Stay true to your audience — At the end of the day, it's about serving readers. Not about you or making money.
The Future Looks Bright
Addison has come incredibly far in just four years as an entrepreneur. Yet she still has ambitious growth plans:
- Buying more niche sites to expand her portfolio of blogs
- Growing social media followings into the millions
- Building out a team to take over tasks like content creation
- Hosting her own TV show or cooking segments on national TV
For any reader inspired by Addison's journey, the key is to start now. Don't self-reject or make excuses.
Take that first step — whether launching a basic website, or social media account or starting to build your audience. Progress compounds when done consistently over time. Anyone can turn a passion into profits with the right mindset and strategies.
