Sarah Kimura started her food blog “Salt & Season” on WordPress in 2020. By 2025, she had 200,000 monthly visitors, a thriving email list, and a problem: her readers wanted an easier way to access recipes while cooking.
The Spark
“People would email me asking for a recipe app,” Sarah said. “I looked into hiring a developer and got quotes between $40,000 and $80,000. For a food blog. That wasn’t realistic.”
She explored Progressive Web Apps but found the experience lacking — especially on iOS, where her majority audience lived. “It never felt like a real app. My readers could tell.”
Going Native with PressNative
Sarah installed PressNative and had a working app within a day. She organized her recipe categories (Weeknight Dinners, Baking, Meal Prep, Seasonal) and configured them in the app’s category list. Her hero carousel featured seasonal recipes with high-quality food photography.
“The branding tools let me match the app to my blog perfectly. Same colors, same logo, same feel — just native.”
What Drove Downloads
Sarah promoted the app through her existing channels: a pinned blog post, email announcement, Instagram stories with App Store links, and QR codes generated by the PressNative shortcode on her most popular recipe posts.
The real growth engine was push notifications. “When I publish a new Weeknight Dinner recipe on Tuesday, my readers get a notification. Open rates are around 52%. Email was around 22% and falling.”
By the Numbers
- 50,000+ downloads in 10 months
- 68% monthly active users
- Average session: 6.1 minutes (vs. 2.3 on mobile web)
- Ad revenue increase: 85% from in-app AdMob placements
Sarah’s Advice
“Don’t wait until you have a million readers. If people come back to your site regularly, they’ll download an app. The bar is lower than you think — they just need a reason. Push notifications are that reason.”
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