Washington

As a speech therapist and mom, Kristen Morita didn’t set out to be an influencer when she launched her blog, Mochi Mommy, in 2019. She just wanted to pass the time while her baby napped, and share the recipes she grew up with as a fourth-generation Chinese- and Japanese-American. “Those recipes weren’t really on the internet yet,” Kristen explains. “When people like me moved away from home and wanted to make those foods for our own families, we couldn’t find them. Mine were some of the first recipes that popped up on searches, and that’s how my blog readership grew.” Now that Kristen’s one-time hobby blog is a full-blown business, she stays organized with Google Workspace and exchanges content with partners through Google Drive. Today, Mochi Mommy gets up to 200,000 page views per month.

Kristen connected with Google publishing partner Raptive in 2024, taking advantage of their AI tools for optimizing ads and Google Analytics. This move doubled Mochi Mommy’s pageviews, and Google-supported ad revenue now accounts for 75 percent of her income. “It gives me a lot of freedom and flexibility because I don’t have to be in front of a screen,” Kristen says. “I can put up my content and make it exactly the way I like it, then Google helps me make ad revenue passively.” Kristen recently launched a YouTube channel to earn more in much the same way. “I just really like that format of revenue versus social media, where you’re basically promoting yourself,” she says. “That doesn’t always feel authentic. I don’t have to worry about it when I’m making YouTube videos or writing on my blog.” Kristen’s next step is a mochi cookbook, coming out in 2026. “It's going to be the first cookbook about mochi by a major publisher in America,” Kristen says. “It’s really all about my culture and community, so it’s a big step to have that kind of representation.”

A foodie since childhood, Vidya Srinivasan left a corporate IT job in 2014 to turn her passion for Indian cooking into the blog Traditionally Modern Food. There she features Indian recipes passed down from her mother and adapted for modern tastes. “Some of the recipes I share on the blog have been in the family for generations,” she says. “Passing traditional recipes to the next generation was my motive when I started.” To keep her content free, Vidya uses Google AdSense and Ad Manager to earn income from the blog and her YouTube channel. “Blogging can be resource-intensive because we have to pay for storage, domain, website themes, and plugins,” she says. “Ad revenue helps to cover the cost of managing the site, which is now my full-time job.”

Ads on the blog bring in about 60 percent of Vidya’s income. She incorporates short YouTube videos into each post so viewers can follow along as she cooks Chana Kurma or lemon ginger Rasam. She also posts videos directly to her YouTube channel, which has more than 42,000 subscribers and drives about 12 percent of the traffic to her blog. “Sometimes written recipes work, and sometimes visually seeing the recipe cooked helps for better understanding,” she says. Interest tracking with Google Analytics has helped her grow her traffic by up to 15 percent each year, Vidya says. “I can see which posts get the most engagement, which helps me understand the recipes people are looking for.” She deepens those new relationships with an email newsletter and personal emails, with help from AI-powered Gmail features like Smart Compose and Smart Reply. The tools “make my life so easy,” she says. Now she’s considering how she can use Gemini to fine-tune her content and improve SEO. “The biggest happiness for any food blogger is seeing people trying the recipes and sharing positive comments,” she says. “That’s the best feedback you can get.”

Jason Stock had put his dream of creating games on hold and was working as a telecom engineer when he bought his first Android phone. “I quickly learned that there’s a low barrier to entry to create games on Android,” he says. “So, I began re-pursuing my passion project.” His first release, a bubble-shooting game, didn’t do well, but then a brush with Words with Friends led him to the world of anagram solvers. His first solving app, Word Breaker, was an overnight success, and Jason founded Firecracker Software in 2011. Today, the company has a team of eight working in Spokane Valley and has hit nearly five million installs of more than 40 apps for mobile gamers on Google Play.

Ninety percent of Firecracker Software’s revenue comes from advertising. Using Google AdMob as a mediation and monetization platform, Firecracker is able to compare ad networks and find the highest-earning impressions, maximizing their income. Meanwhile, Google Analytics and Firebase help them understand app performance to identify bottlenecks and make improvements, and Google’s Crashlytics tool alerts them to glitches in their apps. “We’ve worked with Google for over 10 years,” Jason says, “and we’ve had some really excellent account managers who have helped remove barriers to developing, advertising, or monetizing our apps.” With its latest release, Firecracker takes a swing at a real-world app: CoachView lets coaches see their players’ athletic performance in slow motion and record feedback. And they continue to make strides in the gaming world with more stat-tracking apps and community-driven helper tools. “Word games aren’t going anywhere,” Jason says, “but there’s a lot more opportunity out there.”

After a severe spinal cord injury limited Billy Price’s mobility, he learned new ways of doing everyday tasks. But one thing remained elusive: finding stylish shoes that he could put on by himself. In 2012, he joined forces with old friend Darin Donaldson to found BILLY Footwear, making adaptive shoes that “smash fashion with function.” The shoes feature a zipper that goes around the side and toe, allowing the upper to completely open and fold over for easy access. Wearers place their foot onto the shoebed and simply pull the zipper closed. Billy emphasizes that these shoes are based on universal design principles: instead of being shoes for people with disabilities, BILLY Footwear’s shoes appeal to and can be worn by everyone, including people with disabilities.

Billy and Darin sold their shoes locally in Seattle before launching their website in 2018. Then they needed to get the word out. “We looked for tools that would empower customers to find what we had to offer. That’s when we started using Google Ads,” Billy says. “Website traffic from Google has increased 25 percent, and 40 percent of website conversions come from Google traffic.” The team uses insights from Google Analytics to keep the website current with trending styles, and to let partner retailers know what’s popular in their areas. BILLY Footwear is now sold online and in stores globally, and they’re hiring new employees to keep up with demand. Billy has also created a motivational speaking program, BILLY Cares, where he educates people on entrepreneurship and overcoming adversity. Years after his injury, Billy finally has his choice of shoes–as do the company’s many satisfied customers. “I never could have imagined my accident would lead to building a business that would add so much value and help so many people in this world,” Billy says.