I recently received the email below from a reader asking me for advice on her blog. As I responded to them I realized that it might make an interesting discussion starter and that perhaps the ProBlogger community might together have some good advice to give – so lets do tackle it together.
What I’m going to do is to share the email below (the blogger has given me permission to do this) and share the link to the blog and then open things up to discussion for readers to share their advice.
First the blogger’s name is Veron and the blog is Sparklette – a Singaporean Food Blog.
I am from Singapore and I have been following your blogging tips for 2 years now. It was through your blog that I first learned the concept of SEO. Because of what I learned from Problogger, I managed to improve the web traffic of my food blog tremendously to the present 10,000 pageviews a day.
Early this year, I attempted monetising my blog. Through your recommendations I have tried Google Ads, Chitika and Amazon Associates, but only succeeded in making dozens of dollars a month from Google, and zilch from the others. I’m thinking it has something to do with the fact that food blogs are, by default, hard to monetise. I might be wrong though.
Still, I would like to try harder. I really hope that this blog can one day replace my present day job as my primary source of income.
Are there any tips which you can recommend to someone like me – a passionate blogger who is willing to work hard and already sees substantial web traffic but somehow isn’t able to properly monetise it?
I’m no food blogger so am unfamiliar with the niche and how it monetizes best – so while I did give a few words of advice I wondered if others with experience in that niche might have some advice to share with Veron.
Do keep in mind that Veron is asking for advice on monetization – so lets keep the focus upon that aspect of the blog and lets try to keep things constructive.
PS: the main advice I shared with Veron was pretty simple but revolved around the possibility of producing her own product to sell (perhaps an ebook/cookbook) and perhaps also to do some looking around at other blogs in that niche.
The other suggestion that I’d probably be doing is identifying advertisers to approach directly. Are there food stores, publishers of cookbooks or even restaurants in Singapore that might be willing to sponsor the blog.
OK – over to you – what advice would you give?
Wow 10,000 people a day and only dozens of dollars per month.
That hurts, good luck bringing the revenue up.
Rick
I think that maybe you should be a little more aggressive with your advertising if you want to make money from your blog.
As you have quality content most people will read (or at least scan) to the bottom of each post, so put a large rectangle there.
Now you need to decide if you are more interested in getting new subscribers or money (maybe different days you can do different things). Simply put a large ad block right below the title.
For the ads make sure the text/url link is either red (people are attracted to red) or blue (traditional link colour), black text.
With adverts in these positions i’d expect about 5% CTR.
Deano
I think the best way is to approach restaurants and hotels in Singapore for sponsors. It might be difficult in the beginning but it’s a good way to actually introduce the blog to the advertisers. Many hotels and Restaurants are still unaware of the power and potential of internet to bring new customers. Newspapers, television and radio might just be their top choice if they are going to advertise. You just have to introduce to these advertisers what the blog can do. Of cause the first thing that Veron has to do is having a low advertising fees. The low fees is to buy your way into the eyes of advertisers in Singapore. All it takes is just one successful attempt on bringing more customers to one restaurant that advertise on Veron’s blog.
Another important thing that needs to take note is that Veron has to take in consideration of his blog readers, local Singaporean and foreign travelers. As this is more like targeting offline advertisers, getting the blog widely known offline in Singapore might be important.
Here’s a contribution from a Singaporean:
– Restaurant Guide: Singaporeans are obsessed with eating out since there is a limited variety of outdoor activities. Have an annual guide featuring the best eateries. Can have separate guides for food centres and premium places to target different segments
– Restaurant Guide for tourists: with F1 events and 2 new resorts, there will be many more eateries and tourists looking for the best dining places. Tap on the new opportunities.
– Dining events: contact the restaurant about your plan & get them to give you & your readers an exclusive discount on the event & pay you a fee for organising it.
– Magazine articles: offer your best posts to magzines in exchange for a fee.
I have friends in the F&B industry. If you contact me, I can try to link you up. Good luck!
Tip: be proactive – the more restaurant owners you know, the better. Get the most successful people around you to introduce you PERSONALLY to restaurant owners. Join the local SME circle to widen your network.
Thank you, Darren, for posting my query for discussion. I see many outstanding tips and suggestions here.
I will try the food ad networks that many of you have suggested, and definitely a few other tips, too.
So far, I have found the most success with direct ad sales. I have joined some ad networks that help bloggers sell adspace. Even so, most advertisers still approach me directly to buy adspace. Some of them do this for the purpose of getting backlinks from my PR5 blog.
Like what commenter Jackie says, Keep what works, get rid of the rest. I have stopped using Chitika because the revenue I’m getting from there is way less than my Google Adsense payouts. Same goes for Amazon Associates. Joshua said it right. People in Singapore do not have a habit of purchasing online. Moreover, the shipping fees that Amazon charges for sending cookbooks and other products to Singapore are enough to make sure everyone here buys from brick and mortar stores instead.
As for Google Ads, I have them displayed only to the visitors that come in from search engines. I am assuming that the regulars who visit my blog directly from bookmarks or RSS do not usually click on ads. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thank you everyone! I’m sure many food and niche bloggers would find these pointers of much use.
I calculate that the blog could make $120 a day from Adsense and Amazon if the ads were properly placed and featured. The problem is, the beautiful design makes it harder to monetize. At least, one of my sites (also in a hard to monetize niche) makes about $12 per 1000 page views, between Adsense and Amazon. But the ads are placed in the hot spots!
There are ways to incorporate Adsense into a design without it looking bad, but the design she has has all of the imagery in the top “hot-spots” which would normally get the most click through. Mike Cheney’s Adsense videos have more info on this, and there is probably more info on Problogger about it as well.
That is the main thing I see – besides the fact that she should get her own product to sell, and be building a list and using an newsletter which occasionally sells products as well.
I would suggest an eBook of recipes, the first section offered to her list as a free download, the full book available for purchase, and a hardcopy cookbook for sale in Lulu or Amazon. But she should also look at her search traffic, what keywords people come in on, which pages they navigate to, etc, to get a better idea of their needs and wants.
P.S. – There is a lot of empty space on the right that could be utilized! The problem is that the gorgeous design would be encroached on, but it does need to make money!
I would create and sell an own product. Try adding merchandise for your site like mugs etc.
Darren, I feel Google Adsense should work well if placements are done in the right way and taking care of the Ad blending. She should be able to write great E-books and can be sold on her blog
This is the most informative food blog source I’ve come across and I want to thank you for taking the time to lay it out and share your knowledge. The veil over the mystery of advertising is lifting, but the heavy one over the computer programming and customisation aspect remains. Any suggestions on where to go for enlightenment on that subject?
Congrats, it takes a lot of patience to continue writing in a blog every week and keep coming up with new material. Keep blogging.
I really surprised that his earning is not so high after getting so much traffic. Well may be his niche “food” is not good for monetizing his blog. May be it will better for him for choose another niche.
Yes, creating digital products is definitely the way to go (i.e. recipe books are great for this). I own a raw food and fitness website that teaches people how to get started on a raw food diet and I am just about to launch my very own e-book program. Wish me luck! :D
I provide an SEO strategy using Case Studies for my clients on my blog. It works well. I have 20 clients. My top client has picked up over 40 projects off optimized Case Studies I optimized in his local market. His average sale is $3,000 so about $120,000 gross income. The same strategy will work for restaurants. Read Tribes by Seth Godin, then you can leverage off your restaurant clients by teaching them a local social network strategy. For example a restaurant client could refer you the local wine store whose wine is sold at the restaurant.
If I had 10,000 daily views I’d easily have 100 clients paying me $3,000 per year. I have the strategy, I need traffic. Hoping my new Compendium platform will help.
I would definitely agree about approaching businesses directly to have a sponsored ad on the blog. If you are getting that much traffic it would probably be worth it to them.
She could also add some amazon books related to the type of cuisine the restaurant she’s talking about serves ~ I find cookbooks do pretty well on my food blogs.
The key is probably going to be to test things and see what works best. Make a list of possibilities and then test them a month at a time and see what works best. :) Keep what works, get rid of the rest.
Jackie
Just to add to what Darren said, a few months ago @remakablogger suggested that every blog should have a cornerstone product and that has stuck in my head. This cornerstone product would be an electronic product. Darren’s suggestion is on target. To take it one step further, @remarkablogger suggests that if you have your cornerstone product you’ll never be stumped about what to blog about because there would be endless ideas to take from your cornerstone product. You would sell your cornerstone product on your blog.
Think about your most popular blog posts, how might you package them into an ebook? What makes your food blog different from others? Are there chefs you could interview and package their responses? Are there celebrities who might be willing to share their favourite recipes? Or can you tap into your networks to gather their favourite recipes, especially ones that have been handed down?
These are some of the ideas that are percolating in my mind. Avil Beckford http://www.twitter.com/avilbeckford
I have a food related site that offers a wide range of recipes. I don’t have the same amount of page impressions as Veron, and I too have found the site quite difficult to monetize.
I have AdSense on mine, which generates a small amount of income, but I would like to thank Veron for bringing up this subject and the commenters for their excellent ideas. I am going to look into Foodbuzz and some of the other sites mentioned.
10000 pages preview per day is a very good amount of traffic. If they will follow all the techniques provided by Problogger they can easily monetize here blog.
Experiment is the only thing to get good result. Just try every thing and note your success.
There will be some thing unique waiting for you.Just try and try
Hi Veron , Darren.
Did a double take when I saw Darrens e mail come through as I am on Verons’ RSS email list :)
I’ll leave the monitization aspects to those more qualified but hope my comments give you feedback from a real subscriber and give you an indication of what might lead me to ‘click’ or ‘buy’.
1. I subscribed when I was in China on business recently as it was Moon cake season, and had googled Moon cakes. I was immediately drawn to your site because of the visual impact of your photographs. Having a ‘creative’ mindset this is what drew me instantly – the ‘quality’ of your photos which complement your friendly, and most definite passion for food.
2. With my little recent exposure to your blog I feel that publishing your own mini food book ( hardcover, not e version) would appeal to me .. for the photos, and lets face it, it seems that there is is constant flow of new food cook book being published so why not get amongst it .. you have all the material. Even if it were an on line drag and drop book you order, drop shipping style, it is not going to take much effort to put it together. You have a great camera, great spontaneous food shooting skills … so use them.
3. Why not directly copy Darrens obvious techinique .. an on line Top 10 survey .. directly linked to amazon on food books .. Top 10 feeds to twitter will draw huge RT’s .. and with the huge No of housewives using Twitter you’ll motor your traffic in that subject area.
4. Video – give it a go and find a way to monetize it. It follows that if you have the creative photography skills, then trying video reviews of food somehow would make sense. I have a ‘private’ e book I put together on this, and will send it to you. hope it helps.
5. Do NOT give up =)
6. You write good copy, and it exudes your passion for your niche. Use these readers ideas to experiment to the next level. You WILL succeed. Believe in yourself.
7. GIVE AWAY YOUR BEST CONTENT FOR FREE – PERIOD.
Good luck from a non foodie who loves your blog.
Paul – Australia.
My suggestion would be to go for a partnership with various restaurants in the area. You can start displaying their menus on the blog and the customers can order online from your blog itself. You get a part of the order as commission.
Hello Veron, Hello Darren and friends,
Lovely blog! Here is my *best* tip, something that works, no fail, for me:
Regarding Amazon (where you CAN make a veritable salary!) :
=> Suggest three to five products in *every* blog post that you write!
Because yours is a food blog, you can have a lot of fun with the specific theme: suggest not only books, but food related films (Babette’s Feast, Like Water for Chocolate…), suggest utensils (blenders, etc), suggest food items (tea…)
=> Here is how I vary my shopping section: by including one item from *each* category … in each and *every* email (blog post):
* one item from books
* one item from films
* one item from home/garden
* one item from beauty
* one item from music
It really works!Try it and be consistent in creating your “Shopping” section!
You might also remind your readers to please use the Amazon links on your page — as it is no extra cost to them — but makes all the difference to you and the furthering of your educational blog.
One more tip!: you can use the same Amazon code (see short version, below). Just replace the ISBN (or ASIN) number and your Associates number. Then link to your hotlink the item in your post. Good luck!
Cheers,
Kristin Espinasse
author of “Words in a French Life”
http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/0743287290/mdj-20
If I had a food blog I would sell the cooking books. I think it would work well. Also it is possible to promote the health food programs.
I suggest looking at CPM ads with a company that targets that category. I think Glam Media has a category it would fit in and they run a great CPM program. I have been happy with them anyway. The question with them though would be if they are accepting new sites. They might not be.
Also, as others have suggested, an email newsletter might be easier to monetize.
Well Said u Guys :D
But i kinda encourage him to sell his own products online..like ebooks…
Bybye :)
The cookbook ebook is a good idea. I would also add to set up some kind of “recipe of the week” weekly newsletter as well.
Anyways…Catch my website guys :D I Got Some Huge Freebies !!!
Thanxx !!
First, I would continue to optimize my AdSense earnings. It might not be much at the moment but Rome wasn’t build in a day.
Second, speak the chefs in the restaurant you feature. Tell them that you mission is to open up the world for Singaporean food and that you would like to feature them together with their recipes for a 3 course dinner. Publish a portrait of the chef along with a small interview and let people opt in to get the recipes.
Third, this should help you to build a nice email list fast. Feed the list with new recipes on a regular basis. Then edit you own product (cookbook, membership site …) out of the gathered material and start selling in on you blog and to the list.
One of the local restaurant reviewers here in New Orleans, a great food town, has an idea you might want to try. He has something called an “Eat Club”. A group of people that love food get together once a month and have a 5 – 7 course meal at a local restaurant. In many cases, the chef makes them something special. It is limited to set number depending on the restaurant but usually around 10-12 and it is usually around $40-60/person depending on the venue. He also has a paid newsletter and he only ask people to pay what they think it is worth. It used to be $10/year but after hurricane Katrina he went to the new payment model. Remember, this is not his sole source of income. He is a journalist and writes for the local paper, has a radio show, and published New Orleans restaurant guide that is in its 2nd printing (I think).
I have learned so much from this and I don’t even have a food blog.
I personally love the idea of a cookbook.
I, myself, am a cookbook addict and would totally buy from someone with recipes that I trusted and know that I like — and would use — already.
Just a thought.
I have a health blog and I monetize it using Adsense, and clickbank. One possibility is to add your own product as Darren already mentioned. Another good option is to provide online consulting. Online consulting is a flourishing market and I believe that she could do well in those areas if she has expertise on it.
This seems to be restaurant website blog and visitors are awesome..
I think what she/he should do is that look for an merchant who is giving affiliate…this way he can monetize her/his blog properly.
I hope this help…
Thanks
Alam
The site seems to be more of a restaurant blog instead of a food blog. Maybe some kind of local coupon books or travel/lodging/location event affiliate type of thing.
The book idea would be good if it was a book reviewing all of the restaurants in a Singapore.
(Wonder if Veron is really Veronica, like me?!) Anyway, I assume that she has tried posting comments on other food-related blogs. Then, of course, the idea of publishing something is right on. I also wonder if she has tried guest posts from foodie VIPs of interviews with them. I would also recommend that she provide a service that food purveyors or restauranterus might take notice: reviews. By reviewing items and forwarding to the subject in question, she might get new attention and in fact, eventually, their ads.
Hope this helps – keep up the good work
–Closet Foodie myself–
I think that cookbooks are the only niche doing really well in American publishing houses.
I am wondering what Darren and others think about Lori’s suggestions to allow partial feeds? Won’t that backfire by leading people to unsubscribe?
I blog about cooking techniques so this has been extremely useful.
It depends on what type of traffic she is getting:
– If the traffic comes from search engine, try implementing pay per click ads
– If the traffic comes from direct visitors, try using CPM ads.
– As for the geographic location, should most of the visitors reside in South East Asia, give Admaxasia a try (Advertising network catered for South East Asia traffic)
Direct Selling Method:
– Offer direct sponsorship
– Create a cookbook and sell it as e-book
– Ask any nearby restaurants if they are willing to pay some money to be reviewed on your blog
Hope it helps
I like the idea of building ‘community’ on blogs. Cross promotion of blog stories and articles demands participants think of the greater whole ahead of their own business, which increases the integrity factor with users who increasingly depend on peer reviews and value businesses who are participating online for ‘more than the money’.
The consumer wants: peer reviewed information, insiders information, relevant business information
The restaurant wants: bums in seats, a VIP feel to what they do online to create a long term customer relationship
The sponsor wants: to trigger an indirect purchase in a peer review setting.
70+% of readers trust peer reviews; only 14% trust ads.
So, you get an unrelated business – say, a travel agency – to sponsor a restaurant review on the site. Their sponsorship includes a one or two sentence business bio and link and ‘special’ if they have one (5 restaurants, 3 days Singapore package, for example). They pay premium for it, like $200 an article. They promote it on their web site, the restaurant promotes the travel package on theirs and you blast it out to everyone on your list.
Include a ‘reserve my table’ and ‘reserve my foodie package’ link that’s trackable, and take a small cut – 2% from the restaurant and the travel operator.
Write less often, but more researched articles with the something special people are looking for – specialty ingredient lists, chef’s favorite places to eat etc. (maybe even do a Vanity Fair-ish Proust questionnaire for chefs or restaurant owners). Spend time promoting them on other blogs and guest post to other blogs.
If you’re going to sell books, use them one at a time as peer sponsors for individual posts and make them a true fit. Example: under a post, this review sponsored by ‘Name of Book’ with one line written description of why it’s a fit, link to store.
Add a chef’s guide to ‘make this at home’ – something that will last around the Internet, get shared, is not something the chef needs to protect, and have it linked to your blog AND the restaurant, and add a trailer that says something like – never mind slaving in the kitchen for an easy Singaporean meal, make your reservation NOW and let us spoil you or something similar = reservation process and 2%.
It’s more likely to generate a book deal (you can pre-sell the book through your site before it is published) and be linked to.
The website is very well done – and the pictures of the dining experience looks great. Set up an advertising rate for a basic banner (125×125) and another for a larger ad piece. To give the advertiser more for their money maybe Include for the higher priced ad a “Featured” blog posting of the restaurant with a picture of one of their best meals, the restaurant, or a small video.
How about a weekly Blog Talk Radio show where you feature one of your top advertisers and place the radio widget will be on your website for others to review. Or you could place a link to the BTR radio program from your blog post.
It looks like there is a large audience that advertisers would appreciate. How about getting readers involved by having a “Ning community” site connected and get your audience involved?
Just some thoughts. Good luck!!
Cheryl
Hello Darren. Rather than giving my personal opinions, I am posting a few links to show how other successful food blogs have “monetized:”
http://www.pinkofperfection.com/ (notice especially her top rotating ads) This woman’s blog is part of the Martha Stewart Circle…which has clout
This link is one of the above blogs advertizers and is also found on the Martha Stewart blog
http://www.brightideas.com/bright_idea.aspx?ID=128
And the link below is to the Martha Stewart blog
http://www.marthastewart.com/blogs
I don’t know if these companies would work for a Singapore food blog, but I think they are worth your e-mailer checking out.
Karen
I have a food blog also. Food blogs don’t get a lot of hits really. Maybe try linking to other blogs in the area to get more traffic.
First you have to understand what resources you have specifically.
10000 pageviews per day? Who are these people, where are they from? If you know specifically your target market, then you can source out advertisers easier.
Nice article on monetization. You have shown a really nice way to do it.
Well, food blogs do have a difficult metier, it’s not one of the first things that people are searching in the net i guess. But beeing in such a niche coult be a great chance – so try hard and keep on it.
Here is my opinions
_________________
Ready Made Spices –
Instead of cook book I think creating own brand spices are more vital. Just like beauty products you can also made ready made spices which you can use it easily
Listing of local restaurants –
She can also go for listing local restaurants and their special menus. But before listing she should try herself and give place to only those restaurants which deserve this.
Listing of marriage contractors –
This can be also nice move if she can list top contractors who take marriage food orders.
I haven’t read all the replies posted here, but a simple and easy thing that you could implement is affiliation with large restaurant rating and reviews websites, or local businesses websites, that might have an affiliate programme in which you could join in easily
That would avoid you to have to go directly meet the advertisers, which can truely be a hassle…
good luck
Tim
I personally think that Amazon’s “Astore” program is a great fit for any food or cooking site. Great looking widgets and the type of customer you will have usually loves books!
I just checked Sparklette’s traffic
its about 15-16K a month.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/sparklette.net/
You can try to increase traffic with twitter, plurk… Ads on CL.
monetizing can be tried with Community JUnction
Wish u success
I would try for blogher, where they pay for traffic, not clicks.
Something I think that gets overlooked is the opinion of those who visit your blog.
What would suit them best…?
Ask Them!
Getting visitors to interact is a key to success – so ask them if they want products / specials / books / etc and work from there.
What about drop shipping some specialty foods or specialized cooking appliances. I am not familiar with the industry, but with that kind of traffic I’m sure some big name companies would be willing to listen.
As someone who has had a food blog for years, I can tell you that a food blog can most definitely bring in a nice income! The following are some of the things that I’ve had success with:
1. Google adsense – Some blogs are successful with google while others are flat out miserable. For some reason, food blog visitors click – plain and simple. And profitable.
2. All Posters.com – I’ve had super success with posters on my food blog. If you’re posting about a certain food group, you can easily find a poster to compliment the post. And no worries about copyrights.
3. Amazon store and Amazon links – The Amazon store I set up for my food blog has been a very pleasant surprise. I also review a lot of cookbooks and use affiliate links for these. Also, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
4. Commission Junction – If you’re talking about a panini press, for example – you can use an affiliate link to a panini press on Cooking.com or any number of other sites. Linkshare is also fantastic.
5. A cookbook is a great idea as well. I sold the dickens out of an ice cream e-book one summer that I didn’t even write! It was a part of a re-sell rights package that also included an Amish Recipes e-book. They both sold very well. However, be careful – a lot of people don’t “get” the premise of e-books. I actually heard from quite a few people who were still watching their mailboxes. (A few still may be! – But I didn’t just say that…)
6. Text Link Ads – I just jumped on this particular bandwagon but, so far, I’m loving the ride!
7. I had Chitika up for a while but took them down to promote more Amazon products. The jury’s still out on whether I’m coming out ahead or not.
I absolutely LOVE this approach, Darren: Putting a blog up for others to give advice and share their thoughts. I’d love to see this become a regular thing.