604 Foodtography...

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

Go review X-Site for me

I keep hearing good things but don't want to make the trip there due to lack of free time

We went there for a RS meet a few years ago. I remember my steak being dry.

[racerman88]

nice blog K-DUB

[unit]

Originally Posted by Ronin

We went there for a RS meet a few years ago. I remember my steak being dry.

its a 5 dollar steak dinner..... its supposed to be mediocre at best.

[K-Dub]

Hey everyone,

I'm cross posting this for more exposure.

2 years have gone by since I first started blogging, and it’s been a wild experience so far, and I hope it will continue.

Unfortunately, my 2 year web hosting plan is set to expire on July 8th, 2011. Additionally my Flickr account is set to expire on May 6th, 2011.

Both are essential to this sites continuation, and as I currently am a full time student with no job, I have no cash to pay for these 2 services.

I need to raise a total of $300 ($250 for 3 years of hosting + $50 for 2 years of Flickr).

I’ve set up a Paypal donation button, please consider donating if you’ve ever found this site useful.

http://www.604foodtography.com/2011/...ography-alive/

Thanks you RS.

[Ronin]

For one thing, you might be paying a little too much for your hosting.

Second, you need to set up with some ad networks...even just small ones or Google Adsense. At the very least your site will pay for itself.

[K-Dub]

Originally Posted by Ronin

For one thing, you might be paying a little too much for your hosting.

Second, you need to set up with some ad networks...even just small ones or Google Adsense. At the very least your site will pay for itself.

I'm with Bluehost, and it's 36months @ $6.95. Seems okay to me? and of course, + 2 years of flickr for $50.

I do have an ad up, it's from Foodbuzz but I get so little from it (cause of traffic). I think each month I get like $0.50 deposited into my sad paypal account.

Google adsense doesn't pay much, if anything. Or maybe I'm doing this all wrong? I'd love it if the site could pay for itself, but baaaaaaah. Help me Ed.

[Ronin]

Adsense is shitty but you get decent traffic so you should be earning at least enough to pay for hosting, etc.

You should also sign up with Text Link Ads and the like. They're relatively cheap ads that most people use just to grab a link from a higher ranking site. You won't get as much as a big site but you could still get about a $15-20 a month price (of which you get half and the ad company takes half).

Food blogs are actually very hard to monetize since most of the bigger affiliate networks won't have all that much in that category. However, you can still make a decent amount of money with them.

Don't worry about it not paying much. That shit adds up and you will want to sign up a few. I'm no expert...I don't monetize as much as I probably should.

So you need approximately $100 a year? That's incredibly easy to earn through ads. You'll probably end up making a few times that without much trying.

[BlackZRoadster]

Full time student with no job? How are you going to have money to eat at all these places to write about them?
Posted via RS Mobile

[Razor Ramon HG]

Can't you just the renew the domain for the year, and just pay for hosting monthly? Then you don't have to pay upfront all at once. Or at least that's what I do with mine.

[Mr.Money]

Originally Posted by BlackZRoadster

Full time student with no job? How are you going to have money to eat at all these places to write about them?
Posted via RS Mobile

x2 wtf,wtf.

[6793026]

Not trying to be an ass but you need to revamp your site. It looks like a site a kid put up on his first HS project. Re-vamp it, get some color on it, have it setup so it looks way more professional. People have the attention span of 3 years old now, if you don't have enough picture per 2-3 paragraphs, they zone out.

have a look at a few highly rated food critics and learn how their site is different. Ask yourself why YOU are on the site reading for 30 mins, compare it to your site and you'll know what I mean.

Once you do that, your traffic will go up a fair bit.

[Culverin]

Actually, what are the top food blogs you would suggest I check out for comparison?

I'm not much of a writer, but if you've noticed, I've posted up some of my stuff. Just a pretty newb home cook learning more and more and I'd like to journal that for friends and maybe more?

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by 6793026

Not trying to be an ass but you need to revamp your site. It looks like a site a kid put up on his first HS project. Re-vamp it, get some color on it, have it setup so it looks way more professional. People have the attention span of 3 years old now, if you don't have enough picture per 2-3 paragraphs, they zone out.

have a look at a few highly rated food critics and learn how their site is different. Ask yourself why YOU are on the site reading for 30 mins, compare it to your site and you'll know what I mean.

Once you do that, your traffic will go up a fair bit.

K-Dub's site is one of the higher rated ones in Vancouver. It looks fine.

[K-Dub]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Adsense is shitty but you get decent traffic so you should be earning at least enough to pay for hosting, etc.

You should also sign up with Text Link Ads and the like. They're relatively cheap ads that most people use just to grab a link from a higher ranking site. You won't get as much as a big site but you could still get about a $15-20 a month price (of which you get half and the ad company takes half).

Food blogs are actually very hard to monetize since most of the bigger affiliate networks won't have all that much in that category. However, you can still make a decent amount of money with them.

Don't worry about it not paying much. That shit adds up and you will want to sign up a few. I'm no expert...I don't monetize as much as I probably should.

So you need approximately $100 a year? That's incredibly easy to earn through ads. You'll probably end up making a few times that without much trying.

Will look into that at the end of the week, thanks Ed. Or maybe I should bug John Chow..

Originally Posted by BlackZRoadster

Full time student with no job? How are you going to have money to eat at all these places to write about them?
Posted via RS Mobile

Originally Posted by Mr.Money

x2 wtf,wtf.

Easy, go out and eat with my parents!

Also, I see myself doing lots more cooking/recipe stuff now, especially with the higher food prices and cost of going out to eat, cost of gas, etc. I'm still a student living at home so it's coo.

Originally Posted by Razor Ramon HG

Can't you just the renew the domain for the year, and just pay for hosting monthly? Then you don't have to pay upfront all at once. Or at least that's what I do with mine.

Rather pay it all at once, it's cheaper that way.

Originally Posted by 6793026

Not trying to be an ass but you need to revamp your site. It looks like a site a kid put up on his first HS project. Re-vamp it, get some color on it, have it setup so it looks way more professional. People have the attention span of 3 years old now, if you don't have enough picture per 2-3 paragraphs, they zone out.

have a look at a few highly rated food critics and learn how their site is different. Ask yourself why YOU are on the site reading for 30 mins, compare it to your site and you'll know what I mean.

Once you do that, your traffic will go up a fair bit.

Constructive criticism duly noted, thank you. I'm no designer nor am I a super techy person, as it's nt my background, so all the stuff that is up, is through my own trial and error. I'd rather the site not be too flashy or what not, just simple and easy to read/navigate.

Also, I'm no food critic. Food critics don't "blog"..though I suppose now the line is getting blurred. And if you mention Sherman, Chowtimes, Followmefoodie, VancouverSlop, etc.. I actually don't read majority of their stuff all the way through, and if I do, it's a very very quick skim.

I used to have good traffic, then ...the entire blogosphere got saturated!

Originally Posted by Ronin

K-Dub's site is one of the higher rated ones in Vancouver. It looks fine.

Thanks Ed, I think it's only because I've had it established longer. I admit I could do a lot more with the looks of the site, but that'll have to wait till I can dedicate an entire weekend to it.

Thanks everyone for the comments, criticism, suggestions, etc.

[J____]

i didnt like bluehost. On webhostingpad now. $1 a month unlimited bandwidth. My site has no issues and is up 99% of the time. Tech support is pretty good for me too despite some reviews. I'd send an email and always get responded to within 24 hours, usually less than 2 hours.

[SecludedGirl]

I've been using adsense on my site, and I've noticed I haven't been earning much unless people click on the ads... it also counts by the amount of traffic you get on the site, but I don't get enough traffic for it to really amount to anything.

I'm sure your site would benefit much more from it =)

[Ronin]

Have you found a revenue source for your blog yet, Kev?

I removed adsense from my blog. I've signed up for the Foodbuzz featured publisher program...gonna check out how their ads work.

[abdulclamwacker]

Hey guys, if you need some web hosting, I can probably get you some free local hookups. Let me know your disk and bandwidth trends so I can see if it'll work out? PM me.

[K-Dub]

Wow, I have not posted in this thread for a while. Badabump.