AsianFoodFanatic.com is a new blog started by one of my readers.
Read on to learn Victor Lee's story. He's doing a lot of things correctly on his web site but I have a list of suggestions for him that may be helpful in your e-business, too.
My response points out areas for improvement that should help Victor build his blog audience and advance toward making some money from his new hobby. Do any of these better blogging tips apply to your online venture?
Pho
Hi Scott,
Your video message about following one's passion when choosing an e-business really resonated with me.
Your book, blog posts and email newsletters inspired me to follow my own passion and start a website about a topic I absolutely adore: Asian Food!
My website www.asianfoodfanatic.com is a blog about my experiences visiting various Asian restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area (which is an absolute paradise for Asian food lovers like myself!)
Using the tools you recommended, the process of setting up my website was ridiculously easy. I used Blogger.com as my blogging platform (and had my blog up and running in minutes) and Godaddy.com to register my domain name.
I found your recommendations and advice to be really valuable - thanks and keep them coming!
My current focus is on how to drive more traffic to my blog. If you have any advice on that I would greatly appreciate it. Once I have healthy traffic, the next stage would be to monetize. I envision Google ads, affiliate links, referral partnerships with local Asian restaurants, and more,...BUT... I am having so much fun working (seems more like playing) on this blog that I would continue to do it even if I didn't make any money out of it. It adds a lot of fun and enrichment to my life.
That goes back to the whole idea of following one's passion - it allows one to reap rewards that go well beyond money. I think you just can't lose when you follow your heart.
Thanks for helping me get started.
Regards, Victor (aka AsianFoodFanatic)
www.asianfoodfanatic.com
SCOTT FOX'S ANSWER:
Hello Victor,
I'm very pleased that Internet Riches and this blog have been so inspiring to you.
Your blog looks great – informative articles plus plenty of very attractive photos. (Filipino fried chicken sure looks tasty…) You've picked a good niche with lots of readership online, and a memorable name/URL, too.
To grow your blog's readership, there is a long list of online marketing techniques. Here are a few:
1. To start increasing your traffic make friends with other food blogs. If you exchange links via your blogrolls, that should help attract new readers and also improve your search engine rankings.
2. I see that you have good ranking on Google but I don't see your blog listed in Yahoo's search results yet. If you haven't already, you should submit your URL to them.
3. Buy some keyword ads. By doing so you can quickly attract more traffic from a search engine that is not otherwise listing your site yet. If you target ads to specific niches of interest to your audience (like "pansit" or "Filipino restaurant"), it shouldn't cost too much and you should get new visitors interested in your content.
4. Consider how to expand your focus so that the content in your blog appeals outside the San Francisco area. Adding recipes or reviews of restaurants in other cities that you visit, etc. could help broaden your readership.
5. Lastly, I don't see anywhere on your blog to give you my email address if I want to hear more from you. You should install an email collector or at least offer an RSS feed to make it easier for interested visitors to receive your content updates.
I hope that's all helpful to you. Good luck. I'm always pleased to hear from readers who are making it happen.
Most of all, I'm glad to hear that you are having fun with it.
Best regards,
Scott Fox
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