Start your cooking websites
Your passion for food can go a long way in helping you build a successful small business out of it. As internet has reached to the hinterlands of this country and free wi-fi zones popping up in metros, the time is right to consider about the many ways internet can help you with additional income. Start your cooking websites not only helps living your passion but can also be a source to earn online.
Most people still don’t know that a cooking website can be great to earn money online. It is one of those income generating options that can be turned into profit making business from home. There is a large audience for cooking websites that share recipes, tips, post reviews on restaurants, log travelling and eating experiences of world, and more. These sites receive thousands of visits daily and also have fan following on social media platforms. You too can turn your fondness for food into small business by building websites where you can share your tips, recipes and more; and interact with your audience as well.
About this business opportunity
You can turn your love for cooking into business by starting small home-based cooking classes or a catering business. But all these involve fund investment as well as resource management and capital management. However, starting a cooking website is relatively simple. It is also quick and reaches to breakeven faster. There are now many website developing agencies to help you build a website at competitive rate. But if one wants, he can also customize templates available online to start off.
There are numerous ways to make money online from your website, some of which are mentioned below.
- Selling products
- Affiliate marketing
- Banner Ads
- Amazon Affiliate
- Google Adsense
- PPC or Pay Per Click
- Ad space on websites
- CPM or Cost Per Mille
- Monetization widgets
- Sponsored reviews
- RSS feed ads
Current market trend
Indian gastronomic landscape is fast changing – paving ways to world cuisine to tantalize the taste buds of Indian food loving community. Side by side, Indian chefs are also rejuvenating delicacies from different provinces and recreating forgotten platters with gusto. The result is newly found enthusiasm about food and cooking. It suggests a right to kick start a cooking website that will also earn revenue for you.
Identify yourself a niche for your audience to cater to. In order to do so, you’d need to study the market for current trends, audience preferences etc.
Level of competition
A search on top search engines will reveal the total search volume worldwide on key words like – food websites, recipe blogs. You can also check with few recipe names to see the volume of search result returning for it. These results will give a fair idea of competition in the arena. A large number of cooking websites are getting published daily and the competition to attract visitors to their sites is pretty intense. It is therefore important that you find yourself a niche.
Marketing is an important part and needs a comprehensive strategy. It must comprise both off-line and digital marketing for cross-platform marketing and improving visibility for site. In order to earn revenue through your website it is important that it receives constant source of high traffic and only comprehensive marketing solution can accomplish that.
Some of the important aspects to consider while planning marketing strategy are mentioned below.
- Selecting domain name appropriate to your business – it should be easy to remember and identifiable by your audience
- Enabling comments from your readers to interact with them
- Sharing high quality content that would add value to your readers
- Social media sharing, networking and marketing to create a loyal band of followers
- Search engine optimization for improving site performance on SERPs
- Paid advertising on Google to direct quality leads to site
The future
The future for cooking websites looks optimistic. But competition is also likely to rise along with challenges to generate new leads on a continuous basis. Changes in search pattern and search engine algorithm would mean that one would need constant monitoring of his SEO and online marketing strategies.
Who can start this business?
Anyone passionate about food and cooking can start a cooking website. If you are looking for income opportunities then it is a great source. However, attending few entrepreneurial workshops, start-up seminars, and learning the tricks of marketing would help in finding a strong foothold in the competitive market.
Skill set you need
Apart from knowing how to cook, you must learn the ways of online marketing, SEO, SMO, affiliate marketing, PPC etc. SEO Training Point in Bangalore offers a variety of training courses to entrepreneurs to help them launch successful online business. Along with they also offer website designing, hosting, graphic designing, content creation and marketing solutions to entrepreneurs as a part of their mentoring courses.
Profit feasibility
Earning through your website sounds like an interesting proposal and given the numerous ways of making money online it doesn’t need to be difficult either. You can earn by allowing third-party ads on your website, registering for Google Adsense, signing-up for affiliate marketing programs, publishing paid reviews and through endorsements. But it order to monetize you’re your website you’d need to ensure constant traffic to your site.
Investment
Staring a cooking website would demand certain initial investment such as – registering domain name, hosting, website building and maintenance. However, there are now several resources which offer affordable domain listing and hosting solutions to small entrepreneurs. Side-by-side you may also search the market for affordable website design and development solution.
Website building
In the competitive market it will not be difficult to find affordable web design and development solution. These agencies will help in building responsive websites or mobile websites based on your requirements.
Marketing plan
Success of your food site will depend on effective marketing, which might include both conventional and online marketing.
Off line –You can promote your website too in the conventional way, i.e. asking your target audience personally, participating in cooking classes and asking students there, advertising on newspapers and electronic media, and more.
Off-line –Digital marketing comprise both organic and paid advertisement. Organic SEO will increase the natural flow of visitor to your site. In order to do that you must make your site search engine friendly, share quality content, take images and optimize them, share videos of recipes, engage your audience of social media platforms.