Recipes for Traffic
Written by Kristy Pruitt · Print This Article
Not too long ago, if you needed a recipe, you either consulted a cookbook or called your great aunt Martha. Today, more and more recipe seekers are going online to find out how to make their favorite dishes.
And it’s not just wannabe chefs that hit the Web to search for recipes. It’s everyday cooks who want to try something new. It’s budget-minded individuals who are looking to lower their food bill. It’s health-conscious eaters who can’t find suitable prepared meals. It’s people who want to lose weight but don’t want to follow a diet that involves frozen meals or pills. The list goes on and on.
What does this mean for Internet marketers? It means that there are lots of great recipe niches to fill!
Maybe you’re thinking that there’s no shortage of recipe sites online. And quite frankly, there’s not. But most of those sites aren’t focused on a niche. Most of them provide a wide variety of recipes. They do well because they have lots of advertising dollars to work with, and they are often associated with well-known magazines or parent sites. But marketers with smaller budgets can do very well with sites that feature specific types of recipes.
Even if you don’t have a ready-made following, it’s not all that difficult to get a recipe site off the ground. If your niche is sufficiently focused, search engine optimization will be pretty easy. And even if you’re just including an occasional recipe on your blog, the name of the recipe is likely to draw some search engine traffic.
Right about now, you’re probably wondering how you can monetize recipes. Here are a few tips.
- First and foremost, make sure that the recipes you feature are relevant to your audience. If you’re starting a recipe site, use only recipes that fit within your niche. If you’re featuring recipes on an existing site or blog, make them recipes that will appeal to your audience. For instance, don’t publish high-cost recipes on a budget-oriented blog, and don’t publish recipes for decadent desserts on a weight loss site.
- Consider becoming an affiliate for a company that sells some of the ingredients. Then link the name of the ingredient to your affiliate page. This works best for items like hard-to-find herbs and sauces, because people aren’t as likely to buy things that they can easily find at their local grocery store online.
- Become an affiliate for a grocery delivery service. This idea works best for those who run sites with a local focus, because most online grocery stores serve only a limited geographical area.
- Sell your readers a cookbook with similar recipes. Print cookbooks are still good sellers, and recipe ebooks are quite popular as well. You could buy resale rights to an ebook, become an affiliate for a cookbook publisher, or even publish your own.
If you’re looking for an effective way to gain traffic, recipes could be just the thing. And if you play your cards right, that traffic can easily translate into dollars!
About the Author
Visit Kristy Online at: WebFreelanceWriter.com
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Mary Lutz says:
I do post some recipes on my two of my blogs and have noticed a lot of traffic coming from them. For instance, on of my sites is to help WAHMs be as efficient as possible in their business and personal lives, so I post quick, inexpensive and easy to make recipes there. I also post food and cooking articles that draw a lot of traffic.
My other site is a Mom site, a place where moms can come and vent, chat or just speak their minds. I’ve posted some Holiday recipes there that have been big hits as well.
I wasn’t sure if I should continue to do that because of the other recipe sites, but after reading this article, I think I will!
Thanks for the great info!
Kristy Pruitt says:
Thanks for illustrating my point!
I don’t think there will ever be too many recipes online. There are just too many people looking for them, and not everyone frequents one of the major recipe sites. Some just do a Google search to find what they need when they need it, and others prefer niche sites because they like certain kinds of recipes.