Ep #29: Food Blog Monetizing Strategies

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You can have lots of successful strategies to drive traffic to your site or to engage readers of your blog, but have you considered specific ways you will monetize your efforts? It’s an important question to ask, if you intend to be a professional food blogger. Today’s guests Alexa and Payton Schirm are talking about Food Blog Monetizing Strategies, specifically the creation of e-courses for your blog. Listen on for more!

Alexa and Payton Schism with Simple Wellness Roots are the next guests on the Chopped Podcast talking about creating online courses!

I recently wrote a post on Top Three Revenue Models for Food Bloggers because I started seeing trends in my interviews with food bloggers.  Specifically, I noticed that if you follow a targeted strategy of revenue, you can minimize the amount of work you do to realize that goal. Let me see if I can say that in way that’s less Dilbertesque: Choose how you want to make money on your blog and then create a plan to make that happen.

One of the revenue models I proposed is about creating a product on your site and that’s what Alexa and Payton are talking about today: Food Blog Monetizing Strategies, specifically related to creating e-courses. They’ve introduced a new site Simple Course Blueprint (see link below) that offers resources to help bloggers create courses for their sites.

It helps that they’ve got a lot of experience creating courses themselves, because Alexa created a course for her local clients and then transitioned that into a blog. Now she’s offering multiple courses on her site and wants you to know you can do this too.

Like what you’re seeing in this post? Come to Chopped Academy 15 to see Alexa and Payton speak. They’ll be taking a deeper dive into how you can create an e-course for your blog. Register for the Chopped Conference today!

The idea of creating an e-course can seem a little scary. In that way, a course may feel a little like public speaking — you’re putting yourself out there in a way that’s new. Anything new is bound to ignite the fear factor in our heads. We might worry we don’t have enough expertise. It’s an understandable response.

When Lindsay Ostram spoke at the 2014 Chopped Conference, she talked about this notion. It can be similar to Imposter Syndrome, where we don’t feel as accomplished as we are. Regardless of the source of our insecurities, Lindsay encouraged us to remember that we only need to be ahead of our audience a little in order to create a product on our sites. In fact, knowing that we’ve been there and that we’re real people like our readers, might actually be a benefit. Our readers will connect with us more as a result.

Alexa and Payton describe the process they went through to create their courses and how they’re helping food bloggers do the same as well.

If you don't know your audience, you won't turn out your best work. — Payton Schirm #choppedcon Share on X

There’s a lot of details in creating videos and marketing your first course, but Alexa & Payton encourages their clients to stay focused on their audience. Meeting the needs your readers will help you create the best e-course possible.

They also discuss promotion strategies for an e-course, which includes developing and cultivating your email list.

Communicate with your audience, like they are your family. — Alexa Schirm #choppedcon Share on X It doesn't have to look like what anyone else has done, it just needs to look like you. Be true to who you are. — Alexa Schirm Share on X

If you’re interested in creating a product to add to your site, you’re going to love this interview with Alexa and Payton Schirm!

Featured Content – Food Blog Monetizing Strategies with Alexa and Payton Schirm

Here are some of the highlights of my discussion with Alexa and Payton, where we discuss:

  • Alexa and Payton talk about their history and how they came to start their blogs
  • What inspired Alexa to develop her first course
  • How Payton was on the fast track learning how to develop the infrastructure of offering an online course
  • How you can create an online course with a minimal budget
  • Tips on how to “know your audience”
  • Why it’s important to have a narrow focus in developing an e-course
  • Why doing a reader survey is a great way to support a product you’re developing for your site
  • Why it can be important to train your audience to understand how to do an e-course
  • Promotion strategies for your e-course
  • Why maintaining your email list is an important part of offering an e-course. (Check out the Chopped Podcast episode on Top Email Marketing Strategies)
  • Why you may or may not want to use affiliates to promote your course
  • How creating a beta group of course testers can help you create an even better course!
  • Some of the other benefits to creating an e-course, beyond monetization
  • Why being true to yourself is one of the most important ingredients for your first successful course!

Show Notes

This episode includes references to some resources you might find interesting. Here they are:

Announcements

  1. Learn about future Chopped Podcast episodes by subscribing to the ChoppedCon newsletter. Just add your email in the subscribe section at the bottom of this page. You’ll be glad you did!
  2. Tickets for the 2015 Chopped Conference are available. You can also attend a Food Photography Workshop with Matt Armendariz or participate in the dynamic Food Blog Success Summit. Take your food blog to the next level…learn more and buy your tickets today!
  3. Kyle Ivins of the Blogger NetworkOur next podcast interview is with Kyle Ivins of The Blogger Network. Kyle and I are talking about monetizing your blog through the use of advertising, with some specific tips on how to make more money for your food blog via advertisements and sponsored posts. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!

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Posted in Food Blogging, Podcast