MANILA, Philippines - Who says you cannot pursue your passion even if you are busy with a full-time job?
Frances Lorraine Ang is a busy social media manager in Singapore but still finds time to write about her food adventures and share recipes on her blog. And she gets paid for it.
“Blogging is my hobby. My day is not complete when I don’t blog,†said Ang, who has been blogging on frannywanny.com for six years now. She also has over two million readers.
The passion for food was also the reason why Anton Diaz, a former IT manager in a multinational company, shifted from writing about IT to writing about his food adventures. His articles about food and travel are now shared on his blog, ourawesomeplanet.com.
Call center supervisor and small business owner, Mhel Ignacio, and her brother, Ken, a professional chef, maintain their three-year-old blog, certifiedfoodies.com.
Ignacio said she and her brother wanted to show that anyone can prepare something delicious at home, even without professional training. Today, their blog contains food finds and recipes that their readers can follow and cook at home.
Food bloggers thrive because Filipinos love food. This passion for food shows even on Google Trends. Searches for the keywords “food†and “restaurant†have been consistently high on Google.com.ph throughout the year.
No wonder foodies like Ang, Diaz, and Ignacio are turning to blogging to share their reviews and to monetize their content. For these three bloggers, monetizing content is easy with Google AdSense on their website.
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is the easy choice in selecting an advertising monetization platform, according to Ignacio.
“AdSense is easy to implement. You just have to write quality content that will drive traffic to your blog, find out the best space on your page for the ad, and then watch the money come in. How quickly one earns is different from blogger to blogger, but it depends on the topics one writes about,†said Ignacio.
Ang shares that monetization from Google AdSense came in gradually for her in the beginning, but eventually came in at a more regular pace. She has managed to cash out every quarter since her first sizeable income. She used her earnings to travel and buy her first phone during her early blogging days.
Optimizing to increase traffic
Bloggers look for ways to increase traffic to their websites because this contributes to earnings from AdSense. Ang thought of creative ways to bring visitors to her blog and keep them coming back, including running contests.
Diaz had to learn search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. Focusing on quality content, he explained, would also help increase the number of repeat visitors on the blog.
Ignacio agreed: “Maintaining a food blog is not as easy as it looks. Aside from executing good food photography, there’s also writing, editing, proofreading and optimizing that need to get done before publishing a post.â€
Plans
Diaz’s blog has opened a lot of opportunities for him, including establishing the Ultimate Taste Test event where Pinoy foodies can sample food products of metro entrepreneurs. He also opened his blog to advertisers, and now wants to develop a digital magazine for his readers.
Ang, on the other hand, will continue developing content that her readers enjoy. “I used to think small, like simply sharing my experiences with others. Today, I’m happy to hear that my readers actually use my blog posts as a travel guide and this inspires me to give better content,†she said.
“We believe that through our blog, we have managed to influence people to cook and to enjoy being in the kitchen. We hope to continue to spread our love for food through our blogs,†Ignacio said.