neonlights

My wife has a beer blog! She does it for love and really she just rambles on stuff. But people love it and I'd love to see it monetized enough to at least earn her some beer money each month!

Here is the link: Amber Liquid
(hope I'm not breaking the rules by posting a url here)

It needs a proper template but it seems pretty popular. Getting 50-100 uniques a day and I guess ppl are bookmarking it (I'm only judging by webalizer stats). Getting alot of hits from live.com. The term 'spanish beer' seems to be popular. I was very happy with the PR4 but I feel we could push it more (social bookmarking sites?).

Anyway, I'd love any suggestions for ads. As you can see I have attempted adsense (with no great success). Gotta be something better than that. Should I target 'spanish beers' on the pages that rank for that term.

Any advice is welcome. Even if it is just abuse related to my wife's alcoholic tendencies

kel290

As a partial solution the Buy Me a Beer plugin for wordpress would seem to be a good fit to the blogs theme. It might garner a few donations a month.

Netphase

Text-Link-Ads InLinks?

zany zoroaster

saxongifts dot com has some awesome beer products ("das boot", exotic belgian glasses) and an affiliate program. She could sign up there and promote their products somewhere on the blog's sidelines.

neonlights

thanks for the suggestions guys. some nice ones there

stadanko101

You might want to google beer making kit affiliates.

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HarveyJ

Beer Machine gifts for men, home brewing beer kits

Cellarmasters: Wine Club, Buy Wines Online, Red or White Wine, Mixed Dozen also has an affiliate program (with ClixGalore I think)

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neonlights

Awesome! I hadn't thought of cellarmasters. Good one

Hey Harvey - you might be able to help me with my embarrassing newbie question:

hopeless newbie question

pax

haha trust an australian woman to have a beer site

AdHustler

nice blog. If you sign up to a merchant type aff network like cj, linkshare or shareasale and just search beer you should find tons and tons of products to promote.

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crazyfish

I'd fix the template too, it's got some serious display issues in IE6. There are tons for WP so no reason to use a broken theme.

WebRef.eu

Do you have any idea of what type of people are reading the blog?

For some reason I feel high end homeware items, e.g. posh coffee machines, might work.

Rgds

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ffblueocean

I think Text-Links-Ads requires a higher traffic volume.

It's great you already have something under the dates; however have you considered skyscraper ads in your sidebar?

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HarveyJ

That's a really good point.
Get her to put some Google Analytics on the thing, find out where your traffic is coming from.
If it's more than 50% Aussie, forget about the big networks for beer offers, as shipping booze into the country is a duty tax nightmare waiting to happen.

Seriously though, if the blog gets popular (and you've got me as a fan now), there's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't be able to:

• Start selling reviews to magazines and newspapers - I saw a specifically beer magazine at Borders the other week
• Go on tours to microbreweries after informing them she's a reviewer. You'll get interesting content from the brewers (maybe even get an audio-recorder and start up a basic podcast?) as well as free samples
• Convince local online stores to start an affiliation with the blog, or at least pay for advertising in a banner arrangement, as well as direct links to their stuff when she reviews beers. i.e I just tried Toohey's Middle Aged. It was <insert review>. If they don't have it at your local, get it from www.boozeshop.com.au
• Merchandise: Let's face it, we love Yobettes, particularly if they get their tits out. Not saying your lovely lady should, but she can certainly sell her face on things. CafePress have beersteins, and I'm sure you can find a place locally to make stubby holders for you.

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neonlights

Ah thanks. I can't see those errors though.

Yeah definitely needs a new template. We kinda rushed it.

neonlights

Wow! Awesome info. I'm running webalizer on the domain but I'll get GA going and see what it comes up with. I'm guessing it's mostly Aussie traffic, which is fine really. It's a real 'word of mouth' blog. It's spread by our friends mostly. Gets a trickle of hits from facebook (in my wife's profile).

We had kinda thought about a few of those things, like reviews of micro-breweries and boutique beers. And local advertising and partnerships too. But I got disheartened when I realised I had no idea how to do it! Luckily she has kept writing in it. People seem to like her style.

Thats all definitely some food for thought! Yobette - she will love that! Longer I spend here I get more inspiration for making it a real goer.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. When I get it all organized I'll let you know what happens

CPW-Carl

*If* you want to stick with Adsense, you could have them blend in better, use the same link colours as the rest of the blog etc, maybe put a banner one up at the top where you have all that black space.

neonlights

Like you said, "if". Not sure I like adsense much so far.

To be honest I don't think I'll pursue monetizing the blog really. It's something we enjoy too much. I'm going to push my own PPC and organic projects instead. I like to seperate work and play, I guess. I think I owe her a better template though. That one is rubbish.

Nice to see another Aussie here. Seem to be a few of us about

HarveyJ

Seriously mate, it's not hard or whoreish if you're putting up a simple PPC or PPL sort of campaign.
Even if you're just doing it as something you love, there's no reason it shouldn't make you a little bit on the side. Don't push push push the ads... Just whack in a banner ad for a DIY beer kit or something, and maybe a PayPal donate. Simple as, and you'd be surprised how effective it can be.

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neonlights

Yeah I know you are right. I think I have to get some backlinks too. Argh! So many projects!!!

Hey I just got your sig! Believe it or not that's not how I found this place. Nice bit of SEO there. How did you pull that one off?

Houdas

Your wife has a beer blog? Your wife rox!

seocracy

Your wife's BEER blog?

I guess we know who wears the pants in that relationship.

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Gumby!

Set up a live webcam of her drinking beer ...... naked

Charge $19/month ($9 if she's ugly)

Cha - Ching!

neonlights

Hmm...beercam. I like it! I think I might try ebay first though. Millions of beer accessories on ebay.

Yeah my wife rox. So hands off

rgordon83

Look on CJ and see if any advertiser has Mr Beer kits. i have one and make my own brew. she could do a review on it...

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neonlights

Yeah I guess we should be doing some actual reviews. That was kinda the idea behind starting but now she just rants and raves. Which people seem to like.

HarveyJ

Found some more:

BarleyCorn Brewers
The Beer Store :: Buy Beer Online, World Beers, International Beer Shop, Australia <-- this one even has a label your own section.

Neither has an affiliate program, but if you're getting a lot of traffic, you might be able to set something up one on one, and I'm sure there are people here that will help you actually do the tech stuff behind it for a little kick back.

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Gumby!

Ebay's a good choice, tons of breweriana, I've bought more than my share there.

Another thing to consider is adding some video. You can use it to promote a lot of the affiliate products you can push.

If you are going to push diy kits, shoot some video of your wife giving demos of how to brew beer using the kits, shoot several showing how to brew different types of beer.

Watermark the vids and upload to all of the vid-sharing sites, should get a pretty good boost in traffic.

You can use video for a lot more on a blog like that, use your imagination.

Google loves video, make sure to use a xml video site map. Aquitas had a thread about it here or just google it to get the specs for creating one.

SixDollarBurger

How about putting up a hangover cure product for your loyal users.

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Gumby!

Good idea, I could use some of that right now

neonlights

Not a bad idea. Me and my wife would be the main customers though!

Love the video idea, Gumby. Great technique for AM in general, I imagine.

Gumby!

yourYea, video is the future. With a little imagination you can start to see where it can be used in many different ways.