Enormous Salad
Hello, and happy June. As we barrel toward the solstice, I hope you’re feeling some of the ease of summer—mask-less jaunts outside, social time with friends and family, and plenty of fresh, seasonal foods to eat.
Highlights from the Ad Network Survey
Thanks so much to those of you who answered our survey gauging interest in the latest project we’re dreaming of: a selective, niche ad network just for food websites. We’ve received seventy-four responses so far, and in the interest of transparency, here are some of the highlights.
You’ve been blogging for between three months at the short end and eleven years at the longest. Some have been blogging on and off for a while.
For 20 percent of you, blogging is a full-time job. 64 percent of you would like to be blogging full-time. 16 percent blog part-time and prefer it that way.
In terms of traffic, respondents’ number of monthly sessions ranges from less than 100 to around 40,000, with a full range of distribution in between.
Over 97 percent of you have Wordpress as your current CMS.
65 percent of respondents do not currently run ads on their sites; 35 percent do.
Of those who do run ads, 35 percent use Google Adsense as their ad provider. 27 percent go with BlogHer, 15 percent with Mediavine, and lesser numbers with SheMedia, Elite Cafemedia, Monumetric, Ezoic, and Sovrn.
50 percent are happy with their ad providers, 27 percent are not, and the rest are somewhere in the middle.
In terms of how you feel about the ads on your sites, the top complaints were about ads not being relevant to site content, ads making the page too busy, and ads compromising site speed. Some respondents felt there was no problem.
Of responding blogs that run ads, 64 percent earn less than $100 a month from them, while 20 percent earn between $100 and $1,000. 16 percent elected to skip this question.
Of responding blogs that don’t run ads, 79 percent said the reason is because they don’t yet have enough traffic. In addition, 17 percent don’t like what ads to do the look and feel of a site, and another 17 percent just aren’t prioritizing ads at the moment.
That said, 29 percent of blogs without ads hope to start running ads ASAP. Another 38 percent would like to start sometime this year.
When it comes to our idea—an invitation-only network serving tastefully designed, highly performant, non-tracked ads relevant to food blog readers—95 percent said it seems like something worth exploring.
78 percent said our sample ad seemed like something they might want on their site, and 22 percent said maybe.
The first stage of the ad network will involve building out the technology and testing it, probably by displaying pro bono ads and cross-promotions for the blogs on the network. 38 percent of you said you’re ready to embed our widget on your site before we’ve actually started selling, and another 52 percent said you might be ready.
If you haven’t taken the survey yet and would like to, it’s here. At the end, there’s a field where you can leave your information and indicate whether you’d like to be contacted and considered for a spot as we make this thing a reality. Thanks for your interest, and please spread word of this opportunity far and wide!
Laurie of Tentimestea Answers the (Foodie) Proust Questionnaire
In this issue of the newsletter, we’re inaugurating a slightly new format for the blogger interview—a food-centered riff on the famous Proust Questionnaire (with my own additions to the Proustian originals set off in brackets). Kicking things off this time is Laurie, the blogger behind the baking blog Tentimestea, a title that first caught my eye for its inventive flavors and artfully composed photography. (I believe it was the tiramisu cream puffs that got me first.) Laurie describes her blog this way:
Tentimestea, quantified, is approximately 99 percent baking, 85 percent sweets, and relatively minimal chocolate. It's all about having fun with baking—some of the things I love are trying different flavor combinations or transposing flavors from one dessert to another form.
What do you consider your greatest [culinary] achievement? It depends on the day, but food-wise I’d been chasing the week-end citron recipe on my blog for years. I still make it often.
What is your idea of perfect [food] happiness? One of the best feelings is when someone enjoys something I’ve baked for them. Or if someone else makes dinner for me—that is also very good.
What is your current state of mind? Tired (an overused descriptor, but very accurate).
What is your most treasured [kitchen] possession? Offset spatula.
Who is your hero of food? I don’t really have an answer, but I appreciate those who question ideas of healthy food and eating (ex. Charlotte Biltekoff) and those who bring an intersectional lens to food (ex. the Racist Sandwich podcast).
What is it that you most dislike [in food or cooking]? Carbonation.
Which [culinary] talent would you most like to have? This might be more along the lines of a superpower, but being able to fold batters without deflating them would really help me make sponge cakes.
If you could change one thing about yourself [as a cook or eater], what would it be? It would be so much more practical if my main interest was cooking instead, but I’m not sure I’d want to actually change that!
What is your motto [of cooking, or eating, or blogging, for that matter]? You can usually try again (and probably will have to).
Thank you. Finally, do you have a project you’d like to promote? Or something you’d like to recommend: a blog, a book, a social account, a product., etc. What is something that’s been bringing you joy lately that you would like to endorse to others? The blog Bake Street is fairy tales for bakers.
Catch up with Laurie at Tentimestea, on Instagram @tentimestea, or view her archive of contributed recipes at Trivet Recipes.
Newsletter Alert
Last of all, I’d like to endorse an enjoyable new newsletter, Popping Tins by Tim Marchman, currently on its fourth issue. Popping Tins is a lovingly written bulletin about tinned seafood, and you could do worse than to begin with the first installment, which is dedicated to Bela-Olhão lightly smoked sardines in olive oil, the brand that Marchman describes as “my baseline sardine, the one I buy by the case.”
Thanks again, and till next time,
—Katherine