In our last post about Elara Pro, we introduced you to the theme and gave you a tour of some of its best food blogging features. You probably already have some delicious ideas to share with those recipe cards! However, if you aim to make blogging a career, you’ll need to create promotional elements to support your main content.
In this post, we’ll see how that’s possible by exploring a few more of Elara Pro’s capabilities. Our theme includes several key features that you can use to monetize your food blog. They’re easy to set up, and you can implement them as soon as you launch your site.
First, we’ll explore a few reasons you might want to monetize your recipe blog. Then we’ll show you Elara Pro’s Promo Box, Shop This Post, and Ad Widgets options. Let’s get cooking!
When to Monetize Your Blog
Monetizing your blog can be an efficient way of supporting it (and even yourself). There are plenty of different strategies you can use, and some result in a largely passive income. This means that once you have a system in place, you won’t have to do much to keep the money coming in. After some time, your blog may even grow into a full-time gig.
With those potential benefits on the horizon, it can be tempting to jump into monetization right away. While there are some techniques you can use early on and see modest success from, there are others you may want to hold off on until the time is right.
For example, selling ad space on your blog is an easy way to get started. You’ll earn some money whenever a visitor clicks on an advertisement. However, you won’t see much of a return until you have consistent daily traffic to your blog. So you might want to wait until you have an established audience before placing ads on your site.
On the other hand, affiliate marketing is a strategy you can use right out of the gate. Promoting products and services on your site or in your newsletter can earn you a commission for sales made through your affiliate links. Just as with ads, however, you’ll see better results as your readership grows.
If you’ve chosen Elara Pro as your blog’s theme, you’ll be well-prepared for both short- and long-term monetization tactics. This theme has some specialized features you can take advantage of if making money from blogging is your goal.
3 Elara Pro Features That Can Help You Monetize Your Blog
Now that we’ve introduced a few money-making strategies, let’s look at the Elara Pro features that can help you implement them.
1. Promo Box
The first feature we’ll discuss is Elara Pro’s Promo Box. You can use this widget to promote recommended products:
You have multiple options for where to display this widget, and its appearance will change based on where you place it. If used on the front page in the promo area, it will display in a carousel format, and you can include multiple items. Alternatively, when placed in the sidebar the widget will show a single product.
There are a few ways you can put this feature to use. For example, it’s an excellent tool for affiliate marketing. A lot of affiliate content simply involves links within blog posts, but the promo box enables you to include a photo and price for each item as well.
Another way to use this option would be to promote your own products. After all, setting up an online shop could be a nice complement to your blog. You may even want to try compiling some of your most popular recipes into a cookbook for your fans.
No matter how you intend to use it, setting up the widget is easy. First, navigate to Appearance > Widgets in the WordPress admin dashboard. Select your desired location from the drop-down menu, or drag-and-drop the promo box wherever you’d like it to be:
Then, fill in the information in the Widget Settings menu. The Title and Description fields are optional. If you want to add several products to the Promo Area, you can place multiple instances of the widget in this section. The widget will then display the products in a carousel format.
2. Shop This Post
Next up, the Shop This Post feature enables you to add a curated selection of products to the end of your blog post:
You can include this display in your recipe posts to provide a shopping list for readers. You might add the recipe’s ingredients or even the required equipment to the list.
When you create a new post, you’ll see the Shop This Post field below the main editing area. You can add a title and description for the section if you’d like. If you have an online shop to link to, you can add a button for that as well. However, these fields are optional:
To add products to the list, click on the Add item button. Then, simply fill out any information you think would be helpful to your readers.
You can add as many items as you’d like to the Shop This Post section, so don’t worry about running out of space. Simply click on the Add item button for each product you’d like to include.
3. Ad Widgets
Last but not least, Elara Pro includes some predefined areas where you can place ads. These spaces are designed to enable you to include promotions without overwhelming your content:
Of course, you can place ads on themes that don’t have designated space for them. However, built-in ad space comes with a major aesthetic advantage and saves you time as well.
When you decide to include ads on your site, it can be easy to get carried away. Fortunately, with Elara Pro, you don’t have to worry about giving up too much of your blog’s real estate to advertising, which could otherwise result in a cluttered, unattractive website.
The ad widgets in Elara Pro work with static images and custom HTML. If you’re interested in Google AdSense, those ads will also work just fine with this feature.
Conclusion
While maintaining a food blog can be a lot of fun, there’s also a fair amount of work involved. If you’re putting effort into your blog already, it’s handy to make some money at the same time.
Elara Pro provides you with multiple ways to monetize your food blog, with the help of a few simple widgets. The Shop This Post tool and Promo Boxes make it easy for readers to purchase the products you trust in your kitchen. Plus, with the built-in ad spaces, you’ll be able to include targeted promotions that won’t ruin your website’s look.
Which Elara Pro feature are you most excited to use? Tell us in the comments section below!