Good morning!
How did you all spend your night last night? Relaxing? TV? Working out? Was there wine involved?
I was holed up in a tech bubble making changes, clearing caches, making changes, clearing caches and on and on and on for the majority of mine in case you hadn’t noticed.
Design wise it’s just a lot of moving around, content hasn’t really changed much, just the way it’s all laid out. If you were in the .01% of visitors that google analytics tells me actually used the tag cloud, I apologize but it’s days are over.
Besides design, the biggest change is what you’ll find on the “sponsor” tab under the contact dropdown in the navigation menu up top and what you see on the far right sidebar:
Beginning this month, Running to the Kitchen is offering sponsorship opportunities. All the information can be found on the sponsor tab but here’s the gist of it…
If you have a blog, an Etsy shop or a small business that you’d like to increase exposure to, this is an opportunity that you might be interested in.
Ads are offered on a monthly basis and come in the three sizes you see above (large, medium, small-those are actual sizes up there) for $50, $35, and $25 respectively. The large ad will be limited to 1 per month and hold the top spot.
Your ad image (and if you don’t have one, it can be created) will be linked to your site and visible to all of this site’s visitors.
Here are the stats as of April 2012:
- Over 175,000 pageviews a month
- Around 5,700+ hits a day
- 600+ facebook fans
- 885+ twitter followers
- 450+ instagram followers
You will also be included in a monthly sponsorship post that will live in the archives of this site even after your ad period is up.
And if you’re wondering why I’m doing this in the first place, here is the honest answer…
I spend a lot of time on this blog and I love every single minute of it. Besides time, I spend money on food, food props, camera accessories, blogging conferences and everything else associated with it. Instead of accepting and shoving in your face the tons of offers to do sponsored review posts that come my way that I don’t enjoy reading on other blogs, I’d rather try and make a little money in something that actually supports the community I spend so much time in and contributing to. In 4 days, it will be one year to the date this blog was started. It’s grown from 100 hits a day to what it is now. I’m proud of it, it’s taken a lot of hard work and dedication and I wish I had seen (or been smart enough to search for) an opportunity like this to help me back then. I don’t plan to turn this into an “in your face” sponsor this, sponsor that kind of thing, I’m just allocating a section of my sidebar to those looking for some new followers and exposure in a community I spend way too much a lot of time in already.
If this isn’t your thing, food is coming shortly.
If this is, you can email me for more information at ginamatsoukas@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on the sponsor page.
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
HI Gina,
well done on the stats!!! Do you use Google Analytics? or a wordpress plugin? (if you don’t mind me asking
)
I use both Jetpack for WP and google analytics. I use google when I need to report numbers for something but jetpack on a more consistent basis. They’re both very close to each other as far as numbers go. I believe the only difference being that the jetpack one doesn’t count visits to your own site.
Oh brilliant thanks!
Love all the changes! So exciting
I think this is a great idea – I too find the sponsored posts etc a bit wearying but I think you’ve found a great way to get some small reward for all the effort that you put into this blog and will still be supporting the community at the same time!
I love your blog. It always resonates with me and makes me laugh, which are the 2 second most important things next to amazing-looking food (which you also have!). Congratulations on your success. I hope to be where you are in a year!
Thank you, Julie
so crazy..you and i started our blogs 4 days apart. you, on the 7th, me on the 11th. look at us now!! xoxo so glad to have “met” you through this blogging world
I didn’t realize it was that close together! likewise
that’s amazing that your blog has taken off like this, congrats!! I love it and I am so glad I found your blog
Way to go! Your killing those stats sweetheart.
This is such a great idea! I love it
You know, the sponsor thing is a new concept to me that I’ve noticed over the last few weeks in different kinds of blogs (not many healthy living but more artsy ones), but it’s also something I’ve considered trying out. I think your reasoning is spot on and much better than slapping on a corporate ad in those spots. P.S. I think we started our blogs on the exact same day one year ago….. WIERD!
Exactly. So many “artsy” blogs do it and seem to be successful in it. I does seem like a bit of a risk in the food/healthy living community b/c it’s just not as well known, but I figure what’s the worst that can happen? No one jumps on board and I move on
How weird is it that we started our blogs at the same time?!
Congrats on your success in just a year! You are doing great <3
I wish you luck with this. I have tried my hand and failed so far
But, your stats are way better than mine and you seem to have a better business model!
Thanks Cara, we’ll see. Like I said to Katie above, it doesn’t seem to be as popular in our blogging niche, but I’m just not sure why when it’s pretty successful in others. Worth a shot at least!
Awesome stats Gina! Since I found your blog, I’ve been coming back everyday to see what surprises you have in store for readers… Good luck on this sponsor thing!
Congrats on adding the ad space. I think its a great move. And congrats on the traffic you’ve built in a year. That’s amazing!
Love it! what a fabulous idea! I almost wish I had a small business just so I could advertise here! I know I’ve told you this before but I just kind of want to move into your kitchen. Your blog is in my top 5 and this post is exactly one of the reasons why! Cheers to you!
Thanks Cinnamon, what a nice compliment
It’s actually not just for businesses. It’s for blogs! So if you wanted to have an image advertising your blog and linking back to your site, that’s what it would do! The image could be any picture of yours with your blog name on front and when people click on it, it would drive the traffic to your site. 
ohhhh I didn’t catch that….well then, that may actually be an option for me to consider! I would love to drive traffic to my site! Especially if they come from a place I love so much! I will email you….
I so need to do this.
Also, you have an INSANE amount of readers! That is pretty fantastic. I feel like I’m going to be rooming with a celebrity.
See you tomorrow!
PS now I have that song stuck in my head. ^ huge bowie fan.
haha, you’re welcome
And celebrity, I am not. I just like food 
There are only like 10 million things I need to do between now and my 7:30am flight tomorrow. Ahhhhh!
I am with you! I planned to pack last night and I went to a dinner w/ the beef and his group of grad students to celebrate his prof’s tenure and co-hort’s PhD … and was there for FOUR HOURS. FOUR. Ugh. And I couldn’t eat anything on the menu so we had to get me dinner AFTER dinner. So much for packing.
I can’t believe you’ve only been blogging a year?! I thought it was like 3! You should be so proud of yourself for what you’ve done, Gina! And your photography, the recipes every day, just…everything, you do is so professional and it’s totally understandable wanting to try to offset some of the costs associated with running a blog.
Curious how that works with Foodbuzz. I hope it works out for you! Keep us posted on things.
I think people are going to be fighting for space
. I LOVE your blog- it’s one of my favorites and I can probably account for 60 hits a month 
. Have fun at the retreat. Wish I could be there!
Haha, I hope!? We’ll see… Thanks for the support. Between this and the retreat, I’m a ball of nerves today! haha Have a great weekend!
I love this idea Gina!
So question – I’m also with Foodbuzz. We’re allowed to have separate advertising/ sponsors?
I discovered your blog back in January, and from day one it became a must for a daily check. Love, love, love that you have a new post every day! I cook from your recipes several times a week. Your almond butter and edamame dip became a go-to staple. Not to mention all those balls. But this blog turned out to be much more than a favorite breakfast read. It was for me a gateway into the healthy eating internet community. Following links from this site, I discovered this exciting new world. My list of food blogs to check over breakfast grew dramatically in both size and good-for-you-food factor, but yours is still the first blog I check in the morning. Thank you for being there for readers like me, and congratulations on making this new big step.
Yana- thank you so much for your comment. I love anyone that loves balls as much as I do
Seriously though, this just made my day. So thankful and happy to have you checking in day after day.
I don’t know how you did it. Crazy numbers girl. I’m happy to have ‘met’ you even if recently. Can’t wait to see where you take things from here.
Great changes, and the sponsors is a great idea, I see more and more people doing that lately!
Congrats on the changes!
I just send you a message on the sponsor form – hope to hear back from you!
Thanks Ally! I sent you a reply, let me know if you didn’t get it for some reason.
Really like the changes – makes your photos pop even more! And heck yeah, you should start making some $$ for all you give us readers
You have an amazing blog and totally deserve to make a little money on the side (wouldn’t it be great not to have to pay your blog and blog conference expenses out of pocket?!)
Best of luck (and I’ll be watching to see how it goes; I need to head in this direction too…)
thank you!
Wow, what success you’ve had … congrats!
Girrrrrrrrrrl, you are growing big and fast! You should take this blog in whatever direction you want and I think your idea is brilliant. It took you one year to accomplish what took me in nearly 3! Kudos to you!
Thank you Nicole
I know I’m a little late – still catching up with my feed reader, but…. Congrats! And I love this idea! I’m just about to do my first sponsored post ever(they’re going to be really few and far between – this is the first chance I got for something unprocessed that I would actually eat) and it makes me feel kind of sick inside. That’s not what I want my blog to be, but at the same time running a blog costs money! I’m thinking this kind of idea would be a much better option. Hope it works out well for you!
Thanks, Heidi! I know what you mean…I get emails all the time from foodbuzz about sponsorship (although they don’t call them that) opportunities and while the $ would be nice, I’ve yet to find something I would actually use on a normal basis and therefore feel ok promoting on here. It’s a tough call. I hope this sponsorship thing continues to be successful b/c I’d much rather go this approach!