Posts in Business

A food critic is a person that gives their opinion about food that is prepared by local food establishments like restaurants and bistros. They publish their opinions in newspapers, magazines and now even online. If you are a foodie, or if you just like to enjoy eating food, then consider becoming an online food critic. Not only can you find fulfillment in sharing your opinions with others who enjoy food, but you can also make a good living by turning your online food critiques into a business. Step #1 – Gain Experience With Work While you don’t have to be a professional food taster to become an online food critic, you do need some connection with food. For example, you can take classes to become a certified BBQ judge, you may have experience working at a restaurant, you may be a professional or amateur cook or you may have a degree from a culinary school. If you don’t have any experience with food, beyond eating it, then you will need to build your reputation from the ground up. Step #2 – Select Your Niche The next step is to select the type of food that you will focus your reviews on. To be successful online you will need to select a niche to work in, such as ice cream reviews, Chicago restaurant reviews or road side stop reviews. You can select more than one niche if you are up for the challenge. Step #3 – Develop a Portfolio of Initial Reviews Before you can get your food review website up and running you will need a portfolio of food reviews to upload. To get your website off the ground you will need at least 20 reviews. Make sure your reviews have a similar format and contain the same basic information about the food item or the restaurant that you reviewed. For example, you will want to detail where you got the item, who prepared it, where the restaurant is located, when you arrived and your opinion about the service and the food. Step #4 – Set Up Your Online Food Critic Business to Make Money To make money with your food critic website you need to do two things. First of all you will want to look into adding Google ads to your website. This will help you to earn money based on how many people visit your site and how many people click on the ads. Secondly you can earn money by selling food related products through affiliate programs or through your own online store.

As much as I love the internet, my favorite thing in the world is downloading music. I found and joined a website called eMusic.com earlier this month and I’ve gone from about 6g of music to over 8g in that timeframe. eMusic offers a wide range of titles and artists. It stockpiles a lot of older tunes, Big band/swing, jazz and classical. It’s an awesome place to shop around for all those operas you just can’t find for a decent price anywhere else. They also have several different versions of any given track. They offer a trial period for free, for 25 downloads. After that, you can chose from different levels of access. The service is subscription-based on a download-per-month basis. The Basic subscription is 9.99 per month. You receive 40 downloads per month. I got my free 25 then blew my first month of forty in about 3 weeks. Like I said, I love music. The Plus subscription is 14.99 per month and you get 65 downloads. The Premium is 19.99 per month and it comes with 90 downloads. eMusic also offers yearly subscriptions, a deal which is sweetened with a free MP3 player. The site is currently offering a 20% discount on a one year Basic, Plus, or Premium subscription, as well as a 25% discount on a 2 year subscription. While I was overjoyed with a lot of the tunes I found here, there is one thing that makes me glad I downgraded to the Save offer. It’s eMusic Lite for 5.99 for 3 months. Anyone who loves music knows what they like and what they’ve been searching for all over the place. We know what our favorite artists and tunes sound like. Nobody does the Star Wars Imperial March like the London Symphony Orchestra. With that in mind, the very small fault I can find with eMusic is the fact that many of their available tracks are done by alternate artists. For example, I was in hot pursuit of Jungle Boogie by Kool amp; The Gang, a popular funk and pop band from the 70s and 80s. Well, I found Jungle Boogie, and I was delighted with the sample I heard of it. When I got the whole thing and listened to it, I knew it wasn’t Kool. It’s a good remake, almost right, but any music we grew up listening to has a certain ring to it. Aside from that, the lack of modern artists is frustrating. However, they offer a great many independents. They also distribute for a sister company, The Orchard. Overall, I enjoy eMusic. I have the Superman Suite, the Star Wars Suite, The Barber of Seville, the Marriage of Figaro and Beethoven’s 5th and 9th. I have to wait until next month before I can download anything else, but I have 65 tunes I couldn’t find anywhere else. I’d say that’s a good haul.