The Goals:

• Turn his successful website into a successful business
• Keep creating content that helps creative families

The Approach:

• Signed up for AdSense to start earning ad revenue and then partnered with Ezoic, a Google Certified Publishing Partner

The Results:

• 40% increase in ad revenue
• Ad revenue allows Chris to keep investing, hire new writers, and keep focusing on building his media business
• New data-driven content approach, based on ad revenue per page, increasing average time spent on site by 23% and site visits by 27%

Chris Craft is the founder of CraftWrites.com, a blog to inspire creative families and Nao Media, a media company that creates music, entertainment content, and blogs. He currently resides in Georgia with his wife and three creative children.

Building a digital family business

Chris Craft of CraftWrites.com is a creative at heart. After pivoting his career from engineering to start a music label, Chris got hands-on experience marketing, designing, and creating a business out of the hip hop and soul music he released. When his first child was born, Chris wanted a career that allowed for more flexibility that he could do from home. So he once again pivoted his music label into a media company, Nao Media, which creates music, entertainment content, and blogs. For his blog, CraftWrites.com, Chris envisioned a space where creative families could, well, be creative together. “Our whole family is creative,” Chris explains, “and we knew other families like us were out there, but I was shocked to see how well our site was received and the interaction we’ve gotten on the blog.” Chris and his family post content like “How to start a baking side hustle” and “How to make a family tree” that inspire families to come together and do fun, hands-on activities.

Leaning in to an ads-based revenue model and data-driven content

While CraftWrites is a fun outlet for their family, it’s also a business that Chris sees a lot of room for growth. He turned to Google AdSense and a Google Certified Publishing Partner, Ezoic, for help and saw a 40% increase in ad revenue from January to July 2021. “Since we started using Google AdSense, ad revenue has become our main source of income for the site,” Chris shares. “With the money we earn, we’re able to re-invest in the site to create more inspiring and helpful content that families can access for free.”

And it’s also helped him make business decisions. “We can see which of our articles earn the most money per thousand visits, which helps me make decisions on where to invest more to help the business grow,” he explains. With Google Analytics, Chris is also able to see how people are engaging with his site and which content readers enjoy, “we started doing more longform writing,” Chris describes, “and based on the time on site metric in Google Analytics, I can see how much time people spend on a page. With the analytics data, it’s amazing to know that our audience is taking the time to read our longer articles, which gives me the confidence to keep creating them.” By developing helpful content his readers love, Chris has seen a 23% increase in the average amount of time a visitor spends on his site and a 27% increase in site visits.

Investing for the future of their business, and their family

While the business is growing, it’s still a Craft family affair. “We’ve seen an incredible response to our site from other families, but it’s also been a great experience for our family. My daughter created our logo, we all developed the mission statement, it’s been a way for us to come together and learn new things. CraftWrites is definitely something I want to pass on to my kids.”

As Chris builds out his media business in partnership with other agencies he’s excited for the opportunities ahead, “Now that we have a steady income from AdSense we can invest more in content and our site quality, bring in new writers, and continue to be a glimmer of inspiration for all the creative families out there.”