The Goals:

• Create a trusted resource for wellness reviews and content
• Make Spa and Beauty Today a sustainable business

The Approach:

• Chose AdSense to help monetize their content easily

The Results:

• Doubled their earnings this year
• Support the spas they partner with throughout the pandemic

Lizzy Sherman is an award-winning digital content writer/editor. She has been a featured guest speaker at Cal State University Northridge, Digital LA and The National Association of Audience Marketing Professionals. When she's not writing, Lizzy enjoys yoga and playing guitar. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @zillizy, @zillizy16. Her Co-Founder, Kamala Kirk, is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk

Lizzy Sherman and Kamala Kirk are doubling down on wellness and their ad revenue

After working in the publishing industry, best friends Lizzy Sherman and Kamala Kirk noticed a gap in the content they saw: despite abundant information on beauty and wellness, there remained a lack of information about consumer spas. “Wellness is such an important part of our lives,” said Lizzy, “and we wanted to create a trusted resource that would encourage others to make self-care a priority while helping them make informed decisions when choosing a spa.” That’s how Spa and Beauty Today was founded in 2018 - as a platform to share real reviews and expert tips on the spa, beauty, travel, and wellness industries. “Our content includes in-depth spa profiles that are searchable by location, industry trends, the latest product news, and more,” Lizzy shares.

Beyond spa reviews, Lizzy and Kamala share everything from travel tips to interviews with beauty and wellness industry experts like Suzi Weiss-Fischmann and Elise Minton Tabin. And to support their business, they decided to show ads with Google AdSense. “Coming from the digital publishing space,” says Lizzy, “we both knew that digital advertising was going to be a big component of our revenue. Luckily with AdSense, we’ve been able to more than double and in some months even triple our earnings this year. AdSense has allowed our small team to focus on creating content and improving the site experience, while Google provides the right ads for our audience.”

Supporting the industry throughout the pandemic

While Spa and Beauty Today has been growing, the pandemic made for a difficult 2020 for the spa industry. “A lot of the spas that we work with were really struggling, so we partnered with them to feature their businesses or highlight at-home treatments,” recalls Lizzy. “We tried to focus on ways we could help the spas but also bring a little bit of self-care to our audience during a really hard year.”

Today the Spa and Beauty Today team is excited to expand as the world re-opens. “We’re really focused on increasing traffic to our website and trying new ways to connect with our audience like events,” Lizzy says. “There’s a lot on the horizon for us and we can’t wait to take this small business to the next level.”