内容来源：分享美国 地址连接：http://go.usa.gov/cEAaw  

玛迪哈∙哈密德（Madiha Hamid）小时候喜欢在家里办家家，模仿大人做菜烧饭。她在回忆当年的情景时说，“我把所有的食材放在面前的大碗里，像做电视节目那样。然后我自言自语，对想象的听众讲话。”

哈密德在成年后想到可以做些什么事减轻日常的压力。这时候，她马上考虑到烹饪。她说，“我开辟了自己的烹饪博客，记载了我所知道的巴基斯坦料理。最初，我希望这个博客成为一个网上纪录私密食谱的平台……就像我们的母亲放在抽屉里的食谱一样。”

Chefling Tales（美食家传奇） 开始的时候属于个人的业余爱好，她同时从事电子市场推广的工作。她后来在泰国生活了一段时间，发现了可以为她带来财富的更为广阔的天地。

哈密德发现，在巴基斯坦以外的地区，巴基斯坦食品丧失了原有的滋味。于是她想向全世界介绍本国家庭烹饪的方法，做到和在巴基斯坦一样原汁原味。

所以，哈密德决定把自己的博客改为商业平台。她说，“我们在巴基斯坦没有推广[我国烹饪]的网站。我知道我需要迈出更大的一步，不能仅仅靠自己写家庭烹饪的博客。”随着巴基斯坦广告业从传统走向电子化，她看到了巨大的商机，想到可以与名牌食品和企业家进行合作。

走向成功的食材

扩大Chefling Tales规模的第一步是建立一支杰出的开发和设计团队。这个团队用了8个月的时间开始提供产品，重点在于使客户感到简便易行。

但哈密德后来发现，仅仅建立一个好的烹饪网站还不够。她认为，推销产品的最初阶段极为重要。

好在她得到了WECREATE | Pakistan center for women’s entrepreneurship（巴基斯坦妇女创业中心）的帮助，并与美国-巴基斯坦妇女委员会（U.S.-Pakistan Women’s Council）建立合作关系。她说，“WECREATE 为我提供了机会与一些很优秀的辅导人员一起工作，同时也学习了其他初创企业的经验。他们的帮助有助于进行推广工作。”

吸引适合的客户是最大的难题，这也是使内容变为收入的关键。哈密德说，“我有很好的内容，但是为了打通市场渠道，必须要有耐心，同时为市场推广进行投资。”

为了实现这个目标，她发展了电子内容伙伴，做到内容共享。另外，她还与其他博客网站和有影响的人物联络，发展电子公共关系。

传统食谱焕发青春

Chefling Tales的成功发展不仅仅使哈密德和她的团队受益。由于她所说的”边区美食家（Cheflings on the Fringe）计划，数百名偏远地区的妇女都能够发挥自己的烹饪手艺获得报酬。

哈密德说，“与其坐等别人捐助或者学习另一门手艺，这些妇女可以与我们共享她们拿手的食谱，然后我们再与全世界共享。我们为她们写的每一篇博客文章付钱，这些食谱为我们的网站增添了独特的内容。”

哈密德希望今后5年在巴基斯坦各地招聘500多名妇女。但是她也知道，这样做必须有商业上的意义。她说，“我们计划根据外界的反映与这些妇女共享收入。这是维持这个项目可持续的途径。”

为烹饪做好准备了吗?

如果希望将自己的博客转变为商业工具，哈密德提供以下一些有助于获得成功的提示。

• 考虑你的用户希望阅读和分享什么样的内容。
• 明确自己的重点，对自己写的内容要有满腔热情。
• 确立清晰的商业模式，考虑通过什么样的渠道获得收入。传统广告和“原生内容”，或得到赞助的帖文都很有用。
• 与业内人士取得联系 ，建立合作关系。

As a child, Madiha Hamid used to host her own cooking shows — at home. “I would place all the ingredients in front of me in small bowls just like it’s done in TV shows. I would then talk to myself and to an imaginary audience,” she recalls.

No wonder that when the adult Hamid wanted to do something to ease the stress of daily life, she turned to food. “I started a personal food blog where I started documenting all the flavors I knew of Pakistan,” she explains. “Initially, I wanted the blog to become an online version of the secret recipe diaries our moms … kept in drawers.”

Chefling Tales started out as a hobby alongside Hamid’s blossoming career in digital marketing. It wasn’t until she spent time in Thailand that Hamid saw an opportunity for something bigger — something that could eventually make money.

“I realized that the taste and flavor of Pakistani food available outside Pakistan is not true to its origin,” she says. She wanted to present to the world her country’s home-cooked cuisine “in its true form, as it’s eaten by a Pakistani.”

That’s when she decided to turn her blog into a business venture. “We didn’t have a website in Pakistan that was promoting [our cuisine],” she says. “I knew I needed to take a bigger step than running a family-based food blog.” And with advertising “going from traditional to digital in Pakistan, I saw a great opportunity to work with food-related brands and entrepreneurs.”

Ingredients for success

The first step in expanding Chefling Tales was to engage “an excellent development and design team. We worked eight months to deliver the product,” focusing on making the user experience simple.

But just building a good website wasn’t enough, Hamid learned. “For a product, the initial phase of promotions is extremely important,” she explains.

Fortunately, she had help from the WECREATE | Pakistan center for women’s entrepreneurship, in partnership with the U.S.-Pakistan Women’s Council: “WECREATE gave me a chance to work with some great mentors and also learn from other startups. They helped in spreading the word.”

One of the biggest challenges has been attracting the right audience, which is crucial for monetizing content. As Hamid explains, “I have great content, but to ensure reach, you have to be patient as well as invest in marketing.”

To do that, she is “establishing digital content partners who can share our content.” She also has reached out to other bloggers and influencers and run a digital public relations campaign.

A new twist on old recipes

Hamid and her team won’t be the only ones to profit as Chefling Tales’ success grows. Thanks to an initiative she calls “Cheflings on the Fringe,” hundreds of Pakistani women in remote areas will be able to earn money through their cooking skills.

“Instead of waiting on donations or having to learn another skill, these women can share their favorite recipes with us, and we share it with the world,” Hamid explains. “We pay them per blog [entry], and the recipes bring unique content to our website.”

Hamid hopes to recruit more than 500 women across Pakistan over the next five years. But she knows that doing so has to make business sense. “We plan to share revenue with these women on the basis of impressions generated. This is the sustainable way of keeping this project,” she says.

Ready to get cooking?

Thinking about turning your blog into a business? Hamid shares these tips for success:

• Think about your audience and what they would like to read and share.
• Have a clear focus and feel passionately about what you are writing.
• Develop a clear business model for how you plan to make money. Traditional ads and “native content,” or sponsored posts, can help.
• Make contacts within the industry with whom you can establish partnerships.