Wine Blogging Comes of Age With New Sponsorship Opportunity

FERMENTATION: The Daily Wine Blog Continues To Set Wine Blogging Trends

In an effort to create a viable monetization scheme for wine blogging, pioneer wine blogger Tom Wark has devised a model he believes will easily underwrite his own efforts and provide a model for other wine blogs looking to monetize their efforts. Wark, owner and publisher of FERMENTATION: The Daily Wine Blog, will take wine-related baseball caps in payment for promotional spots on his video blogging segments.

“This model for monetizing wine blogging gives new meaning to the term “CAPitalization,” said Wark. “I wear lots of baseball caps and they cost money, yet wineries and wine related companies looking for promotional opportunities are finding extra cash hard to come by today. My Caps-For-Sponsorship model addresses everyone’s needs.”

Wark’s pitch for sponsorships can be found at his blog here: http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2009/08/sponsoring-fermentations-video-blog.html

Wark began his wine blog in 2004. Since then his readership (and now viewership) has grown to make him among the most popular wine bloggers in America. Wark also founded the American Wine Blog Awards and was a founding sponsor and organizer of the North American Wine Bloggers Conference. Wark also runs Wark Communications, a wine industry communications and public relations firm.

“It’s clear the world of wine blogging has progressed and evolved to the point where the time has come for this kind of monetization of content,” explained Wark. “Wine Blogging is the real deal and I think it’s time for wine bloggers to step up and expect something in return for their effort—in my case, that something is wine-related baseball caps.”

Wark’s FERMENTATION Caps-for-Sponsorship program calls for wine-related companies to provide him with a baseball cap with their logo on it. In exchange, he will wear said cap during a video blog as well as read short promotional copy provided by the sponsor.

“My plan is not only to use this program to pay for my baseball cap fetish, but to also create one of the largest collections of wine related baseball caps in the world, thereby creating a valuable collection which can be later be sold to an aficionado of both baseball caps and wine,” said Wark. “Wine Bloggers need to begin thinking as businesses.”

Contacts

FERMENTATION: The Daily Wine Blog
Tom Wark, 707-933-9313
tom {at} warkcommunications(.)com