After spending a few days on it, here’s the list. If you have anything you think should be added, please let me know – II’d love to make this the most complete list on the Internet of instant noodle information! You can find it in a tab on top of the site as well.
Manufacturers
Ramen Fansites
Online Ramen Stores
Note: I have never used any of these places to order noodles nor do I endorse them in any way. I have no opinion of them, for or against
Ramen Depot |
www.ramendepot.com |
Very Asia |
www.veryasia.com |
Marukai E-Store |
www.marukaiestore.com |
E Food Depot |
www.efooddepot.com |
Han Yaw |
www.hanyaw.com |
Ramenbox |
www.ramenbox.com |
My Korean Diet |
www.mykoreandiet.com |
The Japanese Kitchen |
www.japanesekitchen.co.uk |
Wai Yee Hong |
shop.waiyeehong.com |
Wing Yip Store |
www.wingyipstore.co.uk |
Amazon Grocery |
www.amazon.com/grocery |
Koamart |
www.koamart.com |
Shirataki Noodles Diet |
www.shiratakinoodlesdiet.com |
Meijer |
www.meijer.com |
Asian Food Grocer |
www.asianfoodgrocer.com |
I Shop Indian |
www.ishopindian.com |
Calibex |
www.calibex.com |
The Asian Cook Shop |
www.theasiancookshop.co.uk |
Yelzah Global Marketplace |
www.yelzahglobalmarketplace.com |
Kim’s Asian Market |
www.kimsasianmarket.com |
PROBLEM GONE. FOUND IT! “SHOP.THERAMENRATER.COM”. YOUR OLD STORE LINKS SHOULD BE CHANGED TO THIS IF YOU CAN DO IT.
I dont really have a job or any formal training in SEO, but I know a little about it. A few years ago my friend taught me the basics and I make a couple hundred a month online with affilliate program related stuff. Im certainly no expert or anything but I guess I know enough for basic stuff like this.
Also, I didnt mention it above, but http://www.ramenbox.com/order/earn-free-slots offers a program where if you refer people, you get free credits to buy ramen. But since you like a new ramen every day you probably wouldnt want it. But it still might be worth putting a link on certain ramen review pages if the other websites dont sell it but ramenbox has it. Something like “Looking to buy this ramen? Click here!” and you can even do stuff like “Click here to see my page of recommended ramen seasonings/additions!” and link em to your affiliate stuff.
So I ended up emailing WP.com to find out if it’s allowed. The language of the TOS is a little loose, especially where my site is concerned… I figure if the staff says its okay then I can have that behind me for adding amazon links to my reviews.
As for Ramenbox, I don’t really like their selection – it’s really limited. I know most folks aren’t going to be into a ton of different varieties or want a new on every day like me though.
– The Ramen Rater
Unfortunately not too many stores have an affiliate program but a couple of them do, including amazon I believe. Lots of ramen is sold on amazon, and if you refer people there, I believe you can get a commission. Check these links out:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/asianfood/affiliate-program
http://www.efooddepot.com/affiliate.html
Or, it might require a little more work but you could start your own webstore where they “drop ship”, meaning you just are the storefront and they buy through your website and they ship out the items. I think this company is by efooddepot. If you’ve ever seen different grocery websites that look really similar, this is what you are seeing. http://www.maestrolicensing.com/
The easiest and simplest way is just to go with the regular affililate links where you make a small percentage. Asianfoodgrocer has quite a nice selection and so does amazon. Amazon would give you a little widget type thing or a banner ad that you place on the site and it would suggest ramen products. When they buy, you make money!
So I have a feeling and going out on a limb here – do you do SEO?
– The Ramen Rater
I dont see any reason why you cant add them. Take a look at some of this stuff here:
http://chanux.wordpress.com/2006/08/29/adding-affiliate-links-in-to-your-wordpress-blog/
Your affiliate links would just be links to the stores above, but with a little tag at the end to give you your commission. Its the same as any old link. You should be able to do that. And with all this traffic you get, you might make a pretty penny! You just gotta sign up first with the store’s affiliate program in order to receive your customized link to put here. Sometimes the store will hide it, but many times you can find a link at the bottom of their page labeled “affiliate program” or similar.
So I went ahead and added the Affiliate thing but couldn’t find any that were along the same lines as an asian maonline market or anything so far… Would be nice… I don’t want to advertise apparel…
– The Ramen Rater
You mentioned you cant add affiliate links on wordpress. So, if its not against their TOS, which I doubt, you could do something like this:
Say you sign up under ramenstore.com as an afilliate and you get %10 of all sales when people buy through your link (Ramenstore.com/ramenrater). If wordpress doesnt allow direct linking to affiliate links like that, you could just buy http://www.ramenrater1.info, (.info domains sell for $1 on godaddy) and have it permanently redirect to your ramenstore.com/ramenrater link. You would buy a new domain for each particular store.
Well, as far as I know I can’t add them.
– The Ramen Rater
why dont you make the links for the ramen stores into affiliate links? many of them offer a commission for referring customers.
Can’t do that on wordpress.com sites… I’m part of the beta program where I get paid when ads get clicked but ads don’t tend to get clicked often.
– The Ramen Rater
What about just getting a .info domain for $1, and then doing a redirect through that? Is it against the rules or does it detect it in some way? Cause a redirect is a simple easy answer there. I dunno much about wordpress’ TOS.
I’m not sure how you’d go about implementing that kind of thing… I don’t host the site – wordpress.com hosts it for free… I can’t add wordpress plugins or anything like that. It would be nice to add rveenue further than what it does currently [which is maybe $4 a month at best I wager]
– The Ramen Rater