Horticulture Magazine

Thomas O'Rourke, Editor-in-Chief

Leeds, England

2023

Horticulture Magazine grows from a passion project to thriving business

In 2019, Thomas O’Rourke combined his passion for gardening with his skills as a web designer. Years later, Horticulture Magazine is landing interviews with experts and helping a growing readership perfect their gardens.

Planting the seeds

While Thomas O’Rourke developed a bit of a green thumb as a child, it wasn’t until years later that he fully caught the gardening bug.

“I remember being a kid and being out in the garden with my parents. In those days I had just a passing interest in gardening — but then, for whatever reason, I started to pick up the gardening bug again in 2019 and developed a love for growing house plants.”

Later that year, Thomas decided to combine his love of plants with his experience in web design — and Horticulture Magazine was born. The site aims to inspire readers to head into their gardens to experiment with new plants and growing techniques.

“It can be surprisingly difficult to get reliable information on plant growing tips that are tailored for the climate in the UK. So we engage with hundreds of master horticulturists, plant nursery owners, and award-winning garden designers from across the UK — bringing their years of experience and unique perspectives to our audience.”

Like planting some philodendron seeds, it took patience — and growth didn’t happen overnight. “The site grew pretty slowly at first but after a while I noticed it was picking up traction and more and more visitors. I knew from an early stage that I wanted to monetize the website and eventually earn a living from it. So it came time to figure out a strategy that would generate enough revenue to power growth and make this a full-time job for me.”

A new strategy takes root

Initially, Thomas monetized the site through affiliate programs, writing posts that compared different gardening products. But he realized that 70% of the site wasn’t product-centered — instead, many posts were simply detailed, valuable gardening guides that weren’t generating any income through affiliate programs.

“It would be difficult for us to monetize this content without shoehorning in products that readers most likely don't need. I soon realized there were methods of monetizing these high traffic pages such as display advertising through AdSense. With an ad-supported business model we're able to offer readers a solution to their problem for free, whilst being able to earn revenue that we can reinvest back into new content.”

The process got even simpler when Horticulture Magazine joined forces with Mediavine, a Google Certified Publishing Partner. Mediavine integrated seamlessly with Thomas’s website design without any loss of performance or inconvenience to readers. Together, they were able to build an ad strategy that didn’t take Thomas’s attention away from his main passion: helping gardeners stay inspired.

Ads bear fruit

Gradually, the site’s display earnings overtook its affiliate earnings. “The shift to ads has added five-figures of revenue to our monthly income. Earnings are on track to grow by over 100% this year compared with 2022, thanks to our growing traffic and continuing investment in the website.”

Generating revenue through ads has enabled Thomas to scale up his team, bringing more expert content onto the site. “We now have 15 people on staff — authors, editors, photographers, videographers — who focus on a specific gardening sub-niches and understand the UK’s unique climate for gardening. These hires have dramatically raised our level of content because now we can incorporate these writers’ experiences and insights into our site.”

“The combination of all this expertise is what makes us different. Some of the growers we speak with have more than 50 years working with their speciality plant types. They’ve learned an incredible amount working with the plants over that time and there’s incredible value to be gained in speaking with them and including their insight on our website.”

“I see my role as a conduit who brings hundreds of horticultural experts together in a place where they can share their insights with growers of any level. That’s ultimately how readers then discover our website and it’s what keeps them coming back. None of this would be possible without our income from ads, which allows us to compensate our authors, editors, and contributors for their time.”

A vibrant community of readers

Perhaps the most gratifying development has been Thomas’s interviews with some of the giants on the UK gardening scene. “The number of prominent UK horticulturists we speak with who are actively using our website is mind-blowing. For instance, we interviewed Lee Burkhill a few weeks back (from the BBC TV show Garden Rescue) and he told us how he reads our site all the time and uses it for tips whilst out in the garden.”

"I think interviewing Alan Titchmarsh was a huge highlight as he is someone that the majority of people in the UK would probably recognize. I grew up watching him on the telly so it was certainly a moment that led me to reflect on just how far we'd come.”

Of course, it’s not just all about the big names. The nicest moments come from hearing from readers, who thank the site’s team for helping save their ailing plants. It’s this combination of content creation and service that moves Thomas the most.

"I'm able to make a living while also helping people. I understand that plants often have a deep symbolism for people that can be difficult to put into words. They might have been gifted by an important person in their life, or someone might be looking to care for an old tree that has been an ever-present in their childhood home. So it's really satisfying to receive emails from our readers and learn about how we’ve helped them care for their plants.”

About the Publisher

Thomas O’Rourke is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Horticulture Magazine – one of the UK’s favourite online resources for garden growing advice. Thomas is a graduate of the University of Leeds and member of the Garden Media Guild.