How to Make Money with Your Food Blog: A 5 Ingredient Recipe!

So, it’s clear that passion is the special sauce here. But with enough hard work and commitment, you could be among those 1 percent who do make a living.

Mind you, that was a survey of fewer than 700 bloggers.

The truth is that the amount of money you can make as a food blogger depends on many different factors.

There are bloggers who make close to nothing and then there are people who make thousands of dollars every month.

It’s all about getting traffic to your blog.

The more people that read your blog, the more money you will earn.

So, your most important task after creating content is promotion.

I am not gonna get into that here, but just to give you a few ideas, you could use social media, word of mouth and SEO to drive traffic to your new site.

Also, remember that you won’t be able to make money overnight, but with persistence and commitment, you could be looking at getting an extra $300 – $2000 a month (or maybe way more than that if you can manage to become a real celebrity food blogger).

Perhaps the best part of having a food business is that you’ll always have customers (or in this case readers). People will always need to eat and people will keep talking about food.

So, it’s an evergreen niche.

How to Actually Make Money with Your Food Blog

If you are serious about this and want to start a food blog, here is the recipe you’ll need to monetize your food blog…

1. Monetizing a Food Blog with Adsense

You will need to be smart in how you incorporate Adsense.

You earn money when people click on the ads, so they need to be clearly visible and get the reader’s attention. At the same time, you won’t want the image or video ads distracting your readers from the content of your blog.

The least intrusive and less annoying place would be to position the ad where it does not draw attention away from your articles (below the fold). Newspapers charge their advertisers more for placing ads ‘above the fold’ since this is where they get the maximum exposure.

After you sign up for Adsense, you have the option of creating new ads. It’s best to know the dimensions of your intended ad space before setting up your ad. Sidebars will normally be between 200-250 x 200-300.

You will get an Adsense code from Google, which you place into a text box Widget. It’s a simple process and you are now on your way to making money.

2. Build a List

“Money is in the list” is a famous saying among internet marketers and bloggers. By using an email marketing platform like AWeber, you can build up a list of people that follow your blog.

You need to encourage people to sign up or subscribe to your blog. When they subscribe they will receive an email notification every time you post a new entry in your blog (blog broadcast).

You could also send monthly newsletters and provide reviews of products you’ve tested and recommend to readers. People will want to sign up even more if you can give away something for free in return, like an e-Book, video tutorials, or even an opportunity to consult you on recipes.

3. Local Sponsorship

Conduct research in your local area for food products you can promote through your blog. It could be anything from a secret recipe barbecue sauce, cake decorations, or a kitchen gadget.

Contact the manufacturer or supplier and let them know you are interested in testing their product.

They may even send you a free sample.

If you are happy with the product you can then make an arrangement with the manufacturer or supplier to give the product worldwide exposure by promoting the product on your blog through an article or video demonstration, and negotiate a payment for the sales made through your blog.

You could also provide publicity for local sellers by posting an interview you did with them on your blog for a small fee.

A good relationship with the local suppliers can be mutually beneficial where you both increase your revenue by working together.

4. Food or Kitchen Product Affiliate

Large food or kitchen product companies offer affiliate programs where you can earn money by promoting their products.

Signing up for affiliate programs on websites like Amazon will earn you a good percentage of sales that are connected to your blog.

5. Sell Your Own Products

This can be a real money maker if you have the right product and you market it properly.

It could be something unique and innovative, perhaps a gadget you have developed yourself to make a task easier, or an eBook with low-cost recipes that have not been published before or cater to a special dietary requirement like gluten free recipes.

How to Start a Food Blog?

As a beginner, I would suggest you start with a free blogging platform like Blogger.com.

It’s free, owned by Google, which some people believe makes it easier to rank on Google thus driving more traffic to the blog, and best of all, it’s very easy and quick to get it going.

It will take you less than 5 min to build your blog.

Now, if you don’t mind spending a few bucks on buying your own domain name and getting a hosting account, it would be a good idea to do that.

Having your own domain like myfoodblog.com instead of myfoodblog.blogspot.com is much more professorial and you have much more control over it.

That said, I wouldn’t waste too much time on this, you can always change direction later on.

The important thing is to take action and build your food blog so you can be on your way to making some money.