How To Become A Food Blogger And Make Money

11 min read

Once upon a time, blogs were considered purely passion projects. But those days are gone, and nowadays, blogging has become a profitable business venture for many. There is a seemingly infinite amount of blogs waiting to be written on any and every topic imaginable. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably been curious about how to become a food blogger and get in on this highly lucrative (not to mention fun!) business model.

We’re happy to report that making money while blogging is actually easier than you might think. The following article lays out a roadmap and offers helpful advice on becoming a food blogger and making money while doing it!

How To Start A Food Blog

For any blog to be successful and profitable, it needs three essential components: engaging content, distinct branding, and diverse income streams. Food blogging, in particular, requires constant, unique content and branding, as it is a widely competitive field. In other words, lots of food blogs exist, so for yours to be successful, it needs to be special.

Pick a niche

A high-quality food blog consists of regular, compelling content that is instantly recognizable. Rather than making a generic food blog (about say food+blog), choose a specific or niche food category (i.e., French, Italian, paleo, vegan, etc.) to attract new and existing readers to your category of choice. The more specific you are, the more likely you will grab the attention of someone who is interested in learning more about what you have to offer.

Build a brand

In the same vein of specificity, make sure you use smart, distinct, and effective branding strategies for your food blog. This includes the name of the food blog and its domain, brand awareness, and promotional content. First thing’s first: create a compelling name for your food blog and acquire a catchy yet concise domain.

The name of your food blog sets the tone for your brand and all of your content. It will determine how audiences identify with and remember you. Prioritizing SEO will also help to direct audiences to your food blog. Be sure to use specific keywords and phrases in all parts of your blog’s development for the best optimization of content.

Distribute content

For increasing brand awareness, try developing relationships and engaging with corresponding bloggers and communities on social media or online forums. To gain more brand traction, promote other bloggers or brands you have a relationship with who can then do the same for you.

6 Ways To Monetize Your Food Blog

To generate money from your food blog, you need to offer audiences something of value that they can’t find anywhere else. This ties back into your content and branding choices. Creating engaging content and effective branding means that you will have greater success in developing different income streams. In effect, you should ensure that your blog is complete, thorough, and of the highest quality before seeking monetization.

Once you feel that you have created a unique food blog and blog posts, you can dive into generating different streams of income. Examples of these streams include advertising, affiliate marketing, giveaways, selling products or services, and sponsored posts.

1. Ads

Including ads on your food blog is one of the best ways to make money. You can use CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) ads that can be sourced through advertising networks such as Adcash, AdThrive, Bidvertiser, Google AdSense, Media.net, PropellerAds, and RevenueHits, among others. This way, you can skip the process of finding and developing relationships with advertisers to receive ads instantly.

You can also pursue private ads that consist of direct partnerships your form with individuals or businesses. To avoid potential scuffles, be sure that each party lays out specific guidelines and expectations for the partnership. Ads can appear as banners on your blog, in the sidebars, or as buttons and links for readers to view and engage with.

When using ads, be mindful of the types of ads you include to complement your content and target your specific audience. Some types of food-related ads can include restaurants, food festivals, kitchenware, and cooking classes. Google Ads is helpful with targeted advertising as it pulls relevant ads that closely relate to your food blog and appeal to your audience’s interests.

2. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a beneficial tool for earning a passive income from your food blog. You can include this type of income stream by establishing a relationship with a business that wants to sell its product or service. Some types of businesses to partner with can include food vendors, food festival organizations, kitchenware sellers, or cooking instructors. Once established, the business agrees to provide a commission from their sales if the sale was initiated through promotion on your blog.

This is tracked by the unique URL used to promote the product/service that is provided by the business. The business can then determine if the customer used your promoted link on your blog to make a purchase.

To jumpstart your affiliate marketing efforts, you can go directly through a business’s existing affiliate program or join affiliate marketing networks. Such networks include Amazon Associates, Awin, ClickBank, Rakuten, and ShareASale, among others.

3. Giveaways

Another great way to build connections, increase engagement, grow audiences, and monetize your food blog is through giveaways. To set up a giveaway, a business provides you with a product or service to be given to viewers of your blog for free. You make money by charging the business for the giveaway event, and you gain likes and follows by hosting the giveaway on your social media accounts.

Types of products or services that can be included in a giveaway are: food items, kitchen supplies, recipe books, cooking classes, tickets to food-focused events, or gift cards to restaurants, food vendors, or kitchenware sellers.

4. Membership or subscription services

If you have a steady flow of viewers, you can capitalize on membership or subscription services to earn more money. These services entail that viewers receive access to exclusive content in exchange for a membership or subscription fee. This content is inaccessible to those who are neither members nor subscribers to your blog.

5. Sell your own products and/or services

A food blog can also act as an optimal way for marketing your own products or services as an added form of income. After you’ve gone through driving traffic to your site with SEO and maintaining a steady viewership, you can explore this stream of income.

The products and services that you create and sell can be digital or physical. Selling physical products is a conventional way to earn money. These can range anywhere from books and appliances to food and beverages. On the other hand, digital products and services are a more unconventional but growing monetization route.

Some digital product and service ideas include apps, ebooks, online courses or workshops, plugins, premium content, etc. In this way, you transform your viewers into buyers of your products and/or services.

6. Sponsored posts

Building relationships with sponsors who pay you to promote their business is another way to diversify your income stream. A sponsored post explicitly discloses that you are working with the business to promote their brand, product, or service on your platform.

The sponsor pays you to blog about them in the same tone, voice, and manner that you would blog about your own content to your audience. Sponsorships can take form through articles, emails, social media posts, and videos, among others.

Types of sponsors to look for include food and beverage manufacturers, kitchenware manufacturers, or food subscription services.

While popular bloggers have sponsors approach them, new and lesser-known bloggers often reach out to businesses and brands themselves. Another way to acquire sponsors is by using sponsored or influencer networks.

These networks serve to improve opportunities for bloggers and brands to connect. Some popular influencer networks are CreatorIQ, GRIN, Mavrck, Popular Pays, and Tribe, among others.

Launch Your Own Food Blog

We know you’ve been curious about how to become a food blogger and make money on your own. By following the advice above, you can make your passion your living by creating a monetizable food blog with Ecwid!

As a world-class ecommerce platform, they are focused on driving small business success. Using a single platform, Ecwid simplifies the ecommerce experience by giving you complete autonomy over your blogging business (i.e., website, social media channels, marketing, selling) all in one place.

What’s more is that there are no setup charges, transaction fees, or installation requirements. So set up your Ecwid account and start earning revenue with your new food blog today!

Sell online

With Ecwid Ecommerce, you can easily sell anywhere, to anyone — across the internet and around the world.

Get started

Apr 8, 2021

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.