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10 Ways Food Bloggers Make Money

Food blogging is a great way to share your passion for food with the world. But did you know that you can also make money as a food blogger? There are a number of ways to monetize your blog, and with a little creativity, you can start earning an income from your blog.

How to make money as a food blogger. Picture of loaded foil pack potatoes on a tablet screen.

If you’re serious about making money as a food blogger, then you need to start by creating high-quality content that will appeal to your audience. Once you’ve built up a loyal following, you can start exploring some of the ways to monetize your blog. But even if you’re just doing it for fun, there’s nothing wrong with earning a little extra cash from your passion for food!

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Displaying Ads

Sell advertising space on your blog. This is one of the most common ways for food bloggers to make money. You can approach companies directly or work with an advertising network such as Ezoic, Mediavine or Adthrive.

We run Ezoic on our food blog and have been very happy with them as we grow our blog. They are a great way to start making money with your food blog early on, they accept blogs with decent content even if you have very little traffic. If you have less then 10,000 monthly visits, they are one of the only decent managed ad networks that will accept you at this time.

I am sure there are others, but they are the only one that we have experience with that allows blogs with lower traffic. They accept blogs under 10k but if you have over 10k visits a month, you will start immediately into the levels program (more money.)

Mediavine is one that comes highly recommended, tho I am still rather happy with Ezoic, but they want to see at least 50,000 sessions in 30 days. They are a bit stricter with where your traffic comes from as well. If most of your traffic is not from the US, they are likely not the best ad company for your blog.

Adthrive I have heard great things about but no experience with them. They are one of the top ad networks so you are in good hands with them, but they want you to have at least 100,000 pageviews a month.

You can also contact companies directly about advertising as we mentioned above, but honestly it is much easier to have ad networks handle your ads.

Sell Digital Products

Sell digital products through your blog. One great way to make money as a food blogger is to sell digital products to your readers! They are simple to make, we have a few templates that you can purchase (we keep our prices low on these templates for you) on our Etsy shop if you are not great with designs. Check back often, we only just started the shop in summer of 2022 and are adding new things regularly!

Easy Products Like:

Kitchen conversions table. This below is one of our templates for purchase (link on image) and every element is customizable to your colors. It comes in 2 colors you can use or edit in Canva.

Kitchen conversion templates in 2 different colors that are fully customizable.

Your readers will love to have a kitchen conversion sheet! It is something they can print out and place on the fridge or anywhere they want to see it quickly.

You can brand them to your colors and your site’s name so your readers are always looking at your brand. I recommend selling them for a small price or even offering them as a freebie for an email opt-in to grow your email list.

Meal Planners are a big one that you can sell for a small price if you want to make money as a food blogger. We have templates for them too here (link on image) that you can customize to your brand.

2 simple meal planner templates. Perfect for building your brand. Use as an opt-in or sell to your readers.

Your readers will love a meal planner, seriously many of them do really want one! If you are selling them we do recommend using the template that has your site’s name and not using the one with your logo. Your logo can go on a freebie for an opt-in tho!

Selling Physical Products

I sell digital products and at the moment do not sell physical products, but it is an amazing way to make money as a food blogger! Jason Logsdon over at Amazing Food Made Easy has great information on how to sell physical products.

Physical products can be anything from spices to merchandise. I am going to be starting spices soon but at this moment I have kept everything digital.

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income is another great way to make money as a food blogger. It is easy, you have no products and no cost to doing this. You promote a brand’s product in your posts and earn a commission if people make a purchase through your link.

There are many different affiliate programs out there and one of the most common is Amazon. They are huge and people love Amazon so it does make it easier to promote products from there.

Cookbooks

While I should have a cookbook, I do not yet – notice I did say yet, right? If you are looking for a great way to make money with your food blog, a cookbook can be it!

Is it the easiest way to make money? No, I am not going to sugar coat this. I am that honest friend that people love to hate. It is not the easiest to create. There is a lot of work involved from perfect pictures to amazing recipes.

Is it worth it tho? Yes, it absolutely is!! It is something that is yours to sell. You are not making a 5% commission off of an affiliate sale, it is yours. Minus the amount of money for publishing and promoting, the money made is yours not another company’s.

Need help promoting a cookbook? You can have affiliates market it for you if you choose to. Yes you pay them a commission, but they help you get sales you would not have had without them. Win, win.

Sponsored Posts

Yes sponsored posts are always a great way to earn money as a food blogger. You reach out to a company or a company reaches out to you about sponsored work and you write a recipe (or social media content) for the company.

While I would love to tell you that I am the best at sponsored post, I am not. I know what I am doing but not enough to get you in the best direction. Jenny Melrose has the perfect course for anybody looking to do sponsored work with brands. It is called Pitch Perfect Pro. I am not an affiliate of her course so I am not compensated for referring you over to her, but I know you will love it!

She literally covers everything!

Cooking Courses

Every food blogger has their own special skill in the kitchen. You love food and you are here looking to make money with your food blog, maybe this is it!

There are many ways you can do a cooking course. It can be 1 inexpensive class that they learn the basics, it can be a lengthy course that teaches a full cuisine or you can do a weekly “this is what we are cooking” kind of course.

This takes a bit of marketing, but you can make a nice amount of money with online courses! Everybody wants to learn a skill, there are a lot of people that would love to learn what you have to offer!

Social Media Collaborations

Similar to sponsored posts, social media collaborations are an easy way to make some extra money as a food blogger. There is a down side to this tho. It is best to have at least 1000 followers to work with brands. Many do want to see engagement on your social media too.

If creating posts and contents on your social media for brands is something you want to do, be sure to build up your social media accounts to at least 1000 followers and keep them engaged. If you have 1000 followers and 50% engagement, it is better then 5000 followers with 5% engagement. Note that 50% engagement isn’t a reality, just an example of how different numbers can be.

Work With Other Food Bloggers

This one is a huge way to make money as a food blogger, but not on your own food blog. There are many bloggers out there that look to hire out a lot of their tasks.

Some of us may be great at creating a recipe but horrible at pictures. If you are great at photography, you can work with food bloggers to photograph their recipes.

There are many things that food bloggers outsource:

  • photography
  • social media management
  • SEO
  • recipe development
  • writing
  • marketing

The list can go on!

Video

Video is becoming quite popular. Many of the social media platforms have programs where bigger influencers can make money with reels or short videos.

Another great opportunity for video is your own YouTube channel. You grow your audience, host your videos (you can embed them to your blog to save on hosting resources) and if you grow your channel big you can make money on ads!

We use videos on our blog for our readers, but I do not have a cooking channel going strong on YouTube – tho I would love to have one!

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are many ways for food bloggers to make money. We’ve outlined a few of the most popular methods, but there are many other options out there. What works best for you will depend on your blog and your audience. Do some research, try a few different things, and see what works best for you. Are there any monetization methods we didn’t mention that have worked well for you? Let us know in the comments below!

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