Nowadays, food blogs are not only popular and fun but also easy to monetize. That is why is you love eating and cooking, it may be a really nice idea to create blog and start making money while you keep on doing what you like. Do you love experimenting with different recipes? Do you enjoy decorating your pastries? Are you eager to try foreign cuisine without traveling anywhere? Seriously, think about food blogging!
How exactly food bloggers make a living has long felt like an enigma, but not anymore. A majority of food blogger earnings are generated through sponsored content and ads, but can also come from other avenues such as their e-books and Amazon partnerships. The amount earned varies from one food blogger to another, but there is a high overall potential for growth.
For instance, Bjork and Lindsay Ostrom, the duo behind the food blog ‘Pinch of Yum’ made a meager $21.97 in August of 2011 through their blog. However, over the months, their earnings grew – sometimes even exceeding $90,000 in just one month!
Can you reach the same success? Why not, every influencer, every celebrity once was a simple human with modest income. Are you still in doubt?
Why Become a Blogger?
- You can turn your passion for food or hobby into income
- You get a chance to be creative with your recipes
- It is quite easy and affordable to get started anywhere any time
- It is simple to monetize through sponsorships, affiliate programs, and ads
- You can establish a diverse community around eating and food
- It can be a stepping stone to new opportunities such as publishing books, or if you are lucky and ready to put more efforts, a cooking show or YouTube series such as Ree Drummond or Rosanna Pansino.
Starting a Blog and Making Money Through It – 5 Effective Platforms
Once you decided what type of food blog you wish to start and have created a blog name, the next step is to purchase your domain name or create your blog on any platform that offers you such a service. The cool thing is that many platforms offer you ready-to-use website templates so you can create your blog literally within ten minutes. So, what are the options? Here are five platforms that can help you use ads wisely.
- Google Adsense
The largest and probably the most well-known of all the ad networks that offer display video, advertising, and search monetization is Google Adsense. It is free to sign up and will usually accept even the smallest websites, making it a must-have if you are just starting out.
- Media.net
This platform allows you access to millions of sponsored display ads and also contextual from the Bing and Yahoo network. It is quite simple to join and the requirements are pretty lenient.
- BuySellAds
As a blogger, you will list your ad inventory and CPM for every ad zone after which you will start receiving requests from advertisers to post an ad on your site. This makes a great substitute for Adsense since it enables you greater control over what messages and ads are being shown on your site.
- BlogHer Ads
If you are a female blogger with an engaged audience, then this solution is a must-have! You will become part of a diverse community of women who are also content creators and be able to mutually benefit each other.
- Live Intent
This network enables you to monetize your email newsletter through displaying ads. In addition to that, they smoothly incorporate with email service providers such as MailChimp. However, you are required to have a minimum of 3 million email open impressions on a monthly basis. So if your list happens to be too small, then you should opt for Newsletter Directory.com, which is pretty much like Live Intent except there is no traffic requirement involved. You can ad display or text-based ads that easily incorporate with MailChimp and a selection of other email service providers.
- What comes next?
And once you choose all the website and ad platforms it is time to start blogging.
Add your recipes, share beautiful photos of your meal, show the success and disasters you experience in your kitchen – all kinds of content might be useful in the beginning of your blogging career. Feel free to experiment and try something new. You never know what will work out the best for your blog unless you try it.
But the real question is: How to make money through your personal blog?
The main idea of bogging is to generate a target audience. The bigger audience your blog has, the more income you can get. Even though implementing ads through an ad network is one of the quickest and easiest ways of monetizing your food blog, the most difficult part is picking the right one that is ideal for your website and audience. While some do have specific requirements regarding page views, traffic, and the type of audience, a majority of them are pretty easy to join.
Another option is to use E-commerce platform. Some of the website platforms offer this kind of useful monetizing feature, so you can, for instance, put your most valuable recipes behind a paywall or provide access to some of your groups where you share your cooking tips through recurring subscription.
Reaching out to brands and companies directly is an also effective way to build a real relationship with them, and this can help you land on a better agreement regarding sponsorships and profit sharing. Lastly, scour your spam and junk lists and see if there are any PR emails trying to reach out to you. If so, definitely do respond to them as it could be a chance to earn some great cash.
But before you start getting real income from your food blogging, don’t try to hurry up your success – enjoy the process. Cook, eat, experiment, write about it all – and eventually you will get a reward for living your life passionately and happily.