Starting a food blog in this day and age is not as difficult as it may seem. You can set up a successful food blog that will have you generating income in no time. Learn new food photography skills make money from your very own food blog. No social media needed.
How to start a food blog and make money
Let's be real, at the end of the day we are all aiming to bring in a little income and why not do that by using your passion for food, photography and blogging. It may seem like a daunting task, but creating a food blog is not as difficult as it may seem.
- Choose a domain name. This will be the name of your blog and essentially what your blog will stand for. There are many websites you can use to check if your domain is available. You can use this domain checker below
2. Decide on your hosting. My website is currently hosted with Bluehost, they have incredibly cheap starter packages and I've found their customer service to be incredibly helpful and prompt responses. Their packages start at $3.95 p/m so definitely a great option if you're just getting started.
3. Set up your blog on Wordpress. I've given Squarespace and a few other platforms a try, but I still find Wordpress to be the best for a food blog.
4. Decide on a theme. The theme for your food blog will determine the look and feel of your food blog. I'm currently using the Brunch Pro theme from Feast Design. The theme is currently $9 and well worth the investment. Starting off with a great theme, simply makes your life a lot easier so that you can focus on content.
5. Create content. When it comes to food blogging. Content is king. Content is what will make sure that your blog brings in traffic and ultimately revenue.
Content is King!
When it comes to growing your food blog and ultimately making money from your food blog, content is where you want to place your focus.
Start by creating at least 15-20 pieces of content. Focus on recipes that will be a little less common so that you're not competing with larger bloggers out there. I like to focus on easy yet slightly different recipes, like these pumpkin oatmeal muffins. Starting off with a collection of recipes, will immediately kick your food blog off and give it a little meat around its bones. Ultimately it'll give you a little authority with Google and that's all we want.
Focus on Food Photography
I can't reiterate this enough. Your food photography is what will set you apart from the rest. Think about it. When you see two photos side by side of the same recipe, you can't help but click on the more yummier, prettier image. It's simply how it works.
Foodtography school (use the coupon code GINGER for$15 off) is the BEST place to start for food photography beginners or even if you aren't a total beginner, it will definitely help you up your game. I've taken a few of their courses and it has been a game changer for me.
How To Get More Traffic To Your Food Blog
Bringing traffic to your food blog is the ultimate goal. The more traffic you have the more money you can make. YAY!
Firstly, focus on SEO.
Write your blog posts with SEO in mind. Use tools like KeySearch to help you find the best keywords to include in your posts. SEO can be a little tricky to figure out and also a little frustrating because you won't see immediate results. It's takes a little time for Google to find you and to see you as an authority on the topic.
But it is also the one thing that you can rely on. Traffic from social media etc is fleeting and with constant algorithm changes, it definitely not the place you want to place all your energy.
Google Web Stories.
Maybe you've heard about them, maybe you haven't. But if you want to see immediate results I would recommend you get start on google web stories IMMEDIATELY. They can bring in a ton of traffic and they hosted on your own site.
I won't babble on about it for too long because I've done an entire post on how to set up google web stories, why they're amazing etc etc...
How to Make Money From A Food Blog
This why we're all here right? How can we use our food blog to generate income. Food blogs are not dead, the market is NOT saturated and yes, you can make money from your food blog.
As I mentioned before, you'll want to first focus on creating content, up your food photography game and learn a little about SEO and Web Stories.
Once you've got those bases covered it's time to let that food blog bring in a little income for you.
There are multiple ways you can make income from a food blog:
- Advertisements - This is the best form of passive income, it can take time to become accepted at an ad agency, but once you're in you're set for a sweet bit of passive income. I'm currently part of Mediavine, they are amazing, super helpful and definitely help with adding to my income.
- Selling Products - You could create beautiful recipe ebooks and sell those products on your website or even consider selling physical products.
- Sponsored Posts - Once you've gained a little traffic, you can start approaching brands to work with them. This is a really great way of generating income. HERE is a FREE guide on how to pitch to brands.
- Freelance Food Photography - There are SOOO many other bloggers and brands that need consistent help with shooting their recipes or even with recipe development. This has been a large part of my income, so again I place SO much emphasis on making sure your food photography skills are on point. You can charge anything from $100-$300 per recipe shoot.
Leave a Reply