ByVeena Miranda
How to monetize a food blog – A Beginners Guide
How to monetize a food blog – The key to making money is YOU!! I’d say 90% is you and 10% is the link. It’s about how you sell these
Are you monetizing your blog? How much money are you making? How can I make MORE?
How come everybody else is making so much but I am NOT!!! What am I doing wrong?
This is by far the most common question and concern among bloggers.
Making money on your blog is possible; anyone can do it. Right?
So let’s talk more about how to monetizing a food blog – beginners guide
So why do some blogs make so much money that they can quite their jobs while some are barely paying their blog expenses. Let’s discuss that; shall we?
I have to be honest. I hated ads so when I started my blogs I refused to have any advertising on my blogs. All my blog expenses came from my own pocket. Yep!! I was and still am a professional cake decorator, which is almost like a full time job.
As time went by blog expenses started going up. Hosting, themes, plugins, security, backups, web developers, etc, etc, etc.
Those of you that already own a blog will understand when I say, your blog is close to your heart, so you want to make sure it looks great. You wanna dress it up. Right? Just like we dress our home, it’s a reflection of us.
Those of you that do not have a blog I have a step by step post on How to start a food blog. And if you’ve been on any of my blog long enough you know you can count on me if you have any questions.
So why is it that some make so much money they can leave their day job while some are struggling to pay blog expenses with the same resources?
There’s no harm in making money to pay your blog expenses and perhaps a little more for pocket money. Is there? so let’s talk about how to monetizing a food blog.
Now I could just give you loads of links to access so you can get started and if that’s what you want than just scroll to the bottom half of this post. But; I think there is more on how to monetizing a food blog than just links.
The key to making money is YOU!!
I’d say 90% is you and 10% is the link. It’s about how you sell these links that make money? How much do people who visit your blog trust you? How much do people value your recommendations?
Your blog content is what people come to your blog for. When they like your content, they share your views they connect with you. This connection is what creates that trust. If they trust you they use your recommendations. When they click on your recommendations they use your links. (I do have a post dedicated to Finding Blogging Content because it’s so so important. Do take a moment to read it)
Personally I believe there is a right way and a wrong way on how to monetize a food blog. The wrong way can peeve people off.
The right way is that you
genuinely want to help people succeed,
share the resources you use with the right intention,
really like the products and so you want to recommend them.
If you haven’t tried it, you honestly tell visitors you haven’t tried it.
You place the referral links naturally in your relevant content.
The wrong way to do this is you
have never tried the product yet you speak very highly about it and you just sharing the links so that you can make money violating your fans trust.
spam all your post with referral links even when they are not relevant.
spam peoples mail box and social media feeds with plenty of referral links.
I’m sure there are over 100 different ways that you can monetize a food blog and if you read a few more post on the internet you will be amazed at how much money you can make.
Some blogs share a monthly income report too. But I’m not going to do that. I think this blog post is not about comparing numbers.
But I will share with you my first ah…ahhh moment that was a game changer for me.
My first ah….ahhh moment.
Here’s a little story for you. Well, I started my blogs in 2010 and 2011. I was a new self taught cake decorator with a blog on blogger.
Loved sharing my work on my blog and sometimes I’d take a few progress pictures of my work . Had created a connection with some of my bloggers who would write and reply on every post. Would forward to those comments and connections.
One of the ladies wanted to make a princess cake for her daughter in six months and requested me to make a tutorial.Coincidentally I had an order for a princess cake. I decided I’d make her a video instead of just take pictures.
Unlike today when everybody is dying to make a You Tube video to earn money back then not many actually shared so freely.
My princess cake ended up being the first princess cake tutorial on You Tube. In a year it had over a million views but guess what? It wasn’t monetized!! So my You Tube channel had almost 2 million views with 8 videos in the first year and none monetized. Yup!! I had no clue about making money. Nothing at all!!
My first video advertising and Adsense money
Anyway, someone suggested I at least monetize my videos and add Adsense on my blog so I can pay for hosting. I did!!
My first you tube check was USD 3500.00 and I stood there with my mouth open!!!
What? How did that happen? My so unprofessional videos made money? I will be honest that US 3500 was a game changer for me.
From then I have come a long way… trying hard to figure out what works, testing different strategies and finding the best methods that work for me.
For example I don’t really spend time making You Tube videos as much as before. I do make videos but mostly for my online shop and member website.
10 Simple and Easy ways on – how to monetize a food blog
Like I said above there are 100s of ways to make money; I find these worked best for me. I am affiliate with some of them; not all. The rest are just links that I confident will help you.
1. Advertising – a great way to start – monetizing a food blog
Adsense Advertising
(Per per click advertising) – This is the simplest and easiest way for new blogs who do not have a lot of traffic to start making money on their blogs. It’s super easy! All you do is create an account with Google Adsense. They have tons of resources and step by step on how to get started.
While this is a great start, and you probably will be able to pay your blog hosting but don’t expect to make a living with Google Adsense.
As your blog traffic increases you will need to think of moving on to other or more profitable Ad networks such as Gourmet Ads, Mediavine, Sovrn, Infolinks, SocialSpark . Some of these take care of the ads for you so you don’t have to worry about codes and htmls.
My cake blog Veena’s Art of Cakes is taken care of by Mediavine and this blog has Gourmet Ads. However these networks do need a certain amount of traffic to your blog; I think it’s minimim 30K per month before they approve you. You have to email or fill in a form; in some cases you are better of using a reference so feel fee to say you got to know them thru me.
Private Ads or Display Ads
Another great way to monetize a food blog is selling ad space. This can be easy or extremely difficult. This usually is based on your niche. It is very important to know who your target audience is so you can attract the relevant brands. If you attract a decent number of people to your blog from a specific group then this is easy to achieve.
For example on my cake blog I attract cake decorating schools and product companies to advertise on my blog. Or let’s say you do more healthy cooking recipes which is a great way to attract healthy related products.
Video Ads
Another easy way to monetize a food blog is to make recipe videos. In truth this is actually very simple and easy to accomplish even with just a phone. However; making good quality videos with professional equipment and editing software can make a huge difference to your views.
Create videos of what you do best. Teach your talent and earn advertising on You Tube.
You tube advertising is like Adsense; unless you have huge traffic you will barely make money to pay your blog expenses. But it does have huge potential.
This can be a fun or frustrating project depending on your technical skills. Personally, I started with simple unprofessional videos five year ago but over time I realized I needed to start working on my video editing skills.
I tried a few programs over the years but the one that worked best and easy to use; for a not so technical person like me was Cyberlink; Power Director 14. I still have videos on you tube but not as much as I use to. I now make more videos for my online shop on my cake blog.
2. Sell your own digital products
Another great way to answer the question on how to monetize a food blog is to sell recipe books. You keep 100% of the profit.
eBooks – This is the most common and successful method to start earning money on your blog. Sell your own PDFs and eBooks.
A friend highly recommended this course on how to write, publish and sell your eBook in seven days – I have not used it but she used it when she started her first eBook.
Why does this work best?
Once you build a reputation for your self; people will pay for your knowledge and recipes. If you look on my cake blog Veena’s Art of cakes you will see I have over 40 calculated recipe eBooks and cake tutorials that target a small niche – cake decorators. I have created a reputation for my cake recipes and tutorials that people use in their business. This is one of my main sources of income too.
3. Sponsored post and articles
This usually is dependent on your blog popularity or brand popularity. If you have a high number of page views on your blog. If you are a well known brand than companies want you to review them, recommend them, write about them. This is good money because you can charge based on the value you provide. This is my third main source of income on my food blog.
As a beginner this can be difficult to accomplish so while it’s a great option it takes time for sponsored post to kick in.
4. Affiliate Marketing
This is the one that works great for me. Affiliate marketing is the one that works best for most people. The rewards are dependent on how much effort you put into it.
An important point to take note when doing affiliate marketing is that; you are required by law to add a disclosure on your blog that declares the use of affiliate links so that your visitors are aware. An affiliate link does not affect the price of the final purchase but it is still considered good etiquette to make sure you are open about it. You will find a disclosure on both my blogs as well.
Where do you find affiliate links?
Well; they are everywhere. Not matter what industry you are in; you will find that there are companies in your niche that you can get started with. I have given you a few links to get started with below too.
What is the best way to make affiliate links work?
By adding value to your customer. TRUE!!
For example – On this blog my post on How to start a Food Blog brings me good affiliate sales. Why? because I’m not just sharing the Bluehost links. I’m sharing a step by step guide on how my visitors can start their own blog. This step by step adds value to my visitor and in return sales to me.
Affiliate Marketing Networks
An easy way to start with affiliate marketing is to join Affiliate Marketing networks. These are super easy to use.
All you do is apply for an account. Once you are approved. You look for merchants / companies that suits your niche.
The network has a dashboard that lets you see which of your links and referrals are doing well. The best part is; you can be an affiliate for several different companies under one umbrella. Saves you the hassle of keeping tack of multiple dashboards, usernames and passwords.
Here are a few affiliate marketing networks that you can start with – I am on ShareASale and Commission Junction and Sovrn, but there are plenty to choose from.
ShareASale – For example I am a professional cake decorator so I am an affiliate to a couple cake decorating schools via ShareASale. One of them is Craftsy which is huge and has plenty divisions from food, DIY and a lot more. I believe Craftsy does need someone to recommend you – if so please feel free to mention my name or my blog.
You can also try Commission Junction, SocialSpark, Sovrn, Chitika, Click bank. Start by creating an account and getting accepted first.
Some companies run their own affiliate marking program such as
Amazon Affiliates
This is by far the most commonly used. This wasn’t easy to set up. It does have a lot of work involved in getting started. Once you set it up you will be able to share amazon products on your blog. When people click on these links and buy something you will earn a commission.
The commission system for Amazon starts small at around 4% but if you do well that does go up over time.
Honestly, this has not been the best for me so far. It uses a lot of blog space but does not give me the same return. I still have it on my blog for the convenience of my visitors who get to see the products I use.
If you choose to use Amazon affiliate program I suggest you use this plugin Easy Azon Pro. Of the three that I used this is the best; the others drove me nuts. This works great and the customer support is excellent.
Book Depository
Promote / recommend physical books that you love – this can be as simple as apply for an affiliate with Amazon or Book Depository or eBooks. This may not sound like much but believe me people love books and it does work.
5. Start your own online membership site with lessons or e-Course
This is what I’m currently working on; on my cake blog. A membership site. If your good at something in particular, go ahead and explore the option. Trust me on this. We all think we are not good enough yet but let people show you that you are wrong. We all have something we can share that is of value to someone else.
This option takes time to set up but if you are serious about it then it can be a profitable way to make good money on your blog.
Let’s talk about When and how early should you monetize a food blog?
Now; that I told you the how and given you the resources on how to monetize a food blog let’s discuss when should you monetize a food blog? or How early should you monetize a food blog?
Truth be told there is nothing stopping you from monetizing your blog from day one. It’s better to earn something rather than nothing at all. Right?
I know a few ladies in the Facebook groups that just started their blog a few days ago; may be a few weeks ago. They barely have two or five recipes on there. Haven’t built an audience.
Yet, I notice they exercise all their energy in how to monetizing a food blog rather than talk about recipes or SEO. Both blogs have side bars and all widget areas filled with ads.
So while the question how to monetize a food blog is really a very important question. To me the bigger picture here is – to whom are you going to sell?
Personally, I think one has to create a blog with the right approach. Nothing wrong with creating a blog with the intention of earning some money but let’s do it right.
Some food blogs I know today have their most popular post – how to monetize a food blog – not a recipe post. There is nothing wrong with that either just that at a personal level I feel some of us have lost our vision and purpose of true blogging.
Finally!!! a few tips and words of advice on – how to monetize a food blog
There is no – One Size fits all strategy on how to monetize a food blog. So don’t look for a blog post that has the right answer. Like I said the key to making money is YOU!
There are plenty of links out there and everybody will share the ones that work best for them. Therefore unless you do some trial and testing you will not know which method works for you.
Most importantly, don’t expect to make money as soon as you start monetizing your blog. These things take time, be patient.
Monetizing your blog also known as passive income; but it does not mean that the links will work on their own. You have to work hard to make them work. Grow your blog, social media platforms, connect with people.
Know the difference between making money the right way and the wrong way. The right way is sometimes slow but in the long run it will earn you some much needed credibility with your visitors. Trust me it’s not easy to fool people all the time, eventually people will stop using your recommendations.
Last but not the least, don’t give up!! You never know… the end of your struggle is almost here. When something does not work – find another way to make it work. These things take time but they do work. I promise!
Are you a blogger? What industry? and what works best for you? Feel free to share your suggestions, tips and tricks with us. We’d love to hear what works best for you.
The post How to monetize a food blog – A Beginners Guide appeared first on Veena Azmanov.