13 Jan How to Make Money as a Food Blogger

Read on to find out how to make money as a food blogger!

I started this blog on a whim. I had taken a few months off work to be with my kids, and I was bored. I texted my husband, “I want to start a blog.” I expected him to laugh. He replied, “Okay.” Okay? That’s it? No laughing? No talk about what a waste of time it will be? Well, okay. I’ll do it then. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to blog about, and I was pretty sure I’d never make any money, even though I’d read plenty of articles on how to make money as a food blogger.

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I’ve always been obsessed with food blogs. Budget Bytes was the first blog I ever really followed. Then I found Sally’s Baking Addiction which prompted me to start my own blog. Shortly thereafter, I discovered Lindsey and Bjork at Pinch of Yum and their articles on how to make money as a food blogger and have been smitten with them ever since.

It seemed natural for me to start a food blog because I love to cook and to take pictures. About a week after I created my food blog, we tore out our kitchen and began a complete kitchen renovation that lasted over two months. Talk about bad timing, huh? I piddled around and posted a few DIY projects that got a little traction, but my heart wasn’t really in it. Plus, I was hungry and grumpy about not having my kitchen.

Partway into our kitchen renovation, I went back to work full time. I put the blog on the back burner because it just didn’t feel right anyway.

In September, I decided I wanted to follow the Whole30 plan to get healthy again. I was super healthy during my last pregnancy but kind of slacked off once the baby arrived. I thought that blogging about my 30 days would be the perfect way to get some content on my blog and also hold me accountable to my eating plan. Boy, was I right!  I began posting recipes of what I was eating, and I was taken aback by how well the posts were received on Pinterest.

I read more articles on how to make money as a food blogger and have continued to post at least once a week since then, and my blog has grown rapidly to about around 150,000 page views per month now in January. A few days into my Whole30 blogging journey, I began including Amazon Associate links in my posts. I didn’t expect anything to come from the links, but again, I was mistaken. Some days, my Amazon links were getting hundred of clicks! Beginning in October, the sales started rolling in, and my commissions have continued to grow over the past four months.

Here are the numbers:

Farmstead Chic

Income Statement

For Month Ending October 31, 2016 

Revenues

     Google Adsense – $7.66

     Amazon Associates – $24.66

          Total Revenue – $31.72

Expenses

     Food Blogger Pro – $29.00

     Tasty Food Photography eBook – $15.00

     Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom – $10.23

     Mailchimp – $10.00

     Boardbooster – $10.00

     PicMonkey (annual rate/12) – $3.99

     Website Hosting* – $0.00

          Total Expenses – $78.22

Net Income – ($46.50)

Farmstead Chic

Income Statement

For Month Ending November 30, 2016 

Revenues

     Google Adsense – $37.84

     Amazon Associates – $73.08

     GourmetAds – $4.74

          Total Revenue – $110.92

    Food Blogger Pro – $29.00

     Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom – $10.23

     Mailchimp – $10.00

     Boardbooster – $10.00

    PicMonkey (annual rate/12) – $3.99

    Website Hosting* – $0.00

Net Income – $47.70

Farmstead Chic

Income Statement

For Month Ending December 31, 2016 

Revenues

     Google Adsense – $47.45

     Amazon Associates – $164.86

     GourmetAds – $63.08

          Total Revenue – $212.31

Expenses

    Food Blogger Pro – $29.00

     Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom – $10.23

     Mailchimp – $10.00

     Boardbooster – $10.00

     PicMonkey (annual rate/12) – $3.99

    Website Hosting* – $0.00

          Total Expenses – $63.22

Net Income – $149.09

I attribute Food Blogger Pro to most of my success in growing my audience so rapidly and immensely improving my food photography. I would be lost without Lindsey and Bjork’s hundreds of instructional food blogging videos, Q&A videos and helpful collaborative threads.

*My husband is a computer geek, so he takes care of my web hosting with no cost to me. I have heard great things about Blue Host though, and they are advertising website hosting starting at $3.49 at the time of this blog post.