Recent Makin' Bacon Food Blogging Articles - Page 15

If you are anything like me, then over the years, your biggest focus for your blog has probably been creating an abundance of content, from product reviews and "how to guides" to lots and lots of recipes. It's something I, and most bloggers, really enjoy doing, and it is often a blogger's favorite thing about blogging.

While I have gotten a ton of benefit from all the different types of content, the part that has paid for itself again and again has been the recipes. I've been able to reuse them in a variety of ways, from creating internal projects like smartphone apps and cookbooks to licensing them to outside companies, which is what I want to talk about now.

Another way of working with external companies that isn't ad based is by providing content and recipes to them.

The general concept is when an outside entity, usually an equipment manufacturer or publisher, wants to use your recipes as part of their product. This is because many manufacturers don't know the cooking aspects, they just know the manufacturing aspect. So they turn to outside sources to provide the "how to" information their customers will need. And that's where you come in, to provide the "how to" information.

I wanted to talk with you about ads because ads are pretty much the same place every food blogger starts.

Ads get a real bad rap, and generally for valid reasons - they are pretty distracting to your readers and they often don't pay that well. But they definitely can be a solid part of any monetization strategy, even though they don't serve your readers and I think the biggest mistake food bloggers make is only focusing on them.

Note: Want to read more about if you can, or should, make money from ads?

Ads can take many forms including:

An ad network is basically a company that acts as the middleman between your blog and companies that want to advertise. There are a whole lot of ad networks, but the most common are probably Google AdSense, Mediavine, and AdThrive.

I'm super excited to talk to you today about making branded merchandise and physical products. Physical Products are one of my favorite things to create. There's just something nice about reaching the end of the process and having something you can hold in your hands.

I feel like so much of what we do as bloggers is just moving data around that it's nice to create something tangible that will last longer than dinner.

Note: You can learn more about the power of products your readers need.

I'll be talking about several types of products, but most can be made in one of two ways.

Making Products with a Print-on-Demand Company

The easiest is to use a print-on-demand (POD) service like Threadless. They run the website, collect the money, create the product, and ship it to the customer without any additional input from you. You just need to advertise it and direct people their way. I highly recommend starting with a POD company when you can. They have the lowest profit margins but are much easier to set up and use, and there is little to no risk involved.

As a cook, you probably use spices when you are cooking, and most recipes include favorite spice mixes of your own. Your readers respect the spices you recommend, and many of them use them on their own. However, most food bloggers don't think about creating their own blends and selling them.

It is actually a pretty easy process to have spices bottled with your name and logo on it. It's called "white-labeling" or "private labeling", and is an effective way to put out a product. A spice company will have 10, 20 or 30 different blends that you can try out. You pick the one you like and then wrap it in your logo and branding.

We've looked into several online sellers, and it's generally $4 to $5 per 4oz bottle, with a minimum order of 30-50 bottles. Most "custom" spices can be sold for $9 to $15, leaving you a nice profit after shipping.

Obviously, if you are a BBQ blogger and you are always preaching how your custom BBQ rub is the only way to go, this might not work well for you because you are using the blends that they come up with. But if you write about something like "quick and easy weeknight meals" or "healthy meals for the whole family", you can probably find several different blends that you really enjoy and would feel comfortable selling to your readers.

As a food blogger, you may be producing multiple types of content, much of which may be written on your blog. However, you may also be creating video content such as YouTube videos, webinars and Facebook live videos. You might also have a podcast with audio content. In the latter two cases, it is often beneficial to provide that content in a written form as well.

There are numerous ways to turn the audio into text, which is called "transcription". Recent advances in speech recognition technologies have made transcription much easier. This article will provide you with some reasons that you may want to consider creating transcripts as a reasonable way for you to make your content more accessible.

Because I'm always talking about how you can grow your income by serving your Fans, usually through products and services, I often have people ask me if ads have any place on a food blog.

My response is always an emphatic "Yes!".

In an ideal world, serving your Fans can bring in all the income you need. However, working with external companies on things like ads, affiliate links and sponsored posts are a great way to supplement your income.

My income percentages vary widely from year to year, but in 2018 almost 30% of my income came from ads, affiliate links, and sponsored posts. So I definitely think ads are a valuable part of a disversified blogging strategy.

To me, the greatest benefit in serving your Fans is that you don't have to RELY on ads, and you can focus on providing your Fans VALUE. The ads are simply a nice bonus that comes along with it.

I wanted to share with you some of my tips for creating products and services to help ensure you will be successful.

How to Find Products and Services

Finding products for your audience is a really simple concept - find holes in the market and then create products to fill them. But like most simple concepts, it's the execution that is the hard part.

It can be hard to find those holes. I tend to look for areas where my readers keep asking for help, since it shows a lack of information in that area. I also focus on things that they tend to do time and time again, either actions that can be made easier or packing information that they need regularly into a more easily accessible format.

You can read more information about Harnessing the Power of Products Your Readers Need and How to Choose a Cookbook Subject.

When bloggers first start thinking about serving their fans by creating products or services, they usually turn to a recipe book or cookbook. These books can be anywhere from 10 pages to 300 pages and can take a ton of different forms, including:

• PDFs on your website
• Printed cookbooks
• Electronic cookbooks on the Kindle or Nook
• Traditionally published cookbooks
• "Magazines" or one-off publications

I've done all of the above except for the magazine (though it's on my to-do list) and they all are a great way to expand your brand and make money. For most of my blogs history, self published cookbooks were my biggest moneymaker.

Like most things, it's easier if you are in a smaller niche that you can dominate. I've tried to condense publishing down to the basics, with a focus on your options and how they can pay off. If you'd like a much more comprehensive look, then I recommend my free Self Publishing Master Course.

Today, I wanted to talk about the biggest mistake food bloggers make. And this is so YOU can avoid it.

I've seen beginning bloggers do this, as well as bloggers that are successful. And in every case, I'd argue that it is holding them back and preventing them from maximizing their success.

The mistake is that they focus on serving external companies, instead of serving their Fans.

When you start blogging, the easiest way to start making money is by working with external companies. This can take many forms, but usually starts with ad networks (like Google Adsense, MediaVine or AdThrive), affiliate links, and sponsored posts. There is nothing wrong with this, and it's a great way to get some money starting to trickle in, but the mistake many bloggers make is settling with only those methods.

I did a (very unscientific) survey of about 60 food bloggers. 88% of them use ad networks, 57% use affiliate links, and 23% use sponsored posts.

Only 7 of the 60 people actually moved on from those ways of making money and began creating products or services directly for their Fans.

That means that 88% of bloggers never tried to move their blog beyond simply serving up ads and links.

As you blog more and more, you will become an expert at teaching people how to successfully do the type of cooking you write about. Once you get to this point, it can be really smart to start looking at creating cooking courses. These courses are a great way to repackage your content in a new form that your Fans will love.

What Makes It a Cooking Course?

As food bloggers, we usually are creating content like recipes and how-to guides, so what actually makes a cooking course different?

In my mind, they take a discrete subject or problem the readers have, and then teaches them how to solve it.

So you take readers that don't know how to bake pound cakes but want to. They go through your course and now they know how to bake pound cakes.

It can be a basic topic like "How to Start Sous Viding" or "How to make tofu" to a more complex and nuanced subject like "How to regulate airflow in your smoker to maintain the correct temperature".