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No one gets paid to be a blogger unless you're working for a company. No one's going to pay you to put out that blog post but there are a lot of ways you can make money from your blog. I'm going to show you several of the ones that are most effective so you can start moving forward and making additional money from your blog.
This episode from the Makin' Bacon Podcast podcast is available on all your favorite podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, and Google Podcasts.
The video of the interview is also available on the Makin' Bacon YouTube Channel.
Possibly the most important question you need to ask yourself is "how do you make money?"
You don't get paid to be a food blogger or create content, unless you're getting paid by a company. So I think it's important to ask yourself, where is this money going to come from? How am I actually going to make money and get paid? It has to come from somewhere.
There are several different ways you can make money. I'll offer you some good ideas or maybe some different paths that you may want to attack. See how you can better monetize your blog than you currently are. In this article I also go into a lot more detail about the types of ads food bloggers can use.
Ads are easy to put on your blog, especially if you use an ad network. They're also in many ways the least efficient, but you can get started with them almost at any time. There are several different types of ads.
The first is ad networks. Most people start off with Google AdSense. Then when you can it is best to upgrade to one of the bigger more food focused companies such as AdThrive or Mediavine.
Another type is affiliate links. Affiliate links are when you put a link on your website that goes to a product. If your readers buy that, you get a cut of that product. It's an efficient way to make some money especially if there is an affiliate link for equipment or food.
You can check this out if you are curious about where to place affiliate links on a food blog to maximize your revenue.
Amazon is a big one that a lot of people turn to initially. There are other affiliate networks, such as Commission Junction, that deal with a wide range of different companies.
The third way to earn some advertising money is through sponsored posts. These can be either posts on your website, your blog or on social media. For this type you work directly with other companies that are out there, namely brands that are trying to get in front of your readers.
The next way to make money is by putting out products and services. There's a wide range of these and I'll cover a few of the more popular ones.
One that people turn to a lot is putting out cookbooks. This can either be a downloadable PDF or ideally a print book that you can self publish or have traditionally published.
For self publishing I recommend looking at Amazon KDP or IngramSpark. Both are super easy to work with and the setup fees are less than $100. It allows you to market your own print book to your readers.
I have put together a lot of comprehensive information on how to write and publish a cookbook as a food blogger.
Cooking courses are another great option for bloggers because they are easy to put together using a tool like Teachable. If you're comfortable in front of a camera, you can do video content very easily, otherwise, you can do written content.
I even have two cooking courses that are strictly email based. I have one on MailerLite and the other on MailChimp. Both courses get sent out as an autoresponder. It's a simple and easy way to put out a course and it's free to set up. This can help build trust with your readers.
If you want to learn more, I've written several articles on how to write and sell cooking courses.
Branded merchandise is something that I like to do. I have a variety of t-shirts that I put out for sous vide through a company called Threadless. It allows you to easily sell this type of branded merchandise on their site, you don't have to stock any inventory and there's no setup fees.
You can also put out branded kitchen merchandise such as equipment, or aprons. There's a lot of different options you can do to get your brand in front of your fans. It also lets them feel more connected to you with a little piece of your blog.
In this article I dive much more deeply into the types of branded merchandise food bloggers can create.
One of the most lucrative ways to make money is with outside services. These are not blogging based and don't really deal with your fans, but they're ways you can make money and build up your reputation through your food blog.
Numerous food bloggers are quite good at food photography and a lot of brands and companies aren't. So you can provide your services as a photographer to these companies and make a healthy profit.
Many food bloggers also go into consulting on social media. While growing their blogs, they spent a lot of time and energy understanding Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest and how to expand your audience and grow your business through them. A lot of brands want that exact same thing. So food bloggers will come in as a consultant, help them develop their media branding strategy, help kick it off and sometimes even run it.
As food bloggers one of our big things is teaching, we're teaching recipes, we're teaching how to cook. Bringing that into the physical world and teaching cooking classes is another great way to make some money.
There's lots of places you can teach these. I've taught some small groups in my own kitchen where I've hosted it myself. In addition, there's often community colleges or kitchens you can rent out, look for different spaces and places where you can get involved. You can make a decent living teaching some cooking classes and bring in some extra income in the evenings.
You can also cook for people as a private chef preparing foods to be reheated throughout the week. It's a great way that you can rely on your food knowledge. These catering type jobs are a good way you can use your expertise to make a little bit of money on the side while providing healthy fun food for people.
As you can see there's lots of different ways that you can make money from your blog. Either through advertising, working with companies, creating services or even doing outside things that aren't necessarily blogging based. You have a lot of options. But knowing what they are and then attacking the ones you're interested in, is a great way to become more successful.
If you're interested in a deeper dive on how to really become successful with some of these options, I have an article that talks more about how to succeed with products and services. It'll help get you started, teach you what you need to know, and get you moving down the path for future success.
How do you approach this? Let me know in the Makin Bacon Facebook Group or the comments below.
Hi, I'm Jason Logsdon! I'm an adventurous home cook and the head writer and photographer for Amazing Food Made Easy. I grew my income to 6-figures by focusing on serving my Fans by providing massive value, and I want to help you do the same.
