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How to make money as a food blogger

24. Mai 2020 Keine Kommentare

Let’s talk about how to make money as a food blogger! If you are a passionate foodie yourself sooner or later you will probably ask yourself how to monetize what you have been working on so hard in the past months. My name is Carina and I am a full time food blogger myself. It’s my full-time job for almost three years now. Today I want to share with you different ways to monetize your food blog, because there are actually a lot of possibilities for you to earn money being a food blogger.

Finding your value

Advertising as an influencer/blogger on your social channels is something that gives companies a lot of value because you, as a food blogger, reach a very specific audience – a super targeted niche – that the company usually wouldn’t have access to. If they would get a product ad printed in a magazine, or have it played on a radio commercial, or a TV commercial, they would never ever reach that same specific targeted audience that you as a food blogger can reach. Your followers are specifically interested in the recipes you share and the products you use for them. That’s something where companies are willing to pay money for because you give them a great value. Therefore, don’t be afraid to charge money for your posts! Even if you have a small account, if you have good content, you can totally get paid for your postings!

So let’s look at different ways on how to make money as a food blogger!

1. Company Collaborations

So the first way to do this is through company collaborations. I usually work with 3 to 6 brands per month. This is how it works: A company reaches out to you, you send them your media kit with your pricing rates, and then they pay you per IG post, blog article, YouTube video or per Insta story. You pick a product or they send you the products that they want to be advertised, and then you use it for your content. For example I would use that product for my recipes, put it in the background of the photo set-up and then take some awesome pictures with it. I upload it on my social accounts, tag the brands and send them the invoice for it.

For IG postings I charge more money than for stories because stories are less work. How much to charge for a posting as a food blogger? The general rule of thumb is that you can charge 10 euros per 1000 followers. This number depends on your engagement though and can be more or less.

2. Affiliate Links

Another great way to make money as a food blogger is through affiliate links. There are many affiliate networks that you can sign up for. If you recommend a product and embed that link into your blog posts or add a swipe-up to your Insta stories your followers can buy through that link and you earn a commission. The commission can range from a couple percent to 50% depending on what you are promoting.

I for example use Amazon affiliate a lot. For example I like to recommend my favorite sugar alternative to my followers by guiding them straight to the amazon shop through this affiliate link. I will get around 10% commission on every sale. Another example is my affiliate link for Kicksta – the most powerful organic growth tool for Instagram. It will help you to boost your real followers through an artificial intelligence technology. No spam, no fake followers, no bots. Just pure organic growth! I can really recommend it, plus I get 50% commission on every sale so you should really check it out 😉

If you keep embedding those links into your blog posts, once you have substantial traffic on your blog these affiliate links can generate passive income for you as a food blogger!

3. Commissions

Maybe you’ve seen a lot of bloggers promoting codes something along the lines: „Use my code xyz15 to get 15% off your entire purchase“. You can most likely assume that those blogger will get a small commission on every sale they make. This really depends on each company, but usually you will get between 10 to 20% comission. If yo have a big audience and you promote discount code where your community can also save a lot of money this can be a powerful way to make money as a food blogger and generate passive income.

4. Food photography

Make money as a food blogger through food photography. That’s something I like to offer companies that don’t really align 100% with my brand and where I wouldn’t upload the photos on my profile because they just don’t fit into that fitness and healthy lifestyle niche. So, I would still take pictures for them, edit them and send them the pictures with all the rights. However, I wouldn’t upload it on my social media platforms. The companies just pay me for the food photography. I usually offer them a package of 3 edited photos per set with all the rights including the recipe.

5. Your own products

Another way to monetize your food blog is crating your own products. These could be digital or physical products. For example, I have created several E-books in the past that I am selling online. In case you speak French you can check out my healthy breakfast recipe cookbook here.

Moreover I have several online courses. The one that will probably be the most interesting for you is my food blogging success online course. It will teach you everything on how to kickstart your food blog and start making money with it. For all the German speakers I can recommend my fitness food cooking course that is also totally online.

Courses or E-books are genius because you have the put in the work once and when it is all up and running you can lean back and make passive income will focusing your energy on other things. It is really an amazing feeling, if you get an email in the morning that somebody just bought your online course while you were sleeping.

Selling digital products is definitely a great way to make money as a food blogger. Share your knowledge. Find some topic or niche that you are passionate about and really have a good amount of skills and knowledge in.

6. Events

You can actually get paid for attending events as a food blogger. In the past I have been invited to give keynote speeches at big fairs or events. You simply charge money for your time being there and for the travelling costs to get there and back. I usually have a daily and half-daily rate. If you are invited to share your knowledge or cook with an audience that definitely has value and you should charge for that.

I have also charged for attending photoshootings and giving talks in schools and universities in the past.

To sum it up

So you see there are a lot of different ways you can make money as food blogger. It all comes down to you and how proactive you are. Don’t be afraid to reach out to companies and to really work hard for what you love! Being able to do this full-time is so rewarding and my absolute dream job. It’s really a dream come true and I know you can do this as well. Start small, write a lot of emails to companies and don’t get discouraged by the first rejections. I also started with product sampling and wasn’t earning money with my blog for a long time. Sometimes you have to put in the work first before you get the rewards later. If you stay consistent you will be very successful and have no problems to make money as a food blogger!

More resources

I hope this blog post was helpful for you and you actually can put something into practice now. If you have any questions feel free to put them in the comments and I’ll answer them. You can also check out my YouTube video on this topic:

Another blog post that could be very interesting for you is my article on my favorite Insta growth tips. Click here to read on.

Last but not least you can sign up for my free food blogging bootcamp. It is an email series that will guide you through my best and most helpful food blogging content.

xoxo,

Blogger Help, Food Blogging

5 tips for bloggers – beginner guide on how to increase blog traffic

30. Januar 2020 2 Kommentare

In this blog post I am sharing my 5 most valuable tips for bloggers that are just starting out. If you are a beginner looking to grow your blog traffic then you found the right article. The advice I am giving you in the blog post is priceless and has helped me grow my monthly impressions continuously.

1. Do keyword research before you write a blogpost

A big mistake I made for a very long time when I started out with blogging was not researching keywords before I wrote my blog posts. I would think of a recipe, cook it, shoot it and write a blog post about it using a random keyword that came to my mind. No wonder I didn’t get any blog traffic in the beginning. My blog traffic exponentially grew once I started to do proper keyword research before shooting the actual recipe. It saved me so much work as well. Now I only shoot recipes that I know will rank and are searched for on Google. Guys – this tip is a game changer for your blogging statistics.
Some tools I can recommend for keyword research are:

Simply plug your keyword in and find out if you are going to be able to rank for it. If you are just starting out and have a small blog I would recommend you try to go for keywords of about 700-1900 searches per month. These are not too competitive and you will be able to rank on the first page faster.

2. Have a content calendar

Every first of the month I sit down and plan the content for the new month. I do this by printing out a calendar that shows me exactly the days and dates. For example I dedicate every Thursday for uploading a new blog post. Every Tuesday and Wednesday I schedule my content creation days in the mornings. That is when I record Youtube videos, Tiktoks, shoot food pics and do photoshoots.

I also add to the calendar special promotion events that I want to do for my followers like for example last weekend I did an Instagram live cooking class or next week I am planning a fitness shoutout day. Doing this really helps me to spread out my content and stay consistent with my postings across all platforms. It also helps me to not forget about new, exciting I ideas I have for my followers and put them into action.

3. Website loading speed

Google likes fast websites. So make sure your page is loading fast. How do you do this?
By optimizing your content for it. In the beginning I exported my Lightroom file in the best quality possible to make sure they are perfect for my blog. One image often had over 20MB in size – which is a humongous file size! After some time I checked my website speed online and was flabbergasted by how slow my page was loading. Now looking back I know why. My images were too big. When you upload images make sure to keep them under 150kb. This means when you export images you need to reduce them in size. These are my specifications I use for my blog images when I export them from Lightroom:

4. Link to Pinterest

Starting to use Pinterest resulted in much more traffic on my blog. Now I am always pinning the photos on my blog posts to my Pinterest account. Each individual photo is linked to my blog. So if someone is looking for a healthy low carb breakfast, finds my photo and clicks on it that person lands directly on my blog. For example last month I got 113,809 impressions on my blog just from people who found my pins on Pinterest.
Also make sure to shoot your recipes vertically and not horizontally. Pinterest doesn’t like horizontal photos.

Regarding tips for bloggers I can recommend Tailwind (affiliate link) to schedule your pins. It makes it so much easier and takes a lot of work off your hands since it is pinning automatically for you. I sit down one hour every week to plan my pins on Tailwind (affiliate link) and then I’m good to go for an entire week. Once I started to use this tool I saw such a tremendous growth of blog traffic. It makes life so much easier.

5. Optimize text for SEO

Make sure the text you write for your blog post is optimized for search engines. Define a keyword and use that keyword throughout your paragraphs. Use variations of that keyword to enhance chances of getting found on Google. I find related keywords by typing my main search term into google and then checking out “searches related to keyword” section at the bottom of the first page. You also find a “people ask” section there. I try to incorporate answers to these questions in my blog postings.

Don’t use complex word structures or long sentences. Use paragraphs to make it easier to read the text and define a meta description.

My recommendation: If you are using WordPress install the free YOAST Plug-in. It will give you useful tips of how to optimize and improve your text.

More resources

If you want you can watch my YouTube video about this topic as well:

Here are some other helpful blogging articles I have written in the past:

I also have a food blogging success online course in case you are a passionate foodie wanting to kickstart your food blogging career:

And last but not least you can sign up for my blogging bootcamp where I summarize my best blogging content for you in an email series:

I really hope you found these tips for bloggers helpful!

xoxo,

Blogger Help, Food Blogging

Basic Food Blogging Equipment – what you need as a food blogger

16. Mai 2019 2 Kommentare

In today’s blog post I want to give you an overview over the basic food blogging equipment you need in order to start out as a food blogger.

At first, beginning a food blog can be quite a big and daunting task at first. You have this big vision of taking awesome food pics and sharing your wonderful recipes? However, you are unsure of the equipment you need? Then look no further! In this blog post I have summarized all the basic things you need in order to start taking amazing pictures of your recipes. Food photography hacks included!

We will look at topics like camera equipment, props, kitchenware and decoration items. I will only mention the essential food blogging equipment. Everything you need in order to start out. Nothing super fancy or advanced – just the basics to get you startet.

How to photograph for your food blog

First things first. Let’s talk about camera equipment. When you are just starting out you might want to take photos with your camera. That is okay for the beginning. Most phone cameras have a „depth of field“ or „portrait“ mode already. Try using these as it will make the background blurry, which will look more professional.

However, if you want to become serious about your food photography you should consider switching to a DSLR camera. It made all the difference for me and was a real game changer! For over three years I have been shooting with Nikon already and can highly recommend their cameras. Currently I am working with the Nikon D7500 which is a great camera also for beginners. Regarding the lens I am using a 35mm 1.8 lens. I like this lens because you can be pretty close to your dish and get a very nice blurry background.

Here are some food photography tips for beginners:

Shoot with natural, diffuse light
Using a flash for food photography is something I would not recommend as it distorts the colors in the picture.
Shoot on automatic mode until you become comfortable trying the manual mode
Use a portrait lens to get a nice bouquet effect
Invest in a reflector and tripod – this is the reflector and tripod that I am using

Food Blogging Props

You will want to acquire a little selection of different kitchenware. Buy some nice plates, bowls, platters, forks, knifes, glasses and jars. Try to stay consistent with the style and color of the props you buy. When taking food photos it is always nice to have different props to choose from. There is nothing more boring than always using the same plate and same set of silverware on every photo you take!

I have probably up to 30 different plates, around 20 glasses, more little tea spoons than I can count and a couple different marble platters. This gives me a good choice to always arrange my food picture in a different style. Here are some of the spoons that I have ordered online:

Kitchen Towels and Background Fabrics

A range of different colored kitchen towels can’t be missed in your food photography equipment! Placing some kind of fabric on the area you are shooting makes it look smoother and blends together with the dish and the background. I like using kitchen towels for that. In the background I usually put a very smooth, silky white fabric to make the background blur out.

Food Blogging Equipment – Backdrops

Having a nice surface to place your dish upon is very important when it comes to successful food blogging. That is why I bought varies backgrounds for my photos. I recommend to get a darker and a lighter one. Marble and wood work really well for food pictures.

A great food photography tip is to go into your local hardware store and ask them for floor samples. These usually come in different awesome wood optics and I always ask them if I can take some samples home. Like this I have free background surfaces for my photos in different styles!

Here are a couple links to some background papers that I have bought on Amazon, which are very practical because you can roll them up and take with you when traveling:

Marble Backdrop
Wooden Backdrop

Decoration items

I believe that you can make the most boring chia pudding look incredible with the art of food styling. In order to be able to make your creations look unique I suggest you get some fun decoration items to add more layers of interest to your photo! Sprinkles, flowers or coconut flakes work great. I also bought some tiny little cookie cutters to decorate my dishes with.

I recommend you also get seasonal decoration items to include in your food blogging equipment. For Easter I bought a couple of little Easter eggs, for Christmas I have golden stars and for Valentines Day heart postcards.

Here are two deco items that I have ordered and like very much:

Mermaid Silicon Molds
Little cookie cutters

This post contains affiliate links. All products & services recommended in this post are ones that I’ve personally used for my blog.

Do you want to take your food photography to the next level?

Finally I wanted to leave you with some more great support material on your way to becoming the next great food blogger out there. I have many more other articles on how to grow and develop your food blog! Make sure to have a look at my top ten food blogging tips for Instagram growth! There is also a YouTube video on it!

I also have my own food photography online course. It is a full fletched food blogging course that will teach you everything you need to know to kickstart your food blogging career!

You can sign up to my food blogging email list where I am sharing free cheat sheets and amazing food blogging tips from time to time. Definitely don’t miss out on this great opportunity:

I hope you found this basic food blogging equipment blog post helpful and that you will be putting some things you learnt today into practice. Let me know in the comments if you still have questions!

xoxo,