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,