How to Start a Profitable Food Blog

There are many components to a profitable food blog, but I’m going to break them all down into one simple formula to start:

Great, original recipes + Amazing, high-quality images = $$$

Okay, so obviously it’s not that simple. However, the basics of food blogging are definitely broken down into the two categories of great recipes and amazing images. Your food blog will not be successful without both of these things.

First Things First…

First, you’ll need to start your blog. There are many options out there, but I fully recommend going self-hosted and signing up with WordPress. Self-hosted means you own your content and as long as you’re not breaking any laws, nobody can pull it down. Whereas if you go with, say, Blogger, Google owns that site and they can pull your blog at any time – with or without reason. I’ve seen some bloggers lose thousands of posts, years of photos, and very loyal followings because their Blogger website was deleted by Google. Don’t make the same mistake: Sign up for self-hosted WordPress from the get-go.

How do you do that? It’s simple! First, go to GoDaddy. Choose a website name (also called a URL or domain), and purchase it (this costs $.99 if you use my link). You’ll have a domain fee each year, which can be as high as $15. Keep that in mind when creating your blog. What this says to me is: make money fast and you won’t have to worry about a domain fee being a bother!

After you’ve chosen your domain name, GoDaddy will walk you through the process of signing up for WordPress. I recommend looking on YouTube if you need tutorials; there are tons!

What’s next? The bread and butter, of course!

Great, Original Recipes

Have your friends and family told you that you should start a food blog? Maybe you get compliments every time you bake, and everyone asks for the recipe! Why not make some money while sharing the joy of baking or cooking? Makes them happy, makes you happy… that’s a win win situation!

Start by categorizing the recipes you want to post first. Remember, you’ll need at least one (preferably 3-5) high-quality images of each recipe. Ideally, you’ll have one or two in-process photos, and then at least one or two final images. However, if these are recipes you’ve made in the past, just go with what you have!
You are building a foundation for a great food blog, which means you want to focus on the content first. So, don’t stress too much about the small stuff – just work on getting those great, original recipese typed up and ready to share on your blog.

Amazing, High-Quality Images

You don’t need a DSLR camera to capture amazing images, but it sure does help! Start by using the camera you have – whether it’s a newer smartphone, a bridge camera (such as a Sony a6000), or a full on DSLR. The camera you have now might just be the best camera to use. While there are exceptions to this, I want you to know you don’t have to run out and spend $1000 on a camera just to have a good food blog.

Many food bloggers started out taking photos with their iPhones. If you have great recipes, you share lots of pictures, and you tell a great story, you’re good to go.

Stalk Pinterest to find inspiration and to see what works for most food bloggers. At the time of posting this, the best images for Pinterest are long, vertical images. However, that could change in the future so make sure you browse before sticking with a style format.

Branding

I’m only lightly touching on this because it’s very important! Make sure you brand everything – from your social media pages, to your images, to basically everything you post online. Create a watermark or have someone do it for you, and put it on anything you publish. This is the fastest way to create a name for yourself while sharing great content. Using the same watermark on everything creates a uniform look and people will come to recognize you quickly if you have enough content up to share over and over again.

Basic Understanding of Social Media

While recipes and images are the bread and butter of your blog content, social media is the cornerstone of basically, well, everything. Without social media, your blog will cease to exist. Okay, okay, it won’t actually cease to exist. It will still exist, but nobody will know about it.

I know you’ve seen those viral videos on Facebook. That is the power of social media. You use social media to get traffic to your website. Traffic to your website means more ad income, more sponsored post opportunities (more about those in a future post!), and more clicks on your affiliate links.

Speaking of affiliate links, that’s how many of us earn an income from our blogs.

Trusted Affiliates

The key word here is trusted! Everyone uses affiliates, but some will use any ol’ affiliate just to make a quick buck. You’ve gained your readers’ trust; they’re your friends now. The last thing you want to do is lie to them or be deceitful in any way. Make sure you only promote affiliates that you know and trust.

Any time someone makes a purchase through your link, you’ll earn a commission. Sometimes it’s small like 4% (Amazon), and other times you can earn $50 or more per sign up (GoDaddy).

Here are a few of my favorite affiliates:

Blendtec – I use a high powered blender daily for my cooking whether it be for my morning smoothies or nut milks, nut butters, sauces and so much more!  I have used many other name brand blenders and by far the Blendtec is hands down the best I have used and I use mine daily!

Cuisinart – Obviously a food blog will use kitchen gadgets. Think juicers, coffee makers, cookware and bakeware. These are easy to work into your posts. Any time you use a gadget, link to it from this website.

Sur La Table – Cookware, cutlery, dinnerware, and bakeware are all found on this website. While typing up your recipe posts, include information about the exact items you use. This means you’ll have an opportunity to use your affiliate link!

GoDaddy – Blog hosting affiliates are well known for paying higher than most other affiliates. When you find a blog host you really, really like… stick with them, and then join their affiliate program! That’s what I did with GoDaddy. Earn a certain amount for each sign up, rather than just a small percentage for your commission. Usually, the more folks you can get to sign up, the higher your earnings are for each. Check your affiliate agreement for details, because each one will have different information.

WP Engine – I love Word Press!  WP Engine has it down with the 4 Ss of managed WordPress hosting—security, scalability, speed, and service – contributing directly to the success of your site!

Please remember that starting a blog is hard work! You’ve gotta have skin in the game, it’s going to require a lot of elbow grease, but it’s fun and it’s a passion of mine that also happens to pay the bills. If this sounds like something you want to do, start over at GoDaddy! Sign up for a domain (choose your name carefully – it’s a pain to change it!), and install WordPress. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will try to help. I’m learning as I go, too!