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So, you love eating food and talking about food and writing about food… but have you ever considered whether you could become a paid food blogger? Consider it now! It’s a basic truth that every human being has got to eat, and that makes food one thing that people love to read, talk, and learn about.
It’s the perfect subject for making money off blogging about. Or taking pictures for. Or doing demonstrations regarding. Or even reviewing food that other people or companies have made.
Ready to learn more about how you can get paid to talk about food? Well, grab a croissant and a coffee and read on below!
Also See: The Dream vs. The Reality of Blogging
Start Your Own Food Blog
Of course, one of the most traditional ways to make money as a food blogger is to start your own blog. It’s incredibly easy to get started – just pick a name, grab the domain, and install WordPress. There are a ton of slick, professional-looking layouts that even a total newbie can use, meaning that a complete, polished website is only hours away.
Once you’re blogging, you can make money in a few different ways:
Affiliate Links
Find affiliate programs that dovetail with your blog’s topic and then share their links on your website; you can make money for those website visitors who click through your links and make a purchase with your affiliate partner. Look up your favorite culinary brands—from direct marketing companies like Pampered Chef to manufacturers of cooking tools—and see if they have a program you can join. You can also search for affiliate programs on ShareASale, ClickBank, and more.
Learn more about affiliate marketing here.
Go Members-Only
Build your own community with a members-only area of your website that requires a subscription to access. You might offer exclusive recipes here, along with sneak peeks at new recipes you’re working on, along with live-streamed cooking lessons or anything else you can imagine. If you don’t want to set all this up on your website, you could run it through Patreon.
Write A Book
Books are amazing cash-generating assets. Pull your best blogs together, mix in some new material, and self-publish your own book. Once you’re done and offer it for sale via your website and/or on Amazon, you can start generating passive income. You could also publish your own cookbook if you create your own recipes.
Get Sponsorships
You can also offer sponsored posts—companies may pay you a fee to write about a specific product or experience on your blog. How much you can make this way varies, and sometimes the compensation may be the product you’re writing about.
Pro-tip: make sure you start building your mailing list as soon as you start your blog—it’s the best way to reach potential customers.
Learn more about sponsored posts here.
Learn more about starting a successful food blog at Food Blogger Pro.
Start a YouTube Channel
If you’re more comfortable presenting yourself verbally than writing, start a YouTube channel. You don’t even need much in the way of equipment to get started—these days, most smartphones are capable of taking some great video. And as your channel grows, you can always upgrade your equipment down the line.
The range of topics you can cover with your YouTube channel is just as varied as those you can cover with a blog. You can make videos of yourself cooking a recipe for both the entertainment and education of your viewers. You can make videos reviewing food products or utensils or kitchen equipment.
When your videos grow popular and you start building a subscriber list on YouTube, you can also monetize your videos with advertising. This is another avenue in which you can gain sponsorships as well; there are plenty of brands out there willing to pay you to mention their services on one of your popular videos. You may also be sent complimentary products to review by brands who notice your work.
With a YouTube channel, you can still drive your audience to any books you might self-publish as well, or your Patreon (if you run one).
Food Blogger Support
If you’d like to get into food blogging without the stress of running your own show, there are a number of support roles you can fulfill for established food bloggers already on the scene. Whether your skill is in administrative tasks or in something more creative, there’s someone out there who can use your help.
Virtual Assistant
Folks running big sites often have more tasks than they can keep up with; if you’re a stellar organizer, you can take some of that load off them. Set up interviews, manage their calendars, sort their email, and more. Offer VA services through your own website, or sign up for a service like FreeeUp that can connect you to the types of clients you’d like.
Learn more about becoming a virtual assistant here.
Freelance Writer
Are you a skilled writer who’d just like a food-related assignment you can write for a food blogger? Look for food-related websites who are offering gigs. You can also trawl through marketplaces like Problogger, FlexJobs, or BloggingPro’s Job Board to find suitable food blogger briefs.
Learn more about freelance writing here.
Photographer
If there’s one thing that food bloggers need, it’s awesome food photos! If you have great photography chops and the tools at home to set up well-lit, attractive shots, there’s a food blogger who will pay for your assistance. You can sell your photos through Fiverr, or look for paying sites at Contently. Find food bloggers that may be in need of assistance in Facebook Groups. You could also offer stock photos through a service like Adobe Stock.
Recipe Tester
Making up a recipe is just the first step in food blogs that post original recipes. They need those recipes to be tested! This goes for various food magazines and services as well. You can query magazines and cookbook publishers to find work as a recipe tester, or reach out to popular food blogger websites.
Food-Related Industry Work
If you don’t want to start your own business, you can still seek out jobs in the food blogger industry—whether that’s in doing work directly for a food blog or working in the food industry around it.
Problogger
If you like writing blogs, ProBlogger is an invaluable resource for finding paid gigs. Just head over to the Jobs section of their website, and enter a search term. For food blog-related jobs, I’d suggest searching for “food” to get as many results as possible. You can then see if there are any food, lifestyle, recipe, or related blogs that are currently looking for support.
Upwork
Upwork is another freelance marketplace where you can find food-related work. Just search for the relevant search terms. There’s a wide range of projects that folks hiring are looking to staff at any given moment—so you might not find a blog, but there could be a food catalog that needs writing or a menu that needs designing.
Cozymeal
Cozymeal lets you work from home while offering your culinary skills to groups. You can work as a chef and teach cooking classes from your home or your students’. You can also offer food tours or a venue for private dining experiences. These are great ways to earn money while also potentially generating fodder for your own writing about food on the side.
AngelList
AngelList helps you find jobs with startups, and this is a great board to search with food-related search terms as well. You may find a startup in need of a blogger or social media manager to pack their website and their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts with great content.
I imagine you’ve finished your coffee and croissant by now, which is great—it’s time to get to work writing about it! Follow the opportunities above and you’ll be generating extra income as a paid food blogger in no time.