Do you love food?,  consider yourself a foodie?. Are you curious to learn How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money and in the process possibly becoming one of the Top Food Bloggers!

Well congratulations! You have clicked over to the right place to learn just that! In this long and detailed article I will show you exactly what you need to know, what you need to learn, If a food blog can make money (or not), how to best make money from a food blog. 

I will also show and teach some general blogging strategies and techniques to help you start your foodie blog and generate traffic. 

More importantly I help you to find your foodie niche and aid you in finding and discovering some food blog post ideas for you to write about and start generating traffic and revenue. 

I also give you some excellent top food blogging sites and food bloggers to check out for inspiration and to inspire you to success. 

How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money

The entire food and drink retail industry in the United States is massive and is the biggest single market - period!. We all need to eat! and at least 3 times daily. The market is growing, and is currently worth in excess of $5 Trillion yearly. 

We all like to eat, and in one way or another to some level or another we are all foodies.

Some of you reading this will Chef, cooks, kitchen assistants, foodie lovers of specific kind, be it spicy, Mexican, Italian, Spanish Tapas, Greek, Thai, Vietnamese, Asian Fusion, Indian, European, or good old fashioned Texan BBQ! 

Or maybe you are simply known amongst family friends and neighbours for a being a particularly awesome cook - despite not being your profession. 

And it is just fabulous that you want to share that passion for food and maybe even your own "secret" recipes with the world with your very own foodie blog. The great part is you can actually generate revenue from such a blog should you be able to attract traffic. 

And getting traffic is the darn easy part! - let me show you how, a little bit later in this article!.

(being a foodie myself, with a particular love for Thai and Vietnamese Cuisine I am sooo excited to write this article!). 

Getting Targeted

It is very important that you find your foodie niche and be exact and targeted when it comes to blogging and niche site marketing. 

When it comes to building a successful blog in any market the absolute best approach is to start with an end goal in mind and work your way backwards. A little bit like reverse engineering your blog before you have started. 

Starting with a plan sets you in good stead for success, an this applies to not only food blogging. It applies to blogs in all markets. 

Things to consider:

• How Do You Want To Make Money (Affiliate Marketing, Advertising, Your Own Products, Your Services As A Chef) - I Discuss these later. Keep reading!

• What Is Your Exact And Specific Part Of Foodie Blogging? What Do You Want To Specialize In? I.e What Exact Sector Do You Want To Dominate?

• Who Is Your Ideal Target Audience And Reader? (Age, Sex, Background Etc, Etc). 

Knowing your audience allows you to be very specific and exacting, as well as highly targeted when it comes to content creation and pulling in traffic.

Let's now drill down and help you to find that exact market segment and sector to create your blog around. 

How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money - Finding Your Foodie Niche

"Niching down" or drilling down on your targeted niche market helps you to reduce the amount of competition and competing sites, allows you to find a set specific audience and deliver the exact high quality information and content that they are searching for. 

It also help you to "short circuit" the amount to time that it takes for you to succeed as a food blogger.

 It is only logical that you can achieve success a bit quicker when you are competing in a pool of 2000 food bloggers than a pool of 2 million food bloggers!. 

Breaking down the Food blogging industry in sectors and segments. Firstly, "food blogger" as an industry or market I see as a blogger that blogs about all things related to food and cooking to an all encompassing audience that include, well, everyone interested in food!. 

Just for the record, I am not saying that you, as in individual can not succeed in that kind of market. I am telling you that it will take you much longer and much more of an effort to do so. 

So break down food blogging into specific market sectors or segments. 

Breaking Down The Foodie Blogging Market

Breaking this market down is so easy!. It is, in my opinion and my years as a blogger one of the easier markets to break into "smaller chunks" that are easier to digest and make your mark in. 

Here are a few ideas:

• Cuisine (i.e Italian, Mexican, Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Caribbean Etc, Etc).
• Type Of Food (i.e Lunch, Brunch, Breakfast, Snacks, Appetisers, Baked goods, after Dinner Sweets, Homemade Food Etc Etc.)
• Food For A Specific Person (I.e Man food!, Girlie food, Children's food, yes, a baby food!).
• Food Of A Specific Genre (I.e, Carnivore, Pescatarian, Vegetarian, Vegan, Heath Food, Low fat, no fat!, gluten free). 

See how easy that was to break the food blogger market down?. Perhaps you can even add a few breakdowns yourself! If you can..comment below and share them with us by leaving a comment in the comments box!. 

Because you are awesome and you KNOW you CAN MAKE MONEY As Food Blogger!. The Question is: WIll you TAKE THE MONEY?!?

If you have found what kind or type of food your foodie blog is going to be about you can now focus on who it is for. 

Let's assume you have chosen to specialise in Thai food and create a very specific blog about Thai cuisine. 

Who Is Your Blog For? 

Who is your ideal reader?. Are they male, female or both. Are they students? Wanna be chef's? How old are they? Are they expat or backpacker wanting to remake that spicy Papaya Salad they enjoyed during a trip to Thailand? Or a foodie who wants to add something exotic to their skill set to impress all at a dinner party?

Are they blue collar worker or university/college graduate? How would they best learn? good old fashioned cook book or digitally delivered straight to the tablet cook book or video lesson? 

Build up a detailed profile and avatar of your ideal reader and client. It will help you tremendously as you build your blog. 

Also, consider strongly once you have build your avatar your monetization strategy - we are edging towards this point. Affiliate marketing? Advertising? Your own products? Hiring you as a culinary consultant or chef at a dinner party? 

Other Options To Consider When Deciding On Your Foodie Niche

When it comes to certain markets or niche markets that can indeed be mixed and matched. This technique is called Sexing your niche!. 

Basically you take two or three niches and make one great and unique niche site. Just brain storm thing that you like, your hobbies and see if you can mix'em and match'em for one heck of a site!. 

Such ideas include, but not limited to: 

• Food
• Travel
• Fashion
• Beauty
• Fitness
• Parenting

Since we are focusing on Food blogging here, we can Take food, or a sub market of the food market like, Mexican food, if we so wish and add in any of the other markets and see what happens. 

Mexican food and fashion, (or just food and fashion), Food and Fitness (or Italian food and fitness), Food and beauty, Food and travel!. 

You can play around and mix and match and add in a 3rd aspect, like food, travel and fashion to make up one awesome blog, or beauty, food and fashion! and even food, beauty and parenting!. 

These are all great ideas, and that list above can of course be expanded upon. Personally I don't suggest that you try this if your are new to blogging or are setting up your first site.

This kind of site requires a lot of work and good blogging skills set from the get go. By all means give it a go if you already know what you are doing and have a successful site behind you. 

Now before we get to the nitty gritty of generating revenue, traffic and food blog post ideas as well as food blogging tips

A quick word on branding is important as it is a brand that you are and will be establishing. 

The Importance Of Branding Your Food Blog

Creating a brand, which is exactly what you are going to do with your fab new foodie blog is something that sets you apart from the "Internet Junk" that is out there. 

The fact that you are building a brand, should not intimidate you or make you fearful in anyway at all. It is really about a good memorable site name (AKA Domain name), a logo, and consistency across all forms of social media that you are using. 

Some aspects of creating a brand you have already done thus far, or are thinking about it and that is identifying your key target audience and an exact specific niche of choice. 

The remaining aspect is consistency and creating quality content that focuses on generating value for the reader, which aids in them trusting you and your brand. How you promote your site (Read: How You Promote Your Brand!). 

That said, how do you think that your brand will be perceived if you are seen spamming the living hell out of social media, your own accounts or/and others? 

Not at all like a brand to be trusted or a brand of any value at all!.

How people perceive you and your brand will effect their decisions to stay on and surf your site and to make a buying decision on your site (or not!).  

This is why and how you promote your brand and your site is very important for your brand and your ability to generate quality traffic and earn consistently over a long period of time. 

Personal Branding

Personal branding is when you are the brand, the face of the company or business. Think David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, as examples of personal brands. In the foodie world you can consider Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver as examples of personal branding. 

Obviously, personal branding is something that can work well as a food blogger. Do keep in mind that it is much more than just using your own name with .com tagged on at the end of it. 

It is all of the elements previously mentioned. Good logo, quality content, well selected niche and defined target audience, good clean quality spam free marketing and a well designed site. 

Site design, and logo, need not cost you the world, they can be done for free or at a very low cost.

Site design on WordPress can be as simple as installing a theme which can be free, premium or custom made. 

Yes, free is ok and ideal to start with as you develop your brand and site. 

A logo is the same, it can be done with zero graphic design skills using a few funky and awesome apps like canva or coollogo. 

Because you want to BRAND the FOOD BLOGGING WORLD with YOUR NAME!. The Question is:  Is It to remain a dream or ARE YOU GOING DO IT?1?

Business Branding

As the name suggests business branding is all about branding your business using a business name. There are many such examples such as Apple, microsoft, sony, Nike, and so on.

The branding aspect can be considered as the face or the soul of the company setting out its mission, values and goals. 

In the online world and the world of blogging, business branding usually starts with the site name. Having a cool catchy name that is relevant to your niche is important as it sets out straight away what your blog is about. 

Co-Branding

Co-Branding is as you can imagine and guess, the mix of using a business name with personal branding, using an individual, which is usually the business owner as the face of the company. 

A particular striking and memorable example of this is Backlinko and its owner Brian Dean. Think of Backlinko and those in the blogging and SEO world know its Brian Dean's company. Same when you mention his name, folks are like "yeah, the Backlinko guy!". 

The other very important aspect of creating a brand is the well established fact, something that google admitted to a fair few years ago, is that they set brands apart from regular unbranded sites to help them to rank better. 

Now that we have established the fact that you are building a brand with your foodie blog, as we move forwards think of it as that! a brand and a business! and treat it as such in a very important business like fashion and manner. 

Because you are building a business and not a blog!. The sooner you realise that and act accordingly, the more professional your attitude will be towards your site.

The end goal is not a flash in the pan success but building a long term sustainable business that produces an income for many years to come. 

How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money - Monetizing Your Foodie Blog!

Finally! He's telling us! I can almost hear you cheer and feel that sense of relief. Thankfully, there are many different methods of generating revenue and income from your blog. 

Let's crack on and get to the making money part of How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money!.

These methods are, and not limited to, Affiliate Marketing, Advertising, Your Own Products or Services and the creation of a premium subscription based membership site. 

let's now talk about all of these one by one. 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is something that you have probably heard of already. It is one of my fave and preferred ways of monetizing traffic to my blogs. 

If you are are not already aware of what affiliate marketing is, it is simply to sale of goods owned by an individual or business (i.e not you) in exchange for a direct or on going recurring commission. 

The goods can be either physical goods, digital goods or a service. The commission are usually expressed as a percentage of the sale or an actual monetary amount, like $10 per sale for example.  

Recurring commissions are usually when a subscription based service is sold, and you get paid for the entire duration that the subscriber remains a customer, be that 1 month or 1 year (or more). 

In short affiliate marketing is being the digital salesperson that gets paid a direct commission based on their marketing efforts that bring in custom for the particular business or product owner. 

The Best Food Affiliate Programs

Amazon Associates

Perhaps the original affiliate program in the online world. If it is not, I'll certainly be surprised as Amazon dates back to 1996 and very much the birth of the commercial internet. 

Amazon, is certainly, amongst bloggers the most well known and famous of all affiliate programs. A lot of us in the blogging world love Amazon, a lot, well quite the opposite. 

I fully understand both sides of the divide. The Main Down sides to Amazon Associates is the short 24hr cookie duration and small 4.5% commission (most categories). 

Their plus points are that they cookie gets extended to 90 days upon a purchase and despite a low commission rate Amazon are well known and trusted brand and do convert very well in comparison to other independent affiliate programs and networks. 

Also, you will get a commission on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, that is purchased and not just the cookbook or cookware that you recommended. 

With amazon there is always an abundance of products available to promote and recommend to your readers. There are lots of cook books, DVD's and Amazon Prime videos related to cooking and just tons of ingredients. 

Let's say you have a Thai food blog, and everytime you mention or write oyster sauce, an integral ingredient of many Thai dishes you link to an oyster sauce that is sold on Amazon...they buy it..boom ! a sale and a commission earned!. 

And let's not forget the ever expanding Amazon fresh Amazons food delivery service, a service that pays $3 per completed sign up!

eBay

What you can find on Amazon you can usually get on eBay which makes sense to check out their affiliate program especially when and if Amazon associates is not available in your country or state. 

The principle and process with eBay is the same as Amazon, everytime you mention an ingredient hyperlink to the eBay product page with your affiliate link. 

Take your time and have a real good look for relevant products that are related and relevant to your niche. 

 Craftsy

This is a very well known, well respected growing digital platform with close on 15 million subscribers. What makes them popular and so fabulously great is the absolute number and variety of classes that are available on the platform. 

Also, the video tutorials are interactive and high definition. They have absolutely everything, and with more being added every day. Some example of what could be of interest to you as a food blogger is baking, Asian cooking, Italian cooking, cake making. 

Pretty awesome is the fact that this company has joined up with Top Chef and created brand new series called "Cooking With MasterChef"  - you might have noticed Craftsy mentioned on it all the time!

and that is a big win and a great product for food bloggers to promote!.

You can of course use Craftsy, for the creation and distribution of your own cooking video tutorials, we will get to that later. 

Benefits of becoming a Craftsy Affiliate: 

• Good affiliate support system with promo ideas and tips. 
• Get direct contact with product owners who can and will help you to earn money by promoting their products. Who knows the products better then the product owners? Nobody!. 
• Commission and cookie duration are pretty reasonable.

Get more information here

Simplified Pantry

This program offers an extensive collection of ebooks that are jam packed with recipes for delicious meals that very easy to cook. There are also some sample menus. 

Some of the cook books available are dairy free and gluten free, and as the name suggests...all simplified with nothing complicated at all to follow. 

Gluten Free Cooking School

This is a long running and very successful cooking school that actually started out as a humble blog way back in 2007 by Mary Frances. 

It is an independent affiliate program that is managed by the product owner herself and she offers a very ample 50% commission on all products sold. Minimum payout is a reasonable $100. 

Join the affiliate program here

Smart Kitchen

Smart Kitchen is a high quality cooking school that has a fully comprehensive 3 level training for those wanting to improve their culinary skills, beginner, intermediate and advanced. 

What's more, for affiliates these guys offer an ample 30% commission and a recurring commission at that! nice!. 

Find more info about their affiliate program here

Shop Taste Of Home

Shop Taste Of Home have an extensive range of cookbooks and recipe books covering all styles of cooking for all types of person for busy mum's who have little time to cook and those that have plenty time for cooking!

Their affiliate program offers commissions that range from 10% to 12%.

Offer Vault

Offer vault is an affiliate marketing network, searching their database found a variety of products related to cooking and food using those words as search terms. Commissions vary depending on the product, type of products. 

Not all were for affiliate sales but paying for each qualified sales lead that you send them. 

Get more info here about offer vault. 

Food 52

Food 52 offer absolutely everything related to the kitchen and kitchen wares and all things cooking from recipes to dishes, to utensils. Everything you need to really enjoy a well cooked meal. 

Commissions are 6% and cookie duration 7 days. Their product data feed has quite literally thousands of products!

Thrive Market

If you have not heard of Thrive Market, they are an online supermarket that makes healthy eating easy and not as darn expensive as other supermarkets would have you believe! Offering huge saving on all diet types from Keto, to Paleo, to Gluten Free and to name but a few. 

What I particularly like is the ease of navigation of the site for users. 

And they deliver!. 

As a food blogger, you really ought to check out Thrive Market and what they have ingredients and products wise that may be of interest to your target audience. 

Commissions are $20 per first time customer sale. 

Join Their Affiliate Program on CJ.com Here.

You have to join CJ.com in order to join their managed affiliate program. 

Fresh Direct

Fresh Direct is an incredibly well known fresh food grocer in America that delivers door to door premium quality produce. They also have a whole range of delicious and tasty baked goods and ready made meals that are prepared on a daily basis by their team of trained chefs. 

Commissions are 12% per sale on all products sold, with the average sale being $125 that adds up to a very nice earner!.  

Every time you mention an ingredient, hyperlink it to Fresh Direct, or if all your ingredients are available from them, a nice link at the bottom of the recipe and you are fine. 

Get More info about the Fresh Direct Affiliate Program here

Plan To Eat

Plan to eat is a site and online menu planner that aims to make eating at home much easier. You save your fave menu's, decide when you want them and they will conveniently give you a cool shopping list that is accessible from your smartphone or tablet... no need to scribble down on think about anything or forget an item on the list. 

Very convenient and a time saver!. 

Commissions are a lovely 20% on all subscriptions. 

Details about their affiliate program is right here

Sunfood

Sunfood is an awesome idea, company and affiliate program for food bloggers, particularly those who are blogging about health food and wish to use and recommend the use of quality healthy and wholesome ingredients and products.

They also have some super food recipes! 

Commissions range from 10% to 20% with a minimum payment threshold of just $50. 

Check out Sunfood affiliate program here!

La Tienda

Got a site specialising in Spanish food or tapa's? Latin American food? if so, well La Tienda might just be the affiliate program that you are looking for offering gourmet style and quality foods and ingredients since 1996!. 

A flat rate 7% commission, with an average order of $120 makes them well worth considering!. 

Get more information here regarding their affiliate program

Paleo Hacks Cookbook

Well known and famed cooking style and cookbook is something to consider if you are specialising in the foodie niche of raw or palaeolithic food and diet. 

The program, available on clickbank is one that is well known, converts well and offers a very reasonable commissions and is digitally downloadable for your prospective clients. 

Winc

The particular and targeted niche of Winc is wine, however, nothing goes better with a delicious and well prepared meal than a nice bottle of plonk. An idea of promoting these guys is a recommended wine of which you can link to with your Winc affiliate link. 

Most people, myself included!, don't know that much about wine and what wine or wine type will go well with what meal.

Give your audience, who may be preparing for a special dinner party some advice on a choice of wine to help things go along rather swimmingly!. 

More details about Winc affiliate program is right here

Because you are ready for AFFILIATE SUCCESS!. The Question is: Are YOU going to TAKE THE MONEY?!?

Revenue Generation - Display Advertising

A great way of earning an income from your site is by means of display advertising. This is something that you can do from the very beginning or wait until you have a significant amount traffic to your site for it to be actually worth your while. 

This is what the vast majority of bloggers do. They hold back on the pennies to earn the pounds!. 

Google adsense, a program that pays your for every click generated on the google ads that you place on your site permits you to use their service from the very start of your site, given that you are not involved in a polemic or no-no  topic. 

Media Vine, at this moment in time is another program that offers higher earnings than google adsense and is very much the most popular one amongst website owners for the generation of income for their websites. 

Media vine, have high quality standards and a part of those standards require that applicants to have at least 25,000 sessions per month to qualify for their display advertising program. 

The good part is, Media Vine users report earnings of between $20 to $40 per 1000 sessions. Obviously, this is niche dependent, and dependent of a number of factors including the quality of the traffic and the site - better branding generates better traffic and higher advertising revenue. 

If you have not already done some quick calculations $20 to $40 per 1000 sessions, is $500 to $1000 extra on top of your other sources of income. An extra source of income that is completely passive - you don't need to do anything to get it!. 

Something that is definitely worth checking out and testing against another advertising program is Gourmet Ads.

This program might just convert better and earn you more money than Media Vine or another similar program due to being targeted towards food and food based sites.

Your audience might just be more inclined to click on their ads Vs another company and thus more revenue for you. 

Do test out which program works best for you and your site and stick with it. And don't ever get friends and family or bots to click on the ads that are on your site - you will just end up getting banned from the network!

Your Own Products

Once you are fully established and have a steady and strong source of traffic and a strong and steady following and fan base you can start to consider making your own products. 

These can be recipe books, cookbooks, cooking lessons in either a book or video format (or both!). To do that, and to do it well and maintain a strong presence for your brand you are looking to be  making real quality products. 

That, naturally will require a quality camera, quality microphone a quality graphics as well as some backroom editing and processing. And great foodie pics. 

If you don't already have that amazing TV style or show room kitchen - go rent and apartment for a weekend long shoot that does. The quality of your end product will be well worth it when it comes to selling and promoting the video. 

The extra effort is well worth it as a quality product tends to sell better and, if you get to the point where you want to hire affiliates they too will be more willing to promote a good product to their audience than a half-baked half assed one. 

Your Own Services

Once established, and known as foodie blogger if you have the chef skill set (unlike me!) you can go right ahead and offer your own services at dinner parties or hold specific themed dinner parties to a limited audience in your own home for a set fee per diner.  

This is something that I have seen work well in London, where a known Chinese Chef, celebrates her culture and holds dinner clubs at her own home 3x per week to exclusive well off clients!. 

In such a surrounding, it becomes a social event as well as a dining experience. If you are talented chef, and become known by means of your blog then why not give it a go!. It could be a very nice earner for you!. 

Think about it, 10 well to do diners one day a week to you culinary club paying $50 a head for a set menu adds up to a nice income for one evenings work per week!

Other options, include offering your services as a consultant to local restaurants aiding them to set or improve their menu and run their kitchen as well as training staff. This is something a good friend of mine does, and does very well!. 

Food Blogging Tips - Generating Traffic

A blog without traffic is nothing. A blog with a lot of traffic has a lot of options as far as the direction that you can take it (i.e the very top!) and can be monetized in many different ways as demonstrated. 

Despite the fact that as a blogger we are monetizing our sites and content, it is effectively the traffic that we are monetizing. 

No traffic = no sales, no click, no ad revenue, nada.

Thankfully though, getting traffic to your site is a pretty easy thing to do. And with a food blog...ohh..they just so happen to be the most trafficked blogs out there!. 

Everyone has a favourite food, a fave type of food, a favourite style...favourite something!. I actually find it pretty amazing just how food seems to bring people together and cross cultures (as well as languages!). 

Get this fact firmly in your mind, traffic is the easy part!. Always has been, always will be!. 

It really is as simple as knowing your audience and finding out where there are hanging out online and going out there and getting them. 

I hope by now you are beginning to see just how everything just stitches together and why we did that exercise on defining your audience and creating that avatar of them. 

Knowing your audience helps you to find out where they are and what will attract them to your site. It sure beats "hitting and hoping". 

And the very best traffic is free and targeted towards your niche!.

Let's now investigate some great sources of traffic!. 

Because you want to earn an income by food blogging. The question is: Are you going to take action?!?

Social Media

Social media is an obvious choice for quality free and targeted traffic. You should use it in a professional, brand aware way. Do get into a good routine as far as using these kind of sites go and don't get drawn into being unproductive and wasting your time!. 

All your social sites should have a high degree of brand consistency across the board as far as name, and imaging goes. 

Don't spam social media, it is detrimental to you, the integrity of your food blog and your brand. It doesn't really get you any traffic - at least as far as quality traffic goes. 

Facebook

The obvious one that just about the whole world is on. Simply set up a Facebook group and a fan page related to your site and brand it with your site name, logo and relevant background images that are recognisable to your audience. 

Post frequently and reply to posts, comments, and PM's in a timely (and respectful) fashion. Don't always be posting your own links and stuff about your own site.

Share other stuff, maybe a little humour, an inspirational quote, or something from similar sites to your - later when you are established, they may be willing to return the favour!

Join in and participate in groups that are similar to your food niche and be an active and valued member, abide by the rules and don't spam your links.

If you are sharing awesome foodie and cooking videos and delicious recipes, other regular and active members will be willing to join your group or visit your site on their own accord as they naturally become drawn to you. 

You can post a link to your group, only if the group admins permit it. Ask first. I mean, imagine getting banned from a foodie group of 100,000 or 50,000 members and missing out on what could be a massive source of traffic and followers!. 

It takes time to build a social media presence, but once you get past that tipping point, which varies from platform to platform, everything just snowballs and avalanches!. 

It can take maybe a year to get 5,000 members to your foodie group. The within months you will have doubled that, and then doubled it again few months later!

Twitter

Twitter is absolutely abundant and thriving with activity related to food. Use the search box to search for all things food related including tweets and people, latest news. And then check out #food and #foodie.

Try few hash tags of your own related to your specific foodie niche. 

Build your audience by following people of similar interest to your food blog, tweet about food and reply to tweets and retweet cool stuff related to your niche. Be social, and not spammy!

One way of building a targeted audience on twitter is following the followers of the big influencers in your target niche - logic says that if they are following a known foodie blog that they are interested in food. 

You will also grow your audience on twitter by being active, consistent and tweeting quality tweets and responding to comments (replies) to your tweets. 

Again, brand twitter with your site and brand name, have your link in your bio for folks to check out should they want to. 

Don't just tweet out your own stuff - that quickly turns folks off!. Tweet stuff from other related sites, related news, famous chefs and yes some interesting topics of the day and motivational quotes. 

Being consistent this way and over a period of time you will build up a strong and active, as well as targeted following. 

Twitter, just so that you know it, is great for instant traffic!. 

And use images and videos frequently, they take up a lot of  real estate in the twitter news feed and become more noticeable! Take advantage of that fact how you wish and tweet out some "eye candy" and whack in your logo on the foodie pic!.  

Instagram

A heck of a lot of food related activity on Instagram, and that is plenty enough reason to get on that gravy train and build up an audience and presence on this growing social network. 

Like twitter, and other social media sites, get on it and build a targeted audience. having a variety of traffic sources only aids to help your site to rank high in search engines. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great site foodie bloggers. One in which I swear by and utterly insist that you use! 

Why? 

Well unlike other other social sites, your activity, pins or boards, hang there for ever and don't get lost in the mist of time. I always use Pinterest for my blogs and get a steady stream of traffic from it.

For one site, I have maxed out the 500 board limit! I have not posted any new pins or boards for a long time yet still get a steady stream of traffic!. 

In essence, Pinterest is very much like a search engine where your pins are fully searchable and hang in cyber space forever and when someone clicks one of your pins - free targeted traffic to your site!. 

Do create pins and boards that are relevant to your site. Use relevant hash tags and an appropriate descriptions to help the pinterest search engine to find your boards. And use appropriate board names also. 

Do be social and pin or repin other users pins and join in and pin your pins to high traffic boards when possible. 

Good high quality photo and infographic based recipes could be something that is effective for you on this social site.

Don't forget to add your logo here and there on your pins, particularly infographic based recipes to help your site be easily remembered. 

This is something you should do on all social media postings - your logo in the bottom corner where it does not interupt the food in the photo and is clearly visible and recognisable. 

Because you know that you can drive awesome traffic to YOUR own FOODIE BLOG!. The Question is: WIll you step up to the CHALLENGE and BUILD IT?!?

Currently, Pinterest is a social site that does allow you to use affiliate links directly, however, I personally would prefer the traffic and the brand awareness that comes with that and take visitors to my site directly rather than to an affiliate site. 

Worthy of note, this social media giant is predominantly used by women aged 25-34. I am not being sexist here, but research does show that women are still more likely to do the weekly shopping than men, and at 25 years old, likely they have flown the nest already!. 

In short, even if not in a relationship, and single, they will need to do some grocery shopping. 

If they are in a relationship, married, boyfriend, fiance, with children or without, women are statistically speaking slightly more likely to do or to take charge of the weekly grocery shopping. 

And with the trend moving towards the grocery shopping being done online and getting delivered...

...see what I am getting at here?.

Pinterest offers ample opportunity for you to get in there with your info about deliverable good from fresh direct, thrive market and so on. 

YouTube

Maybe not a site that you thought of as a social network or a social site. It is very much is due to the interactivity that takes place in the comments area below videos. 

And that comments area is something that you should take advantage of and make it a daily habit to comment, helpful and useful comments of value, NOT SPAM, on videos and channels related to your niche and site. 

Why? 

Each comment leaves a link back to to your channel - without you actually putting a link there. 

Naturally speaking you should subscribe to leaders in your sector and niche as you wish to associate with them and you probably will be at some point. 

Understand that in blogging and niche site marketing there are no rivals, no enemies. The internet is big enough for everyone to use, enjoy and earn a living from. 

So,

Associate with the right people and you will succeed, associate with the wrong folks...well, you can still succeed, but hanging with the wrong crowd can hold you back. 

YouTube and getting on the video sharing giant helps your in many ways one is actually related to branding.

It helps to humanise your brand, which is pretty awesome as people trust people more when they can see them, appear on video and it is like they know you!. Your audience can feel like they are connecting with you on another deeper level. 

Particularly if you are making high quality videos, I am imagining teaching and showing your viewers how to make a particular dish would be great. The best part is you can embed your Videos in the relevant post that it relates to on your blog. 

All this is pretty awesome for you and your foodie blog, as it can and will help you to convert more traffic into sales. 

Again, branding branding branding! don't forget to brand your channel appropriately and don't overtly put in links in all your videos to your site. As a general rule I only put a link in 1 out of every 3 videos. 

YouTube does have a policy in regards to channels existing to take traffic away from them. So don't over do it! and bare in mind, YouTube is an awesome traffic source also, when folks click away from there and onto your site they tend to stick around much longer than other sources of traffic. 

Food Blogging Tips - Getting Organic Search Engine Traffic

Without a single doubt Organic Search Engine traffic is by far the very best and most targeted traffic that there is on the whole internet. 

With that said, you should not and never go out all gung ho and heavily set out for one particular traffic source.

Variety is the spice of life as they say, and having a varied traffic source is what will save you from algorithm update from one particular social media or a major search engine like google. 

And trust me, it is great when changes do go in your favour, and absolute soul destroying heart break when they go against you! - something I have experienced! One day buzzing along great income and 1000 a traffic - the next 300 a day! 70% reduction in traffic!. 

All a while back and my own fault for heavily relying on one dominant and single traffic source!. Sure I had other sources of traffic but 85% from the one place!. And when an update occurred...that did not go my way....ouch! I sure felt it! 

With that mini lecture on the pearls of not having multiple sources of traffic lets crack on with getting organic search engine traffic. 

How To Get Organic Search Engine Traffic To Your Blog

Thankfully, this is much easier than it actually sounds. There is no gobbeldy gook or computer or IT skills involved at all. 

In fact if you are of average intelligence and can use the internet you can do Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I used to think that this was exclusively for IT engineers, IT tech and highly intelligent folks with massive brains for that kind of thing!. 

Nothing could be further from the truth!. 

The beginning point and first step in SEO is keyword research and finding keywords for your website. Click the highlighted text for a full comprehensive tutorial on finding keywords. 

Keywords are, in a nutshell, what internet users are entering into the search box on search engines like google, yahoo and bing. 

Let's not get into the details of keywords and full on keyword research as that really is the subject on its on, of which you can check out when the time comes.

Let's focus instead on what kind of keywords work best, rank well and pull in the traffic from search engines. 

How To Keywords

"How To" keywords are great keywords to use for food bloggers and just about any other blogger in any niche!. 

People use the internet to find solutions to problems, answers to their questions and in general solve their pain points!. When people want to know something like "How To Bake A Cake" or "How To Make American Pie", "How To Make Paella" that is exactly what they type in. 

And these are great keywords BTW!. 

Also, when you are creating content around those keywords. Think about what you are doing. 

Think about it for a second....

What are you doing? What EXACTLY are you doing?...

You are helping people!. 

(you might even have arrived at this very page by typing in "How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money") 

And what is this doing? 

Creating value for your Brand, your site and you. Also, helping people you are on some level or another creating trust. People buy from people that they trust. Be it your own products, or someone else's that you recommend. 

And the more you help, the more people will keep flocking to your site. When creating content, think of "How To" as great articles to write. 

Question Based Keywords

Question based keywords are great for the very reason that they help in many cases to solve pain points or troubles that your audience may be experiencing. They also help again in creating value for you and your brand. 

"What is the best recipe for Nasi Lemak" (A Malaysian Dish). 

"What Is The Best Way To Make Tom Kha Gai" (Awesome Thai Chicken coconut soup!)

These kind of keywords like How To style attract a lot of quality traffic. By quality I mean the kind that tend to stay on your site longer to really find out the answer to their question and they also tend to surf your site a little bit more. 

Also, questions have tendency to have special features in the search engine ranking page, and if done well, you might just appear above position 1, in position zero, the holy grail of search engine marketing!. 

All that you can see above are great keywords. Note the article fully featured in position zero, these do tend to get a lot of traffic!. 

Sometimes they even feature an image or video that you have used in the article. Note also how the URL, the website address is featured. This is great for brand recognition. 

Pro Tip: When you see an article like the one in position 1, "5 Mistakes To Avoid When Making Nacho's" and the article is a few years old, get in there and make fresher, newer more up to date and better content!. 

How To Find Question Based Keywords

Thankfully, finding these question based keywords is actually very simple. Just hop on over and check out AnswerThePublic website and type in your niche or keywords related to your niche then simply let this magnificent piece of software do the hard work. 

Looking at the image, 42 questions that could be used to create content helpful content for your blog. 

Food Blogging Tips

To help you spring forwards to become a food blogger and successful one at that I'll share some food blogging tips with you. 

Show your personality in your blog, your food and your photos. Let your passion shine through and be very infectious. Don't force it, let it happen naturally.

Good well written posts or that awesome instagram photo of tweet or facebook post will get shared more often when you have that certain "Je Ne Sais Pas"

(excuse my French! - experts correct below in comments area!)

Which brings me to my second Food Blogging Tip, 

Take awesome photos! (and share that recipe). For some reason, us folks are compelled to share that amazing delicious looking photo of some scrummy looking food.

If you have to, take a little course on udemy, on digital photography or food photography. Get a basic understanding of lighting and how light acts, filters and how you can process the image to make it look amazing. 

I have a personal love for photography, Travel photography is my forte, sadly I can't share much in regards to food photography and techniques. It is a very different area of photography. 

That small investment - which can be as little as $10 on one of Udemy's flash sales which happen all the time!. 

(Tip: Wish list the course, wait a week or two, chances are you "might" get a flash sale at $10 or discount for the course if not you can for something similar!- works a treat for me!). 

The investment will be worth it for all those shares and social activity which can indeed help your rankings in search engines. Also good for brand awareness!. This really is one of a few niches where really good photography skills will pay off. 

And by good I mean really good. Ones that stand out in social media and folks wanna click that share button!.

Another tip, related to the above, be aware of your time zone or your audiences time zone and the peak time that they are online.

Folk's will seldom share a breakfast pic during the week due to being busy and and getting ready and going to work. 

But Lunch foodie photos, heck yeah..outta the office and on social media..Be first, be early, be the best foodie photo, also be a bit late, but don't be the sandwich filler stuck in the middle of all that news feed activity. 

This is something for you to experiment with once you have a reasonable following to measure and test against.

Try posting your foodie pics and recipes maybe 11am or 11:30 am just as people are in that lunch mode and thinking of food. Try after lunch..just bang at lunch time..

Test, test, test for maximum exposure and shares, likes and comments!. And then stick with what works best. 

Post amazing and outstanding mouthwatering recipes only!. No second rate stuff here!, Be better than your rivals, don't post stuff that is not amazing to taste. Better not to post that recipe and have a day off (or post something else all together and not recipe related!).  In short, maintain a high quality standard. Always!. 

Cite your source of inspiration, and link to it. A good backlink profile can help your SEO. And can come in handy later on, maybe they find they have been mentioned in your blog and are happy to "tweet it out" or mention it on social media and you get ... traffic!. 

Reach out and collaborate with similar sites in your exact niche, maybe later your can guest post on their site and gain authority in the niche and leverage their following, and vice versa. 

Because you know you can make money with a Food Blog!. The question is: Will YOU TAKE THE MONEY AND MAKE THE EFFORT?!?

Top Food Blogging Sites To Inspire You

We all need a little inspiration form time to time, and top food blogging sites can do exactly that! from inspiring your blogging to trying our some delicious recipes or getting creative in the kitchen!. 

Check these sites out, reach out to them and if they inspire you to success or an awesome recipe - mention it and link to them!. 

Sailu's Food

This site is properly niched down to an exact food niche of Indian food by Sailaja Gudivada and I have absolutely no doubt Indian food lovers will just fall in love with the recipes. Occasionally she wonders into the delights of other cuisines. 

Personally I am absolutely watering at the mouth to try out some of those fab sounding chutney's that she has. WOW!. 

Great writer and makes everything sound so easy to cook. Also good photographer and make great use of social media to display her dishes and cooking talent.

The site does not look like it is monetized by any other means other than advertising. 

Have a delicious look at Sailu's food here.

Cookie And Kate

Don't cha just love it when you see a little bit of genius and a lot of thought into a great stand out name for website? Yep cookie and Kate is just that. Rolls off tongue easily and so memorable!. 

Kate is passionate and brilliant food blogger and an avid and self taught photographer. She has her own cookbook, an awesome and very well thought app that guides you as you cook! very well thought out! Genius idea. 

She has also some great videos that show exactly how to make some of those awesome dishes and meals. Really only a matter of time (in my opinion) until Kate makes and releases an real top quality instructional video course. 

Monetization is by sales of her book and ads. 

Serious Eats

Serious Eats is a serious food blog! That covers just about everything food related by a team of awesome writers. 

If you are going down the affiliate road, this is a great site to study and emulate. They don't just affiliate to ingredients and suppliers but review and give their own expert opinion on all sorts of kitchen equipment. 

They also have a great podcast. This blog is about food and all things food related. Very well done site. 

Even though it is not "niched down" they can, and do succeed due to having 7 writer at present creating the content. 

Check out Serious eats here!.

The Woks Of Life

The foodie blog that made me think of a Dire Straits song!. This blog is run by 4 individuals that are passionate about food and recipes that are traditional and passed down from generation to generation. 

Stand out and for absolute trying is the Hianan Chicken Rice recipe, very tasty and delicious. Very popular dish and very much (to me) tastes like duck..but is chicken!.

Don't miss the staple of many Asian diets Spicy Beef noodle soup, something that does vary from country to country. 

This blog does really show how you can "mix it up" combining food, travel and life as the 4 key topics of the blog. 

Visit The Woks Of Life Here!

I am a Food Blog

Awesomely titled and very original... I am a food Blog is beautifully designed, fully comprehensive and incredibly well written covering a diverse range of food that is, being quite frank, making me hungry right now!. 

This site is a fabulous mix of food and travel!. I was a food blogger or to consider one, defo want to make one as beautiful and awesome as I am a food blog!. 

How To Become A Food Blogger FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

It is time now to answer your pertaining questions in regards to food blogging and becoming a food blogger. If your question is not answered, fire away and ask in the comments section below and I will most certainly answer it to the best of my abilities. 

Can A Food Blog Make Money? 

Absolutely so!. Given sufficient traffic and monetization strategy you too can build an income producing blog with the right training, method and system and by applying what you have learned here in this article. 

What To Post On A Food Blog? 

You can post a variety of articles from How To style article to, to local restaurant reviews, product review, recipe, list style posts and not forgetting question based articles helping your readers. 

Mix up your content with written posts, video and infographics.  

Where To Start A Food Blog?

You can start a food blog any time and from anywhere. There is no set location. You can even start one if you are travelling and document the different food style and cooking methods. 

Because there is no question about it You can make an awesome food blog! - The question is: Will you TAKE ACTION and build that rocking food blog?!?

Why Start A Food Blog? 

Because food blogging is fun, easy, a great hobby and profession. Just about everybody loves food in some way or another and they are pretty easy to run and maintain when you get going!. 

Never make it about the fact that you can make money by monetizing the content of your blog and the traffic.

Like all good businesses make it about the quality of your blog (business!) and the fact that you could make money as a food blogger a byproduct of your awesome blog. 

Food Blog Vs Food Website

For me, Food blog every single time. You have more potential for an income when creating more content and adding to your site on an ongoing basis. With a static 20-30 page website you are limited to how much traffic you can and will attract organically. 

It is more difficult to establish yourself as an authority with a small static website. With blog, over time an unknown can become a celeb food blogger is done correctly and with a ton of high quality content.

How Much Can A Food Blogger Earn?

That is a great question!. Once established and properly monetized and optimized for traffic and growth there really is no limit as to how much a food blog can earn as long as you keep working hard in building it and creating good quality relevant content. 

What Is The Best Food Blog? 

Very subjective question and based on opinion. Check out the food blogs I have mentioned in the inspiration section All those blogs are awesome as well as inspiring, In my opinion, they are right up there with the very best of them!.

Can You Help Me To Build A Food Blog?

Sure! why not! I love helping people, pop your email in the box below this article and I will send you my free guide on how to start a blog and my 7 day free training guide. 

Food Blog Vs Instagram

It is not Food blog Vs Instagram question! you should run your instagram alongside your food blog as a means of increasing awareness of your brand and bring traffic to your food blog. 

Get the best of both worlds. You don't own instagram and never will! The T&C of the social network can change at a moments notice and your reach can be reduced or worse still, your account shut down.

Nobody can do that to your blog - you own it!.

Run your instagram as conduit for traffic as you would with any other form of social media and not instead of your food blog. 

How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money - Conclusion

In this article you have learned that its is not only very possible to launch a food blog and earn money from it.

You have learned how to monetize your food blog and with what programs, good solid traffic generation techniques including some very specific food blogging tips for social media as well as rock solid techniques and methods to generate traffic from search engines. 

These SEO techniques are white hat and fully compliant with Google's rules and regulations, no tricking or trying to cheat the search engines. As the saying goes don't bite the hand that feeds you!. 

You also have some really good inspiring food blog and food bloggers to follow and read regularly. Those blogs mentioned are really fine example on how to start a food blog and do it successfully. 

Take Action!

You know almost everything that you need to in order to become a successful food blogger.

It is now up to you to move forward and step up to the plate and make that food blog. Just pop your email in the box below and I will email you my free 7 day training course on building a successful blog and becoming a successful blogger.

I will also show you where you can get top class help from the guys that trained me and me from a hobby blogger into a full time earning a VERY nice income as a professional blogger. 

Are you going to take action and pop your email in the the box below or are you going to miss out on the opportunity to start a banging foodie blog and earn a living online?

I do hope that you enjoyed this article and now know how to start a food blog and make money and are well and truly inspired to do so. 

To your success and you blogging best! 

Derek.