You might already be an aspiring food blogger or you might simply be wondering if you can turn your passion for food and cooking into a sustainable income. That means you are probably curious about what the average food blogger salary is.
How much do food bloggers make, and is there still a way for you to successfully take part in this fascinating phenomenon? We did some research and found some pretty interesting data about food blogger income. Here’s what you should know.
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Do Food Bloggers Make Money?
The short answer? Yes. Some food bloggers can make quite substantial amounts.
There is a very important distinction to be made here: some food bloggers make enough money, while others are struggling to make ends meet.
To make money as a food blogger, you need to have a certain level of dedication. You should have a true passion for food blogging and some culinary knowledge, but you also need to consider thinking about blogging as a business.
There are countless channels for food bloggers to generate revenue streams. However, if you are getting started today, there are certain things you will need to think about in advance.
The number of food blogs already available online is tremendous, which means your competition is going to be substantial in pretty much any niche you would attempt to enter and conquer.
Food blogging can be a lucrative business as long as you approach it the right way, with a good mindset, a strong strategy, and the right tools. But first, let’s analyze if it’s really worth it.
How Much Does a Food Blogger Make?
How much do food bloggers make? Well, that depends on a huge variety of factors, ranging from the niche to the entrepreneurial spirit of the blogger in charge.
While there is no actual food blogger salary data available online, there are some statistics we can use as a guide to give you an idea of how much a good food blog can generate in terms of revenue.
As you probably know, there are quite a few different types of food bloggers out there. Whether it’s food critics, technique-dedicated blogs, recipe sites, simple cooking, and posting, or cuisine-specific blogs, there is quite a lot for you to explore. The type of food blog you create will have an effect on the income you will be able to generate.
Food bloggers these days tend to dedicate a lot of energy to educating and helping others appreciate food the way they do. Let’s see how much they manage to get in return.
For that, we will need to look at some of the best food bloggers out there and how they managed to turn their passion into a lucrative business.
Popular Food Bloggers’ Income
While not all food bloggers actually have an income, and even fewer of them can actually make a living exclusively from their blogs, there are some who have managed to turn this into a real and profitable business. Let’s see who the highest-paid food bloggers are and how much they actually make.
Tiffy Cooks
Probably one of the most successful food bloggers out there, Tiffy Cooks shared in one of her posts (back in 2021) that she manages to make around $45,000–$55,000 each month from her food blog. That is certainly impressive.
With a mix of Asian and Western recipes on her website and a section dedicated to quick and easy meals, her food blog is a great destination for most food lovers. As an aspiring blogger, you can look at her website as a great example of how to turn your passion into a lucrative business.
Ads, social media marketing, different revenue streams, and tons of other clever things have turned this food blog into a money-making machine.
The Clean Eating Couple
The story of Liz and Tyler started quite a while back in 2013. The revenue streams they use differ significantly from other food blogs. They are more focused on sponsored posts rather than ads and the blog is quite a money-maker.
According to a report they made back in 2019, Liz and Tyler earn an average of $150,000 per year from their blog.
Liz is focused mainly on healthy eating and has decided to share her journey with the general public, being a positive force in the world of nutrition. Most of the highest-paid food bloggers are big foodies and dedicate their efforts to promoting tasty and special foods.
The Clean Eating Couple is a blog dedicated to eating the right way, with your diet and healthy habits as the main focus, and that makes it special.
Stephanie’s Sweet Treats
If food is a big part of our lives, sweet treats definitely have a special place in our hearts. According to her own report from the first quarter of 2022, the blog income ranges from $4,000 to $9,000 per month.
Stephanie’s Sweet Treats is a very well-optimized recipe blog dedicated to everything you can possibly want to know to cook and/or bake if you have a sweet tooth. If you are getting started on your food blogging journey, you can learn a lot from the way Stephany manages her blog.
The Midwest Foodie Blog
With a focus on making things easy for every cooking enthusiast out there, especially aspiring home cooks, this is the result of a food blogger’s very hard work.
Even though it started as a way to explore her passion for food and cooking, it quickly became an actual business for Kylie. With more than $60,000 in income reported for the first quarter of 2022, it is pretty clear that she is doing it right.
She benefits from several income streams, which is clearly a smart strategy. Her blog is definitely one that you should follow if you are interested in turning your passion for food into a real business.
Pinch of Yum
Another success story comes from a foodie in the United States of America. Lindsay started her food blog back in 2010 as a hobby, and it slowly grew into a rather huge business.
With a lot of work, a true passion for food, and a business-oriented mind, Lindsay and the team behind pinchofyum.com have managed to turn this into something special.
It is now more than just a place for people to find recipes, learn how to cook and follow the life story of the amazing family behind the story.
Pinch of Yum is a business and quite a lucrative one. Over $90,000 from different income streams per month was quite an accomplishment back in 2019, but Lindsay managed to make up to $10.5 million last year, according to a 2023 report.
A Sassy Spoon
A hugely popular blog dedicated to Cuban and generally Latin-inspired recipes, A Sassy Spoon is another example of how a passion can turn into a sustainable income.
Jamie, the voice, photographer, and mastermind behind the recipes on the blog, started her blogging journey in 2016 and managed to slowly turn it into a business. She makes around $7,000 each month through website ads, brand deals, affiliate marketing, and other sources.
Recipe Tin Eats
Nagi, the creator of recipetineats.com, is by far the most successful food blogger in Australia. She creates her content focusing on traditional Vietnamese and Asian cuisine but approaches culinary challenges from all over the world.
What she is more than anything is a master at generating revenue. With over 1 million dollars in generated revenue over the course of a year, RecipeTinEats is probably one of the best-earning food blogs out there.
How Do Food Bloggers Make Money?
Now that you have seen how much food bloggers can make, you are probably wondering how this income is made and what tricks are generally used in order to increase the revenue of food blogs.
One thing you need to know about blogging in general, but especially when it comes to food blogging, is the importance to diversify your revenue streams. There are countless ways for you to earn money and you should always make the best of the opportunities at hand.
Here are some of the most important ways for a food blogger to earn money:
Website Ads
The most obvious way to use a food blog as a source of income is to monetize the traffic the website gets. Website ads can be implemented in a variety of ways, ranging from simply displaying advertising through an ad network like AdSense to actually selling your ad space to businesses on your own.
You can go for display ads, video ads, or any other form of advertising. What is important to know that your website will help you earn money depending on how much traffic you get and what the quality of that traffic is.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a different way of advertising products on your food blog. This can earn you quite a lot of income, but it comes with an amount of uncertainty.
When you use ads, the amount of traffic you get is usually easy to estimate from one month to another, making it also quite simple to estimate what that traffic will generate in terms of revenue.
When it comes to affiliate marketing, things are a bit different. When using an affiliate platform instead of an ad network, you get paid a certain percentage of the money your visitors spend on different products. For example, let’s say you decide to promote the planetary mixer you are using.
You can do that by getting yourself an Amazon affiliate account and sharing links to the mixer you are using throughout the recipes on your blog. Every time somebody goes on Amazon and buys that mixer through your affiliate link, you get a percentage of that purchase.
Sponsored Content
Depending on the popularity of your food blog, you may be able to make some money promoting sponsored posts.
These can mean quite a wide range of different things. You can post dedicated blog articles describing certain products, promote different brands, or even use the stats of your website to sell backlinks for smaller blogs.
This can be a significant source of income, but it requires a lot of time and dedication to set up and manage.
Selling Cookbooks
A good food blogger with proper following can make quite a lot of money selling cookbooks. Yes, cookbooks are still a thing, despite the fact that you can probably find any recipe you can think of online with ease.
If you are the owner of a food blog in a narrow niche that gets a lot of attention from your readers, you can make quite a splash publishing an actual cookbook. This can be especially true if you like recipe development and you manage to create some unique dishes.
Cooking Classes or Online Courses
An accomplished food blogger can generate consistent income through cooking classes and online courses as well. These days, more and more people turn to home cooking and learning about nutrition. If you are a food blogger looking to share valuable information about cooking techniques, nutrition, and home cooking, you have a great chance to be able to sell your own online courses.
This can be a valuable source of income for your blog, even though it will still not be as reliable and consistent as website ads.
Merchandise
If your fan base gets large enough, you will probably be able to sell personalized merchandise. Whether you do this through brand deals with your partners or sponsors, or if you choose to simply create a brand identity for your own blog, the important thing to keep in mind is that you will probably manage to get a relevant revenue stream from a merch shop on your blog.
FAQ
Who Is the Richest Food Blogger?
The highest-earning food blog out there is Pinch of Yum. According to a recent report from January 2023, the blog income reached over 10 million dollars last year. While that is clearly a lot higher than any average professional food blogger’s salary, it is still something to aspire to.
Do Food Bloggers Eat for Free?
Generally, no. Food blog income is the only thing you can really count on as a food blogger. You should never expect restaurants or businesses to give you freebies unless you make a clear deal to promote them.
Does Instagram Pay Food Bloggers?
While Instagram doesn’t directly pay food bloggers, you can make a great income as a food influencer or food blogger with Instagram and other social media platforms. Whether it’s through partnerships, brand deals, or simply sponsored posts, there is quite a lot to earn through social media platforms if you have a decent following.
How Hard Is It to Make Money From a Food Blog?
That depends on what your expectations are and what you understand by making money. Making a low but steady income through a food blog is not that difficult. Actually making a living and managing to create a business and a full-time job from your food blog can be quite challenging. There are so many food blogs available online that finding your niche and making a living through your blog can be rather difficult.
Bottom Line
It’s clear that the earnings of food bloggers can vary widely. A food blogger’s earnings are not just a function of their audience size but a result of their strategies, content quality, technical skills, and community engagement. The potential for income is there, but it requires a multifaceted approach and a dedication to the craft.
While the average food blogger’s salary is quite difficult to estimate, the good news is that you can still earn some money from your passion for food. Whether you want to look into brand deals or affiliate marketing, ads, or sponsorships, there are ways for you to monetize your blog if you manage to get enough traffic.
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