Before we begin, it’s important to first understand that there are two broad steps you’ll need to take on your journey to becoming a profitable food blogger. There is the actual starting a food blog part of it – because you obviously can’t monetize a food blog that doesn’t exist – and then there is the part that you’re probably more excited about, which is the how to make money food blogging component.

Step 1: Pick your food niche

Food blogging is a saturated industry, so if you want to create a profitable food blog you will need to pick a niche to specialize in. The niche you opt for will probably depend on the type of food you have a passion for cooking.

Healthy meals for families
Gluten, carb or sugar-free dishes
DIY food recipes
Food for pets
Pre-workout snacks

Once you have decided on your niche, and have some recipes ready to share, you are ready to start a food blog.

Step 2: Purchase WordPress hosting and install WordPress

The free, open-source WordPress software is the easiest and most popular way to build websites – including food blogs. When it comes to starting a food blog in the easiest way possible, the self-hosted WordPress software is your best bet.

1. Automatically install WordPress for you.
Let you purchase your domain name through the same interface.
2. Provide a free SSL certificate to boost your food blog’s security.
3. Offer a dedicated team that provides personalized chat support.

Step 3: Display beautiful images and videos of your food

Since your audience can’t taste your food, you need to get them salivating with strategic use of mouth-watering images. Beautiful visuals that showcase your dishes, will help entice your visitors to follow your blog and try out the recipes themselves.

Photos can also be used to demonstrate difficult cooking methods or add extra support for recipe instructions. Videos can be particularly useful here too, making the cooking experience fun and interactive.

If your theme doesn’t offer advanced gallery and album functionality, then you should consider installing Photo Gallery by 10Web. This free WordPress plugin will allow you to add responsive galleries and albums to your food blog.

Both images and videos can be included in a single gallery, and YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram are all supported within galleries. These powerful options will enable you to display your recipes and dishes in eye-catching layouts, appealing directly to your target audience.

Step 4: Add rich snippets to your blog

Rich snippets are a great way to boost your food blog’s rankings in Google’s search results (or any search engine for that matter). They will grab the eyes of potential readers, and increase the chances that they’ll click on your page.

To be more specific, rich snippets are those extra pieces of information that appear in search results, along with the description of what your post is about. These tiny bits could also get your food blog featured in Google search results that appear exclusively on mobile devices.

If you are planning to publish recipes on your food blog, you should definitely add rich snippets to your site and get all the SEO benefits that come with them.

Step 5: Monetize your food blog

Once you’ve successfully set up your food blog and grown your following, there are numerous ways to monetize your site. Let’s take a look at some of the best approaches to becoming profitable as a food blogger:

Affiliate marketing

Many companies offer affiliate marketing programs that allow you to make money any time someone buys a product you’ve recommended. The typical default choice for many people is to join the Amazon affiliate program.

This isn’t bad per se, but you can often make more money through affiliate programs run by the companies that create the products you already use. Research who’s created your cookware and other kitchen tools. You can do this easily by searching for “(company name) affiliate program”.