2020 was a tough year for a lot of us, especially pastry and baking professionals. As we saw extensive furloughs and lay-offs across the industry, many people found themselves flat-footed, wondering how they would feed their kids today, let alone pay the rent and the end of the month.

No one was fully immune to the struggles of one of the worst years in recent history, but some people had something that lessened the impact of lockdowns and lay-offs. It gave them some income to work with when their primary paycheck was cut off. What were these less impacted individuals doing?

Going into 2020, they had already begun a food blog and had started to monetize it. Food blogging is a real opportunity to make money for those passionate about the culinary arts and could also be one of the most rewarding things you do with your time. Websites like Pinch of Yum, Brown-Eyed Baker, My Baking Addiction, and Oh, My Sugar High show that if you have the passion, skills, and willingness to treat it like a job, you can build and monetize a food blog.

Real Food Blogs Making Real Money

Food blogging is not new to 2020, so it’s not a fad that will be gone next year. The examples below span almost 10 years of food blogging success, and these are not exceptions. They simply show what is possible when you put your time into building and monetizing a food blog.

Pinch of Yum

They began in 2011 as a “money-making experiment.” By 2016, they were getting three to four million visitors a month with $100,000 monthly revenues. Pinch of Yum draws from around 16 sources of revenue directly related to the blog and, following their profound success, branched out into consulting.

Brown-Eyed Baker

They currently receive around two million visitors each month. According to Google’s AdSense calculator, this website has the potential to make $180,000 in ad revenues annually, just from AdSense. AdSense is just one of many ways to make money with a food blog.

My Baking Addiction

They have around 1.2M visitors a month, which gives them the potential to make over 100,000 annually in AdSense income alone.

How Food Bloggers Are Monetizing Food Blogs

After creating and successfully monetizing their own blog, Pinch of Yum developed a proven blog monetization system called Food Blogger Pro that over 2000 other blogs have used to make money. Successful blogs like these have figured out what works and what doesn’t in the world of blogging.

They Don’t Expect to Get Rich Quick

You are not going to make your first $50,000 in 30 days, and blogging is not “passive income.” It takes work to build a successful blog, but you can build a blog that makes a profit when you follow a proven system like the one designed by Food Blogger Pro.

They Knew They Had to Start the Blog Now

Even if you work on a blog full time, it takes some time to go from no traffic to even mild traffic. You will need to search engine optimize (SEO) your site. And even after you do Google evaluates your site over a period of time before you become visible in search. Google search drives over 50% of blog traffic but over 90% of blogs get no traffic through Google.

To run a successful blog, you need to improve your search ranking and also build a social media presence around it. These are just a couple of tasks Food Blogger Pro shows you how to do effectively.

They Treat It Like a Job

This is not to say you cannot blog as a side-job, but you do need to discipline yourself and commit time to it each week, if not each day. Even if you work a full schedule, you may be surprised how much time you have, especially to do something you love.

Food blogging is not a “set it and forget it” business. If you’re not engaged, fans will not become or stay engaged. Blogging is a real business venture. If you currently have another job, start small, scale over time to increase your website visibility. Build your social media profile to drive more traffic each month.

They Identified a Niche

Those who are successful in food blogging have identified something that sets them apart. In marketing, they call it a “differentiator.” All food blogs need one because the differentiator causes someone to choose one blog over the other millions of similar blogs out there.

They Had a Plan

They developed a comprehensive business plan and executed it.

Their plans included outlining elements any business would care about like:

• Their niche
• Target audience
• Where and how to reach their audience
• How to retain and grow an audience
• Content creation and publishing schedule
• Revenue streams
• Their budget…spend money effectively to make money.
• Roles and Responsibilities … at what point is this no longer a one-person job?
• Monthly and annual business goals
• How to use search ads and social media ads to increase brand awareness and traffic, more initially while focusing on building more organic (lower cost) ways of driving traffic to increase profit margins.

They Branched Out

Successful food bloggers don’t think singularly.

How will you grow and make the most out of your online presence?

• eBooks
• Guest posting
• Local media / National media
• Collaborations with influencers
• Influencer deal where the blogger (you) gets paid
• Public speaking

How Food Blogger Pro Facilitates Blog Success

We like Food Blogger Pro because they are coming from a position of experience. When they say “these are the best tools to create amazing images” or ” this is the fastest way to get traffic,” it’s because they’ve applied these strategies and figured out what works. When you sign up, you gain access to over 350 easy-to-follow video tutorials that you don’t have to be a tech expert or expert marketer to understand and apply.

You also connect with a private community and industry experts who can answer specific questions and help you succeed at monetizing your blog. Monetizing a blog is work, but it helps to know you’re working with a proven plan, and that’s what Food Blogger Pro offers those who want to build and monetize a food blog.