If you have a food blog or do recipe posts, you may be running into some issues with monetizing those posts. Monetizing a food blog can be done in a variety of ways. Take a look at the monetization ideas below and share any other ones you have seen in the comments below!
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AdSense
If you’re not running AdSense, you should get that going. If you are, consider adding an extra ad to your post. While readers might not appreciate an extra ad on every post, if you’re giving them an awesome recipe post, they probably won’t mind as much. BlogHer also has an ad network, but it comes with some very very tight restrictions. If you can get past those, it’s another way to passively monetize a food blog. Foodie Blogroll also offers ads specifically for food bloggers.
Clickbank
You can promote a slew of cookbooks through Clickbank to earn a little money. These work great if you are posting dietary specific recipes and have people interested in more recipes for their specific dietary needs. Point them in the direction of a cookbook and earn yourself some money while you do it.
Amazon
If you write about canning, include a link to purchase mason jars on Amazon. If you write a post about freezer cooking, include a link to Ziploc freezer bags, or a vacuum sealer. People will read your recipe and will be able to purchase the things they might need to create that recipe using links right from your site. Don’t forget tools too, like non-stick pans, hand blenders or cookie sheets. You can also do this with specialty ingredients too.
Write an eBook
This may sound like a huge undertaking, but it really doesn’t have to be. An eBook can be as long as you want to make it. The key here is to choose a niche with your recipes (gluten free, paleo, low sugar) and run with it. People will gladly pay $1.99, $4.99 or more for a little recipe book catered to their specific dietary needs.
Related Posts
Link to related posts and other recipes. This will help reduce your bounce rate, get you more pageviews and will cause your reader to see more of your content and more of your ads, thus giving you a better chance of earning money. There are plugins to help you with this including nrelate, where you can have related posts show up on specific categories only, such as recipes.
In general, monetizing a food blog is not particularly easy. It takes some instigation on your part in finding related products to promote within your posts. That being said, there is definitely potential for earning money though book sales, product sales and advertising. Keep writing great recipes while doing the things above and the money will start to come in.
Do you have a food blog?
How do you monetize your food blog?
Nice tips Zack. May be it depend on our goals from the blog. If we are not a chef and simply build a blog food for passive income purpose then affiliate marketing and ppc ads are best combination to make the most of it. But if we are chef, write an ebook is the best because we are going to need authority to make it bigger.
That’s very true Okto! An eBook is a great idea for building authority. I am not sure building a food blog for passive income would be the best route to take, as SEO is very competitive and cpc is fairly low for food keywords.
I think ideally I’d like to start making enough to pay for whatever I use in my blog posts. Help!
Ya that is a good start! What I wrote in the post is the extent of my tips on monetizing a food blog. I checked yours out and saw an awesome food blog with no Pinterest account linked anywhere! What’s up with that? Pinterest and food go together like bacon and eggs!
Thanks for the advice. I am using Adsense and amazon on my sauces for steak site, with reasonable results, but less than on other sites.
I am eager to run some good affiliate programs on my recipe blog. I need your suggestions, which programs will be best? I use adsense though, but also want to try out other monetizing ways.
There are not a ton of affiliates out there for food blogs, but as mentioned in the post, Clickbank for cookbooks and Amazon for kitchen supplies and ingredients are two of the best ways to monetize via affiliates.
Hey Zack thanks really for answering my query. And to tell the truth, your blog rocks! I read some of your posts, and i really appreciate the way you make the posts, present them with clear images, and above all the posts are really explanatory and valuable. They clearly states their subject. Great blog man..:)
Thank you! Glad ya like it! 🙂
Interesting ideas, thanks a lot
Clickbank is another great option for monetizing your food/recipe blogs. They have quite a few recipe and food digital items that you can market to your blog visitors.
Very true! I only got into Clickbank after this post was written. Thanks for bringing it up!