I love blogs related to cooking. I regularly visit cooking blogs to learn new cooking tips, recipes etc. I have also helped many friends to set-up food/cooking blogs. If you are a budding food blogger, you must definitely read my article- How to start a successful and high traffic cooking blog. What I love about cooking blogs is that even housewives can start and maintain one quite effortlessly (if they have read my previous post!). Such food/cooking blogs can also be turned into sources of decent income! Here, we will see some best, practical ways to earn money from a cooking blog.
If you are serious about monetizing your food blog, you must at first invest in it. Consider buying and using premium themes on your blog. Try to implement the tips I discussed in my previous post. So, are you ready to turn your blog into a cash churning resource? Note that your blog must have good traffic figures to rake in decent revenue. If your blog has got good traffic, here are the best possible ways to earn money from it:
Do it!
1. Google AdSense (or other good ad providers)
When it comes to earning money from blogs, placing ads is the most commonly used method. Among various ad providers, Google AdSense is the most preferred one among bloggers. Google AdSense is the favorite due to various reasons like- trust factor, good earnings, use of ads relevant to the content on your blog etc.
So, the best way to monetize your blog is to place AdSense ads on your blog. The revenue your blog will generate in this way is dependent on the CTR (Click Through Rate) of your blog. CTR is basically the number of clicks that the ad placed on your blog gets. Usually, AdSense ads have good CTR. This is because AdSense places ads according the content on your blog. Ads too are of different types. Banner ads, text ads etc are types of ads.
Before you can start earning this way, you must have a Google AdSense account. Getting your blog approved for AdSense is not a cakewalk. AdSense is very strict regarding the quality of ad publishers. Your blog must satisfy various AdSense policies and conditions to get approved.
If your blog doesn’t get accepted even after repeated futile attempts, try AdSense alternatives. They may not be as good as AdSense, but they are definitely worth giving a try. Some of the best AdSense alternatives are- Chitika and Infolinks.
2. Affiliate Sales
According to me, affiliate sales is a much better earning opportunity than placing ads! Yes, affiliate sales can rake in much more money than ads! But for this to happen, you and your blog must have good reputation in your niche. So, basically, your blog should have quality content related to cooking. The traffic stats, reputation and PageRank of your blog should be good.
If your blog satisfies the above conditions, you should definitely try affiliate sales. How do affiliate sales work? Basically, you put the banners and ads of products related to your niche on your blog. When a visitor clicks on the link, goes to the vendor site and makes a purchase, you get paid a commission for that sale. That’s how it works!
What kind of products should food/cooking bloggers should use on their blog for affiliate sales? The answer is simple. Anything related to cooking like- plates, spices, ingredients, utensils etc. Becoming an affiliate is not tough like getting approved for AdSense. You may easily become an affiliate of online stores like Flipkart, Amazon etc.
3. Directly Selling Ad space
This method is usually recommended for those food bloggers, whose blogs have exceptional traffic and reputation. So, to earn money using this method, you must first take your blog to a high level. The content must be unique and of high quality.
If your blog satisfies the following conditions, you can expect to make handsome revenue from it! Usually, selling ad spaces directly to advertisers earn you more money than traditional ad providers like AdSense. Usually, advertisers pay a certain rent for publishing their banner ads on your blog for a month (or a fixed duration like a week). The ‘rent’ they pay will depend on the factors like traffic/visitors, area/location of the visitors etc.
4. Charge a Subscription fee
When it comes to blogging, content is the king. No matter how well your blog is designed, its fate ultimately depends on the quality of the content. If the content that you share on your blog is of top quality, people will definitely read it. If you believe that your blog has valuable and extraordinary content, why not treat it like premium content? Why not charge the visitors a small subscription fee for reading your premium content?
Believe it or not, many blogs use this method successfully and generate good revenue! People are willing to spend money for quality content!
5. Earn money by writing paid reviews/sponsored articles
Writing paid reviews is a very common method used by bloggers to earn money. Depending upon the popularity and reputation of your blog (and you), you’ll be approached by various companies, products (obviously related to food and cooking) to write paid reviews of their products.
I know some food bloggers from India, who got approached by reputed hoteliers. The hoteliers requested them to write sponsored articles about their hotels on their cooking blog! This is how the world of sponsored articles and paid reviews works! Bloggers with good reputation can earn good money this way. But I always advice bloggers to never compromise values for money. Writing paid reviews is okay, but try to write honest reviews. Don’t write review of a product you haven’t used or tried before.
Your turn to say
The above methods are the ones that I usually recommend to my (cooking) blogger friends. I know that food blogs can be monetized in more ways than I’ve mentioned here. But, I’ve just concentrated on the ‘best’ methods. If you know of any other opportunity to make money from a cooking blog (which, you feel deserves a place among the best ways), mention them in comment section.
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