How to Become a Food Blogger (Part 1)
Let’s Get Real. Setting Expectations for the Beginner Food Blogger
Hello! my fellow food blogger! Oh yes. I am talking to you.
Because when it comes to the question of how to become a food blogger you’re already well on your way.
Why? Well, you’re here for starters. And this? This is the right place!
Who Is This Food Blogger and Why Should I Listen to Her?
You are absolutely right to ask!
In fact, if that’s your first question, I think you’re operating at an A+ level already.
As I am sure you well know, there is no shortage of online advice about how to become a food blogger. I know. I’ve been there. In fact, I got my degree in how to become a food blogger from the School of Hard Knocks.
I Am a Food Blogger
And that’s the first thing: I am a food blogger (check out my vegan food blog, Herbivore’s Kitchen). So, I am out there every day pounding the pavement, testing theories, exploring blogging tools, staying on top of the ever-changing algorithmic world of social media and trying to figure out how to get 48 hours of work done in a 24-hour day.
And I can tell you: if it doesn’t work for me, I won’t try and make it work for you.
I Love Talking About Food Blogging
There’s only one thing (career-wise, of course) that I love more than food blogging. And that’s writing about how to become a food blogger. I am a card-carrying, online business-building nerd and food blogging just happens to be my sweet spot.
I Am So Excited For You!
And finally, I am a cheerleader at heart. I want to help you. I really do. It fills my cup. I know where you are and where you want to go.
So… How Do I Become a Food Blogger?
That question has a lot of moving parts. But the answer is pretty easy: you just become a food blogger.
You decide to do it and then you just put one foot in front of the other, every day, for as long as it takes. Because …drumroll, please… this is a game of persistence and patience.
But there also is a lot of substance and I know that’s what you came here to find, so let’s talk about that. Right where we are. At the very beginning.
The First Step in How to Become a Food Blogger
You need to understand what you’re getting into. In my Food Blogging for Beginners Course, the first topic that I cover is Setting Expectations. How much time is required to become a food blogger how much does it cost and when can you reasonably expect to start making money?
How Much Time is Required to Become a Food Blogger?
Food blogging, perhaps more than most online endeavors, demands a lot of time. Not only are you researching, writing, editing, posting, marketing and engaging, but you’re also shopping, cooking, cleaning and photographing.
For me to write a well-researched blog post to accompany a new recipe with vibrant, engaging photography takes about 8 hours. As such, I can really only reasonably produce two new recipes a week. I spend the rest of my time directing visitors to my blog through my social media and marketing efforts.
Given that, it’s important to recognize that a food blog is a slow burn. If you can only do it part-time, then know that it’s not time to quit your day job yet. Even if you can do it full time, it’s still going to take a while to build good content and a following. Doing it right though, is much, much better than doing it over (excerpt from Food Blogging School of Hard Knocks 101).
How Much Does It Cost to Become a Food Blogger?
If you’ve Googled “how to become a food blogger” I am sure that you came across all kinds of build a blog for free results.
I’m here to be completely honest with you. If you want to make this a career or even a respectable hobby, you can’t expect to do it for free.
You do need to expect to spend some money. It doesn’t have to be a lot at first, but there are some essentials that you’ll need to get your new food blog off the ground. These include, purchasing a domain name, finding a website host and determining what you’ll use to build your food blog. Hint: the answer is WordPress.
Often, the companies that are suggesting that they can get you going for free are just well-marketed bait-and-switch products. They limit storage space, set you up with a subdomain and pollute your new blog with their own advertisements. Trust me, you don’t want a free blog.
These blog fundamentals aren’t expensive – depending on your willingness to commit to a domain name and a hosting plan, they can be as cheap as $6.99/month (this pricing is based on committing to a hosting plan for 3 years). If you’re unsure, you can sign up for a single year for only $11.99/month. I’m sure you spend more at Starbucks each week.
Beyond those expenses, you’ll likely come across other things that you want and need early on. For example, photo backdrops are a super simple way to keep your food photography interesting.
Then, as you grow, you might want to look into photo editors, video creation tools, graphic design software, a DSLR camera, social media scheduling tools and SEO research software.
It’s important to recognize that you can earn these things over time. You don’t need to jump into them all at once, but there will come a time when you need to be more efficient and effective and subscription-based tools are often the best way to do that.
When Can I Reasonably Expect to Make Money Food Blogging?
The answer to this question depends on your hustle, but it’s probably quicker than you think.
Revenue generating activities are usually tied to traffic to your blog and your popularity on social media. These things take time to build, but it’s possible to start seeking out micro-influencing opportunities when you have as little as 1,000 Instagram followers.
Ad management programs like Mediavine and AdThrive have minimum pageview requirements, but new food bloggers are usually able to get on Google Adsense fairly quickly.
Product sales are a good possibility as well. I wrote and published my first cookbook well before I thought I’d be eligible to and there are always other paths – like eBooks and online cooking courses.
Heck, as we speak Instagram is actually paying some creators to make Reels. If that doesn’t show you that there are a ton of possibilities, then I don’t know what will.
Lesson 1 of How to Become a Food Blogger is Complete!
And that, my newly initiated fellow food bloggers, concludes Part 1 of How to Become a Food Blogger! Well done!
There are some things to chew on, but hopefully you feel a little bit better prepared to begin your journey. If you want to be the first-to-know when Part 2 is published, sign up for my newsletter and get it directly in your inbox.
If you’re gung-ho and ready to roll with this new food blog of yours, then check out my Food Blogging for Beginners Course.
Food Blogging for Beginners is the most comprehensive how-to-build-a-food-blog course available. This 26-module course provides 6+ hours of detailed instruction on how to build a food blog on WordPress. It starts with the fundamentals – like setting expectations and the basic building blocks of a WordPress blog – and then moves through adding a theme, installing plug-ins, creating imagery and social media content and SEO best practices. If you’re looking to cut straight to the chase and get your new food blog off the ground, this is the perfect course for you!
About Confessions of a Food Blogger
Kate Friedman is the creator of Herbivore’s Kitchen, a vegan food blog, and Confessions of a Food Blogger. Confessions of a Food Blogger is an informative resource for food bloggers (and, actually all bloggers) that provides helpful articles, online courses and tips and tricks for starting, building, marketing and managing a food blog.
