What it means to work for yourself and be a food blogger

You have probably heard many times that in order to be successful and achieve something, you have to truly love what you are doing! This could not be further from the truth.

In this post, I will summarize how I decided to start my food blog, what steps to take to create a blog, and what it really means to work for yourself and be a successful food blogger.

A little biography about myself

My name is Catalina Castravet, and I am a professional food blogger at Sweet And Savory Meals. At Sweet And Savory Meals, I and my team create, produce, and write about various food recipes. It is a food website filled with over a thousand of tried and approved recipes that I and my professional team created over seven years. Here, you can find recipes starting from breakfast tater tot casserole, all the way to delicious and fancy desserts.

How did I start my food blog?

I’ve always had a passion for cooking and baking from young ages. After graduating from college, I worked on Wall Street in the finance industry. While I liked a lot what I was doing, my heart and passion were always about food and cooking. In between my spare time, I decided to open a food website where I could post my favorite meals.

At first, it was mainly intended to be a record keeper for myself and more of a hobby, kinda like figuring out what games can you win real money with. However, after a few months of posting new recipes, I noticed that people started to visit my site frequently, and had a lot of interest in my recipes. That opened my vision about what I wanted to do next, and slowly but surely, I transitioned from a full-time finance professional, into a full-time food blogger. And I couldn’t be happier.

While the journey was not the easiest one, it was surely worth it. I realized that with passion, love, and the right attitude, I could become a successful food blogger.

What exactly is a food blogger?

A food blogger is someone who develops, creates, and writes about various food recipes. After that, the recipe is posted on their website and promoted on various channels to get some visibility.

It first starts by creating a specific recipe. Then, you have to document the cooking steps and process by taking extensive photos and even videos of the food. Once the recipe is completely cooked, documented, and photographed, you have to write about it and post it on your website.

Lastly, to get visibility and attract viewers, the recipes have to be shared with other bloggers, and on various social platforms.

Do food bloggers make money?

Yes. You have probably heard about other major food websites, such as Food Network. These types of websites are obviously huge and have tens of millions of monthly views.

However, the same principle applies to smaller food bloggers. Just like Food Network, or other cooking websites which use apps that pay you for data collection, a food blogger generates his/her income through a few streams on YouTube, check this site. The most common ones are:

Ads – This is probably the main source of income for most food bloggers. The ads are placed within the posts, and the owner gets a share of income based on how many users visited his/her website.

Social Media Collaboration – This is another big source of income, and it comes mainly from collaborating with brands on social media such as Pinterest or Instagram. You basically have to promote their product on your social platform. An example can be seen on my Pinterest page.

Food Styling and Photography – There are plenty of food bloggers, restaurants, and various brands, who need help with photos or video development. Many are looking for third party photo and video services, and are willing to pay for them.

Amazon Affiliate Links – You can include affiliate links to your Amazon account on your blog. This way, when someone visits your sites, and see an interesting product they click on it. As a result, you get a small commission from Amazon for that.

Write a book or e-book – This is another great option because you can expose your brand and also generate some extra income.

How to start your own food blog?

In my opinion, starting a food blog is not that complicated. The hard part comes from maintaining it and growing steady traffic. Generally, to start your own blog, you will need to follow these steps:

Pick a name: This is quite obvious! So, the first thing you want to come up with a name. It can be industry-related, or something short and memorable.

Choose a niche: There are plenty of niches to pick. So go with the one that you are passionate about. Food blogging is only one part of them. You can do blogging pretty much on everything. Starting from finance, sport, DIY, health, fitness, etc.

Get a web host: The next step would be to get a web host where your website will be stored and available worldwide. There are plenty of hosts out there. I personally use Bigscoots.com

Providing a web hosting service to clients is usually the focus of a web hosting company. But, with cheap reseller hosting, you can become the host and determine how you will charge and support your clients.

Install WordPress: Most of the blogging industry is on the WordPress platform. It is user-friendly, compatible with most ads, and very reliable. So, if you end up blogging, you will most likely be on WordPress as well. Once you get it WordPress, you will need to install the desired plugins related to your site.

Design your theme: Ones you are on WordPress, the next step would be to hire a developer and create a theme for your website.

Set up Google tools: Google Analytics and Google Search Console are the essential tools one needs for blogging. They track your traffic, position ranking, and much more.

Start blogging: Write and blog about your own niche. Be authentic, creative, and post consistently on your website. This way, users know you are serious about blogging and new content is always created.

Promote: Probably the most important part about blogging is promoting your content and website. After posting the content on your site, you want to start promoting it with other bloggers, share on social networks, such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube. Grow your channel and expand with real YouTube subscribers.

How to become a successful food blogger?

There are many variables that go into it. When I first started seven years ago, there was limited information about blogging. Nowadays, it is becoming more and more popular, and there are a lot of resources out there one can learn from.

However, like with anything else in life, you want to dedicate a lot of time and effort. Although blogging might sound easy, it is quite the opposite. To be successful and earn a decent living from it, you have to work at least 6-8 hours a day. That involves, creating new content. I would say posting new content at least 2 times a week.

Promoting content is similarly important. You can have the most informative website, but if it is not promoted and the word is not spread out, then you will be missing on visitors. So, it is crucial to promote it on social channels and with other peers.

Also, you have to create quality photos and videos when available. This takes time and practice. But it is essential to have quality content along with quality photos.

Be authentic and don’t give up. Blogging takes a lot of time and effort, and the reward is not always instant. It might take over 6 months to see some real progress. So, keep on creating authentic and interesting content, and do not give up!