Food Blogger Income Report: How Much Do Food Bloggers Make?

A food blogger income report can be a vital tool in motivating you to start or continue your food blogging journey! I know when I first started my blog I binged Pinch of Yum and the Midwest Foodie income reports and found them so useful and aspirational. These blog income reports truly helped me set BIG GOALS for myself as a food blogger!

How Food Bloggers Make Money

There are a million and one ways bloggers, especially food bloggers, can make money “on the internet.” Ad revenue is passive income which makes it so desirable, but remember that getting into an ad network (Mediavine, Raptive, She Media) is NOT the be-all, end-all!

I’d recommend making an ad network your first priority, but then choose a few more income streams to slowly work toward. Here are 8 popular ways food bloggers make money:

Case Studies of Successful Food Bloggers

Reading a food blog income report can be super motivating! I just find it fascinating not only to know what’s POSSIBLE but to see how these bloggers are earning money and where they are spending (investing) in their businesses!

I started doing my own income reports in December of 2021–the first month I qualified for Mediavine. I am so glad I did these reports! Whenever I am feeling “down” about my business or a Google update or whatever is being thrown my way, I can just look at these reports and see how far I’ve come!

My first month as a “Mediavine” blogger, I made just over $2,000. The vast majority of that came from two sponsored posts…NOT ads.

Just one year later, I made over $15,000, mostly from ad income alone and this continues to be my main source of income. ALWAYS measure your success on PROGRESS…and it doesn’t have to be quick progress. Just move forward a little every day!

Here are other inspiring blogger income reports:

• Pinch of Yum: SO many people get their inspiration from these income reports! I LOVE how their first one was called “Food Blog Money Making Experiment” and they made $21.97!! We know the rest is history!
• Midwest Foodie: Kylie poured her heart and soul into her blog for several years and in her first income report, she made just over $1,000…proof that this TAKES TIME and HARD WORK!
• A Sassy Spoon: I find her report super inspiring and she was 100% motivated by the Pinch of Yum income reports! She quit her “day job” and made a full-time income AND paid off all of her student debt through blogging!
• Bowl of Delicious: Elizabeth started her blog “back in the day” (2014) as a side hustle and in her first full quarter she made about $1,000. She now continues to make multiple six-figures year after year.
• The Conscientious Eater: This husband and wife team started off with Google AdSense and Gourmet ads making about $100/month for THREE YEARS! They just looked at it as a little extra money each month. Then they read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad and everything shifted!!! It’s amazing how one book or piece of advice can totally change your business and your mindset!
• Stephanie’s Sweet Treats: I love how she shows her traffic streams…unlike most food bloggers, most of her page views come from social media (Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest) and DIRECT traffic, NOT organic search! As someone who’s never really tapped into social media for my blog, I find this so inspiring!
• Always Use Butter: I love how she talks about shifts, changes, and pivots over time. In the fall of 2022, she started to be more intentional and strategic with content creation and marketing. Apparently, that worked because just a year and a half later, she more than quadrupled her income!
• Tiffy Cooks: She has such a fun, unique story that started with 5 “failed” blogs and 2 “failed” YouTube channels! Now she has merch and makes $45-60k PER MONTH! Ever heard of failing forward?! She’s amazing!

Expenses That Come With Food Blogging

Starting and maintaining and food blog isn’t a giant investment…especially compared to starting other types of businesses such as a restaurant, nail salon, boutique, etc.! The overhead costs are LOWWWW with blogging!

That being said, there are several costs associated with starting and maintaining a blog.

Essentials costs when you first start

• Domain name
• Solid website hosting (NOT Bluehost!) I use WpOpt and Big Scoots is also solid.
• WordPress theme: I have used both 17th Avenue Designs and Restored 316 and love them both.
• Keyword research subscription: Keysearch, Rank IQ, and Keywords Everywhere are my faves.
• WP Rocket: to ensure a super fast site
• Lightroom: If you are taking your own photos
• Mailing List Provider: This is typically free when you first start. I use Mailerlite and it’s free up to 1,000 subscribers.
• Courses or coaching: Optional but HIGHLY recco’ed–you NEED to invest in your blog!

Investments later down the road

• Virtual Assistant: to help with tasks once you start making money.
• Accountant/Bookkeeper
• More courses/coaching, as needed
• Upgraded mailing list provider: Once you have more than about 1,000 subscribers.

How much money will you make when you join an ad network (Mediavine, Raptive, etc)

Once you hit the minimum requirement for a good ad network to get display ads up and running (Mediavine: 50,000 sessions, Raptive: 100,00 page views, SheMedia: 20,000 page views) you might think you have MADE IT!!!

While this is a HUGE HUGE accomplishment, you might have to wait on buying that yacht for a bit! 🙂 This extra income is fantastic, but it might not be quite what you expect right off the bat.

First off, it takes your ad company and their advertisers several months to get to know your content and how much advertisers will pay to be on your site. So you won’t be making your full potential RPM’s for at least 2-3 months.

RPM is simply the RATE you earn. It stands for Revenue Per Mille (Thousand) It’s a math equation that compares your earnings to your sessions/pageviews. It gives you an idea of how much you are earning per 1000 sessions/pageviews (Mediavine website). RPMs can vary GREATLY from season to season and blog to blog.

Here’s a ROUGH ESTIMATE of what you can expect to make once you reach 50,000 monthly sessions with Mediavine:

Sessions: 50,000

RPM: $20 (this is a rough average)

(50,000 * 20)/1000 = $1,000

While $1,000 is decent money, don’t forget you still have to pay taxes and subtract your monthly expenses from that number.

Tips to grow your own food blog

Here are a few tips on growing your own blog:

• Be CONSISTENT: If there is nothing else I can tell you, it’s BE CONSISTENT. Treat food blogging as a business. Find a workflow that works for you and STICK WITH IT.
• Become an expert in keyword research: I highly recommend taking a course on keyword research. I took Keywords with Aleka and learned so much. I also have an entire module on keyword research in my course Smart Strategies for Food Bloggers.
• New content: If your blog is less than 1 year old, focus on CREATING NEW CONTENT!
• Updating: If you have older posts (more than 1 year old), focus at least 30-40% of your time updating this old content.