Learn how you can create and monetize a food blog side hustle to start earning passive income each month on Side Checks podcast.

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Creating A Food Blog Side Hustle

Food blogs are one of the most lucrative types of blogs you can create. They are widely utilized on the internet and continue to see web traffic, even with new blogs entering the market. And monetizing a food blog is what we are diving into, today!

When it comes to blogging, there are a few questions that I get asked a lot.

“How do you make money blogging?”

“How does blogging actually work?”

“Do you have to be a good writer?”

Today, I am speaking with Mika of Joytothefood.com on how she started her food blog, how she monetizes it for passive income, and what is needed each week to continue feeding the beast.

Mika and Joy To The Food

Mika runs Joy To The Food, a food and recipe site, with her husband while also working as an engineer in the construction industry and handling life as a new mom. She is passionate about helping people find the joy in cooking while also providing support educational content for all things food and ingredients.

If she’s not snuggling her little one or working on the website, you can find her outside with her dogs or baking and cooking for fun (yes, she cooks in her free time)!

Mika also has an amazing resource for those side hustling with a spouse! Discover her tips and resources for working with your partner right here. Mika and her husband both work for the food blog and have so many valuable lessons to share about creating a healthy work relationship.

How A Food Blog Earns Income

One of the first questions I ask Mika is how a food blog earns income. This is a frequently asked question among side hustlers. Especially for those considering creating some type of blog.

Your food blog can earn income through:

• Ads on your site (placed by a third party ad agency like Raptive)
• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsored Post
• Selling your own products and/or services

Mika shares that the majority of their income comes from ads on their site. This is when companies place ads on your site and pay you “rent” for advertising space. This happens after you reached a certain web traffic level.

Depending on the ad agency you work with, they will require various amounts of web traffic. However, benchmarks begin around 10,000 sessions/month before you can work with an agency.

Today Joy To The Food earns roughly $1,200 / mo in passive income through working with an agency.

Standard Work And Momentum

Unlike some forms of passive income where you can post and never return to the content again for it to earn income, food blogs need continuous content to drive traffic. This can be thought of as “feeding the beast”.

Mika shares that her standard work consists of recipe development, photography, post writing, publishing, and promotion content development. This is what needs to occur each week for the site to continue to receive fresh content and drive traffic.

When the site sees new traffic, this directly influences the sessions or page views per month. Therefore, directly influencing the ad payout.

Maintaining a workflow is where Mika and her husband’s partnership come into play. They are new parents who work full-time. And maintaining Joy To The Food has been a great opportunity to streamline workflow and lean on one another to delegate tasks and receive support.

Food Blog ROI Tracking

Like most things at the beginning, the phase of starting a business yields less return on investment then when the business is fully operable and optimized.

For Joy To The Food, the site earns income with ad placement. So web traffic is a must. And what needs to be invested in order for traffic to be gained is labor hours.

When you create a food blog, you can log the number of hours spent per week in order to maintain standard work. Divide your monthly blog income by the total number of hours to receive what would be your hourly rate. For bloggers, this can determine the ROI of your blog.

Keep in mind, website traffic can exponentially grow with time. It is not linear and over time, you will see more and more traffic despite standard content creation.

Therefore, blogging ROI increases with time as long as you are consistent and using a clear web traffic strategy.

Where You Start

If you are interested in creating a food blog, there are a few places Mika suggests you start. First, consider your blog to be a brand instead of being centered around you. This makes your blog easier to scale over time.

Mika also suggests using a quality theme for your website and a reputable website such as WordPress. There are many WordPress themes designed specifically for food bloggers. And resources to determine important site features that direct perforce such as speed.

Resources:

Follow Mika on Instagram and Facebook. Mika also has amazing tips and resources for working with your partner.