10 Food Blog Success Stories [2024]
Do you love educating people on the importance of keeping healthy food? Starting a food blog can be rewarding and fun.
A healthy food blog can focus on educating website visitors the importance of keeping it healthy food. Besides, you can share recipes for healthy eating and budget-friendly options with the reader. To start, you may hire someone to configure your website and content creator to share insightful information with the audience.
To increase blog interactions, share informative insights with your readers.
In this list, you'll find real-world food blog success stories and very profitable examples of starting a food blog that makes money.
1. New York Food Truck Association ($2.4M/year)
Ben Goldberg, founder of the New York Food Truck Association, came up with the idea after realizing that the food truck events market in NYC was untapped. He pivoted his own food truck business to focus on events catering and corporate marketing, leveraging his industry expertise. Within the first year, the business did over $1 million in revenue with consistent 50%+ year-over-year growth.
How much money it makes: $2.4M/year
How much did it cost to start: $25K
How many people on the team: 5
How a former food truck owner founded the successful New York Food Truck Association which generated over $1M in its first year of business, providing local vendors with high-margin ancillary revenue streams, and saw consistent growth of 50% YoY.
2. Small Axe Peppers Hot Sauce ($1.02M/year)
Small Axe Peppers was founded by John Crotty, who saw the potential in an empty lot in the Bronx and decided to turn it into a community garden. Realizing that peppers were the ideal crop for the small space, he came up with the idea to make hot sauce as a way to support the garden and create a commercially scalable product. With the help of Executive Chef King Phojanakong, they developed the Small Axe Peppers line of sauces. Since then, the company has grown exponentially, partnering with over 200 community gardens and distributing their sauces nationwide.
How much money it makes: $1.02M/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 3
Small Axe Peppers is a thriving hot sauce manufacturing business that partners with over 200 community gardens in the United States, growing locally sourced produce and producing an impressive 70,000 bottles of hot sauce per year; the success is the result of a genuine mission, a great story, an online business, and active social media channels.
3. Kinda Healthy Recipes ($312K/year)
Mason Woodruff started his blog Kinda Healthy Recipes in 2014 as a side project and portfolio for his freelance writing. In 2017, he made the decision to work on the blog full-time and focused on creating recipe and food content. Since then, his blog has experienced revenue growth, attracting over half a million monthly sessions and bringing in $15k-$20k per month.
How much money it makes: $312K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 1
How one food blogger turned his passion into a business that brings in $15k-$20k per month through display advertising, affiliate marketing, and exclusive content, and doubled in revenue every year since going full time in 2018.
4. Bienville Bites Food Tour ($300K/year)
Chris Andrews, the founder of Bienville Bites Food Tour, grew up with a strong passion for Mobile's rich history and local cuisine. This fascination was constantly nurtured by his curiosity about historical sites and local eateries. The spark for his business ignited after a friend's captivating tale about a food tour in Savannah, Georgia, which seamlessly blended local history with culinary adventures.
The thought of Mobile's untapped potential gnawed at him, especially since the city had a combination of deep history and vibrant food culture. Determined to bring a similar experience to Mobile, Chris scoured the internet for insights on starting a food tour and stumbled upon a Chicago-based training program called Food Tour Pros. He flew to Chicago to take their course, gaining crucial knowledge on how to start and run a successful food tour.
Armed with newfound skills and an unwavering belief in his dream, Chris began crafting his food tour, actively seeking feedback during initial tours with friends and family. Despite initial anxiety and a few challenges like unpredictable weather, he remained undeterred. Chris's journey is a testament to the importance of pursuing your passion, validating your idea, and maintaining perseverance through the early phases of creating a business.
How much money it makes: $300K/year
Discover how a former HVAC technician turned his passion for local history into Bienville Bites Food Tour, a thriving $300K/year business, leveraging $59-per-person tours, niche marketing strategies, and strong community partnerships.
5. Crowded Kitchen ($204K/year)
Lexi Harrison, the co-founder and CEO of Crowded Kitchen, came up with the idea for her plant-based recipe website and content business while studying abroad and facing dietary challenges. With the help of her mom, she grew their audience to 20k followers within the first year. With their expertise in photography and recipe development, they diversified their business by offering content creation services to food and beverage brands, which now accounts for 50% of their revenue.
How much money it makes: $204K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 3
How co-founders of Crowded Kitchen, a plant-based recipe website and creative content business, grew their social media following to nearly 200k and became a leader in the plant-based recipe space, while also offering photography and recipe development services to major food and beverage brands.
6. Secret Food Tours ($120K/year)
Nico Jacquart and Oliver Levene, founders of Secret Food Tours, came up with the idea when they realized that many of their friends traveling to Paris or London would ask them for recommendations on where to eat. After testing the market with a quickly created website and selling their first ticket within hours, they knew they had a winning concept. Now, Secret Food Tours has launched over 80 tours in more than 50 cities worldwide and continues to experience 100% year-on-year growth.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $3K
How many people on the team: 4
Serial entrepreneur Nico Jacquart shares how he and his partner validated and grew a global food tour company with tours in more than 50 cities worldwide, experiencing year on year growth of 100%.
7. Chefs Resources ($60K/year)
David Buchanan, a professional chef, came up with the idea for Chefs-Resources.com because he wanted easy access to culinary knowledge he had learned.
After starting the website as a personal resource in 2005, he added content, studied SEO, and eventually monetized the site through paid subscriptions, resulting in revenue of $44,800 in 2020.
How much money it makes: $60K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50
How many people on the team: 1
Chef David Buchanan generates over $6,000 per month through his website Chefs-Resources.com, which provides professional chefs with free and paid access to detailed culinary information and kitchen management resources such as Excel sheets, resulting in gross revenue of $46,000 to date and a subscriber growth rate of over 1300% from 2015 to September 2021.
8. Karachi Kitchen ($24K/year)
Sadaf, the co-founder and designer behind Karachi Kitchen Foods, started the business with her mother, a long-time chef and culinary instructor. They launched their business after collaborating on a self-published cookbook, which won a Gourmand Award. Despite facing setbacks due to Covid and learning about federal and state regulations, they have seen sales more than double since launching their online store.
How much money it makes: $24K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Karachi Kitchen Foods saw over 200% growth in sales in the past year, offering seven different chutneys and spices, and plans to launch an online subscription box and publish recipes on their website in coming months.
9. Theresa Healey ($12K/year)
Theresa, the owner of the blog DIY Lifestyle, started her blog as a way to share useful information about gluten-free, vegan, and healthy recipes, crafts, and travel tips. Over time, she realized she could monetize her blog by selling handmade products through her small business called "With Love From T to You." With her blog and Etsy shop combined, Theresa now makes an average income of $700 a month.
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $350
How many people on the team: 1
DIY Lifestyle blog owner, Theresa, turned her passion for crafting and writing into a side income source, attracting hundreds of thousands of global visitors, with her blog generating $400-$500 a month and her online Etsy store bringing in an additional $200-$300 a month, showcasing her unique, all-natural, one-of-a-kind polymer clay earrings, home decor, and huts inspired by Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, reading and home decorating.
10. Millennial Moderator ($6K/year)
Aleksey Weyman came up with the idea for Millennial Moderator when he was teaching himself basic HTML/CSS and decided to create a blog as a way to practice. After refining the brand and seeing the value it provided to readers, Aleksey focused on providing valuable insights and industry trends to attract and retain customers. With an average of $500 USD/month and 3000 monthly readers, Millennial Moderator is now looking to scale upward.
How much money it makes: $6K/year
How many people on the team: 1
Millennial Moderator, a profitable online publication averaging $500 USD/month and around 3000 monthly readers, shares insights on developing an online publication from scratch, monitoring user experience, and engaging readers through social media channels and advertising networks.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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