How to Start a Food Channel on YouTube - My Work from Home Money

Having grown my YouTube channel to almost 200,000 subscribers in less than three years, I get a lot of questions about how to start a channel and the different topics. Starting a food channel on YouTube comes with more benefits than just making thousand a month

When someone asks me what type of channel to start, my first answer is always a question. “What do you enjoy talking about?”

If you can start with that passion, you’ll be able to keep creating videos even before the other benefits. Since it takes a while for the money to start coming in.

My second answer to the question is “START A FOOD CHANNEL!”

Food and cooking channels work on so many different levels. Whether you enjoy cooking, want to learn a little yourself, or want to grow a monstrous channel that makes money… you’ll be able to do all three on YouTube.

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Why Start a Food Channel on YouTube

There are a few reasons I like food channels so much for beginning YouTubers, and at least one of the three main reasons usually hits a key motivation.

First, cooking channels are so easy to grow. People love watching cooking and food. As popular as food blogs have been with their mouth-watering pictures, you just can’t beat video. Watching someone make three-layer chocolate and strawberry cake engages so many of the senses; sight, sound, and even taste.

Anyone can start a food channel. It’s not just the world-famous chefs. People with no prior experience created some of the most successful cooking channels I’ve seen. They wanted to learn how to cook and take others on that journey.

Viewers love the idea of starting on that journey with someone who isn’t already a master chef who will laugh at their mistakes. They like to be on a journey with someone who is learning just like them.

Food channels are also EXTREMELY monetizable. The pay on advertising isn’t as high as some other channel topics like personal finance, but the potential in sponsors and products is enormous. Why do you think world-class chefs like Gordan Ramsay and Emeril Lagasse have channels even with their TV fame?

One last benefit to starting a food channel on YouTube, which is a big surprise for most, is the ability to save on your family’s food costs! The average household spends $6,000 yearly at the grocery store and another few thousand eating out. When you start a cooking channel, though, some of that money becomes a business expense and you can take it off your income.

You’ll need to buy food to cook in your videos…and of course, you’re not just going to let that food go to waste.
That new stove or other appliances you need becomes ‘business equipment,’ and you take the cost off your business income on taxes.
Going out to eat at a restaurant becomes ‘research’ as you talk to chefs and taste different dishes.

Now you’re not going to be able to deduct all your food expenses for your cooking channel, but even writing off a fifth can mean saving $1,000+ on your taxes.

Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!

Types of Food Channels on YouTube

The best YouTube channels are those that pick a particular topic and master it for their audience. Choosing a niche is probably the most crucial step in creating a channel and one of the most significant chapters in my YouTube book.

The ability to become THE authority in a niche topic or for a group of people will help you stand out among all the other YouTubers.

Some Potential Food Channel Ideas Include:

Videos on how to cook at different levels of expertise. The most popular tend to be beginner cooking channels because most people don’t know how to cook.
Channels are niched to a specific type of food. There are a few different ways to take this idea. First, you can focus on the food of a particular nationality, like Chinese or Italian food. You could focus on a specific course, like great appetizers, main dishes, or desserts.
Quick Recipes. These are another trendy type of food channel because…well, who has the time to cook a big meal? So show someone how to feed their family well in less than 10 minutes, and you’ll get millions of subscribers!

Advantages of Starting a Food Channel on YouTube

With the increase in the popularity of vlogging, many people are considering how they can start their food channel on YouTube. Here are some of the advantages of starting a food channel on YouTube.

You can share your experiences with food and cooking with others

YouTubers often incorporate personal stories into their videos, telling viewers about their lives and what it’s like to cook for themselves or others. As you work on your channel, this is an easy way to establish rapport between you and your audience members. This connection may help you keep subscribers even if your content isn’t as high quality as other channels find.

It has lower startup costs than many other forms of online media

YouTubers have a few startup costs, but a food channel usually has lower costs than options such as vlogging or blogging. In addition to the video camera and editing software already mentioned, you may need extra lighting to show off your food without making it look unappetizing. Some people choose to purchase beautiful dishes for use as props, but you can skip this if you do something simple like filming in front of a window or using your stovetop’s surface light.

Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!

You’ll be able to make money from advertisements

Many news channels and other social media sources derive revenue from advertisements. Similarly, YouTube hosts several ads on videos and shares advertising revenue with creators, who can choose to run ads on their videos. As a result, you can make money from your food channel even if it doesn’t attract as many viewers as the channels of other famous YouTubers out there.

Viewers enjoy hearing about what they’d like to try themselves

Everyone has their favorite meals or snacks, but they also want to know more about those they haven’t encountered before. Starting a food channel enables you to teach others about dishes found in different cultures worldwide and provide them with information such as what ingredients are necessary and whether these dishes are healthy for them (or people in general) to eat.

If you’re interested in starting a food channel on YouTube, consider these advantages for yourself! Of course, whether or not you decide to do so is ultimately up to you, but at least now you know more about the pros and cons of starting a food channel.

Examples of Successful Food Channels

One of the best things about YouTube is that anyone can start a channel and become a star. You don’t need to be TV famous. Many of the most prominent food YouTubers are NOT the most famous TV personalities. Sure Gordan Ramsay has 14 million subscribers by Emeril Lagasse has just 82K subs versus channels started by everyday people with millions of subscribers.

One of my favorite examples of great YouTube food channels is 5-Minute Recipes. The videos are quick, 10-minutes or less, and you don’t need to be on camera. The channel has built up 5.5 million subs on short montage-type videos. The videos are highly shareable on other social media like Facebook and Instagram, creating an instant social influencer business.

The cooking channel Tasty is an excellent example of creating an entire business around YouTube and other resources. The world’s largest food network is only five years old! Started by Buzzfeed in 2015, Tasty instantly became some of the most shared content on Facebook and then on YouTube when they started the channel in 2016. With over 18 million subscribers, this is a channel to look at for inspiration and ideas in starting your food videos.

How to Start a YouTube Food Channel

Starting a YouTube channel is deceptively simple. Shoot a video and upload it to your YouTube account…and that’s it, right?

Starting a successful channel is a little more complicated, but anyone can do it. You first need to pick your topic or niche. This is what you’ll be talking about, cooking or who you want to reach with your videos.

Narrowing this topic is essential because there are more than 26 million channels on YouTube and at least a few million food channels. Picking a niched topic besides just ‘cooking’ will help you compete in a smaller group.

Different niches to consider for your channel:

Types of food or skill levels – you can even mix these, i.e., a channel for beginners on how to cook easy desserts
By audience group – don’t feel like you need to be something to everyone. What about a channel for Gen X people that always wanted to learn to cook but never had the time? How about easy cooking tips for busy Millennials?
Other topic twists – what about no-cook recipes or quick microwave meals that taste great?

Don’t worry about narrowing your niche too much. Instead, try to be the best channel for a specific group, and you’ll be surprised how many will find you.

Next is to start a food blog. Yeah, I know this article about starting a YouTube channel, but blogs still play an essential role in any online business. With a blog, you’ll own your piece of digital real estate without having to worry about when YouTube will change the rules. Your blog will give you a way to create offers and courses, as well as control the email list of your community for sales.

Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!

With the topic idea, starting your food channel is easy. First, you’ll want to set it up with the basics, including a banner image and an About page. Take your time on this basic channel setup. It will be your brand and how you’re ‘different’ from all the other channels.

When making your first videos, don’t try to start from scratch. Pick five channels in your topic idea, go to their videos, and sort by ‘Most Popular.’ Look at the ten most popular videos on each channel, and you’re sure to see some overlap. These video ideas that are most popular in the niche will be a great place to start for your first videos.

Creating your first videos, don’t try to be perfect! Outline what you want to say, rehearse a couple times, and then record straight through without stopping. Next, get all your ingredients and cookware set up and start cooking. You might consider having two cameras set up, one in front of you so you can talk to it while cooking and another pointed down to your prep area to capture video of what you’re doing.

How Much Do YouTube Food Channels Make?

Advertising rates for cooking channels are on the low end of the scale. I surveyed 98 YouTube channels to find the average per-view rate they make on videos, with cooking channels costing around $0.0025 per view.

That’s pretty low compared to other topics like Personal Finance, where you can average $0.014 per view, but the massive ideas you get on food channels make up for it. For example, the Tasty channel receives an average of around 500,000 views per video…or about $1,250 every time they tap record.

However, most of your money on YouTube will come from other sources like cookbooks and courses. I’ll highlight these sources next, but even smaller cooking channels I talked to reported making between $1,000 and $5,000 monthly.

How to Make Money on a Food Channel

Would it be cliché that making money on a food channel is only limited by your imagination? Yeah, all the usual suspects are here to make money, like self-publishing, courses, and sponsors. But, like any successful business, it’s how you implement these ideas with your twist that will make the difference.

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A few of my favorite ideas for making money on a food channel include

Cookbooks are a no-brainer and usually the first way you’ll make money. These are super easy to put together, with one page of the text recipe and the other a picture of the finished dish. Sell it on your blog or through Amazon, and refer to it in your videos.
Cooking courses are the next logical step. Why be satisfied making $6 a book when you can make $60 or $600 per student in your video course? The best part, since you’re already making videos, these will be easy to put together.
Printable recipes are another quick and easy idea; you can sell them directly through the blog.
Don’t overlook sponsorships, both in your videos and for live events. You can get someone to sponsor your video, from cookware to food makers. Talk to cookware stores and restaurants about a pop-up cooking class at their place…for a fee.
FREEBIES! Even small YouTube channels can get free stuff to demonstrate. Also, reach out to cookware and appliance companies.

Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!

Starting a food channel on YouTube can quickly grow from a side hobby into a full-blown business. Don’t think you need to be some world-class chef already. These are some of the fastest-growing channels and make lots of money.

Read the Entire Getting Started on YouTube Series

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