Food blogger Bianca Fernandez made over $77,000 in her first serious year of blogging and honestly, her story is such a good reminder of how much opportunity there really is in the food blogging world.
People love to say food blogs are “overdone,” but the truth is, many food bloggers still earn around six figures a year thanks to paid sponsorships, affiliate marketing, courses, and other income streams. Sponsorships, in particular, are exactly how Bianca, the creator of Bites by Bianca, pulled in over $77,000 in just one year.
Here’s how she did it and what her journey actually looked like.
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Who is Bianca Fernandez of Bites by Bianca?
Bianca Fernandez is an NY-based avid baker and blogger. She fell in love with baking in high school and even perfected the art of baking macarons.
In 2019, she launched Bites by Bianca and the site’s Instagram page while living in Boston. In 2021, she left her job in biology research to pursue her passion for baking. She worked in pastry kitchens for a time, but life circumstances sent her back home to NY around 2023.
Thanks to the support of her parents, she was able to go all-in on her blog in 2023 and it was a huge success.
Bianca was named IHC Food Influencer of the Year in 2024 and now has almost 80k followers on Instagram.
Impressive milestones aside, the part that really grabs attention is what she was able to earn once she fully committed to her blog.
Related: From $0 to $875 a Day: Here’s How I Make Money Blogging!
How Much Does Bites by Bianca Make?
Although Bianca launched her blog in 2019, it wasn’t until 2023 that she really took it seriously. In those years in between, she was making negative net income from her site.
So, how much did she earn during this first year of serious blogging?
- $77,202
Here’s a breakdown of where that money came from:
- 65% from paid partnerships (25 partnerships total). That’s about $50,181.3 in sponsorships, or $2,007.25 per deal.
- 1-2% from blog ads – about $772.02 to $1,544.04.
- Less than 1% from affiliate marketing.
- 30% from freelancing. That’s about $23,160.60.
- 1-2% from misc. places, or $772.02 to $1,544.04.
It’s important to note that a decent chunk of her income still came from freelancing (recipe creation and writing) in 2023.
A few other things to note:
- Her blog received 200k page views in 2023
- Her blog recipes are not SEO optimized
- She has about 100 blog posts
Bianca doesn’t share the breakdown of her traffic sources, but I’m willing to bet a large percentage comes from Instagram.
Bianca relies heavily on brand sponsorships to generate her income.
Some brands approach her, but she also pitches brands to land deals or uses influencer marketing platforms to connect with brands in her niche.
Right now, that’s her main strategy for generating income.
Bianca’s story is proof that you don’t need millions of page views or followers to make money with sponsorships. While she certainly has a large reach on Instagram, her following is still under 100k.
In early 2024, Bianca shared her goals for the year:
- SEO-optimize her blogs
- Get monetized on YouTube
- Hit 100k on Instagram, 5k on YouTube
- Earn more income from blog ads
I, for one, can’t wait to see her progress and how many of these goals she achieved when she shares her next income report.
Related: How to Make $1,000 a Week Selling on TikTok with a New Shop
What Her Income Breakdown Tells Us About Food Blogging in 2025
When you actually look at Bianca’s income breakdown, it tells a very real story about how food blogging works today, and it’s often not what beginners expect.
First, ads barely moved the needle for her, and that makes total sense. I’ve seen this over and over again. In the early stages, ad income is usually disappointing because you simply don’t have the traffic volume yet. Ads are a long game. They’re amazing once your site scales, but in year one they’re rarely the thing paying the bills.
For my blog, this was the mistake I made. I focused heavily on generating traffic but didn’t build a clear monetization strategy that could help me scale faster. Overtime, ads turned to be the main way I make money from my blog, but if I was starting today, I know there are faster ways to make money blogging then generating traffic and earning from ads.
Think of it this way, if 1,000 people visit your site, most blogs will earn around $10–$50 from ads. But if you have a product to sell, those same 1,000 visitors could turn into buyers, and you can earn way more than $10.
Affiliate income is another area people expect to pop off quickly and then get frustrated when it doesn’t. From my experience, affiliates take time. You need trust, buying intent, and content that’s built specifically to convert. If your traffic is still small or coming mostly from social platforms, affiliate earnings tend to lag and that’s completely normal. Even now, affiliate income is still one of the smaller revenue streams on my site.
Having said this, the way you choose to monetize your blog really depends on your personality, your lifestyle, and how quickly you want to see income. Are you more of an introvert, working a day job, and okay with slowly building in the background? Or do you enjoy freelancing, teaching, or creating your own products to market, which usually leads to faster income early on?
Bianca’s numbers are a good reminder that in 2025, successful food bloggers don’t rely on just one income stream. They mix faster money with slower, long-term plays, and that balance is what makes blogging sustainable.
What I’d Do If I Were Starting a Food Blog Today
If I were starting a food blog today, I’d do a lot less “perfecting” and a lot more monetizing early. That’s the biggest lesson I learned the hard way. I spent way too much time in the beginning worrying about things that felt productive but didn’t actually make money.
In year one, I’d prioritize income paths before traffic goals. That means thinking about sponsorships, develop my own products, freelance work, or brand collaborations right from the start, not after hitting some imaginary pageview milestone. Bianca’s story is a perfect example of this. She didn’t wait until her blog was massive to start earning. She focused on opportunities that paid immediately.
What I’d mostly ignore? Chasing perfection. I wouldn’t stress about having hundreds of posts, flawless SEO, or a perfectly designed site. Those things matter long-term, but they don’t need to happen on day one. I’d also stop putting so much mental energy into ads early on, because while ads are great later, they’re slow in the beginning and not worth building your entire strategy around at first.
Where I’d really focus my energy is visibility and relationships. Showing up consistently on one platform, building a recognizable style, developing a product to sell, and actually reaching out to brands instead of waiting to be discovered. I’ve seen firsthand that you don’t need millions of views to make real money. You need the right audience, a clear niche, and the confidence to treat your blog like a business from the beginning.
That mindset shift alone can completely change how fast a food blog starts making money.
Final Thoughts
Bianca’s story is a great reminder that there’s no “perfect” time to start a blog and no single right way to do it. What really made the difference for her wasn’t luck or massive traffic, but the decision to take her blog seriously and focus on what actually makes money.
More than anything, her journey proves that when you combine passion with a smart monetization strategy, things can move much faster than people expect. And if there’s one takeaway here, it’s this: you don’t need to wait until everything is perfect to start seeing real results.
