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Basic Steps
Here is how to start a food blog, recipe blog, or cooking blog for beginners, in just minutes!
- Hosting: Bluehost is a great host for beginners. It has been in business since 2003, has a 99.99% uptime, and 24/7 customer service.
- Domain: Choose a great domain name. You can get a free domain name for the first year when you purchase Bluehost hosting. You could also consider putting a word related to your niche in your URL which is popular.
- Install WordPress: You can do this in your Bluehost account. WordPress.org is for self hosting (you purchase hosting like from Bluehost, and then use WordPress software).
- Choose A Theme: Pick a WordPress theme that will look great for a food blog. Install that theme and customize it (fonts, colors, add a logo, About Page, Contact page, etc.).
Costs
- Hosting: around $45 for the first year.
- Domain: free for the first year when you purchase Bluehost hosting.
- Theme: you can get a free theme from wordpress.org/themes.
- Total minimum costs to start a blog: around $45
Minimum costs to start a blog: around $45
Themes
Use a theme that is designed for food bloggers or that will look good and be functional for a food blog. You can get a free theme from wordpress.org/themes. You can also purchase a theme on Etsy.
Here are a few themes that would work great for a food blog:
- WordPress.org/themes: Presto Food Blog, Food Blogger
- Etsy: Mia from North Tenth Designs, Gourmet from Lucid Themes, Scrumptious from She Shoppes Co, Oregano from KOBA themes
Make sure if you purchase a theme of Etsy that you look for documentation: step by step how to set up the blog from the developer. Also, look at the reviews and check to see if they offer customer support (usually via email).
Multimedia
Many blogs use some or most of their photos from stock photography websites. However, with a food blog, you will most likely be taking your own photos. You can edit your photos using photo editing software like Gimp or Rawtherapee.
- Icons: The Noun Project, Flaticon
- Photo Compression Software: tinyPNG
- Video: You can also take short videos and add them to your blog posts, this can be a great way to show your readers how to do something and keep their interest.
- Screenshots: take them manually or use a free software
SEO
Learn about search engine optimization to that you can rank for certain long-tail keywords that you want to rank for. For example, you could use a keyword research tool such as KW Finder, Semrush, or Wordstream to find low competition keywords with 100-1000 searches per month. For example: “How To Start A Blog” gets roughly searches 22,000 per month. And “How To Start A Food Blog” gets 720 searches per month.
Also include keywords and hashtags (#) in your social media marketing. You can put your keywords in: your blog title, photo title, alt tag for photos, description, URL, etc. Also make sure to optimize SEO for photos, which includes using relevant descriptions in the photo title, alt tag, etc.
Blog Post Structure
Use your basic headers (H2, H3, H4), intro, middle, and conclusion paragraphs. Make sure the blog is clear and organized and use lists (bullet points and numbers) and photos. With food blogs, using a recipe layout is really common. You can use software such as the WP Recipe Maker plugin to achieve this.
Blog Post Ideas
Here are a list of 10 blog post ideas to get you started!
- Sugar Cookie Recipes
- Healthy Breakfast Ideas
- Favorite Smoothie Recipes
- Holiday and Seasonal Recipes
- Meal Prep Ideas
- Healthy Snacks
- Best BBQ Recipes
- Comfort Food
- Brunch Ideas
- Homemade Bread
After You Set Up Your Blog
- Submit your site to the Google Search Console (you can do this using the Yoast SEO plugin) that it gets indexed by Google fast.
- Sign up for Google Analytics so that you know how much traffic you are getting. This is the standard in terms of the tool that advertisers want to see traffic from.
- Set up your email list so people can subscribe!
Social Media Marketing
Pinterest is one of the best platforms to market food blogs. Bloggers like this platform because it is a visual search engine. You can create a pin and link that pin to a blog post. Readers are already going on Pinterest with the intention on clicking on a pin and then going to another site.
Many bloggers create at least five different pins for each blog post (different title, description, photo). Look at popular food bloggers’ Pinterest account to get an idea of how they use it to drive traffic to their blogs.
You can also use:
- TikTok
- YoutTube
Examples
- Budget Bytes (she breaks down how much each meal costs)
- Damn Delicious (love the name of her blog)
- Sugar Spun Run (her biscuit recipe is super good)
- The Food Nanny (she makes a lot of baked goods)
- Umami Girl (the Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe is her most popular recipe and is really good!)
Monetization
Here are a few ways that food bloggers monetize their blogs!
- Affiliate Marketing: Amazon Associates, Awin, Impact, ShareaSale, your hosting company
- Brand Sponsorships: brands will pay to have you blog about a product or service
- Display Ads: Google AdSense, Mediavine Journey, Mediavine, Raptive
- Sell a Product: Ebook or Physical cookbooks, guides, physical products related to your niche
Good luck and have fun!
Overall, blogging is very editable! Most popular bloggers regularly edit their blog posts to keep them relevant over time, especially food bloggers. Hopefully this post helped you to get an idea on how to create a food blog! 🙂 If this was helpful to you, please share it!
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