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re you an amateur foodie? Do you love baking or cooking? Want to share your food ideas with the world? It’s time you start a food blog. 

Food blogging is one of the best blog niches to get into because there are so many different topics you could write about – and everyone has to eat!

You could help people learn how to cook a specific type of cuisine with an instructional blog filled with how-to articles, recipe reviews, and technique demos. You could write a travel food blog that explores a part of the world through food. You could write a good food blog that explains how to reduce your carbon footprint through food. Or even the latest viral food and lifestyle blog!

In this guide, we’ll explain how to start a food blog and how food bloggers make money from it.

Step 1: Choose a Food Blog Niche and Name

Before you dive into the nuts and bolts of your blog, like finding the best blog hosting, you’ve got to determine what you’re going to blog about.

If you want to build a successful food blog that’s profitable and sustainable, you’ll need to do a bit of homework upfront.

We go into the details on how to choose a blog niche here, but to see if your idea is viable, sit down and brainstorm. If you can come up with at least 20 blog post ideas in 15 minutes, your topic has potential! If not, it’s back to the drawing board. 

Types of Food Blogs

Another way to find a viable idea for your blog is to look at the types of food blogs out there.

For example, there are…

• recipe blogs
• food or drink tasting blogs
• cookbook review blogs
• healthy eating blogs
• cuisine-specific
• location-specific
• sustainable cuisine
• …and more.

You could use one of these ideas as a starting point and then drill down.

Once you’ve chosen your main topic, you’ll want to name your blog.

Think about your topic, your target audience, and what your blog style will be like.

To come up with a name, try…

• Entering your main topic into a blog name generator
• Using a thesaurus to come up with different words
• Use techniques like rhyming, alliteration, or assonance (like “Smitten Kitchen” or “Budget Bytes”)
• Putting your own spin on a common saying or idiom (like “Gimme Some Oven” or “Oh My Veggies”)

You can read more tips and examples in our guide on how to come up with a blog name.

Once you’ve settled on a topic and name, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and set up your blog!

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Step 2: Set Up Your Food Blog

Setting up a new blog can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re not very technical, but we’ve got you covered. 

Every blog needs three elements:

1. A unique domain name: This is what people type into their web browser to find your blog. It’s usually the same as your blog name and should be easy to say and type. Learn more about choosing the best domain name here.
2. A reliable web host: This is where all the files, images, and content are stored. Companies like Bluehost make it easy to set up your account and blog.
3. A blogging platform: This is the software you use to write and publish your blogs, add the design and layout to your site, and more. We recommend WordPress, which powers 35% of the web including big names like Adobe, Microsoft, Rolling Stone, and more. It’s easy to use, flexible, and offers a wide variety of customizations with themes and plugins. 

Many aspiring food bloggers get stuck at this stage because they don’t want to pay for hosting, especially at the start. So they may look at a free blogging option instead.

We advise against using a free blogging platform and instead go with a paid hosting option.

Why? Because it’s critical that you retain control and ownership of all the contents and assets of your food blog. The free options may disappear after a while, leaving you without any copies of your content and a disappointed audience.

Plus, free blogging platforms are very limited in features. Many of them won’t let you use your own ads to earn money from your blog.

If you want more flexibility and control, you need to use a platform like WordPress, and get your own web hosting.

We recommend Bluehost as a good starting option for new bloggers. You can get free domain name registration for a year and a discounted rate for being a Blog Tyrant reader.

Once you’re on the Bluehost site, click on the Get Started Now button.

New bloggers can get started with the Basic plan, which include 1 site. You can always upgrade as your site grows.

Then you’ll be asked to create a new domain.

Enter your chosen blog name and click Next. If it’s not available, you can use our domain name generator to get more ideas.

On the next screen, make sure to select the 36 months price if you want to get the best deal.

Once you’ve finished setting up your account, you’ll get an email with your login details. Once you’ve logged in, click on the the My Sites tab on the left.

Then click on Create Sites to get started with WordPress.

This will launch Bluehost’s WordPress installation wizard, where you’ll be asked to enter your food blog name and a tagline. The tagline is optional, and you can always change it later if you want.

After you click on the Next button to continue, you can select your domain name from the drop down menu.

Then click on the Next button to continue. This will start the installation and it will take a few minutes to install. After it’s done, you’ll see the success message with your website’s details.

You’ll also get an email confirmation with a login link.

And that’s it, you successfully installed WordPress on Bluehost and launched your blog!

You’ll notice that right now your blog looks very basic. That’s because we haven’t installed a theme or plugins to make look better.

Once your domain is secured, your hosting is set up, and you’ve got WordPress installed, it’s time to choose a theme for your blog. 

Choosing a Theme for Your Food Blog

WordPress themes control your website’s design and appearance. There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install on your website.

However, not all of them are suitable for a food blog. You’ll need one suited to a food blog, and that matches your ideas on design and branding. 

Here are a few options you can choose…

1. Get a Free Theme

One advantage of a popular platform like WordPress is the number of free themes out there. People have created thousands of them that you can use on your blog.

Here’s a roundup of popular themes for recipe and food blogs to get you started.

2. Pay for a Premium Theme

Premium themes are designed by experts. They are usually visually more appealing than the free ones, have more features and functions built into them. They also come with support, so you can get help if you need it.

We recommend using Divi or Astra, as they’ve both got great free starter themes and lots of customization options that work well for food blogs. 

3. Create a New Theme

If you want a unique and original theme for your food blog, you can pay for a custom-designed WordPress theme. This is an expensive option and can take months to complete. It’s a good future option for your food blog if it becomes a hit, and you have thousands of dollars to spend on an original theme. 

No matter the theme you choose, you’ll want one that reflects the style you want to convey. That means thinking about whether you can upload your own logo, change the color palette, font choices, and whether you can change the blog post layout.

Installing Recipe and Food Blog Plugins

Your food blog will also need a recipe or food blog plugin to give you the ability to add recipes easily. These plugins have additional options where you can enter recipe details and have them published in a reader-friendly way. 

We recommend using WP Recipe Maker (start with the free option and then upgrade to the paid one if you want to use those premium features) and WP Tasty Recipes if you want to jump into a fully-featured premium plugin.

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Step 3: Create the Content and Start Blogging!

Now you’re ready to start creating and publishing your food blog content. 

First up, it’s your core pages and main menu.

WordPress lets you create two different types of content: posts and pages. If you’re wondering what’s the difference, here’s a detailed guide on posts vs. pages in WordPress.

We recommend creating these pages for your new food blog:

1. About Page
2. Contact Page

To add a new page in WordPress, just log in to your WordPress dashboard and click on Pages » Add New.

From here, you can add your page title and your content in the text editor. Check out these WordPress content editor tips for more details.

When you’re done, just click the Publish button and it will be live on your site.

Let’s take a look at how to create these pages and what they should include.

1. About Page

On your “About” page, you should introduce yourself to your readers and talk about what they can expect from your blog. Link out to your other social profiles so that your readers can stay in touch with you.

2. Contact Page

A contact page is essential if you want your readers to get in touch with you. You can create a contact form in less than 5 minutes with WPForms, which comes pre-installed on your Bluehost site.

These pages should be enough to get you started!

If you want to customize the layout and design of your pages, we recommend using a drag and drop page builder like Beaver Builder or Divi.

Now that your pages have been created, it’s time to add them to the main menu of your new blog.

To create a menu in WordPress, click on Appearance » Menus. Enter a name for your menu (I just named mine “Main Menu”) and click Create Menu.

Now you can add your new pages to the menu. On the left side under Pages, check the box next to the pages you want to add to your menu. Then click Save Menu.

To add the menu to your header, click on Manage Locations tab at the top. Then select your menu in the location where you want it to appear. Note that your menu locations will be different depending on your theme, but usually there’s a primary, main, or header menu area for you to add your main menu.

Next, you’ll want to write your first set of blog posts. You already brainstormed some blog post ideas earlier, so pull those out and start writing.

If you get stuck, check out our ultimate list of blog post ideas, plus our guide on how to write the perfect blog post.

We won’t worry about monetization until a little later. For now, you just need to get some content on your blog, so it gets indexed by search engines, and you can start building an audience. You can also create a blog strategy to keep the ideas flowing and your food blog stocked with posts. 

At this point, your food blog is up and running! Congrats!

But you’re not done. You’ll need to promote your blog to create and expand your audience. After all, you want to keep people coming to your blog regularly, right? And if you want to earn some money from your food blog, it’s hard to monetize without a healthy-sized audience.

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Step 4: Promote Your Blog and Grow Your Audience

There are a few ways you can promote your food blog. Some are passive, while others are more active.

Search Engines

Getting traffic from search engines and growing your food blog audience is the first step. With search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll take advantage of search engine algorithms to drive traffic to your food blog.

That means that whenever anyone searches Google for a topic you’ve covered, your blog will come up in the search results.

Social Media

Social media networking on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can be really huge for food blogs – especially if you have a lot of nice photos or content that is easy to digest and share. They can help you build and grow your audience, as well as increase your blog monetization options since you’ll be getting more views to your content. 

Since there are so many out there (and more popping up every month), it’s hard to decide which social media platforms to use for your food blog. You might be tempted to use all of them, but don’t.

When you spread yourself too thin by using them all, you won’t ever have time to focus on creating content and growing your food blog in a sustainable way.

So, what can you do when it comes to social media?

First, spend some time looking at the biggest blogs in your food niche. See what social media platforms they’re using. Then, dig deeper. Look beyond followers and likes, since those can be bought and faked. See how engaged their audience is, how much their content is shared, and what kind of interactions happen on the blog itself.

Then, start testing on your food blog. Pick one or two social media platforms and create content for them. Share your content on them and engage with your audience there. Ask people to follow you on those networks. Give it a solid few months before deciding to switch to something else. 

Over time, you’ll see which ones work for you and which ones you can skip. We recommend always engaging with commenters on your posts and adding one or two social media platforms to the mix. 

Email Newsletter

Most professional bloggers use email newsletters to stay engaged with their audiences and generate an income from them. Email newsletters help you develop and sustain relationships with your audience better than any other marketing method you might use. 

At least 99% of us check our email every day, with 58% of us checking it before even social media! 

See our step-by-step checklist on how to do email marketing with your food blog and grow it like a total pro.

Step 5: Monetize Your Food Blog

Want to know how to start a food blog and make money?

As with other kinds of blogs, there are plenty of ways to monetize your food blog to earn an income.

Here are just a few ideas:

1. Sell Recipes: To sell your recipes, bundle them into eBooks, and sell them directly on your site. You’ll need an eCommerce plugin like WooCommerce to add an online store to your food blog. 
2. Sell Branded Swag: Once you’ve got a good audience, you could start selling branded swag on your site. Use a print-on-demand service like Printful, Gooten, or TeeSpring to manage the printing and shipping for your t-shirts, mugs, jewelery, bags, and more. 
3. Display Ads: You can set up Google AdSense on your blog to display relevant ads on your site and earn money whenever someone clicks on the ad. This would be a perfect solution for a food review blog or restaurant review blog.
4. Affiliate Marketing: Many food blogs offer product reviews and How-To posts, so why not add in some affiliate links to earn a commission off the products you write about? You can start with Amazon’s affiliate program, and then branch into other food-related ones as your audience grows. 

If you’re curious about how much money you can make from food blogging, just check out this shortlist of successful food bloggers. 

Midwest Foodie Blog makes money by displaying ads on her site and also selling sponsored posts.

A Sassy Spoon made over $100K last year from a variety of different methods. They display ads, sell sponsored posts, and offer freelance services like photography and coaching.

Piping Pot Curry also earns an income from ads and affiliate links.

For more ideas on how to monetize a food blog, check out our list of the most proven and profitable ways to earn money on your blog. 

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There you have it, step-by-step instructions on how to start a food blog! You’ve gotten web hosting, chosen a WordPress theme, learned about recipe plugins, and started writing your first posts. You’ve even learned about some of the advanced steps to starting a food blog, so you can earn money from it. 

Have you started a food blog? Let us know in the comments so we can take a look. We’d love to see what you’re writing about and hearing more about your experience.

Now that you know how to start a food blog, check out our article on how to get traffic to your blog next.

And be sure to sign up for our email newsletter for more helpful blogging tutorials like this one!

Keep reading the article at Blog Tyrant. The article was originally written by Ramsay on 2020-03-10 08:00:20.

The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.

Want to start a food blog but not sure where to start?

I was able to make $150,000 last year through my blog with affiliate marketing. I know it’s not a food blog, but I help people build successful blogs for a living and want to steer people in the right direction. I’m also part of 20+ Facebook Groups and and constantly monitor what works, and what doesn’t (my background is in WordPress web design, SEO, and speed optimization).

Instead of Bluehost (the host every blogger recommends because of their high affiliate commissions), we’ll be using SiteGround who was rated #1 in most Facebook polls. For your WordPress theme, we’ll be using Astra Ready Sites which are pre-built sites you can import in 1-click using the Astra Starter Sites plugin. This makes building your food blog so much easier.

Many bloggers refer you to bad hosting (Bluehost/HostGator) and complicated WordPress themes, so I wrote this this tutorial to show you the easiest (and best) way to start a food blog.

1. Choose Domain And Hosting Wisely

SiteGround is a safe bet to get domain + hosting.

They are rated very highly in terms of speed, support, uptimes, and WordPress features (much better than Bluehost/GoDaddy).  It’s easiest to get domain and hosting through the same place.

Take a look at their WordPress hosting page and choose your hosting plan. The StartUp plan is good if you only plan on hosting one blog, otherwise you will need GrowBig for multiple blogs.

When signing up, you have the option to choose a domain name. Register a domain name for your food blog and select the server that is closest to your visitors (yo ucan skip the add-ons).

2. Install WordPress With SSL

Once signed up, you will be sent a launch wizard through email. Select the “start a new website” with WordPress as the software. Next, create the login details for your WordPress dashboard.

After going through the launch wizard, SiteGround will send your WordPress login info via email. Follow the Admin URL to your dashboard and use your login info to get into WordPress.

Add SSL To Your Food Blog
There are two steps to adding SSL to your food blog. First, login to your hosting account and activate the free Let’s Encrypt SSL. In SiteGround, this is under cPanel → Security → Let’s Encrypt SSL. Next, login to your WordPress dashboard and to go SG Optimizer → Environment Optimization → Enable HTTPS. From here, everything for SSL will be configured automatically.

You will see your food blog has a lock icon in the browser:

3. Download A Food Blog Theme

Choosing a theme is one of the most important steps when starting a food blog.

Astra Themes are very popular because they look great, are easy to edit, mobile responsive, and load very fast. I used the Recipe Blog Theme for this example, but you could also use the Fashion Blog or Travel blog for your theme (since all you need to do is swap out the content to make it a food blog). The main thing is to choose a theme with the general design you want.

First, install the Astra Starter Sites Plugin under Plugins → Add New. You will be prompted to activate the main Astra theme which lets you to install any of their ready websites to your blog.

Now select your Page Builder. This affects how you edit your blog’s design, content, etc. Different themes are built with different page builders but Elementor is the most popular and probably the easiest. It just depends on which theme you want and which page builder it uses.

Once you choose a theme, click “import site” and the entire pre-built website or blog will be automatically downloaded (in other words, your blog will now look exactly like your theme).

Yay, your blog should look exactly like the theme!

There are also plenty of free food blog themes in WordPress:

4. Change Logo, Fonts, Colors, Layouts

You can do all this under Appearance → Astra Options.

This area has quick links to change your logo, favicon, fonts, colors, header, footer, and more.

Customizations You Can Make In Astra Options:

• Upload your logo
• Upload your favicon (16×16 browser icon)
• Change fonts and colors throughout your site
• Change your header and it’s layout
• Change your footer layout and copyright text
• Change your food blog’s layout and it’s sidebar

5. Create Your Core Pages

How you edit pages depends on which theme you chose and the page builder it requires (Elementor, Gutenberg, etc). The Recipe Blog theme uses Gutenberg so here’s a tutorial:

Most of editing is point, click, and edit:

About Page:

Contact Page (includes a form which you can edit in your WPForms settings):

And of course, the blog page:

6. Create Blog Categories For Recipes + Food Topics

Create a few blog categories about food-related topics you will write about. These can be recipes, restaurant reviews, etc. If you’re only blogging about recipes, these can also be specific types of recipes (gluten free, vegan, keto). However you want to categorize your blog posts.

7. Write Your First Blog Post

You can find your blog posts under Posts → All Posts.

Content is the #1 thing you should spend time on. This doesn’t just apply to your blog but YouTube as well (I found the competition in YouTube is usually less than Google). Titles, photos, videos, and text all matter. Writing blogs is an art; be sure to look at my on-page SEO checklist.

Add featured images to make your blog look nice!

7. Add Recipes Using A Plugin

WP Recipe Maker (free) and Tasty Recipes plugin (premium) are 2 popular plugins for adding recipe information to blog posts.

Both look nice and add recipe rich snippets to your posts (improving SEO). I will be using the WP Recipe Maker plugin. Whichever plugin you choose, I suggest taking the time (or hiring someone) to design the recipe information to look nice. A little CSS styling can go a long way.

Step 1: Install A Recipe Plugin: go to Plugins → Add New → search/install WP Recipe Maker.

Step 2: Configure The Plugin Settings: this controls the design, social sharing options, Pinterest sharing, and additional settings that come with the pro version of WP Recipe Maker.

Step 3: Add Recipes To Your Blog: edit a post, add a recipe using Gutenberg, and you will be taken to the WP Recipe Maker plugin where you can add your recipe info. Be sure to fill out everything completely. Professional photos (and especially videos) are a huge benefit that keep people on your site longer and improve SEO. You really want to spend time on your recipe info.

Sections:

• Title
• Description
• Photo/video
• General (name, author, description, servings, cost)
• Time (prep time, cook time, total time)
• Categories (course type, cuisine type, keywords)
• Equipment
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Nutrition Information

Step 4: Preview The Page: even without any fancy CSS styling, it still looks nice!

Step 5: Manage Your Recipes In The Settings: make sure you get reviews for rich snippets.

Here’s a YouTube tutorial on WP Recipe Maker:

8. Optimize Blog Posts For SEO

Getting SEO traffic is one of the most difficult parts of starting a food blog.

Since I write about SEO for a living, you should find these tips super helpful.

• Research Recipe Keywords – use Google Autocomplete to find recipe keywords. More specific keywords have less searches, but also less competition. Especially if you’re just starting a food blog, target very specific keywords until you’re able to rank on page 1. It’s usually best to target 1 keyword per blog post.
• Use Your Keyword In The Right Places – the post title, permalink, content body (about 2-3 times), and Yoast SEO title + meta description are the key places to use your keyword. Do not “stuff” keywords in your content or image alt text.
• Add Alt Text To Images – the Auto Image Alt Attribute plugin automatically adds image alt text based on the file name. That means all you have to do is make sure images have descriptive file names before uploading them to your food blog.
• Add Recipe Rich Snippets – use a plugin like WP Recipe Maker to add recipe rich snippets (use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool for testing). This makes your snippet more enticing and more people should click your result in Google.
• Add Publish Dates – displaying your blog post’s publish date in Google tells people your content is fresh and can result in more clicks. Make sure “post modified date” is turned on for posts (found in your Yoast SEO plugin settings). Next, add your publish date to the top of blog posts using HTML or with a plugin.
• Add Anchors (Jump-To Links) – anchors let people jump down to a specific section on a post (eg. your recipe info section) which can be super helpful.
• Use Internal And External Links – Google likes when you link to relevant content whether it’s on your own blog (internal link) or another blog (external link). As you create more content, start adding internal links when they’re relevant, or link to places to order ingredients. Affiliate links don’t count.
• Add 1,000+ Words – length is strength in SEO (Google loves in-depth content).
• Use Post Name Permalink Structure – in your WordPress dashboard go to Settings → Permalinks and I suggest using the Post Name permalink structure.
• File The Blog Under 1 Category – when editing a blog post, you have the option the file the post under categories. Make sure to only file it under 1 category.

9. Name Your Food Blog

Give your food blog a name  in WordPress under Settings → General.

10. Create Your Navigation Menu

Create your navigation menu under Appearance → Menus.

Keep in mind in order to add pages to the navigation menu, they need to be published.

Astra’s Options lets you further customize your navigation menu:

11. Setup Google Tools

You want both Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics is more for tracking visitors and learning how they interact with your food blog. Google Search Console is more about improving the overall SEO health of your food blog by finding mobile, security, sitemap, and indexing errors, among other useful SEO features.

Setting Up Google Analytics

1. Sign up for Google Analytics
2. Grab your UA code or JavaScript tracking code
3. For UA numbers, enter into a Google Analytics plugin
4. For JavaScript, paste the code into your header
5. Wait a few days for Google Analytics to show data

Setting Up Google Search Console

1. Sign up for Google Search Console
2. They will provide you with a TXT record
3. Paste the TXT record into your DNS (eg. Advanced DNS Editor in SiteGround)
4. Wait a few days for Google Search Console to show data
5. Submit your Yoast XML Sitemap to the Sitemaps section

12. Install Essential WordPress Plugins

Below is a list of essential plugins I recommend installing on your food blog:

• Duplicate Pages: duplicate pages to use for other pages.
• iThemes Security: improves security with 1-click.
• SG Optimizer: SiteGround’s speed plugin (pre-installed).
• Thirsty Affiliates: affiliate link management plugin.
• UpdraftPlus: tack automatic backups of your food blog.
• WP Recipe Maker: add recipe information with rich snippets.
• Yoast SEO: popular SEO plugin which I have a tutorial for.

13. Make Your Blog Look Nice When Shared On Social Media

Uploading custom graphics makes your food blog look nice on Facebook + Twitter.

You will need the Yoast SEO plugin installed. Edit a page or post, scroll down to the Yoast SEO section, then click the “Social” tab. You will see options to upload a custom to both Facebook (1200 x 630px) and Twitter (1024 x 512px). You can upload a photo of your food or a headshot.

What it looks like:

Otherwise it would look like this:

14. Make Money With Affiliate Programs

When most people think of affiliate marketing, they think of Amazon.

Unfortunately, Amazon reduced their affiliate commissions (it’s now 4.5% for kitchen goods and 1% for Amazon Fresh). You would need to generate a ton of affiliate sales to sustain a living when writing a post on “how to start a food blog” using a SiteGround or Bluehost affiliate link can make me $150/sale. Do the math and try to promote high commissions products/services.

Adding affiliate links to your blog is easy. By far the hardest part of affiliate marketing is finding high paying affiliate programs and getting traffic to your blog.

Adding Affiliate Links To Your Blog

• Apply for high paying, reputable affiliate programs
• Affiliates want to see you have a decent amount of traffic
• Find specific products/services to refer people to on your blog
• Apply for the program, login, and grab your unique affiliate links
• Install an affiliate link management plugin (I use Thirsty Affiliates)
• Write content where you can add affiliate links to products/services
• Track links, conversions, and learn what brings you the most sales

Which Affiliate Program Should I Choose?
Most larger food companies have an affiliate program: Amazon, HelloFresh, Williams-Sonoma, plenty of others. Some have their own affiliate program, some are part of affiliate marketplaces like VigLink, ShareASale, Impact, or CJ Affiliate (I highly recommend going through those affiliate marketplaces and scouting your options for affiliate programs). These marketplaces host a ton of programs and let you manage affiliate programs (and grab links) from one place.

15. Get A Custom Food Blog Design

Want our team to design your food blog?

We design SEO-friendly, mobile responsive, fast loading, and completely custom blogs in WordPress. Contact us with your ideas and we’ll schedule a time to talk about your blog.

Cheers,
Tom

Keep reading the article at Tom Dupuis. The article was originally written by Tom Dupuis on 2020-06-10 20:37:08.

The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.