Blogging is a very popular activity. It’s a great medium to share your hobby, network with other people, or even make it your primary source of income. Any type of blog is monetizable as long as there’s decent traffic to the site.
As people need to eat every day, there might be times when people look for food ideas or restaurant reviews. Hence, food blogging is one of the most popular and promising blog topics.
If you’re passionate about food and planning to be a professional food blogger, you came to the right post. This article is the ultimate guide to starting a successful food blog.
Why and When Should You Start a Food Blog
If you enjoy reviewing food, love to cook, and enjoy sharing cooking tips or recipes, that means you can start a food blog. The food and beverage business is growing bigger each year, so the opportunity to start your blogging career is still wide open today.
It’s true that food blogging is not a new thing, and there are a lot of existing food blogs to date. However, people’s lifestyle changes and food trends, so there’s still an opportunity to stand out from the crowd with fresh ideas.
Other than that, food bloggers have a huge community for you to network and socialize with. Along with their help and limitless resources on the internet, starting a food blog can give you room for growth and a supportive community.
There are several aspects that you have to prepare before starting your food blog:
- Find a niche. Remember to start by being as specific as possible with your topic. Instead of a healthy food blog, it’s better to choose a ready-to-go healthy food blog. Once you get your regular audience, you can start to expand to other general topics that you desire to avoid being monotone.
- Target your audience. Having a target audience makes your content plan measurable and clear. It helps you create a better promotional strategy and build a stronger blog identity branding. It’s also beneficial for deciding on a suitable name for your blog so that you can buy a domain name as soon as possible.
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Figure out how much effort you want to put into building your food blog. List the aspects that need improvement and what makes you confident to stand out in the crowd of successful food bloggers.
- Money. Prepare some money to invest in your food blog. Spare some money on equipment like a laptop, phone camera, and photo editing software. You don’t need to overdo it the first time you start.
How to Start a Food Blog
If you’re already well-prepared, now it’s time to start building your food blog. Let’s dive into the steps.
1. Choose Your Blogging Platform
There are many types of content management systems (CMS) to choose from for building your blog. Research and compare all the options before selecting the one that meets your needs.
WordPress.org is highly recommended to choose among the other CMS. It powers 42.6% of all existing websites, making it the most popular for beginners to advanced users. You’re also able to self-host your food blog using WordPress.org.
It is an open-source platform, so it’s highly customizable. For example, if you want to expand your food blog later and sell your own products, WordPress can easily do that.
2. Pick a Memorable Blog Name
Create a catchy name for your blog. Think of something related to your niche that will attract your target audience. Keep it short and easy to spell.
Take a look at Green Kitchen Stories. Just by reading the name, people can get an idea of their vegetarian food blog topic.
After settling down on a brilliant idea, secure your blog name by purchasing it from a domain registrar. It will be your blog’s URL that takes people to visit your blog.
It’s essential to buy a domain name as it can help communicate your blog’s credibility. Purchasing a domain name is vital, and choosing the right hosting provider, especially if you aim to monetize your food blog in the long run.
3. Choose a Reliable Web Hosting Provider
Your hosting provider directly affects your online presence and website performance. Choosing the wrong hosting provider can bring down your dedicated time and effort in building your food blog.
Note that the best hosting provider isn’t always the most expensive, but also avoid choosing a hosting provider just because it’s cheap.
Here’s the list of considerations to have in mind:
- Server uptime. Choose a hosting provider that guarantees 99.9% uptime.
- Loading page speed. This refers to the time your page can load and render content. Don’t let your audience wait for too long, or they’ll look for other food blog options.
- Security. Find out the hosting provider’s security measures that can protect your food blog from cyber attacks.
- Data backup policy. Aim for a hosting provider that provides easy data backup and data restoration methods.
- Customer support. Search for the existing customer’s verdict of a hosting provider’s customer support. Choose the one with 24/7 availability.
4. Build and Customize Your Blog
Imagine the concept of your blog, how you want your blog post to appear, and what content you want to display.
After that, decide on the color palette that represents your food blog’s topic. Use neutral colors since it’s better in making your original food pictures stand out. Take a look at Recipe Girl’s recipe food blog, which emphasizes her food pictures.
Another thing that you need to consider is your blog layout and user experience. It’s important to make your food blog easy to navigate and give a great user experience to visitors. For example, take a look at Minimalist Baker’s creative way to display their recipes with different dietary preferences.
In addition, when building your food blog, make sure you create the essential main pages: home, about, and contact. Make them engaging and comprehensive to attract your visitors, brands, or other bloggers to communicate with you.
Make your food blog a platform to network and build your community. Leave room for people to comment on your blog. Don’t make it complicated by requiring people to log in or type in captcha code.
Pin social media share buttons at the end of your web page so that people can easily promote your food blog’s post if they find it helpful.
5. Create a Content Plan
It’s up to you to choose whether you want to post once a week or every day, but the most important is to be consistent. Create a posting schedule and post right on time. Don’t let your food blog look abandoned by not posting for a long time.
Posting regularly also helps increase your website’s traffic.
Manage your time effectively between the process of making the content and publishing it. Use a digital planner or manual planner to help you set up time.
Install Google Analytics to your food blog. It is very helpful when deciding which time is the best to post content, as well as what type of content will invite more traffic. Then, make a strategy and create a content plan based on your analytics result – don’t just plan randomly.
6. Optimize the Blog for Search Engines
Learn search engine optimization (SEO) and apply it to your food blog. It helps your food blog rank higher on search engines to appear on the first page.
Implementing SEO needs a comprehensive effort on several elements:
- On-page SEO – this refers to the optimization that you do on your website.
- Off-page SEO refers to optimizing your food blog outside your website, e.g., social media posts and backlinks.
- Technical SEO – your website’s loading page, uptime, and security measures are valuable indicators for your food blog to rank higher on search engines.
Research your keywords, create outlines before making a post, and always link your source. Keep your post’s URL short so that it ranks your site higher and makes it easier for you to share and promote.
You don’t need to be an expert in applying SEO to your website. Just know the basics, and you can eventually improve as you apply it to your food blog from time to time.
7. Launch and Promote Your Food Blog
When you have quite a lot of quality content on your website, you are ready to launch and promote your food blog. Serve your audience valuable content so that they want to come back to your food blog.
Use other social media platforms like Instagram, Youtube, or Tiktok, depending on your targeted audience. Try to build a community, as social media has many potential visitors for your food blog. Modify your blog content to match the social media’s type of content and audience.
Try to approach other food bloggers for collaboration and leave thoughtful comments on their posts. Social media is a convenient tool for networking with other food bloggers. Another way that you can try is to connect with other food bloggers by sending them emails.
Social media is a great tool, but remember that you still need to focus on growing your blog. It’s your asset since you own your food blog while you’re only a user on social media.
8. Monetize Your Food Blog
When you have successfully built your community and started generating decent traffic to your food blog, you can begin to monetize it.
There are many ways to make money through blogging:
- Advertising network. It’s the simplest way to earn money. Register your food blog to an ad network, for example, Google Adsense or others. Display ads, then sit back and make money.
- Sell digital or physical products. Creating digital paid content like exclusive recipes or foodie image presets can be as promising as selling merchandise for your food blog.
- Sponsorship and partnerships. It’s good if you master communication skills to take your food blog to another level. Networking with other food bloggers and building your audience’s trust help you get sponsorships and partnerships.
Conclusion
Food blogging is a promising activity that can earn money. However, you need to put a lot of effort and time into making a successful food blog.
Not only that, but blogging skills alone might not be enough to grow your food blog bigger. You need to master other skills, such as marketing and communication, to promote your food blog effectively.
You’ve read the guide to becoming the next successful food blogger. The next step is to sketch your ideas and turn them into actions. Good luck!
