Are you thinking of starting a profitable food blog and not sure where to begin?
Have you already started a food blog and are in need of blog post ideas?
I’ve curated a step-by-step process to help you get started. If you already have a blog, some of the tips I go over can give you ideas to make your blog better.
Make sure to pin this post so you come back for inspiration.
Starting a food blog.
Food blogs are great and a very helpful resource. There is always someone looking for the best vegan cookie recipe, the best detox smoothie recipe, recipes for weight loss, post workout recipes…the list goes on.
With your food blog you can help people learn how to cook and meet their dietary needs. What’s even better, you can make an income as a food blogger.
How much do food bloggers earn?
According to a recent study, food bloggers have the highest average monthly income ($9169) making it one of the most profitable niches.
That said, the income range can vary widely. There are thousands of food bloggers who make no income at all to a few hundreds a month. On the other end of the scale, there is no limit to what a successful food blog can earn. Take Pinch of Yum for example, it was estimated that this blog makes an average of $90,000/month.
So if you are interested in sharing your passion for cooking and you’re ready to work to make it a success, keep reading.
The step-by-step process to follow to start a food blog.
Step 1: Brainstorm your blog identity
With over 2 billion blogs online, and intense competition, you need a unique identity to help you stand out from the crowd.
Think of it as identifying what aspects of food you want to blog about and the ideal audience you want to attract to your blog. Here are some questions you can start asking yourself:
- Are you going to focus on healthy eating or just everyday food?
- Are you going to focus on a specific diet e.g. keto, paleo, or vegetarian/vegan cooking
- Would you focus on specific ethnic cuisine e.g. Indian or Mediterranean?
In addition to this it will be easier to write your blog posts if you decide how you want your brand to be perceived.
Do you want to write in the tone of a coach (formal tone) or a friend (laid back and conversational tone)? Will you be sharing personal stories or is it strictly down food and recipes.
Step 2: Create your blog
Once you’ve decided on a niche and identity, and you’ve chosen a brand name, it’s time to create a blog. Creating a blog encompasses many different aspects.
First you need to Choose a domain name: The domain name is your website address. Go with a name that is as close as possible to your business name. If your exact blog name is taken, try adding prefixes and suffixes such as ‘The’, ‘A’, or even your name. Once you find a domain name you are happy with, buy it and follow all prompts to have it registered.
Find a hosting platform: A hosting platform is simply a space online where your website and all its content are saved. There are many common web hosting providers such as BlueHost or Hostinger. Once you pick a hosting platform that suits your needs and budget, then choose a blogging platform i.e. the tool you will use to create and manage your content. WordPress is a popular choice for bloggers, and many hosting platforms offer one-click installation.
Design your blog: Now it’s time to design your blog. You have two options:
- Get someone to do it for you
- Do it your self
Several website builders offer drag and drop interfaces. With little to no coding experience, you can create a website fairly easily. That said, I spent a couple of days trying to wrap my head around WordPress plugins and themes, and I consider my self tech savvy.
So if you have the budget for it and would rather prefer to save time, outsource it!
If you choose to do it yourself, YouTube tutorials were my life saver. You’d see that most website builders give you a variety of themes to choose from. Preview as many themes as possible and pick the theme that best matches your brand identity.
TOP TIP 1: You don’t have to get your blog design right the first time. Many bloggers can tell you their blogs have gone through several transitions. I looked up other blogs that are similar to mine to get ideas for my blog design. You can do same to save you some time.
Step 3: Start posting and develop a content strategy.
Once your blog goes live, it’s time to start posting articles and there are few things to keep in mind:
To attract and retain readers, it’s essential to post high quality content. Create content that provides value. Make your blog readable and use a writing style that is easy to read.
Here are some broad ideas for blog posts to begin with. Some of these get up to 10Million+ monthly searches, especially on Pinterest and you can’t go wrong with them, so long as you have very beautiful click-worthy pins.
- Random Recipe posts
- Seasonal recipe posts: e.g. comfort soups for winter, cool smoothies for summer.
- Time of the day specific posts: Breakfast, lunch or dinner ideas.
- Ingredient-specific posts: Highlight a particular ingredient, such as avocados or berries, and share different recipes that use it in unique ways.
- Meal planning ideas: Offer tips and advice for planning and prepping healthy meals for the week, with recipes and shopping lists to help readers get started.
- Cooking for special diets: Share recipes and advice for cooking for specific dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free, vegetarian, or keto.
- Kitchen tool reviews
- Food photography tutorials: Share tips and tricks for taking mouth-watering food photos, with advice on lighting, composition, and editing.
- Recipe adaptations: Take classic dishes and give them a unique twist, such as a vegan version of mac and cheese or a gluten-free pizza recipe.
What’s important is that you try to figure out the posts your audience resonate with and adapt your content.
TOP TIP 2: You need plugins to have a great looking blog. You know those lovely food blogs that have a nice schema for their recipes and give you the option to ‘download recipe’ or ‘print recipe’? They use special plugins for that. If you simply write your food blog like a lifestyle blog, it would look frumpy because of the many lists of ingredients and processes. Tasty Recipes, WP Recipe Maker and Create by Mediavine are some great examples of plugins to start with.
In terms of your content strategy, you need to decide how often you want to write new posts and stick to it. Whether it’s several times a week/month you want to post, what’s important is that you stay consistent.
Search Engine optimisation: Part of creating your content involves researching the right keywords that can help you attract traffic. Google keyword planner (Free), keysearch.co, semrush and ahrefs can help you find the right keywords for any given topic.
Blog length: You also need to think about how long your blog posts should be. If you are writing ‘a quick post work-out recipe’, your reader may not be expecting a 3000 word post. However, a post on ’50 keto recipes’ can be that long. Experiment with different post lengths between 700 – 3000 words and see what your audience is more attracted to.
STEP 4: Building your audience & promoting your site
Growing your audience is critical if you want to make money from your food blog. Because it takes a while before your posts are indexed on google, it can take some months before your blog starts getting organic traffic.
So in the meantime, you have to spend time sharing/promoting your blog on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
TOP TIP 3: You can’t have a great food blog without amazing click worthy pictures. Get the best camera gear for food blogging, or use your phone with the best lighting kit to create beautiful photos of the awesome dishes you create.
You can also create a variety of Ad designs for each blog post to add variety. Here is an example.
All three images are used to advertise the same blog post. By varying the headings and colours of your pins or ads, you can appeal to different audiences. This really works on platforms like Pinterest that favour ‘fresh’ content over repeated content.
STEP 5: Monetizing your blog
There are many different ways to make money from your blog so do not put all your eggs in one basked. You can make money through affiliate marketing, sponsored content, Ads and product sales.
Affiliate marketing: You can become partners with food brands, promote their products or services on your blog and earn a commission for each sale generated through your unique affiliate link. Amazon associates, Clickbank, Digistore24 and ShareAsale are great affiliate programs for beginner bloggers.
Sponsored content: You can get brand deals and work with food brands to create sponsored content, such as product reviews.
Display advertising: Run ads on your blog through Ezoic, Mediavine or Google Adsense and earn revenue based on the number of clicks or impressions.
Getting accepted to most of these usually require your blog to have a minimum number of blog views (10,000 – 50,000). So this can be your long-term game plan as you grow your blog.
Product sales: Create and sell your own digital or physical products, such as cookbooks, meal plans, or cooking courses.
Step 6: Continuously improve your blog
The final step is to continuously improve your blog. All blog posts can be edited and updated. Remember to repeat the promotion cycle of any updated content.
In addition monitor your site analytics and prioritise updating the posts with the most traffic.
Best practices for starting a food Blog Summary
- Be authentic and stay true to your brand
- Post regularly (and high quality content)
- Get a great blogging camera – the picture quality of your food will do the magic of getting you traffic.
- Be dedicated – a successful blog requires dedication, hard work, and patience.
- Be responsive – engage with your audience in a valuable way whenever you have comments or questions.
- Be creative – a little bit of creativity can go a long way in making your blog more visually appealing.
Conclusion.
Yes, You can start your own food blog by following the steps described in this post. Its common place to feel lost or confused and wonder if you can turn your passion into a full income. Stay patient and continue learning. Stalk blogs you admire for ideas and put in more effort when you feel like giving up.
This post contains affiliate links and I am a member of amazon associates affiliate which means I may get a commission if you buy something using any link; but this is at no cost to you.