Are you passionate about food?
Or like exploring new food places and sharing with others?
If yes, then considering food blogging might be the right choice for you.
However, food blogging isn’t as easy as it may sound. You don’t just need to have food or share it with others but also follow some standard rules.
All you need is a little guidance to nudge you in the right direction. Want to know- “How to start food blogging step by step?” Here is a simple guide that will help you grow your food blogging business.
Table of Contents
TIPS TO KICK-START YOUR FOOD BLOGGING
Too many tips can be overwhelming for a budding blogger. Hence, we have curated a few easy but significant tips for you to consider as a noob.
1. CHOOSE YOUR NICHE
Just like starting any other kind of blogging. You need to choose a niche that you resonate with.
There are millions of food blogs all over the internet. If you don’t choose a particular stream then it will be very tough for you to make an impact (high competition).
Choose a niche that triggers your inner foodie. If you don’t choose a niche that you aren’t passionate about then, chances are you will soon lose interest, and writing blogs will be challenging for you.
There are so many types of food blogs that you can choose from::
- Recipe Blogs ( Quick easy recipes for fitness freaks or working professionals etc)
- Food and Drink Tasting Blogs
- Food Review Blogs
- Diet Specific Blog ( Low carb diet or Keto Diet Blog)
- Blogs promoting Traditional Cooking Styles ( Cooking in earthen pots and many more)
- Miniature Food Blogs ( Bloggers sharing recipes cooked in miniature utensils)\
- Food Platting Blogs ( Guiding plating style of different food items)
- Food and Travel Blogs
- Location Specific Food Blogs ( Exploring different food places in a particular city/country) and many more
Choose a domain that drives you. Sit with yourself. Introspect. Explore different options and find what works best for you. Figure out your niche and go for it!
2. CHOOSE A BLOGGING PLATFORM
Prior to commencing your food blogging journey, there are certain technical aspects that you must address, one of which involves selecting a suitable blogging platform to host your blogs.
A blogging platform is where you will create, manage, update, modify and analyze your content. It is the Content Management System that will help you kick-start your blogging career.
There are various blogging platforms available online. Our recommendation to you either as a noob or a pro is Wordpress.org. 43% of the web is built on WordPress. also, WordPress holds anywhere from 40% to 65%of the CMS market share.
With so many choices available are you confused about what platform to choose?
Here’s a list of top 5 blogging platforms that you would like to consider:
- WordPress
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Medium
Regardless of whatever blogging platform you choose, you will need to choose hosting from:
- Free hosting
- Open-source self-hosted blog
If you don’t choose a great hosting then your blogs will take ages to load, and your visitors will bounce off. So, make sure you choose your hosting wisely.
3. CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME
Just like any other kind of blogging, food blogging also demands you choose a good domain name. Your brand’s face is represented by the domain name.
People are going to judge you by your domain name first, and then by your blogs. Therefore, you need to be very careful while choosing a domain name for your brand.
Make sure your domain name is:
- Available online and not taken by other brands
- Reflects on your blogging niche
- Pronounceable with ease
- Short
- Memorable
You need to register your domain name before you launch your website.
There are a lot of websites that will help you understand the availability of domain names.
4. SELECT YOUR BLOG THEME
A great blogging website also has a great look and feel to it. For different blogs the flavor and design are different.
For your blog to stand apart, you would want it to look more appealing, unique, and memorable.
How do you do that?
This is done by choosing a theme that goes well with your blogging category. You can check out your competitors’ blogs to draw some inspiration.
Be careful to pay attention to the features of the theme you are choosing, preview it and check its ratings.
If you are using WordPress then there is a pool of over 3000 themes to pick from. You can preview the themes by selecting Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.
Click to know the 10 Best Food Blogging Themes in WordPress.
5. CREATE CONTENT
Once you have sorted out all the technicalities of your blog it’s time to work on your creativity.
Plan your content scheduler.
Improve your content quality in order to increase traffic. The following are six tips to consider when crafting your content:
1: Explore various methods to improve the quality of your posts. For example, one can be putting high-quality pictures in your blog that drool your audience! Food Blogging depends a lot on visual representation so investing in professional equipment to create visually tempting content is a great choice!
2: Optimize your content according to SEO tactics. Use various on-page and off-page SEO practices to make your content SEO savvy. This helps Google rank your posts.
3: Use a conversational tone to make your post more relatable and interesting.
4: Use attention-grabbing headlines to entice readers and encourage them to read your entire post.
5: Provide valuable information or insights to your readers that they may not find elsewhere.
6: Use calls-to-action to encourage readers to engage with your content, such as commenting, sharing, or subscribing to your blog.
Follow these tips and see the changes in the quality of your content. Bet, you will be surprised to see the results!
6. PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT
To become successful, it is important people know about your work. Here is where promotion comes into play. If you won’t promote your blogs nobody will get to know about your work.
Sad, isn’t it?
Don’t worry we won’t let that happen to you!
Here are some tips for you to promote your blogs:
1. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
According to reports, 95.9% of bloggers promote their blog posts via social media.
Instagram’s focus on visual content makes it an ideal platform for food bloggers to promote their blogs. It’s important to maintain a consistent social media presence to promote your content effectively.
Given that almost everyone (98%) uses social media, there is already a pre-existing community for you to tap into. So, why wait? Get started now!
2. ENABLE SHARING BUTTONS
Sometimes when you want something, you need to ask for it. You need to add social media sharing icons with your post.
Like various bloggers, you can also use the “click to tweet” functionality in your blogs to increase engagement.
Consider testing out various positions and styles of sharing panels, such as top, sidebar, bottom, or even scrollable. You may even experiment with different icon sizes to determine what yields the best results for your blog.
3. BUILD AN EMAIL LIST
Building and utilizing an email list can be an effective way for food bloggers to engage with their audience and promote their content. Here are some steps to use an email list as a food blogger:
- Build your email list: Offer an opt-in form on your website or blog, inviting readers to subscribe to your email list in exchange for a free resource, such as an ebook, recipe, or discount code. You can also promote your email list on social media platforms.
- Segment your email list: Group your subscribers based on their interests or preferences, such as vegetarian or gluten-free, so you can send more targeted emails.
- Create a content calendar: Plan out your email content in advance, including new blog posts, seasonal recipes, and special offers. Make sure to add value to your subscribers in each email.
- Use a personalized tone: Address your subscribers by name, and write your emails in a conversational, relatable tone.
- Include visuals: Add eye-catching images or videos in your emails to make them more engaging.
- Optimize your subject line and preheader text: Make sure your subject line and preheader text are attention-grabbing and reflect the content of your email.
- Track and analyze your email metrics: Use email marketing tools to track open rates, click-through rates, and other key metrics to see what is working well and what needs improvement.
By utilizing these steps, you can build a strong email list and use it to connect with your audience, promote your content, and ultimately grow your food blog.
7. EARN MONEY THROUGH FOOD BLOGGING
No matter what kind of blogger you are. Ultimately, your goal is to earn money and become successful.
However, earning through blogging is not a piece of cake. It takes years of hard work to earn money, sometimes even years. But, with certain tips in mind, we ensure you will not have a tough time.
Want to earn money through food blogging? Let’s get you started.
Here is a complete guide for you to earn money through food blogging:
1. SOCIAL MEDIA COLLABORATIONS (PAID)
Social media collaboration is a great revenue channel for food bloggers.
You can collaborate with various F&B brands like Coca-cola, Mother Dairy, and many more to earn a decent amount of money. Big brands have bigger pay cheques!
If you have a recipe blog, then you can use your collaborator’s ingredients and advertise it on your page.
Moreover, these days Restaurants, cafes, and even food stalls are collaborating with food bloggers to get noticed. The reason is- food bloggers already have a loyal community of people (foodies) who they are looking for.
While collaborating with brands is a fruitful way for you to earn money. You need to disclose your collaborators while collaborating. In fact, in some countries, it’s illegal to not disclose your collaborators.
Let me hove you an example to put an ideal collaboration post.
For instance, if you are using Instagram for collaboration there’s a paid partnership label that you can use to disclose it’s a collaboration. You can even tag or add your collaborator to the post.
Since your audience trust you completely. Make sure you sure collaborating with genuine, trustworthy brands. Your reputation is at stake so choose your collaborators wisely! Else after a point of time, your audience will stop following your suggestions.
2. PRODUCT OFFERINGS
Successful bloggers have more than one source of income. Only relying on your blog posts to earn money is never advisable.
For food bloggers who have an interest in devising new recopies, selling their cookbooks online is a great source of additional income. You can sell these cookbooks online on your websites or e-commerce portals like Amazon. Selling e-books or physical copies of your cookbooks is the safest way to start with.
If cooking doesn’t interest you. Don’t worry we got another plan for you!
- You can even launch your guides mentoring food bloggers on:
- How to take a perfect food photograph
- Different mouth-watering ways to platter your food
- How to monetize your food blog
- Food styling and many more, options are endless!
If you are a successful blogger then you can even launch a book walking readers through your journey of success.
Figure out what works for you. Do not just depend on your blogs to fetch you money. Explore more options.
3. GOOGLE ADSENSE
You can earn money through your own website and that too without much effort.
Isn’t this amazing?
Thanks to Google AdSense!
You can earn money by just making space available for ads. The ads are generated by businesses that use the Google AdWords program. And, you earn money when somebody clicks on them. However, you need to complete a target of $100 per month to earn money. If not, then your earnings roll over to next month.
What’s even more interesting is you can run different ads on several websites with just one Adsense account which is free to create.
4. LAUNCHING YOUTUBE CHANNEL
When it comes to food, watching videos are far more enticing than black and white text. And, what better than YouTube when it comes to videos? YouTube is the largest video-sharing website in the world!
So, many successful bloggers earn money through YouTube.You can use a huge community already present on YouTube and not only earn money but drive traffic to your blogging website too.
You need to be however consistent while putting up videos for YouTube to promote them. Once you complete a benchmark of 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time, you are eligible for monetization.
Click to know about some Food Bloggers who earn by cooking a storm on their YouTube channel.
CONCLUSION
No longer food blogging is considered a hobby. Instead, it is a lucrative source of main income. According to SEMrush reports suggest that Food and personal finance bloggers make the most income. Food bloggers make a median monthly income of $9,169, while personal finance bloggers make $9,100.
Here is a classic guide to starting food blogging in brief:
1. To kick-start food blogging professionally, you need to choose a niche and a blogging platform.
2. After your blogging platform is ready, you are all set to pick a domain name that resonates with your style.
3. After you have your domain name, you can plump up for a website theme. A great website theme is essential for a seamless user experience.
4. Craft your blogging content and launch your blogs.
5. Congratulations, now you are ready to encourage other people to land on your blogs. This is where promotion comes in! Start promoting your content to attract traffic.
Additionally, to earn money from your content, you need to focus on monetizing your blogs.
1. Google AdSense is a lucrative way of earning money. You just need to provide a space for advertisers and you get paid each time somebody views the ad. Collaborating with brands is a great way to mint money. Remember, big brands have big paycheques!
2. Social media collaborations or product offerings like cookbooks or guides online are also some amazing ways to start earning a side income.
So, if you are a foodie what are you waiting for? Ready. Get. Set. Go.
Did you find this post helpful? If yes, then share it forward. Spread the word. Let us know if you are a foodie and want to become a food blogger. Furthermore, please share your favorite tip in this post. Stay tuned for additional content. Goodbye!
