Step by Step - How to Start a Food Blog

Do you have a natural knack for cooking, baking, mixing different and unusual ingredients, and overall creating magic in the kitchen?

You also have a good eye for photography, and have a way with words?

Then Food blogging is the right career path for you.

Main image by Danielle MacInnes - Unsplash

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has urged many people to think of different, more sustainable sources of income, as businesses started closing down and the world as we knew it started shifting.

More than ever, people look for online gigs, passive income options, and more flexibility in general.

If you believe now is the best time to start a food blog, look no further. We’re about to break down the 5 essential steps to starting a food blog in 2020.

Prepare a comprehensive strategy

Comprehensive, meaning – think beyond the blog itself.

It’s 2020, and thinking that the blog alone could make an impact in this crazy oversaturated online landscape is just wrong.

To succeed with your food blog in 2020, it would be best to prepare an entire strategy from the start.

Yes, we’re talking about a killer social media presence, amazing visuals, influencer promotion, and a lot of hustling.

A solid digital strategy helps you grow smarter and faster.

You should devote the same amount of effort to your social media as you would to writing for your food blog. Instagram, as the most powerful social media platform, should be your crucial source of traffic.

So, make sure to prepare the right cross-promotion plan from the get-go.

For more info on how to optimize different Instagram strategies, go to this website and learn the latest growth hacks.

Pick a niche

The best and at the same time, the worst thing about food blogging is that the options are almost unlimited.

There's no limit to what you can write about, from the recipe and cookbook reviewing blogs to travel and healthy food blogs.

The tricky part is deciding on one option. One, because as tempting as it may be to go general, the quality is almost always compromised when trying to be the jack of all trades.

The best way to pick a lane is to choose two to three niches you feel most passionate about. Then, try to come up with as many blog post topics from the top of your head for each specific niche.

Your perfect niche is the one you have the most topics about.

This is always the best strategy as it reveals your passion and expertise all at the same time.

Building your food blog

It’s time for some technical stuff.

If you don’t have tech-savvy people around to help set up your blog, don’t worry. There’s plenty of resources online with super-comprehensive support for beginners.

Here’s a rundown of everything you need to do to have your blog up and running:

• Pick a unique domain name - It’s best if the domain name is the same as the name of your blog. When creating a blog and domain name, be sure to choose a catchy, easy to say, and easy to type name. 

• Decide on a web host - Do your research and pick the most reliable web host for your web content.

• Pick and install a good blogging platform - WordPress is the most popular one as it provides a ton of functionalities, easy set-up, and unlimited customization and niche-specific themes.

Get to writing, it’s game time.

Finally, you can start working on the actual content for your food blog.

As it can get overwhelming pretty fast, it’s best to create a realistic posting schedule and stick to it. It could be anything from three to five posts a week, depending on your aptitude.

This way, you’ll get into a nice routine, and you’ll create a sense of expectancy among your readers.

It’s also great to prepare a nice amount of blog posts in advance to eliminate the pressure and not to risk compromising the quality in a rush.

Capitalize on your efforts

Assuming you would want to make an income from your food blog, it’s time to learn how you can monetize it properly.

Luckily, there are also numerous ways you can make money off your food blog.

Depending on your blog's niche, you can choose between a couple of popular monetization options (or you can combine a couple of these):

• Affiliate - A very popular monetization option. You can add affiliate links to the products you mention in your blog posts and earn a nice commission.

• Recipes - You can earn money by selling the recipes in the form of eBooks.

• Display Ads - Display relevant ads on your food blog and earn money each time someone clicks on them. This takes just a simple set up of the Google AdSense before you can start earning a nice income.

• Sell branded merch - Once you create a bigger community, you can start creating relevant branded merch and selling it on your website. This could include anything from the coffee mugs to aprons and utensils.

I hope this helps; Happy Blogging!

Author: Maria Curreri, Young & Proud mom, cat mom, dog mom.