Are you passionate about food and cooking? Do you have a knack for writing and photography? If so, you may want to start your own food blog to share your knowledge and make extra money.
With more people than ever before turning to the Internet for recipes, reviews, restaurant recommendations, and tips on healthy eating, it’s never been easier to start a successful food blog. You only need an eye-catching website design, engaging content, and savvy marketing strategies.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up your own profitable food blog in 8 easy steps. You will also learn how to get traffic and followers and monetize your food blog.
Ready? Get a cup of coffee and your favorite snack, and let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What is a Food Blog?
Before we see how to start a food blog, let’s see what a food blog is first.
A food blog is a website where you share recipes, restaurant reviews, and general advice about cooking, nutrition, and healthy eating. You can also write posts about events related to the food industry, culture, and culinary industry, travel experiences involving food, or other topics you choose.
Unlike a lifestyle blog, where you can also talk about food, a food blog focuses exclusively on the culinary arts and related topics.
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Types of Food Blogs
Food blogs come in many different formats. Some bloggers post only recipes, while others focus on reviewing restaurants or other topics related to culinary culture. many* successful bloggers focus on one food blog type or create a food blog that combines several of these elements and covers a wide range of topics.
Let me share some examples of popular food blog types:
1. Recipe Blog:
A recipe blog is a website that shares delicious recipes, cooking tips, and helpful kitchen advice. On this type of cooking blog, you can find various recipes from all cuisines worldwide, recipe details, reviews of products and gadgets used in the kitchen, cooking tutorials and helpful tips about meal planning ideas, seasonal menus, and much more.
You likely see recipe-based blogs whenever you google a food recipe.
If you start a recipe-based blog, you will share your own recipes or those you find elsewhere. You write articles that mention the ingredients, the time it takes to prepare the food, nutrition facts, and even reviews.
But remember that your recipe-based food blog doesn’t have to cover everything, like seafood, chicken, salad, meat, dessert, soups, appetizers, side dishes, etc. You can focus on what you know.
Foodhub is a great theme you can use to create a recipe blog.
2. Restaurant Reviews:
These types of food blogs focus on reviewing restaurants, cafes, bars, or other eateries in a particular city or area. They often include detailed descriptions of the establishments and their menus, photos of their dishes, ratings based on quality and price, and personal impressions from the bloggers’ experiences.
Kicker is an excellent theme that can help you start a restaurant review blog.
3. Travel Cuisine
These blogs are dedicated to exploring the world’s best culinary destinations, sharing photos and stories of chefs, dishes, beverages, and local food culture. If you have a passion for travel and food, this type of blog is perfect for you.
You can explore different cities, share your experiences with your readers, and even write about the best restaurants to visit abroad.
This type of blog isn’t really a travel blog. The blogger talks about trips on a travel blog, but a travel cuisine blog focuses on food.
You can use the TinySalt theme to start a travel cuisine blog.
4. Healthy Food Tips:
Healthy food blogs provide helpful tips and advice for eating healthily. They often include recipes and reviews of health-focused products, plus information about nutrition, diet trends, cooking techniques, and other topics related to healthy lifestyles.
You can use HealthFirst to create a healthy food blog.
5. Country-specific Food Blogs
These blogs focus on the cuisine and culture of a particular country or region. They often include stories about local chefs, traditional dishes, specialty ingredients, cultural history, and food-related festivals. If you have a specific region in mind for your blog, this type of food blog can be an excellent option.
For example, if you know a lot about Indian cuisine, you can start a blog about Indian food and share recipes, ingredients, traditional dishes, and more with your readers.
These are just a few examples of the types of food blogs you can create. Depending on your interests, expertise, and budget, you can start any type of blog that suits your needs.
Whether you want to share recipes, review restaurants, give healthy eating tips, or explore travel cuisine around the world – starting a food blog can be a great way to express your passion for food. Remember that you can also combine these types in one blog.
Now that you know your food blog type, let’s see how to start a new food blog.
Step 1: Start by Choosing a Food Blog Niche
Starting a food blog is an excellent way to share your passion for food with the world. To get started, the first step is to choose a good food blog niche. This will allow you to focus your content on specific topics and target a particular audience.
For instance, let’s say you want to start a recipe-based food blog. On this new blog, you will be sharing the best recipes to make the best dishes. However, you are very good at making the salad more than any food. In this case, you may want to focus on salad. Your blog will be:
Blog — Food
Type — Recipe-based
Niche — Salad
In fact, I highly recommend bloggers focus on one niche (salad) instead of several niches at once (fish, meat, chicken).
But I also know that this hardly applies to food blogs since bloggers can reach a wider audience and monetize their blogs through ads or affiliate marketing easily.
Step 2: Choose a Blog or Domain Name for Your Food Blog
Once you’ve chosen your food blog niche, the next step is to pick a domain name or blog name. This part is important because it will give your potential readers an idea of what your blog is about and make it easier for them to find you on the web.
A good blog name should be short, descriptive, catchy, and easy to write and remember. It should not contain punctuation like a hyphen. I also recommend adding your main keywords to your domain name. In our example, the keywords are salad and recipe.
However, it can be difficult to come up with a great domain name that hasn’t been taken. In this case, you can use name generators like Business Name Generator, Nameboy, or Zyro. I’ll be using Business Name Generator for this example.
Go to Business Name Generator and enter keywords related to your niche and click Get Started.
The tool will show you hundreds of blog names for your food blog. Go through them and see the one that shares your message and vision.
Pro Tip: I recommend using .com for your domain name. It’s very popular and easy to remember.
Click on a name to see if the domain is available. If it is, you will see ‘register’. If it isn’t, you will see ‘WHOIS’. That means you should move on and look for another name.
Step 3: Select a Blogging Platform
Now that you have your domain name, it’s time to choose a blogging platform. I recommend using WordPress.org, one of the most popular blogging platforms.
WordPress comes with thousands of themes and plugins. You can customize your own website design to stand out from the competition by using a theme or plugin created specifically for food blogs.
With WordPress, you can start a beautiful WordPress blog.
Step 4: Find Your Web Hosting Provider
A reliable web host or hosting provider is a company that stores your website and makes it visible on the Internet and available to visitors. In order to start a food blog, you need to pick a reliable hosting provider.
There are many web hosting companies out there, and the one I recommend is Bluehost. It offers different packages, features, and prices and will help you start your WordPress blog easily.
Many hosting providers also offer a free domain name for the first year, which is a great plus.
Go to Bluehost, and click on WordPress > WordPress Hosting.
Scroll down and select your hosting plan. I recommend going with the Basic plan. It’s the best for beginners and suits most of us. You can always upgrade your plan if you want additional features.
Enter your blog name under ‘Create new domain‘ and press Next. Make sure that .com is the one selected.
Add your Account Information to proceed.
Under Package Information, select your preferred hosting duration (It’s renewable). And under Package Extras, check the feature you want.
I highly recommend checking at least the box for ‘Domain Privacy + Protection.’ The rest are pretty optional and not necessary.
Finally, enter your payment information, check the box down, and click Submit.
On the next page, Bluehost will ask you to create your account and a password. After login in, you will be asked a couple of questions regarding your website. I recommend that you ‘skip’ all of them.
However, one place you can’t skip is the question ‘How would you like to build your WordPress site?’. Choose WordPress.
After all these steps, you will finally access your food blog through your WordPress website!
Step 5: Install WordPress and Your Food Blog Theme
Now, it’s time to install your WordPress theme. A WordPress theme is a set of files and templates that help you customize the look, feel, and functionality of your blog.
And as mentioned before, Foodhub, TinySalt, and HealthFirst are the best food themes you can use.
Premium WordPress themes are more feature-rich and come with excellent support. They also look more professional, which is important for a food blogger that wants to make an impact.
However, if you want more general WordPress themes, you could go with Divi, or Astra. They are some of the best around.
To install a WordPress theme, go to Appearance > Themes, and click Add New.
If you are going with a free WordPress theme, search for it in the WordPress repository. After finding your theme, click Install.
Finally, click Activate to make the theme work on your food blog.
And voilà! Your new theme is ready. These steps above work with free themes. But if you want to install a premium one, see my guide on how to install a WordPress theme for step-by-step instructions.
Essential Pages to Add to Your Food Blog
Before you start blogging, there are some essential pages that you must create. These are Home, About, Contact, Blog, Recipes, Reviews, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, and Disclaimer.
The Home page: It is where you talk more about your blog and briefly introduce yourself. You tell readers why your website is the best place to make the best dishes.
About: This is where you tell readers who you are and why they should follow you. If it’s a team effort, include everyone’s name and what each person does for the company.
Contact page: This page is important because it’s the place where visitors can reach out if they have any questions or suggestions. You can also add your email address to receive their messages directly.
Recipes page: This is one of the most crucial pages because it’s where you direct readers to find all your recipes. Money comes from this page, so give it serious thought.
Reviews: This page holds testimonials and reviews from customers who used and reviewed your recipes. This page builds trust and shows your skills to potential customers.
Blog: It’s your content hub. Every article you write appears on this page. Make sure it’s organized and easy to read.
The Privacy Policy and Disclaimer pages are important for legal reasons. They help protect you and your readers from any liability.
Terms and conditions: This page holds the rules and regulations governing your blog. For example, you can state that your recipes are copyright protected.
Most of these pages should appear in the navigation bar (menu) at the top of your blog. You can also add them to your website footer. They should be easy to find.
However, pages like Privacy, Disclaimer, and Terms should be used on the footer only for less distraction.
Install Essential WordPress Plugins
A WordPress plugin is a tool that adds features and functionality to your blog. There are over 60,000 free plugins in the WordPress repository, so finding one for your blog shouldn’t be hard.
Here are some essential plugins to install when you start a food blog:
Yoast SEO: It helps you optimize your posts for search engines.
Elementor: This is the best page builder plugin on the market. It helps you create and edit pages without writing code.
WP Recipe Maker: This is one of the most popular recipe plugins for food bloggers. It helps you add recipes and printable recipe cards to your blog posts.
Le Chef – Premium Recipe Plugin: This is a premium recipe plugin that helps you create, manage and organize recipes on your blog.
WPForms: Use this plugin to create contact forms and other surveys quickly and easily.
Additional WordPress Plugins
MonsterInsights: With this plugin, you can track how many visitors come to your blog every day and know their locations.
Wordfence: This plugin protects your blog from malware and other threats. Use it for an extra layer of protection.
UpdraftPlus: This plugin simplifies the backup process and helps you restore your website in case of an emergency.
Social Warfare: This plugin helps you easily add social sharing buttons to your blog posts. Readers will be able to share your recipes on their social media channels.
Check my guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for step-by-step instructions.
These are just a few of the essential plugins for a food blogger. Depending on your needs, feel free to install additional plugins that can help make managing and improving your blog easier.
Now that you have installed a theme and added essential pages, it’s time to write your first post.
Step 6: Write and Publish Your First Blog Post
Every blog must have content. So before you start monetizing, write some high-quality content. Your posts should be informative, engaging, and entertaining. Be sure to include visuals such as images or videos too. It makes the post look more appealing.
There are some basic steps to follow to write a good post for both readers and search engines.
1. Pick a topic
Choose a topic that you’re passionate about and can write something meaningful. Your first blog post will suck if you don’t like the topic. You need to build momentum, and it starts with a topic you like.
Pro Tip:
The topic you choose should be searchable. For example, instead of writing an article like ‘what egg salad did I eat this morning?’, write an article on ‘best egg salad recipe’. The latter is a topic people search on Google, and these searchers will visit your website.
However, nobody is searching for what you ate in the morning. They don’t care. You will not get traffic this way.
2. Write an outline
One of the best ways to write an organized post is to create an outline. An outline is a written plan that shows you the ideas to include in the post and how they should be arranged.
To write a good outline, visit the first 3 posts ranking for your keyword, the focus of your article (example: best egg salad recipes).
Find the main headings used in those posts and how they are arranged to make sense. Write the headings down, remove repeated ones, and add extra headings to provide more value.
3. Write a Draft for Your Blog Post
Now that you have your outline, it’s time to write the draft. Just remember to keep things simple and avoid redundancies. Also, use simple words because hard-to-understand words often confuse readers or make them feel stupid. Think about your target audience and what they want to learn.
Don’t worry about mistakes. The most important thing is to write your thoughts. You can always clean the sentences later. When writing the post, insert visuals (images and/or videos) whenever possible. This makes the post look more entertaining and increases engagement.
4. Edit, Format, and Publish Your Post
Once you finish your draft, read it aloud to identify and edit any grammar or spelling errors. After editing, format your text to make it easier for readers to understand.
Also, insert internal links (links to other pages on your blog) and external links (links to other websites).
Internal linking will be difficult for your first post since you have no other post to link to. But remember to do it for future posts.
When everything is ready, optimize the post for search engines. Use the Yoast SEO plugin to help with optimization. It helps ensure your post appears near the top of the search engine results page for relevant keywords.
Now, hit publish to publish your first blog post.
Step 7: Promote Your Blog to Generate Blog Traffic
When you start a food blog, you want people to find your content and read it. And it starts with writing articles. But writing great content is not enough; you need to promote it. There are many ways to promote your blog, but the most effective one is through social media.
Social media platforms are excellent for a food blog. You can use them to post recipes and food photos, start conversations, get feedback, and engage with your audience.
A YouTube channel is also a common way to get traffic.
I also encourage you to invest time, effort, and money in SEO. Search Engine Optimization is an effective way to make your blog easily found on Google. You will generate more traffic.
Take some time to learn about basic SEO tips, and it takes little time to implement them.
Step 8: Monetize Your Food Blog
If you start a food blog with the intention of making money, you must include some kind of monetization. There are many ways to monetize your food blog and generate passive income.
1. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most common and easiest ways to start earning from your food blog. You can start by adding affiliate links to products or services that are related to your topic.
When people visit your website and click on the link, you will get a commission for every purchase made through these links.
2. Sell Your Own Digital Products
You can also start selling products or services related to food, such as cookbooks, e-courses, meal plans, etc. You can create the products yourself or partner with other brands that offer the same service.
3. Display Ads on Your Food Blog
Advertising is another great way to make money from your food blog. Join an ad network like Google AdSense. It’s an online advertising program that pays you for displaying ads on your website. All you need to do is create an ad space to show ads.
4. Write Sponsored Posts
And last but not least, sponsored posts are very popular in the blogging world. Here, you partner with brands and get paid to write about their products or services on your own blog.
These are just some of the ways to start making money from your food blog. There are other options to earn money, like selling memberships, offering consulting services, and more.
You Can Start Your Own Food Blog
The main takeaway from this article is that anyone can start their own food blog and start making money from it if they are consistent with their own content strategy and monetize the blog correctly.
There are many different ways to start a food blog and start earning, so it is important to take the time to research and find what works best for you. With dedication and hard work, you can start your own successful food blog today. The key is to stay consistent and create value for your loyal readers.
FAQ About Food Blog
Is it worth starting a food blog?
Yes, millions of people search for food-related content every day. People search for recipes to practice their skills and cook for their relatives. If you start a food website, there’s potential to reach many readers.
Is Food Blogging Profitable?
Yes, food blogging is very profitable. There are many ways to monetize your food blog, so there is always a way to be profitable.
How much money can I make from a food blog?
It depends on how you choose to monetize your blog. With affiliate marketing and advertising, you can start earning money right away. If you create digital products and services, you may start earning more with time. The biggest food blogs make millions every year. So why can’t you be successful as well?
Where do successful food bloggers get their recipes?
Many usually get their recipes from cookbooks, cooking shows, events, magazines, blogs, websites, and other sources. However, other food bloggers also create their own original recipes, which they share with their readers.
How do food bloggers take pictures?
Most food bloggers start with basic equipment such as a smartphone or a camera and natural light. However, they can also invest in more professional gear later on.
