How To Start Food Blog – You read food blogs. You photograph your culinary creations. You have some amazing recipes in store. You jot down ideas on your phone. You’ve thought about starting your own food blog, but you’re not sure where to start. That was me not long ago!
In fact, it was such a suggestion that inspired me to start this food blog for good in 2015. I wish I had done it sooner, but better late than never, right? 🙂 I’ve come full circle, working with Bluehost to offer Salt & Lavender readers a special price to get their blogs up and running. Whether you’re wondering how to start a food blog for money or for a hobby, you can find it here.
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How To Start Food Blog
Please note that this page contains affiliate links, which means I earn a commission for some of the products featured here.
Easy Steps To Start A Food Blog In South Africa (and Make Money)
You want something easy to spell and memorable. If you already have a niche market in mind (say you want to blog about donuts), consider including that in the domain name, but be careful not to be too specific in case your interests expand later. I wanted my blog name to be general enough that if I decided to take my blog in a certain direction, my name wouldn’t hold me back. Okay, so many people can’t spell “lavender”, but that’s what autocorrect is for. 😉
Bluehost makes it simple. Their accommodation is cheap. This was very important to me when I started, because I had no idea where blogging would take me, and I didn’t want to invest too much money in the first place. Salt and Lavender readers can get hosting for $2.95 per month. I recommend Bluehost for new blog beginners.
There are several different plans to choose from. The basic plan is great for new bloggers starting out. Bluehost allows customers to pay for their plans in advance (this is quite common with less expensive hosts). However, there is no need to worry. If you change your mind, Bluehost will refund any unused hosting months. Using my link you will get your domain name for free if you sign up for a 12 month plan. You can also sign up for longer programs if you want.
You’ve made progress and now you have your domain name and hosting secured! do a happy dance Or not now the real fun begins!
Best Tips: How To Start A Halal Food Blog (extra $100 Daily)
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, and you’ll find that most of the things you’ll find on your blog are optimized for it. Trust me, getting started with WordPress is easier than switching platforms when you’re already established.
Your username / password will be emailed to you and you’ll be asked to sign in to Bluehost. You’ll be able to peek at some of the backend stuff (like your dashboard), but you won’t need to touch most of it. WordPress is easy to install (I clicked when I signed up and followed the on-screen instructions).
If you sign up for hosting through Bluehost, it will ask you to choose a theme. You can do this now (there are many free options) or skip the screen. It’s okay to choose a theme to start with and change it later. Your subject matter is what people notice. This is how you present your blog. Themes are customizable (things like colors and fonts are pretty easy to change), but I generally recommend finding one that does what you think it will do, because the more custom you want to be, the more complicated and/or expensive it will be. change You can use free themes or paid themes. It depends on your budget and goals.
I did a lot of research on the subject, and found that many successful blogs use something called a Genesis Framework. Their website can explain it better than I can, so I took this explanation directly:
How To Start A Food Blog: Step By Step
“The look of your site can be updated instantly using a so-called child theme, while all the SEO benefits and core functionality of Genesis remain intact. This means that changing the look of your site is very easy, and you don’t need a designer or developer to do it. If you want, you can completely change the look of your site every week, and you’ll never hurt your search engine rankings… because your design functions are kept completely separate from the core code.
I definitely wanted Genesis as the focus of my blog. Then I bought the ready-made Foodie Pro theme (update: I’m using Cravings Pro now) and spent time modifying it to the best of my ability (I’m no coding expert). You don’t need to hire someone to customize a theme for you when you’re starting out, unless you really want to. I asked a designer to make my logo, but that’s it. It is very doable. I wanted something clean, easy to read and mobile responsive (most of my readers are on their mobile phones).
A blog is the perfect way to spread your passion. You don’t need to spend a lot of money in your first year of blogging. There is a lot of free information to answer your blog questions. you can do it! Want to start a food blog but don’t know where to start? I know how frustrating it can be to deal with the technical stuff when you want to share that killer recipe. If you’re looking to start a cooking blog, or become a more successful food blogger, I hope these tips ease your technical woes.
This page contains affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. I only link to products that I have used myself and wholeheartedly recommend. Thank you for your support.
How To Start A Food Blog In 3 Easy Steps
Here are the basic steps for setting up a beautiful and functional WordPress food blog. Your blog will have your own domain name and unique look and feel, and can expand with you as your blog grows. When starting a food blog, I recommend following these steps for greater success.
A web host stores your website and makes it available on the World Wide Web. In other words, your website “lives” on your web host’s servers.
WordPress plugins extend the functionality of WordPress in certain areas. For example, one of my recommended free WordPress plugins helps prevent spam comments.
Naming your new blog can be the hardest step. You can start brainstorming with a short task or your cooking style, your lifestyle, your background, etc. Lists the words that describe it. Enter your name and/or your dog’s name. 😉 Talk to friends. There are some great names yet to be taken, I promise!
How To Start A Beautiful Food Blog: A Basic Checklist
After you remember some possible names for your blog, you will need to check their availability. Since .com is the standard domain extension, keep trying potential names until you find one available in .com. Don’t resort to dashes or other punctuation to make it work (they’re hard to remember).
You can buy your domain name from a number of providers, but the easiest is to buy it through your web host. Go to Bluehost to enter your desired domain name. Click “Search” and it will tell you if your domain name is available. If so, grab it fast!
Once you’ve chosen your perfect domain name, you can get it for free with your BlueHost hosting plan. You can also buy a domain name and figure out the rest later (you can even transfer your domain name to another host if you want). Buy your domain name now, before someone else does!
Friendly reminder: This page contains affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. I only link to products that I have used myself and wholeheartedly recommend. Thank you for your support.
The Ultimate Guide To How To Start A Food Blog
You’ll want to start with an inexpensive shared hosting plan that offers automatic WordPress installation. I know this hosting thing is complicated, but pick one and go! Your food blog is waiting.
BlueHost: I recommend Bluehost for beginners and growing blogs because it is cheap, reliable, easy to set up, fast and offers 24/7 customer support. Bluehost’s “starter” plan is just as cheap as hosting. Click here to get started with BlueHost for just $2.95/month and get a free domain name.
With Bluehost, like all other cheap hosts, you will pay for your plan in advance. Don’t worry though, if you’re not happy with Bluehost for any reason, you can cancel within 30 days for a full refund. (Not including the domain fee, which you would have paid anyway.)
First, choose your plan. I recommend the basic plan, which is the least expensive and provides everything you need to get started.
How To Start A Food Blog And Make Money? 🍕
Then choose your term. OK
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