If we can all agree on one thing, it is that we love good food. In fact, we love it so much that we sometimes spend time reading recipes online instead of making and eating them. Therefore, learn how to make a cooking blog it’s a great idea. If you’re a foodie, then you probably have a lot to talk about.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to start a food blog in just five steps:
- Choose a delicious name for your blog.
- Sign up to purchase a web hosting plan.
- Make a plan for the growth of your blog.
- Choose a platform for your food blog.
- Add the finishing touches and post your first recipe.
We have a lot to cover, so let’s not waste any more time and get started, let’s learn how to make a food blog!
Step 1: Choose a domain name for your blog
Before we talk about , we need to discuss something that is necessary when creating any type of site: what will you call it. In most cases, people stick with the same name for their blog for its entire lifespan. Some websites try to rebrand, but the process can be a bit tricky, so it’s often best to find a good name early on and stick with it until the end.
In other words, choosing a name is a decision you should take seriously. Here are some quick tips for choosing the right blog and the right ones:
- Try to keep it short. The shorter the name of your blog, the easier it will be to remember. Naturally, this rule isn’t mandatory, but if you’re struggling to choose a name, the simplest alternatives are often the best.
- Look for names with domains.com available. When it comes to top-level domains, .com is the most well-known and widely used, so it may be a smart move to choose a name with a compatible .com domain.
- The name should explain what your blog is about. For example, you wouldn’t call your food blog “John’s Diary” or “My Personal Blog.” In any case, people will have no idea what to find when you promote it.
When it comes to food blogs, you may want to consider names that refer to foods and the type of recipes you plan to share. For example, some good real-world examples include and .
If you do a quick search online for cooking blogs, you’ll notice that they take on shorter, catchier names, like “Plated«, «pinch of yum” Y “Pick Up the Fork«. Try to find something that is memorable and has an immediate association with food and cooking.
At this stage, we recommend that you make a list of at least five to ten blog name options that you like. Then check to see if those domains are available using your favorite web host or registrar:
Once you find a domain you’re happy with and it’s available, all you have to do is register it. To register a domain, you’ll need to pay for at least one year of ownership up front and provide some personal information. Once the time is up, you will have the option to renew it, but you don’t need to worry about that yet!
Step 2: Sign up for a web hosting plan
At this point, you will have a name and domain for your cooking blog. The next step will be to sign up for a hosting plan, which means that you will have to pay for the server space where your website and all your content will be hosted.
If you’re not familiar with , it can seem a bit overwhelming. But in reality, it is not as difficult as you imagine.
The first thing you need to do is find a reputable web hosting provider. Once you do, take a look at the types of hosting plans they offer. For example, here are some of the most common options:
- . With this type of plan, you share a server with other people. This is almost always the cheapest option, but it’s a reliable platform for any food blog just starting out.
- . This is the sports car of the hosting world. You get dedicated resources and the power of cloud computing. Business hosting offers the best possible performance and customization, but is by far the most expensive option.
- Virtual private server (VPS). With a VPS, you get a virtual computer for yourself, although it’s still on the same physical server used by other clients. The difference is that you get root access and dedicated resources. But managing it requires technical expertise.
If you are new to this world, shared hosting is the way to go. In fact, unless you have a compelling reason not to, we recommend using shared plans for all your new blogs. Plus, we’re not lying when we say they tend to be remarkably cheap:
With , you get access to great services, which are more than enough to handle a growing blog until you start getting thousands of visitors per month.
Plus, you also get 24/7 support and a one-click installer for your blogging platform of choice at no additional cost. You can always upgrade to one that offers better performance, saving you money in the long run.
Step 3: Make a plan for the growth of your cooking blog
Until now, we have been working on the basis of your blog. Now, we are going to talk more specifically about how to make a cooking blog.
However, before launching your blog, there are some questions you should ask yourself, such as:
- What type of content do you want to publish?
- How often will you post new content?
- Will you do all the work yourself or will you outsource some of it? If so, what is your budget?
- Do you want food and, if so, how should you do it?
Let’s start with the first question. For example, maybe you want to review restaurants, or maybe you have a knack for coming up with new recipes, taking great pictures of every step, and breaking it all down for other people. You can also focus on testing and reviewing new culinary products.
Regardless of the angle you choose, you want to make sure it’s something you enjoy doing. Otherwise, you may quickly burn out and have trouble motivating yourself to continue.
Once you have an idea, you need to map out a schedule that you can stick to for at least your first few months. In most cases, we recommend committing to one or two blog posts per week to start with.
Many people try to write dozens of posts when they start out. If you can do it, that’s perfect, your blog will start with a lot of power. However, it is important to understand that new blogs take time to gain traction. Your goal is to survive those first few months with your enthusiasm intact. That way, when the real traffic starts pouring in, you can further expand your food blog to meet the demand.
To do this, you may want to outsource some of the work. For example, you can hire freelancers to write occasional posts for your blog.
However, food blogging is quite a demanding niche as it often requires first-hand experience. As such, finding freelancers who can do the theme justice can be difficult, though not impossible.
Finally, you need a plan from the get-go if you want to. As a food blogger, you have several options. For example, you could include affiliate links to cooking products to earn a small commission when someone uses those links to purchase the products.
You can also post ads for local restaurants, or even set up online courses for cooking classes, which you can charge for. Those are all viable plans, so we recommend that you read how each of them works and consider which option would work best for you.
Step 4: Choose your blogging platform
Perhaps one of the most important steps in learning how to start a food blog is figuring out how you’re going to build the website itself. There are several approaches you can take for this step. For example, you could hire someone to do it for you, if you have the budget. However, you can also do it yourself, especially if you have some web development experience.
Even if you don’t, you can create a site using a Content Management System (CMS), which simplifies the entire process. CMS are platforms that allow you to publish and manage different types of content, as the name implies. When it comes to blogging CMS, they usually include the functionality to organize posts, set up individual pages, manage users, and more. While there are plenty of CMS options for you to choose from, let’s take a quick look at the three best alternatives.
First of all, we have . This CMS is by far the most popular blogging platform on the web. It’s easy to use if you’re a beginner, but it’s also flexible enough for complex websites. There’s a vibrant community built around the CMS, and you can customize your sites using themes and plugins (of which there are thousands).
Next, we have , which isn’t as beginner-friendly as WordPress, but is relatively easy to learn. Joomla! it’s great when it comes to managing multiple types of content, which means it’s a good option if you don’t just want to blog. The platform is also highly customizable, although not to the same degree as WordPress.
Finally, we have . Among CMSs, Drupal has a reputation for being especially difficult to learn, as it is one of the more advanced solutions. However, the effort can pay off due to how scalable and flexible the platform is. It may be overkill for a small food blog, but if your website becomes massive, you might want to consider .
For most bloggers, we recommend WordPress. This platform strikes a perfect balance between ease of use and a wealth of features, making it ideal for a food blog.
As such, you can start e on your web server. When you’re ready, we move on to the final step of this guide on how to start a food blog.
Step 5: Add the finishing touches and post your first recipe
We are close to the goal of learning how to start a cooking blog. At this stage, you should already have a fully functional website with your own domain, and a plan to make it successful in the future.
This means it’s time to get busy creating your first posts, be they recipes or reviews. However, before you run to the kitchen, there are still a few things you can do to improve your blogging experience. For example, while what WordPress provides is certainly not bad, you probably want something less generic:
Fortunately for you, there are plenty of awesome kitchen-related WordPress themes that you can use. For free themes, you’ll want to look into the . There is a search bar that you can use to search for specific types of topics. For example, this is what appears when we enter “food”:
Only remember…
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