How to Start a Food Blog ~ Easy Guide for Beginners
Food blogging is not as easy as many people think. It requires a blog to have a good combination of recipes, gourmet cooking, and captivating photographs to attract readers. If you are into culinary arts and want to share your passion {and ‘secret recipes’} with the world; food blogging is a good idea to showcase your masterpiece.
Of course, a willingness to share your knowledge with the world, and hard work are the key ingredients to making your blog the best one there is on the internet. You can also make your food blog a successful business. Here are some tips to catapult your blog to the numero uno status, and make you the top Food Blogger in India:
1. Get your domain. Give your blog-site a catchy name; preferably with a pun on cooking. Let the name be short and descriptive so that it is easy to remember.
2. Decide on your hosting platform. Once both the domain and name are ready, choose the hosting platform which will make your site live for longer. Additionally, choose a theme that is mobile friendly and not too complicated. It should give you the option to make your blog look beautiful, and should have a variety of themes to make the blog colourful as well.
3. Identify what your content is. You should have clarity on what you are planning to share on your blog as the topic of food is vast and extensive. You can make the presentation as if you are narrating a story, or you can take your readers on a journey along with you and make them feel as if they are with you while you are eating that pizza or sipping wine.
4. Be original. There are a lot of food blogs out there, so let your content be unique and authentic. It is important to give something to people that is different from the other food blogs they read so that it will encourage them to come back to your blog again and again. In a nutshell, I would advice quality over quantity.
5. Inspire readers by being passionate about food. It is important that your love for real food, cooking, and sharing recipes are tangible in the blog. With so many food blogs out there on the internet, your obsession with food must stand out otherwise your blog might not be popular with the readers.
6. Your personality should be tangible through your blog. Your voice, individuality, and creativity must shine through the blog posts and the pictures you share on your blog.
7. Post lip-smacking pictures. Readers like to dream. And, blogs always look captivating if they have eye-catching pictures. So, since a blog is a good platform to put your photography skills to work, go ahead and take some colourful shots of your creations to make them look tempting and out-of-this-world!
8. Connect with other food bloggers. Stay connected with other bloggers because interaction is important, and you need to get inspired once in a while. It is a good way to ‘up’ your marketing game while you build good connections that will make blogging fun. You can post thoughtful comments on their posts once in a while. This way you might end up making friends and can form long-lasting online friendships.
Posting comments, sharing the content of other bloggers, and being a blog buddy is also helpful when it comes to directing traffic to your blog.
9. Social Media Platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are ideal platforms to connect and develop relationships with like-minded people. There are groups that can help you connect with bloggers so that your blog gets noticed. Ask questions in these groups and the responses might be helpful to decide on the next content for your blog post.
10. SEO {Search Engine Optimisation}: SEO helps in finding your blog via search engines, and will give you opportunities to get your blog ranked so that the number of visitors increases. Once you do your research, use proper keywords while posting and optimise your images. That one specific keyword chosen should be included in your title, first sentence, and post permalink. And yes, following your blog should be made easy.
11. Earning an income from the blog. There are many ways to generate an income from your blog. You can easily turn the traffic into a good stream of revenue {it is not as difficult as you think}. Once your blog has become successful, follow the basic tips when it comes to monetisation; deciding and prioritising the content, keeping it original and simple, and tasteful, and getting started with ads and sponsorship. Coaching and being a consultant is also a good way to bring in revenue, and conducting courses and workshops are the other methods you may try out.
12. Be prepared to work hard. Your blog should be built slowly and consistently and with patience. Get all the groundwork done, check out other blogs, consult and discuss. Once you have all this done, you are on the right track to seeing your blog climb slowly and steadily to the top of Google page rankings which will get you to your goal of becoming the top Food Blogger in India!
To conclude: Like all other blogs, food blogs require time and good planning to make them appealing to the readers. Use useful evergreen content {topics that will not change much with time} along with fascinating tales of food to strike a chord with your readers. This will get them sucked into the world of culinary arts through your words and visuals, and will leave them wanting for more!
Great post and thank you for sharing these tips on food blogging, Vikram. I agree with you that keyword research is critical to help boost your blog’s ranking.
Thank you, Navneet.
Vikram & Tanya, I absolutely love your blog! My purpose with beginning and keeping up my blog was to share my mom’s recipes with other home-makers and stay connected with this community.
Thanks so much, Arjun. I’m so glad you could relate to this.
This is a great piece, Vikram. I am new to blogging full-time and am working on cleaning up my older (not so great) content, and getting my blog to be what I envision it can really be! I’ve been following Urban Diaries from the beginning, and the posts on here are inspiring!
That makes me smile! Thank you, Mamtha.
Nicely written. Thank you for sharing your insight, Vikram! I go back and forth about whether to do this full time, so this was certainly a valuable read!
Glad to be of assistance, Priyoma.
This is really very useful for me as I have started food photography, and intend to start a food blog as well. Thank you for sharing.
So glad you found this useful, Anil. Let me know if you implement any of the advice.
Good work, Vikram. You and Tanya have a unique site and an interesting one too… keep it up. Looking forward to more updates.
Thank you, Jaikaant. Glad you liked the post.
Wonderful tips! It’s always nice to see established bloggers talk about what they’ve learned. And yes, learning the basics of photography and ensuring that the photos you post are appealing and delectable, will help your story fall into place.
Thank you so much, Hina. I appreciate that.
What a fantastic read! Straightforward and insightful. Much obliged to you for the first-hand information, Vikram. A post on monetizing a blog would make for an incredible read.
I’m so glad to hear that, Sneha. I’ll definitely consider the topic proposed by you.
Great post for a new blogger. It would be great to see where this approach takes me… More power to you, Vikram!
That makes me so happy to hear, Ananya.
Tanya, I must admit you’re an amazing person. I can see that with your smile. Keep blogging, keep posting, and continue to update us with the latest!
That’s very sweet of you, Santanu. I will be sure to pass this on to Tanya.
All of us adore food, however not every person is a foodie! But, given a chance to convert my love for food into a dream career, I’d jump right at it!!
In recent years, food blogging, from a niche hobby, has evolved into a bona fide industry in its truest sense.
A really insightful post for beginners in the food blogging industry. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and motivational blog with us, Vikram. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your words of appreciation, Sanghamitra.
A fairly simple and to-the-point blog entry. As you stated, it’s vital to know your readers and understand which strategy would work for your blog (in addition to your readers).
That’s correct, Millar.
I am one of your regular blog readers and Instagram followers. I hope you are enjoying your time in Fiji. I live in New Zealand, very close to Fiji. Hope you will visit the beauty of New Zealand, as well.
Just read your post about how to start a food blog, loved it! Written in a very simple way without any technical jargon. This kind of posts will help new readers to start their own blog.
We did have a wonderful time in Fiji, Himadir. We do hope to visit New Zealand someday.
This is just the guidance I needed! Thank you so much for all your wonderful content and practising what you preach! I am currently switching my new food blog to wordpress, and boy, I am stoked!
I’m glad you’re inspired to have a go at food blogging after reading this piece, Anindita.
Thank you for the amazing blogging tips, Vikram. I’m only a month in but am looking for more advice for my spicy food website. I just need to keep trying and pushing myself!
You’re welcome, Sonali.
Thank you for the wonderful information. You’ve made a bit easy on me, and I now know what steps I will have to take in accomplishing my future blog.
You’re welcome. I’m happy you found it helpful, Karan.
Well written and explained. Whenever I feel a little lost on my own blog, I come back and re-read these sage words. Thank you.
I’m happy it’s a great resource for you, Bahu.
These are great tips indeed. I’m just trying to reach a wider audience so I think I need to work on improving my photography and producing content more consistently. Thanks again. 🙂
It can be a lot but don’t loose the enjoyment, Geetanjali.
I would love to start a food blog but feel like i wouldn’t be able to be creative enough to come up with many new meals that people wouldn’t have eaten before…
Maintaining a blog is challenging and takes a lot of work! And, with a food blog, it isn’t always about coming up with new recipes, but a twist or even a different way to prepare would work.
Thank you so much for these tips, Vikram! It’s so hard to know where to start without guidance… so when I found this article, it was already coming from a trusted source, and you didn’t disappoint!
Thanks so much for the kind words, Sowmya. Good luck!
I’m a Big Foodie. I love reading blogs that focus on food, and it’s wonderful to have you share tips and tricks for food bloggers. I’m also launching my nutrition blog soon, so it’s great to connect with similar bloggers!
I’m happy you found it helpful, Sujatha.
Thanks for putting this amazing information for all the aspiring food bloggers, Vikram. I do have a blog myself and find the whole experience overwhelming. Its only my love of food, and inspiring people like you that help me continue on this journey. xx
You’re very welcome, Rajeshwari. I know there is a lot of differing opinions and resources out there. This is what I have found most helpful.