If you have a passion for food, cooking or eating and have been contemplating to take your passion a step further, then starting a food blog could be your next stop.

Starting a food blog is relatively easy and can be very rewarding in both following your passion doing something you love as well as in monetizing your food blog. But keeping at it requires passion and commitment and this is where many food bloggers fall short.

Food blogs are highly desirable and frequently visited by people from around the world because they offer free valuable information that can be the reason they would come back to visit your food blog time and again for months and years to come.

There are primarily two types of food blogs, one that shares food recipes and one that blogs about food types, nutrition, diet, travel and also blogging about restaurant visits amongst many different variations and regardless which one you plan to start, you will need your own website to get started.

To start your own website you can go the easy way, which requires investing a few thousand dollars (which is worth the investment if you can afford it, because it will free you to do more important things) by hiring a web designer not to just design the website but to also provide ongoing support for listing your food blog posts/recipes, images, editing, updating and making sure your website functions and looks as you would like it to.

Or the hard way, which is much cheaper, but requires much of your time investment, to not only create and list your posts/recipes but to also learn all the technical stuff required for a website to function correctly as well as look pretty and user friendly.

The good news is, I can help you with both choices, because as well as having experience in creating my own food blog, I am also an experienced web designer.

In this article, I will be detailing the cheaper way which only requires your time and the cost of a cup of coffee and dessert per month to get your food blog up and running, and to put it in monetary terms, it will cost you around $5 per month give or take $1 depending on which hosting plan you choose and that will be the cost of having your dedicated website name and storage space for your website files on the internet.

OK, fasten your seat belt, get ready to take off and let’s have a look at this detailed step by step guide you need to follow to get your food blog started within a few hours.

1. Buy Your Domain Name.
2. Buy A Web Hosting Service.
3. Install WordPress.
4. Install Your Food Blog Theme.
5. Install Plugins.
6. Setup Google Analytics Tools.
7. Create And Share Your Blog Posts/Recipes.
8. Promote Your Food Blog.
9. Monetize Your Food Blog.

1- Buy Your Domain Name.
A domain name means your website name which is the internet address where visitors can find your food blog, e.g. https://yummytastic.com or https://www.yummytastic.com is the domain name for YummyTastic website. Choose a name related to your blog niche, the shorter the better, easy to remember and easy to spell, avoid numbers, hyphens and underscores in the name because over 50% of your blog visitors will be using mobile phones and that would mean extra work and more possible typing mistakes.

As you can see in the case of YummyTastic, it is one word (hybrid) which is related to food (the yummy part), it is short, easy to remember & spell and has no numbers, hyphens or underscores.

One issue you will come across is that most of the names that follow this formula will have already been taken by someone else, so pace yourself and be patient. I have spent two days on average to come up with some of my websites names and trying to find out if they are available to purchase, but it is totally worth it because, a good domain name will help improve your website traffic and this is one goal every website owner hopes to achieve.

I have used many domain registrars to buy domain names and they all do the same job, however, some are slightly cheaper than others. You’ll be looking at paying around $10 – $15 per year for your domain name and you may get a discount for your first year. I have bought many domain names through Namecheap.com which do a reasonably good job and they are usually cheaper than most. Also, when you click the link above, you could get a discount.

Try to aim for a dot com (.com) tld (top level domain) extension because it is what visitors usually assume your website domain will be and also because on many occasions, you will be referring to your blog without using the full domain name, for example, in my posts I sometimes just write YummyTastic website and readers will automatically assume yummytastic.com, and you will also discover that most professional food blogs will have a dot come tld.

If you are ready to start your website, you could get a free domain name for your first year, check out the next step, (buying a web hosting service) and if you’re not, you need to buy your domain name now before someone else does. A domain name is unique, when someone buys it, nobody else can buy the same domain name.

Once you have decided on your domain name, check the availability by typing the domain name you have chosen into the search bar at Namecheap.com or any other registrar and you should get confirmation within one minute if it is available. Be patient and creative and you will find a suitable domain name for your food blog.

As soon as you find a domain name you like, do not procrastinate, add it to the cart immediately, fill in your payment details and secure your domain name, chances are, someone else maybe thinking to buy the same domain name, so get in there first, the cost of a domain name for a year is not something you will lose sleep over.

How To Buy A Domain Name For Your Food Blog

2- Buy A Web Hosting Service.
A web hosting service is where your website files including posts, images, videos, downloads and anything else you create or upload to your website are stored. It is an internet computer storage (server) that lives on the clouds, where your food blog visitors can access by visiting your website.

There are hundreds of web hosting providers. Choose a suitable one for your food blog needs and as you are just starting your food blog, it will take you a few months to get up to speed with many aspects of your food blog including posting, technical stuff and making your website pretty, functional and user friendly, so there is no need to pay top dollar for your web hosting during the learning phase.

I recommend you start with the cheapest shared hosting plan for the initial period (you will get a heavily discounted offer for the initial purchase period which can save you over a hundred dollars), and you will get a refund for any outstanding period remaining on your plan if you decide to upgrade at any time, so it makes a lot of sense to save money by opting for three years instead of one on the outset.

Renewal cost of your web hosting plan will be charged at the standard rate, which is approximately three times the initial cost. Basically, if you pay $3 – $5 per month with your initial plan, this will be $10+ per month when your initial purchase plan expires and that’s comparing current standard monthly rate, which will most likely go up in three years’ time.

One of the top hosting providers is Bluehost.com and it is recommended by WordPress which is the software platform you’ll be using for your food blog if you follow this step by step guide to creating your food blog.

And currently they are offering a fantastic deal for new food blogs as well as a free domain name for the first year, so you will be getting an outstanding deal with great saving. At the time of writing this article, Bluehost has a $2.95 per month plan for the first year or $4.95 per month plan for the first three years with free SSL certificate, as well as not having to pay for your food blog domain name for a whole year, click here to check how much you can save.

How To Buy A Web Hosting Plan For Your Food Blog

3- Install WordPress.
WordPress is a content management system that is totally free to use and currently powers 40% of all internet websites and 60% of all content management system type websites. Basically it’s the leader, and for free, you can’t really go wrong using it.

Installing WordPress is a simple process that requires a few clicks and will take under two minutes to be completed. So, within a few minutes of buying your domain name and web hosting service, you’ll be able to start creating your blog posts and sharing them with the whole world.

OK, if you’re new to blogging, there will be a few things to learn before you can start posting if you want to get maximum benefit. You will soon realise that sharing your blog posts and having people coming to your food blog involve a few more things than just creating and sharing. Things like search engine optimisation (SEO) amongst many other things.

To get started, use your login credentials that you received in your welcome email from Bluehost to login to the Bluehost dashboard by clicking the link in the email to arrive at the login screen below.

After you login, click the advanced tab to access the control panel (AKA cPanel).

Once you arrive at the cPanel, scroll down to the software section and select the WordPress Manager by Softaculous.

This will open the WordPress installer page, where you need to enter the user ID and Password to login to your WordPress website and the email address where you would like to receive notifications from your WordPress website and click the install button. Within a minute or two WordPress will be installed on your website.

How To Install WordPress On Your New Food Blog

4- Install Your Food Blog Theme.
Choose a theme that is related to your food blog. There are free and paid themes, start with a free one until you need a paid one. Paid themes are charged annually, so get everything you need in place before you subscribe to using a paid theme, this will save you some money.

I have an amazing free theme to get you started with, which can be upgraded to a premium version when your food blog needs require it but until then, you can use it for free. It also has free addons that provide a recipe template and a free recipe card for your food blog.

This basically means, you get an amazing modern theme, recipe website template and recipe card plugin all for free. And just to reassure you, YummyTastic is built with this free theme. As mentioned earlier, I only recommend products I have used and know they can benefit you.

Within 15 minutes including Installing WordPress, I will show you how you can have a fully featured 4 page fully responsive food blog website with header, footer, navigation menu and recipes sub-menus, a recipe card, text paragraphs, social media icons and images, all of which you can replace and customise to suit your needs, and did I forget to mention …..

Yes I did forget to mention ………. it’s all free of charge, with ZERO cost to you, Christmas has come early for your FOOD BLOG, well we’ve had some challenging times lately, I think we all deserve a little break (and for your food blog, I think it’s a big break, still, you deserve it for being here at YummyTastic) and I’m truly happy I can help you.

I will also be recommending a premium recipe card plugin that can import your existing recipes, so when you have everything in place you can upgrade without losing any of your existing recipes.

1. Download Kadence Theme
2. Download Kadence Child-Theme

• Upgrade To Kadence Premium Theme

• Learn How To Create and Edit Your Blog With WordPress. Fast track your WordPress learning with this beginners course. Save75% with this special YummyTastic link.

How To Install Your New Food Blog Theme

5- Install Plugins.
Simply put, plugins are very similar to the apps you would use on your mobile phone, some add enhancements, looks and cosmetic effects, others offer entirely different functionality and some offer both looks and functionality.

Currently, there are over 50,000 plugins on WordPress.org, which, within a couple of clicks you can add to your website for free. Regardless of what you want to achieve on your WordPress food blog, there are many plugins that will help you achieve the task. Most plugins are free and also have a pro/premium (paid) version.

You get extra options when you upgrade to the premium paid version of a plugin, which benefits both, you and the plugin developer who worked hard to create the free plugin and continues to improve it with regular updates.

There are a few essential plugins for security, backup, SEO, page builder and other important functions that every website needs regardless of what the website niche, design or goals are. Other plugins maybe needed for specific websites and not required for most other websites. You will decide what is important for your food blog and choose the required plugins, but I can help you with the plugins that every website needs.

If anything can go wrong, it will … “Murphy’s Law”. And for this reason alone, you must have a backup plugin so if and when disaster strikes, you don’t have to start from the beginning.

As Mentioned earlier, search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for your food blog if you want people to know your food blog exists, which I believe is the main reason you decided to create your food blog.

As soon as you have your food blog on the internet and even before you create anything, cyber criminals try to find a way to hack your website. I have started to create websites that I have just purchased the domain name for and within 48 hours and before the website is launched, my security plugin reported hacking events.

Before alarm bells start ringing, there are a few steps you can take on the outset including installing a security plugin that will keep your food blog safe from hackers.

How To Install Plugins

Installing plugins for your food blog is almost identical to installing themes, only it is done through the plugins sub-menu instead of the themes sub-menu in your WordPress admin dashboard. Watch the video in the previous step and you’re good to go.

You can also install plugins through the WordPress.org website by downloading them to your computer first, then uploading them to your food blog. Both ways will get you the same result.

Free Plugins

1. Elementor Website Builder – The best drag and drop page & website builder.
2. WPvivid Backup – Helps you back up and restore your food blog.
3. Rank Math SEO – “The Best” Amazing on the go directions to improve your posts SEO.
4. Wordfence Security – Blocks hacking attacks, allows you to block individual IPs, IP range and countries.
5. Google Analytics – Monster Insights – Links your food blog to your Google analytics account.
6. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded – Allows commenters to sign up for email notifications of subsequent replies, so they can receive replies to their comment by email.

Premium Plugins

1. Elementor Website Builder Pro “Priceless”, best page & website builder.
2. WPvivid Backup Pro Saves you hours, days, weeks, months and more.
3. Rank Math SEO Pro Rank on first page with search engines.
4. Tasty Recipes – Excellent recipe card with many different designs.

6- Setup Google Analytics Tools.
These tools are totally free and would help you have an idea of what’s happening regarding your website traffic and visitors including where they came from, which website pages they visited, how long they stayed amongst many other parameters that can help you improve your food blog.

This is one piece of the puzzle that most bloggers give little attention to because they don’t fall into the category of having fun creating recipes or blog posts, however, it is important to get as many facts and figures regarding the performance of your food blog so you can react to important matters that require your attention to optimise your food blog performance.

You may want to call this the boring stuff, which as and when you can afford it, you can pay someone to deal with it so you don’t have to. And there are a few plugins you can install that can help you with Google analytics, I use and recommend Monster Insights plugin. The following steps will help you get started with Google Analytics.

1. Create a dedicated Gmail – email address through your new food blog email – Needed to set up your Google account.
2. Set Up Google Analytics – Allows you to track and monitor visitors activities on your food blog.
3. Link Your Food Blog With Google Search Console – Helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your food blog’s presence in Google Search results.

7- Create And Share Your Blog Posts/Recipes.
Once you have the basic building blocks in place, it’s time to make some noise and shake the World Wide Web (www) with your posts, so people can come to visit your food blog. And, there is no right or wrong here, you can start posting before everything is perfect (according to you), because your perfect maybe totally different from other people’s perspective of what perfect is.

There is noway, anything anyone can do or make, that will be perfect for everyone, so it is a waste of energy, trying to make anything perfect. Utilise your time to benefit you and your audience and that includes the time you spend on things, wasting half a day, trying to make something look prettier is a waste of time.

You could be creating and sharing twice as many recipes/posts that can benefit everyone instead. And this is key to building a large audience base. The more time you have, the more you can create and share, and of course this means more audience which besides making your food blog more popular, it also means more chances of monetisation for your food blog.

8- Promote Your Food Blog.
Promoting your food blog means generating awareness on the internet, on social networks, forums, public and private groups and any other place where people who maybe interested in what you have to offer gather together.

This is how you start to build your food blog audience which is what will ultimately make it successful. If you don’t have an audience, nothing else you do matters. I guess you can call your food blog a hobby, but to become a business that generates income for you, you need to work really hard at building your food blog audience.

Generally, there are two main types of promotions for your food blog. Organic or free and paid advertising. Both of which are supposed to help you generate traffic of people to visit your blog. When starting out, it is important to focus on how to get organic traffic because until your food blog becomes a business generating income for you, you will be spending money you haven’t generated yet.

Of course you can start to use paid advertising before you generate any income, but this should only be an option when you have everything in place and you have the mechanism to take advantage of the traffic heading towards your food blog.

The best place to start promoting your food blog is Pinterest because it is the only social platform that allows you to directly link to your food blog free of charge. This means when you create a PIN on Pinterest, you can add the URL (page address) for your post and when people click your pin title, they will arrive at your food blog.

Having said that, you should really allocate some promotional cost for your Pinterest PINs as soon as your food blog is completed. Try spending some money on your favourite posts initially and review your promotional strategy. Getting traffic is key to monetising your food blog.

9- Monetise Your Food Blog.
This will be the part where you start to get rewarded for all the time, effort and putting up with the overwhelm, stress and issues you have to deal with, resolve and endure for the pursuit of happiness you seek following your food passion while building your food blog. If you endure, it will be more than worth it.

Monetising your food blog means you will have systems in place that will take advantage of your website visitors by offering products and services that can generate income for you. Examples of these are selling physical products, digital products, services and advertising.

You can sell your own products or other people’s products (affiliate marketing) and you can also offer advertising for Google or other companies. As long as you capitalize on using your food blog traffic to generate income, your food blog will be a successful business and not just a hobby, because if you spend time, energy and effort, you must be paid, so, your food blog can continue running.

The most important thing for you to keep in mind and always stay focused on is, if you do everything to benefit your audience, this is GIVING for free, and everything you give for free to help people will come back to you many times over.

“You will get everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” Zig Ziggler

If you decide to create your own WordPress website, you may need some help getting up to speed. I have created a beginners course with over 60 step by step training videos that will help you create your website. Click the link below to check it out.

Click Here For WordPress Beginners Course With 75% Saving.

All My Best

Ihsan