You have a ton of recipes passed down in your family for generations. Now, you want to let the world know how good they truly are. The problem is, you don’t have the budget to publish a cookbook.
Why waste money on something that you can do with a smaller budget? This article will show you the wonder of owning a food blog, which includes the steps to create it with WordPress and how you can monetize it. By the end of it, you’ll know what it takes to create a killer food blog.
If you’re feeling up to the challenge, let’s dive into the next section.
Perks of Running a Food Blog
Today, over 152 million blogs exist on the internet, making them one of the most popular types of websites to ever exist. With so many people owning blogs, you may be wondering how running a food blog can benefit you. Let’s find out:
- Creative outlet – as your personal space, a blog can showcase any type of content you want. Be it exploring new things or sharing your passion, it’s for you to decide. The sky is your limit!
- Extra income – make money while doing what you love in the comfort of your own home. If that’s not a dream job, then we don’t know what is.
- Improved writing skills – by producing content regularly, your writing skills will improve much faster and quicker. Additionally, reader feedback will also help you become a better writer.
- Credibility –by creating high-quality content and showcasing your skills to the world, you establish yourself as a professional in your niche.
- Exposure – once your blog gains enough traction and a solid following, you can turn the blog into a profitable business. Additionally, through traffic, you might get picked up by companies who would like to sponsor you.
- Network – a blog allows you to create a community and exchange ideas with users that have similar interests. Not only does it help you grow as a professional, but it also opens more opportunities that may greatly benefit your future.
- Contribution – your blog may help readers in so many ways. Depending on your content, you can help people who cannot cook, need insights about certain dishes, or look for health and nutrition tips.
5 Steps to Creating a Food Blog with WordPress
Now that you know how a food blog can benefit you, follow these steps for creating your own with WordPress. Not to worry — the procedure is beginner-friendly and cost-effective.
1. Pick the Right Domain Name
A domain name is more than a catchy keyword on your URL. It’s probably the first thing your visitor will learn about your site. That means it contributes to increasing brand awareness and building trust with your audience, not to mention that it’ll be a major part of the first impression you make. Therefore, it’s essential to pick the right domain name that best represents your website and brand.
Since there are over 31 million registered domains across the internet, coming up with a unique name might seem like a daunting task. If you need inspiration, this list of blog name generators can give you catchy domain name ideas that match your niche.
Once you find the right domain, you can register it with an ICANN-accredited registrar. The cost may vary depending on the extension, and the registrar itself.
2. Choose a Reliable Hosting Service
To make your site accessible on the web, you need to find good hosting. When choosing a hosting provider, make sure to consider the support, uptime, and ease of use. Additionally, it’d be better to choose a hosting provider with a server located in your country of operation for optimal performance.
There are several types of web hosting that you can choose based on the resources provided, flexibility, and ease of use. For starters, you can go with shared hosting since it’s affordable and ideal for small sites. Once your blog gains traction, you can upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting.
3. Install WordPress on Your Hosting Account
WordPress is the most popular free and open-source Content Management System (CMS) that can help you create a blog in no time. Besides being cost-effective, WordPress is also highly scalable and customizable. Your blog can even rank higher in SERP since the CMS is SEO optimized.
Today, most hosting providers include a WordPress auto-installer in their control panel dashboard. Therefore, you can easily configure all the settings in one click, making the process hassle-free.
4. Install WordPress Themes and Plugins
One of WordPress’ biggest strengths is its vast collection of themes and plugins. Both let you customize your blog’s appearance and expand its functionality to accommodate your needs. Depending on your budget, you can opt for free or premium ones:
Some themes are specifically designed to cater to a particular niche:
- Foodica — for food-based blogs and recipe sites.
- Food Express — ideal for food-based businesses.
- Kale — a simple yet aesthetically pleasing cooking blog theme.
- Cookely — perfect for displaying and managing your collection of recipes.
- Foody Lite — suitable for lifestyle, food, and fashion-based blogs.
Plugins can ease your blogging routine and expand your site’s functionality with additional features:
- Yoast SEO — a search optimization plugin that ease SEO through helpful suggestions and features.
- Jetpack — further improves your site’s security, speed, and more.
- Akismet Anti-Spam — filters spams and other foreign malicious content.
- Editorial Calendar — helps you maintain a regular posting schedule.
- UpdraftPlus — accommodates backup and restoration to prevent data loss.
5. Start Blogging
That’s it! After setting up your blog, all that’s left to do is fill it with killer content. While you can post any type of content you want, you need to always maintain (and improve) your writing quality. On top of that, you must produce content regularly to build a solid audience.
Bonus: Monetize Your Blog
The best part of owning a blog is that you can make money with it. While there are many blog monetization methods to choose from, it takes hard work and dedication to make them work. Other factors that affect your chance of success include the size of your audience, type of content, and your marketing skills.
- Selling ad space using Google AdSense.
- Joining affiliate programs and earning commissions by making promotional efforts for other businesses.
- Selling a digital cookbook.
- Offering memberships with exclusive content.
- Teaching people how to cook via online courses.
- Selling merchandise based on your niche and content.
- Getting sponsorship deals.
Wrap Up
In this tutorial, you have learned how to create a food blog with WordPress. Additionally, you have discovered several monetization methods to turn the blog into an income stream.
Creating a blog is only half the battle. With lots of labor and love, your site will grow alongside your skills as a blogger. Trust us when we said that the result is worth the effort.