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Food Blog Niche Ideas

How to Start a Food Blog

Do you want to learn how to start a food blog today?

This guide will show you how to start a food blog in five simple steps!

Starting a food blog is perfect for anyone who is passionate about food! You don’t have to be a professional chef to be a successful food blogger.

If you love cooking, baking, and trying new recipes in the kitchen or coming up with your own recipes, being a food blogger is a great choice for you.

Food bloggers can earn a lot of money while sharing recipes with others!

Blogging has a very low investment  (it costs just $2.95 a month for a domain name and hosting with Bluehost) but a high potential for profit.

So are you ready to learn how to start a food blog and make money blogging?

Here’s how to get started!

 

Step 1: Define Your Niche

The first step to starting a food blog is choosing your niche. Your niche is simply the topic or topics that you write about on your blog.

There are many sub-niches within the broader food niche.

Here are some of the best food blog niche ideas.

Maybe you will only focus on vegan recipes on your blog, or gluten-free cooking. Or maybe you’ll start a food blog all about desserts, or cheap and healthy meals. These are all ideas of niches you could focus on to make your blog stand out.

Having a defined niche is a good way to establish your authority on a particular topic, grow your audience, and be successful with your blog.

Related: What to Blog About: 150+ Profitable Blog Niche Ideas

 

Step 2: Choose a Domain Name

Once you’ve decided on your niche, it’s time to come up with a domain name.

Your domain name is simply your blog’s address on the Internet. It’s the first thing people will remember about your blog, so it’s important to choose a good one.

Related: Food Blog Names: Ideas and Examples

Here are some tips for choosing a domain name:

  • Make your name easy to spell and say. Don’t use misspelled words, numbers, or hyphens in your domain name. All of these things will make your name a lot more confusing and harder for people to remember.
  • Make sure that the .com of your chosen name is available. Try to avoid alternative domain name endings like .net or .co because they are less common, harder to remember, and less trustworthy.
  • Make your name related to your niche. This way, people will instantly know what your blog is about. For example, some popular food blogs have names like Pinch of Yum, The Bewitchin’ Kitchen, and A Sassy Spoon.
  • Use your own name. If you can’t think of a catchy name for your blog, using your own name as your domain name is always a safe bet.
  • Don’t overthink it. Try not to spend too much time on this step or worry about picking the “perfect” domain name. Chances are, whatever name you pick will grow on you and start to feel like a great fit.

Related: How to Choose a Blog Name

If you can’t decide on a name yet, that’s okay! You can come back and choose one later after you sign up for web hosting with Bluehost.

 

Step 3: Get Web Hosting

​If you want to make money as a blogger, you will need to have a self-hosted blog. This means that you own all of your content and your blog is totally yours, as opposed to using a hosted platform such as Blogger, Wix, WordPress.com, etc.

Even if you are not a very technical person, setting up web hosting is extremely simple and only takes a few minutes.

First, you will need to choose a web host.

The web hosting company I use and recommend is Bluehost.

Here are a few reasons why I like Bluehost:

  • They have some of the most affordable web hosting plans out there.
  • You can get your domain name for free with them (as opposed to paying $15 to $20 with an outside company.)
  • Their service is reliable and robust, so you will never have to worry about your website going down or loading slowly.
  • Many of the most successful bloggers I know use Bluehost.
  • They have great customer support and I have always had my questions answered quickly whenever I needed help.

Bluehost has very generously offered hosting packages starting at just $2.95 a month for readers of Blogging Her Way, along with a FREE domain name.

To get this special pricing, just be sure to use any Bluehost link in this article!

Here’s how to set up web hosting with Bluehost:

 

1. Click here and then click the “Get Started” button:

How to Start a Blog

 

2. Select your hosting plan

How to Start a Blog

 

 

3. Put in your domain name

 

How to Start a Blog

Select this option and you can go ahead and set up your blog now, then use the free credit to buy your domain name later.

 

4. Create your hosting account

How to Start a Blog

 

5. Choose your package and pay

How to Start a Blog

I recommend the 12-month plan for $2.95 a month, for a total cost of $35.40 for the year. But you can also choose a 24-month or 36-month plan.

 

 

6. Congrats, you’re done!

Now you’re all set! Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you.

What exactly is WordPress? WordPress is the content management platform that your blog will run on. Your WordPress dashboard is where you will go to edit the look of your blog, write blog posts, upload images, etc.

It’s extremely easy to use, even if you’re a total beginner.

 

Step 4: Design Your Blog

Now it’s time for the fun part – designing your blog!

When you log in to your WordPress dashboard for the first time, you will be prompted to go ahead and choose a theme for your blog:

how to start a blog

 

You can pick one of these default themes if you want, but I don’t recommend it.

For one, the majority of these free default themes are not designed with bloggers in mind. Most are designed for business websites.

Additionally, choosing a premium theme over a default theme will make your blog look more professional right from the start.

Here are the benefits to choosing a paid theme for your blog:

  1. They come with step-by-step set-up instructions
  2. You will have access to customer support from the theme creator.
  3. Paid themes come with crucial features like a mobile responsive design and customization options.
  4. Your blog will look prettier and more professional.

Here are some themes I absolutely LOVE that are perfect for food bloggers:

 

Installing your WordPress theme

To install your theme, go to Appearance > Themes in the lefthand menu of the WordPress dashboard, which looks like this:

how to start a blog

 

Then simply upload your theme file and install it.

Once you have installed your theme and are happy with the way everything looks, you can go ahead and launch your blog! Until you follow this step, your blog will just display a “Coming Soon” landing page.

To launch, go to the Bluehost menu on the top left of your WordPress dashboard:

how to start a blog

 

All you have to do is fill in this info and you’re good to go:

how to start a blog

 

Congrats! Your food blog is now live.

 

Step 5: Start Blogging!

So you’ve started your blog – now what should you blog about?

I recommend getting at least 5 to 10 high-quality blog posts published right away. That way new visitors will have something to read on your blog!

I put together a big list of blog post ideas for food bloggers to help you come up with topics to write about on your new food blog.

 

How Food Blogs Make Money

You might be wondering how food bloggers actually make money.

There are so many ways you can make money as a blogger, but here are a few of the most popular ways to monetize your food blog.

Related: How Do Bloggers Make Money? Top 5 Ways Explained

 

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are where brands pay bloggers to share sponsored content on their blog or social media channels in exchange for payment.

Payment for sponsored posts can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars depending on the campaign and the size of your audience.

In order to find sponsored posts, you can either pitch brands directly or apply for opportunities through sponsored post networks. Networks are an easy option because they connect brands directly to bloggers for campaigns.

There are lots of sponsored post opportunities for food bloggers.

Some popular sponsored post networks you can join are Linqia, Izea, Real Clever, Aspire IQ, Cooperatize, and Blog Meets Brand.

 

Display Ads

Display advertising is an amazing way to make money as a blogger because it is totally passive income. This is a great choice for food bloggers.

Once your blog is receiving a consistent amount of traffic each month, you can apply to ad networks who will place display ads on your blog. Payment is determined by RPM (revenue per one thousand impressions.)

With enough traffic, you can easily earn anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars each month just from ads.

Two of the best ad networks for bloggers are Monumetric and Mediavine. Monumetric requires 10,000 monthly page views to apply, while Mediavine requires 50,000 monthly sessions to apply.

 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement where brands pay affiliates commission on all sales that an affiliate generates through a unique affiliate link.

For food bloggers, you can monetize through the Amazon affiliate program. Every time you link to a product on Amazon, such as a kitchen appliance or ingredients for a recipe, you can use your affiliate link in the blog post.

Then you earn a commission any time someone makes a purchase after clicking your link. And the great thing about it is you earn a commission on EVERYTHING they end up buying, not just the one thing they clicked.

For more tips on affiliate marketing, read my guide to making money with affiliate marketing or sign up for my free list of affiliate programs for bloggers.

 

Selling Products

Finally, another great way to make money blogging is by selling your own products. Many food bloggers earn money through selling physical or digital cookbooks, meal plans, and other products.

The sky is the limit here and you can really get creative with the products you create. For more product ideas, be sure to read the best digital products to sell.

 

Food Blog Examples

Are you looking for more inspiration to start a food blog?

Here are some examples of successful food bloggers who share blog income reports and make a full-time income from their food blogs.

You can check out even more blog income reports from food bloggers on my list of 250+ blogger income reports. Here are a few examples:

As you can see, it’s possible to earn quite a bit from food blogging!

 

How to Start a Food Blog Recap

This guide taught you how to start a food blog and make money blogging.

As a recap, here are the steps you need to take to start your own food blog:

  1. Decide on your niche.
  2. Choose a domain name.
  3. Register for web hosting from Bluehost.
  4. Write 5 to 10 blog posts.

Once you have established your blog and started to build an audience, you can monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and ads.

There are quite a few food bloggers out there who are doing this as their career, and you can be one of them too if you follow these steps, commit to blogging, and give it your best! Good luck and happy blogging!