how to start a food blog
So… you love food… and sharing it? Let me show you how to set up your very own gorgeous food blog to share all your delicious recipes!
Knowing where to start can be overwhelming. I’ve been there and I want to give other food bloggers the tools to reach success! This space is a page with all the steps you will need to get your food blog up and running in no time! This page will continue to evolve as I discover different useful resources.
DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME OF THE PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES ON THIS PAGE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS. I WILL EARN A SMALL COMMISSION FROM ANY PURCHASE THROUGH THOSE LINKS. THESE PRODUCTS ARE RECOMMENDED, BECAUSE I HAVE FOUND THEM TO BE TRUSTWORTHY AND INCREDIBLY USEFUL.
Creating A Website
Paleoglutenfree.com is built on WordPress with a theme from Themeforest. This is fairly simple setup. In order to achieve the custom look we have created on our site, there are a few extra Plugins and custom information that is needed. Below is all the information you will need to get your site up and running and looking fabulous!
Easily manage your blog with WordPress. WordPress offers fluid and easy content curation, flexible and easy to use set up. Get started today for free.
Theme Forrest
Now here comes the fun part: making your blog look pretty! Discover and select from over 30k gorgeous website themes starting at only $2.00. Theme forrest is an affordable and beautiful way to showcase your recipes to the world.
WordPress Plugins
Here is a list of the WordPress plugins that we use. Some are a one time payments and others are subscriptions as well as free plugins from the official WordPress plugin. Because the site is constantly updating this list will change. Here is the list of plugins that we have found useful.
Visual Composer
Forget trying to figure out code and trying to get techie. Visual composer is the layman’s rescue to easily customizing and designing all of your website’s pages! Don’t waste time fighting with [shortcodes] and manually coding layouts. Now you can design anything for any page with visual composer wordPress page builder plugin with frontend and backend editor. I am no code expert, so having visual composer offers the ability to easily create stunning pages and deign! No fancy business. Just design what you want.
WP Ultimate Recipe Premium
After extensive research, we decided that this recipe plugin was best suited to fit our needs. Ultimate recipe premium is just that, it has everything you will ever need in a recipe card: nutrition information based of of brand, the ability to easily style the recipe card, print options, links to ingredient products for purchase, and the ability to change the serving/ingredient amount based off of serving with the click of a button! Plus, this recipe plug in has the ability to create menu plans, user rating, and custom tags. I highly recommend this plug in if you want a classy looking recipe card with all the prime features!
Visual Sidebars
Same goes for the side bars. Visual sidebars allows you to easily customize your sidebar widgets. Make your sidebar exactly how you want it with you own display and layout that fits your vision and feel exactly.
Tools
Having the right tools to support and grow your blog can make the world of difference. So you don’t have to go searching all through the web for the best tools, I have them all laid out for you! These include our mail service, social shares, list builder, and more. These services are subject to change, because the site is constantly being updated.
CloudFlare
What happens when your website goes down… and you don’t know why… and you can;t fix it right away? Cloud flare offers protection for your website and will generate a live preview of your site to offer your views while in the mean time you are fixing things “backstage”. This definitely came in handy during the beginning stages of building this website and it offers secure protection for you and your creative content.
Sumo Me
Sumo me is an essential for growing your food blog! It is incredibly easy to use- even for us non-techie people. I have found Sumo me to be the most efficient and flexible tool for growing my email lists, opt ins, and social shares! Plus, it the most in depth and easy to use tracker for on page and analytics. No coding needed and it is super easy to set up and customize on your website! Get up and running in 37 seconds.
Ready to send off your new amazing content to your followers? MailChimp is the email marketing software we use to send Paleo Gluten Free Eats blog updates via email. Mailchimp has easy to use formats that you can custom design to best fit the feel of your brand. They offer a free plan, which makes it a perfect free tool for just starting out!
Food Photography Resources Ever wondered how to make your images look like the ones in the magazines? Check out my complete guide to food photography that includes my camera gear, tools, props, and lighting. I will take your through everything I use from set up to post processing. And it’s free!
Income
Here is a list of the WordPress plugins that we have found helpful. Some are a one time payments and others are subscriptions as well as free plugins from the official WordPress plugin. Because the site is constantly updating this list will change. Here is the list of plugins that we have found useful.
Google AdSense
Want to start making money off off your blog? With Google Adsense, you can easily instal ads that will display curated content based that best fits the view, for the best user experience! Google Adsense is an easy way to earn some extra cash through passive income. It’s not a lot, but earning a few dollars off of your hard earned work blogging can be a fun way to reward yourself!
Amazon Affilate Program
Earn up to 15% off of affiliate links to your favorite products, cookbooks, tools, and ingredients! It’s the best way to link products and ingredients, so your viewers can easily purchase the ingredients they will need for each recipe. Easy to set up and link with custom links and banners that will earn you money! It’s free to join.