So you love to cook and you “hey, why don’t I just start a food blog? A food blog should be easy! I love to cook!”
Well slow down there Jamie Oliver because if you just go out and make a food blog without any planning, you’ll quickly get lost in the sea of foodies, people who think they’re the next Gordon Ramsay, and people who think they’re the next cake boss.
If you want to be successful in the wild west frontier that is the internet food scene, you’ll have to make sure you’re as ready as you can be. This article will provide you with the best food blogging tips available so that you’re not quite as much of a greenhorn as you look.
Best Food Blogging Tips
The most important food blogging tip is keeping your blog website user-friendly!
A food blog must be easy to navigate or else they’ll go to a competitor’s blog within seconds. If a website is hard to navigate or super ugly, no one is going to look twice at it. Make a gorgeous website, no matter what. You might even want to invest in a web designer and possibly even a graphic designer to make a logo for you. Anything you can do to boost the memorability of your website will be working in your favor.
Food Blogging Photography
Food blogs need beautiful photography. You might make the most amazing dish in the world, but if your photographs don’t reflect that (if the lighting is off, you’re too zoomed out, the colors aren’t saturated enough, it’s not plated nicely – the list goes on to eternity), you will get exactly zero followers. There are so many food blogs out there that the bare minimum requirement is to have good photographs of your food.
Just think about the last time you searched for a recipe for something. Did you read through each and every recipe to compare which would be the best one? No, of course not! You looked at the photos and picked the one that looked most appealing. Humans are such visual creatures that appealing to that visceral initial visual reaction is super important. You want people’s first look at your food to be “wow!” and not “blech.” There are tons of free tutorials online, but you might want to consider spending some money on this just because it will genuinely carry or hurt a food blog. If you have a newer smartphone then it’s okay to use that to get started as long as you have consistency. After some growth though, many food blogs upgrade to better DSLR camera setups or use a freelance food photographer.
Related: Best DSLR Cameras for Beginners
Food Blogging Niches
Again, with all the food blogs out there, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of choices. And when it comes down to it, readers will grace the websites of more experienced blogs before they look at new ones.
So how do you stand out? You have to find your niche. It will be hard to find you among the other food blogs. Maybe you can try a food blog about:
- Vegetarian food recipes
- Vegan food recipes
- Gluten-free food recipes
- Paleo only food recipes
- Meals made for only $10
- Keto only food recipes
- Meals made in under 30 minutes
As you can see from this nowhere-near-extensive list, the sky’s the limit. But the importance of finding a niche can’t be understated. There are tons of blogs catering to vegetarians and vegans these days, so you might want to choose something a bit more niche. In general, the more niche you can get (to a limit), the more likely people are to find your blog when they google certain keywords. And the more likely they are to share your food blog with their friends, family, and followers. This goes double for if you have something humorous or pandering to an often-forgotten set of dietary restrictions.
Conclusion
As you start your food blogging journey, take time and think about what you want to do. Look at other successful food bloggers and see why you like them. And when you’re ready to make the move, do it and pick an easy and brandable domain name. You want something easy to remember but that still stands out. A generic blog such as bestfoodever2015.com will be successful in this blogging environment. If possible, try to tie your domain name into your niche.
Anyway, this is nowhere near comprehensive, but these are some really important points to consider if you want your food blog to be at all successful.
Good luck!
Related: SEO Tips for Food Bloggers, Content Marketing Tips for Food Bloggers