Tag: blog

  • Best Food Blogging Tips for Beginners

    Best Food Blogging Tips for Beginners

    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

  • Best New Tips for Blogging

    Best New Tips for Blogging

    It looks like you’re interested in starting a lifestyle blog.

    Since you’ve already hammered out what it is you want to write about, here are some tips to really make your lifestyle blog stand out and shine!

    New Tips for Blogging

    When you’re writing blog posts, try to really lay your emotions bare and put them in your posts. Readers respond to real emotion, whether it’s something you’re excited about or something you’re upset about. But even if you choose not to write a blog all about your life, or even if you want a little more privacy, try to write about something you’re passionate about.

    This will not only make your writing job much easier, but it will grab readers and show them why they should be passionate about that topic as well.


    Introduction to Blogging

    Create several social media accounts that are linked to your lifestyle blog niche and be sure to consistently post updates and engagement with your growing audience. You might find that some potential readers will be drawn in by your Instagram feed way before they’re interested in reading your blog. But enough solid, high-quality posts on your Instagram will win them over and turn them into devoted readers.

    Another way to increase visibility is to befriend other bloggers. It’s a supportive and engaging community, and if you feature someone’s blog or post, you may find that they’ll return the favor, introducing you to a whole new set of readers.

    Be Transparent

    Don’t try to trick readers or pull a fast one on them. If you are being sponsored to write a post, it’s much better, in the long run, to be honest, and upfront about it. If you’re worried readers won’t respond well to a sponsored post, you could write about why you decided to accept sponsorship.

    It would also be in your best interests to make sure that it is a quality post, sponsored or not so that readers will take value out of it even if they’re not interested in the product. If you try to trick readers and they find out later, their sense of betrayal will be strong enough to completely ditch your blog without a second thought. Blogging communities are based on trust, and you need to be careful to cultivate and maintain that.

    Best Days to Blog

    Readers like to know what to expect, and they won’t know what to expect if you just blog whenever you feel like it! Chances are there will be some occasions where you just don’t feel like blogging, but consistency is key.

    Usually, the best days to blog will depend on your niche. The usual good times are between 6 – 9 pm. So read your data and make a schedule (even if it’s just “twice a week,” any two days of the week) and keep to it so that readers know when they will receive new content and know they can depend on you.

    Blog Design Matters

    Your lifestyle blog is an online representation of you and your brand, and it’s important that you represent yourself well. Even if your writing is stellar, if your website design and layout and your photos aren’t up to snuff, it will reflect poorly on you.

    Also, people like things that are aesthetically pleasing and are much more likely to read your blog (and trust you) if it all looks good.

    Friendly Blogging

    I know I said to write what you’re passionate about and that sometimes you’re passionately angry about something, but stop and take stock for a moment before posting it on your blog.

    If, after your head clears, it seems like a productive thing to write about and bring attention to (a company mistreating workers, a social cause you care about that’s being threatened), write about it in a measured and balanced way. If it’s not in line with what you usually write about, however, keep in mind that your readers might have different stances than you on these topics, and speaking up might lose you some followers.

    People come to your blog for lifestyle tips, not politics. And absolutely never say something negative about another person or blog. That will just start a beef that will spin out of control, bring negativity to your blog, and drive readers away. Stay positive and at the very least, polite, about other people.

    Conclusion

    If you want to really succeed with your lifestyle blog, you have to know what works and what doesn’t work. To do this, pay attention to how readers respond to certain posts. If they like certain posts, do more of that. If there’s less response (or worse, a negative response) to another post, try to figure out what about it isn’t working so you can avoid that in the future.

    Another way to gain more insight is to read other people’s blogs, especially really popular ones. See what they do different or better than you, and figure out how you can learn from that, internalize it, and make it your own.

    Related: Finding Your Lifestyle Blog Topic