How To Start A Food Blog – A Beginner’s Guide

Have you ever wanted to start your very own food blog? Dreamt of having hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people gawk at your awesome recipe creations? Well, it’s time to stop procrastinating and start turning your food blog into a reality. And, hey, you wanna know the best part?

Starting a Food Blog is Easy!

Yes, it really is! No BS. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it’ll take you less than 15 minutes to get your food blog fully up and running. Just follow these 3 easy steps on how to start a food blog and, before you know it, you’ll be on your way to Food Blogging Stardom, tasty recipe creations in tow! 🙂 Hey, if an idiot like me can do it, so can you!

Ready? Let’s go!

Disclaimer: Some links in this post are affiliate links. I earn a commission if you purchase anything through them, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend services I completely trust, based on our first-hand experiences.

How to Start A Food Blog in 3 Easy-Peasy Steps:

1. Pick a Domain Name and Hosting Plan
2. Install WordPress
3. Make Your Food Blog Gorgeous!

1. Pick a Domain Name and Hosting Plan

A domain name is simply the address you want your food blog to have. Mine is CrazyVeganKitchen.com. Duh! Easy, right?

Come up with a super catchy name for your own food blog. Keep it short and sweet – just so it sticks to people’s minds. Need inspiration? Check out this page. Now, put your ideas in the box below to check for availability (Don’t forget to include the ‘.com’!)

(Widget not loading? Don’t worry, just click here instead)

Found an available name? Great! Click on ‘Click Here To Register’ in the box above.

You’ll be directed to a page showing different Hosting Plans. You can think of hosting as ‘online real estate’ you’ll need to buy in order to house your food blog. Bluehost is widely recognised as one of the most reliable & affordable hosting providers around. Plus, they offer free domain name registration – a perk not many hosting companies offer!

Pick a plan that best suits your needs. I suggest going with the ‘Starter’ plan. You can always upgrade in future as your food blog’s audience grows. 🙂

Click ‘Select’ and fill out all the required fields. I personally recommend opting for ‘Domain Privacy Protection’ since it hides your phone number and address from public display. Feel free to skip the other services for now.

Did You Know?
Blogging sites like Blogger or Tumblr may let you blog for free – but these companies also greatly restrict your opportunities to make money from your food blog. Buying your own domain & hosting plan is the first-step to earning an independent income from blogging!

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up your own domain and hosting plan. Step 1 to starting your own food blog – CONQUERED BROS! 🙂

2. Installing WordPress

Most popular food bloggers use WordPress as their free blogging software of choice. It’s super easy to use and packed with amazing tools right out of the box. It’s also a breeze to install!

To install WordPress, login to Bluehost.

Navigate to Hosting > cPanel, and scroll down to ‘Website Builders’. See the WordPress icon? Go ahead and click it, don’t be shy!

Hit ‘Start’ for a brand new installation.

Select the domain you just purchased and leave the text box empty.

Under Show Advanced Options, choose your admin Username, Password, and Email. You will want to write these down for safe keeping. Also, be sure to check ‘Automatically Create A New Database For This Installation’. Hit ‘Install Now’.

WordPress will begin installing. YES! Woo hoo!

(If you encounter an ‘Overwrite Warning: Please Confirm” pop up, have no fear. Just click ‘Overwrite Existing Files’)

Once installation is complete, you’ll want to take special note of your Admin URL. This is the address you’ll use whenever you want to log into your WordPress food blog. Click on the link.

Hooray! Step 2 of starting your own food blog is done, done, done! Piece of (fudgy, extra choc) cake!

3. Make Your Food Blog Gorgeous!

You’re now the official owner of your very own food blog! Reward yourself (and me) with a mint chocolate, calorie free, gluten free, GMO free muffin. 🙂

Now, let’s spruce up your blog’s appearance a little – really make things POP! with a great design that reflects your personality, style, and uniqueness. Installing a WordPress theme will easily help you achieve all of this.

There are literally hundreds of free WordPress themes available. You can check them out here. Amazing stuff!

Alternatively, you can choose to go with a premium theme. Premium themes are the best way to make your food blog stand out with a professional, super-sleek edge. Premium themes are also amazingly customizable to suit your blogging needs. You may wish to try:

Genesis Framework – This is the framework we use at Crazy Vegan Kitchen. You’ll also want to check out other StudioPress Themes such as Foodie Pro, which we’re currently using.
Elegant Themes – These themes look fantastic and are used by many famous bloggers. They’re also slightly cheaper than most other premium themes out there. I used to run an old website using Elegant Themes and loved it!

And there you have it. Your epic, mega-awesome food blog’s all set up and ready to go, all under 15 minutes. See, we told you starting a food blog is a piece of cake! Welcome to the wild and wacky world of food blogging, brahs. Your hungry audience awaits!

Questions on how to start a food blog? Feel free to leave me a comments below. I will definitely respond to all your queries to guide you in your foray into food blogging. 🙂

Comments

Anhtuan says

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Hello! I'm a big fan of your blog! Among the many posts you have published, I love this article, it's very helpful to me. I’ve shared your awesome post to my friends.

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lunchmyblog says

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A good way to start a blog via Bluehost and start a food blog also.! cheers!

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- Amrita says
  
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  Thank you!
  
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Rebecca says

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Hello. I recently came across your post and appreciate the information provided. I am looking into starting a food blog and would like to know once you create your domain through BlueHost is the process different to install WordPress.org as opposed to the .com process?? I am thinking I would like to go with .org for more freedom in terms of design and ads. I am not sure if I missed this somewhere in your post but wanted to clarify. Thank you in advance for you time.

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- Levan @ Crazy Vegan Kitchen says
  
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  Hey there Rebecca! Thanks for your question! There is a difference between the installation processes of WordPress.com and WordPress.org. With WordPress.com, your blogging software already comes pre-installed. With WordPress through Bluehost, you will have to install WordPress manually. However, I have included the step-by-step instructions on how to do so here - it's seriously very easy to do and can be completed literally within a few minutes, no problem! You are also totally right about the freedom of using WordPress with Bluehost. Whilst WordPress.com explicitly restricts you from working with various ad companies (e.g. AdSense, Media.net, etc.), you are free to sign up to almost any ad provider with WordPress / Bluehost. Hence, you'll be able to monetize your blog very easily. Themes are also highly customizable for Bluehost / WordPress - something that WordPress.com does provide, but only marginally and with many creative limitations. Ultimately, if you are serious about starting a food blog for yourself with aims to monetize it, the way to go is with the software of WordPress.org. :) Bluehost is a reliable domain provider as well with great WordPress support. Hope that clarifies things! Regards, Levan
  
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Ariel says

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This post is not only great for newbies, but for those of us who are finally ready to start monetizing! This is going to sound like a dumb question, but I've read so many different ways to become self hosted, and which sites to use, that I want to make sure that I'm reading your post right haha :) So once I get my domain through Bluehost, I can just install Wordpress, (without an extra fee?) and be good to go to start creating my site?? (I saw another commenter above mentioning they don't have as much freedom with designing their page so I'm confused). That sounds SO easy compared to what I've read elsewhere!! I've been looking into switching over my site to Bluehost, but always thought you had to pay for Wordpress too! Thanks so much for this!!

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- Levan says
  
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  Great questions Ariel! And thanks for asking them. Believe me, I had to grapple with the same confusion too for the longest time, LOL. You read it completely, 100% right -- once you get your domain through Bluehost, they will give you instructions on how to set up WordPress (which is basically software that resides in your server space). WordPress is COMPLETELY free, and will always be! No extra fees at all because it is included in the Bluehost package. No sudden 'hidden' fees too. The guide I wrote will definitely work to helping you set things up with minimal hassle too. Are you currently on WordPress.com? If you are, there is a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Think of the first as a site that allows most bloggers to blog for free. The second is a fancy community name for the blogging software itself. So when you shift to Bluehost, they will provide you with the WordPress software for free. :) Just install it and you are good to go, for real! (P.S. You'll definitely need WordPress the software to start monetizing your blog with ads, affiliates, etc. WordPress.com does not allow you to do most of this for legal reasons. Hence the benefits of being self-hosted!) Let me know if I can help you further in any way! I will definitely respond to all your questions as best as I can. :) I intend to write a full length post really soon on how to monetize your food blog. :) Stay tuned! I reckon it'll be done by July for sure! .
  
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  - Ariel says
    
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    That's fantastic!!! I've done a little more research and can't wait to get it all squared away! I do not have Wordpress currently; I'm running off of Weebly, which they also offer the option to use through Blue host, but I like the idea of having a variety of plugins and more options design wise for the blog. I did have another quick question as well, when you got your domain and began using Adsense and all, did you also register it as a business? :) Trying to wrap my head around some numbers before I make any purchases! Thanks again A TON!!
    
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    - Levan says
      
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      Hey there Ariel! I'm happy to help in any way I can. Let me try to best answer the stuff you raised! :) 1) It's totally true. When it comes to customization, nothing - and I mean NOTHING - beats WordPress as a blogging platform. The sheer number of useful plugins you can find is amazing – and the power they give you as a blogger is immeasurable. Let me know when you've got your WordPress up and running and I'll happily recommend some plugins that I know to be good from experience (all free stuff too!). :) You’ll definitely want to set stuff up like Social Sharing buttons, newsletter widgets, recipe card layouts, and so on – all real easy to do. 2) With regards to registering with AdSense, there is no real difference to Google if you are an individual or business. Your account will be treated the same in terms of monetization, payments, etc. So, in this case, just for convenience and consistency, I would recommend you register as an Individual - if only for arbitrary reasons. That being said, if you ever become an epic megastar food blogger who earns a bucket-load of cash in the tens of thousands a month (which I'm sure you will with hard work!), you will have to pay standard country taxes. But, according to popular wisdom and the laws in most countries, you'll be paying them as part of your ordinary income as an individual - no different. :) So, in short, register as an Individual and blog as an individual and there will be no discerning difference in your life. :) Other ad companies you almost definitely want to try would be Gourmet Ads (if you’re a food blogger) and Mode Media. These are two very solid and reliable ad companies who pay well for your work and which, when you start getting traffic, will actually start bringing in the bucks for your blog.  I'll also add a few things here just for your information. :) I'll be perfectly honest as well. When it comes to finding a good domain provider, there are many, many options out there. There's Bluehost, Hostgator, Dreamhost, a gazillion others. However, from my interactions with many bloggers out there, most people are happy with Bluehost for various reasons. 1) They have an excellent support team that are quick to respond and also extensive in their help. 2) Their pricing -- it's pretty hard to beat, 3) Bluehost is one of the very few companies that the team who programmed WordPress actually recommend themselves. Can’t get better than that! That being said, Bluehost is not perfect-in-every-single-way-you-can-think-of-on-this-green-earth. :D BUT they are the one of the best at what they do for their range of products. Their track record proves it. I used to run a small blog on Bluehost and can report first hand that they are 99% of the time solid and reliable. However, when we first created Amrita @ Crazy Vegan Kitchen, I thought I’d try something different and go with Hostgator – just as an experiment. That was a mistake! Don’t get me wrong; Hostgator are not terrible by any measure, but their service left a little to be desired. I felt like I was a randomly assigned number and not a person whenever I spoke with them. When your blog gets bigger (e.g. 4000+ visitors a day at least), I do recommend switching over to a VPS server. We ourselves upgraded our hosting plan and went over to inMotion Hosting in order to better handle our growing traffic needs. Nonetheless, I stick to my opinion that for Starter blogs who are just finding their feet (i.e. traffic at around 2000-3000 visitors a day), Bluehost’s basic shared hosting plans are a good way to go.  I hope I have managed to answer your questions! When you’re ready, feel free to drop by this page again and get things started up. I’ll be here to help you before, during, and after the whole process as best as I can.  Regards, Levan
      
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      - Levan says
        
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        P.S. Also, BEFORE applying to AdSense, I would recommend you set things up on your WordPress first. Post a few recipes, blog for maybe a couple of weeks - just so you have content up and running and you get the lay of the land. That way when you apply for AdSense, the peeps who come over to check if your content is 'Google AdSense worthy' will have something to look at. If your site was empty and looked 'too new', then they might reject you. But, as long as you have a few posts under your belt (not that many, just a few), your chances of getting into AdSense are pretty high. :) They aren't actually fussed about stuff like traffic requirements, etc. -- more so about quality of content. Your current blog already has tons of quality content so there's no problem there whatsoever. :)
        
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Andrea says

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Love your website and that you two are really honest human beings, in a world where every one is so selfish. Hats off to you both. I know I am sounding totally dumb here now, but did not understand how we can make income, do the ad companies contact you to host their ads? how does that work?. I have always wanted to create my own blog and I sincerely want to thank you both for giving all this information on how to. Just a little hesitant and unsure if I will be able to keep up with it. If you wish to respond on email directly, then you could do that too. Thank you and love your honest blog, Andrea

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- Levan says
  
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  Hey there Andrea! Thanks so much for the compliments and questions. Amrita and I try our very best to be straight up with our readers (and people in real life too). There’s too much nonsense already in the world for us to want to add more! :) Good question regarding blog income generation! First off, I haven’t been doing our Income Reports for the last few months owing to work obligations. But, in essence, Amrita @ Crazy Vegan Kitchen is currently generating between US$650-$900 a month. Nothing to write home about but, hey, it’s income nonetheless! The reason I’m telling you this is because I wanted to show you that it is indeed possible to grow your income through a food blog, even if you intend to maintain it only casually! We started off earning a measly $40+ for our first few months with things growing organically from there. The best way to generate income is by signing up to ad networks. To answer your question, usually ad networks will occasionally approach you asking you to join them, but your best and most efficient option is signing up for them yourself. From our experience, the best ad-networks to join are Gourmet Ads and AdSense. These two compliment each other nicely in terms of income generation (especially Gourmet Ads). You can sign up for them at the following addresses: http://publishers.gourmetads.com/ https://www.google.com/adsense/signup?hl=en&gsessionid=28xjTEORVx8aTxMygUizXA Note that AdSense usually doesn’t have a strict ‘readership number requirement’ threshold to enter. Gourmet Ads does have a threshold (not sure what it is at this moment in time) but they are usually flexible if you can convince them that you’ll be a good fit to them. Once you’ve signed up, all you need to do is insert the ad tags into your blog and you’ll start generating income immediately! This is where signing up to a self-hosted blog comes in handy. Whilst WordPress.com actually RESTRICTS you directly from signing up to these income generating opportunities, a self-hosted WordPress.org blog does NOT. So you’re free to sign up to the above networks with no worries whatsoever. Another way to generate income is by joining affiliate programs. Affiliate programs work on the basis of you being a saleswoman for companies and/or products you trust. You earn a small commission every time you sell a product to one of your online readers. We ourselves are affiliate members of Bluehost and Amazon – two companies we trust completely. The best approach to affiliate marketing is to only promote products you yourself have tried and tested. This builds trust between you and your readers, thus increasing their chances of purchasing something through your site. If they do, you get a small cut of the sale, at NO ADDITIONAL COST to your readers. So it’s win-win for all parties! Using both ad networks and affiliate programs, you should be able to generate a decent income from your food blog provided you continue to give good recipe content to your readers. Join Pinterest as well to promote your blog to an even wider audience and get people coming! To answer your question, you don’t actually need to keep up with updating your blog a gazillion times a week. We ourselves tend to update our blog about once every week or so, taking a few breaks in between. That being said, if you want to earn more from your blog, you may want to post as often as possible – but it all depends on you. It is your freedom to enjoy. :) What I can promise you, however, is that if you take the above steps, your blog WILL generate income. How much you earn depends on how much you want to put into it in terms of time and effort. :) You may also want to check out some of our income reports for more tips on how to monetize your food blog. I wrote these posts a few months back which many people found particularly useful. :) https://crazyvegankitchen.com/category/food-bloggers-diary/ I do plan to continue producing them in future when my work load lessens. Particularly, I recommend you check out the eBook How to Monetize Your Food Blog — that book inspired us to do what we do today in terms of ad monetization. It’s solid stuff, no BS! I hope this response helps you and inspires you to take the leap of faith! :) Let me know if I can assist in any further way. Regards, Levan
  
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  - Levan says
    
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    P.S. I wanted to write to you via email but realized that you didn’t provide a contact address for me to write to. :) So I just left the long response here instead!
    
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alicia says

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I just downloaded the Foodie Prop theme, and was so excited to use it...until I learned Wordpress does not allow you to upload a custom theme :( I've reached out to StudioPress to hopefully troubleshoot the issue, but I may need to request a refund. So disappointing, I really wanted to use this theme on my site! :'(

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- Levan says
  
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  Hey there Alicia! So sorry to hear about the mishap. Yeah, WordPress.com doesn’t allow for custom themes (control freaks, heh) but a self-hosted WordPress.org site does allow for easy installation. I’d personally recommend switching over to a self-hosted site if you plan to be serious about blogging in the long run though. It’s much more customizable than WordPress.com PLUS it’s much, much easier to monetize your blog too and earn a little income from it. Hope that the refund goes smoothly though! Let us know if we can assist in any way! Levan
  
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  - Alicia says
    
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    Hi there! I wanted to write and update you that I finally got my site up and running with this theme and I love it!! :) Thanks for all the tips! www.thetravelingbean.com
    
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    - Amrita @ Crazy Vegan Kitchen says
      
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      Hey Alicia, wow, your site is a thing of beauty! Levan is going to love it, I'm gonna make sure he has a look too! It is always a pleasure helping other bloggers out!
      
      Reply

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