You don’t have to be a professional writer, a trained chef, or the next Anthony Bourdain to start a successful food blog. Every day, thousands of bloggers share everything from restaurant reviews to new recipes, attracting millions of hungry readers — and making money from their passion for food.

Take Jana W. She wakes up around 6:30 AM like many of us and checks her email over breakfast. But she doesn’t leave for work at 7:30. Her office is her kitchen. Her lifestyle is her kitchen. Her business is her kitchen — and business is booming. She averages a little over 200,000 followers a week on her main food blog, plus a few hundred thousand more on Instagram.

Jana is not a trained chef and has no restaurant background. When she started her blog in 2012, she researched and used quality WordPress hosting for food bloggers, and designed her blog herself in her spare time as a paralegal — a job she left five years later to blog full time. “At first, these were just old family recipes I’d been making for years. And then, somehow, it snowballed from there.”

Jana’s story is not unique. Every day, ordinary enthusiasts turn their love of cooking into a money-making venture simply by sharing their ideas on a blog. Curious how to get started? Here are the 12 steps.

1. Pick a Creative Domain Name

The keyword here is “creative,” not esoteric. The best food bloggers share as much of their daily lives as they do cooking secrets, so pick a name that reflects you as a person — not just “budding amateur pastry chef.” For inspiration, look at some of the top food blogs around: Oh She Glows, Simply Recipes, A Cozy Kitchen, Naturally Ella, 101 Cookbooks, Honey & Jam, and Spoon Fork Bacon.

2. Pick a Compatible Food Blog Host

I use GreenGeeks for my websites and blogs, and I partner with them because they’ve been such a valuable asset to my online marketing career. There are thousands of hosting providers out there, but if you want to save time and money, model what other successful food bloggers do. You can sign up with GreenGeeks and get a great discount using my link here.

3. Install WordPress

I cannot stress this enough — and if you’re using GreenGeeks, this is automatic. WordPress is the standard blogging tool. There’s a reason it powers over 40% of all websites on the internet. If you can format a Word document, you can easily use WordPress for your food blog.

4. Choose a Premium Theme

Food blogs are different from other niches — they lean as much on visual content as on text. So avoid free WordPress themes and choose a fast, well-coded premium theme, ideally one designed with recipe and food layouts in mind.

5. Install the Fundamental Blog Marketing Tools

Two marketing tools are fundamental to your success as a food blogger.

First, you need a way to track and measure your blog’s traffic. The best free system on the planet for that is Google Analytics.

Second, you need an email marketing automation service — which is much more than a simple way to send email. I suggest setting up your free trial with Constant Contact here. It gives you a way to capture your visitors’ names and emails so you can build a list and nurture that relationship with automated emails — which increases your income in a major way.

6. Be Personable

The biggest mistake first-time bloggers make is assuming they have nothing to say. But eating is a shared human experience — even those of us who can mess up a grilled cheese can attest to that. Don’t assume that because you’re not a professional, you’re not entitled to your own opinions and techniques. The most successful food bloggers succeed because they are the same as their readers, and they’re not afraid to speak their minds and share value consistently.

7. Start Writing About What You Know

“I remember writing about the first time I tried to cook Indian food,” says Jana. “I absolutely butchered it, of course. A few readers were kind enough to point out my mistakes, and it was humbling enough that I thought, maybe I should hold off on blogging about Indian food until I’m halfway decent at cooking it.” Start with what you already know, and grow from there.

8. Keep It Consistent

Many bloggers assume they should only post when the mood strikes — which for some means once every six months. Professionals know readers demand frequently updated content to stay engaged. Imagine a journalist who only wrote “when they felt like it.” You don’t have to post every day or even every week, but set a minimum goal of 3 or more posts a month and stick to it.

9. Guest Posting

Guest posting is one of the most effective ways to generate natural traffic, and it’s a strong backlinking strategy that boosts your search rankings. As your articles are published and shared by relevant third-party blogs, your free search traffic grows. Most lifestyle blogs are always looking for fresh content and are happy to exchange links and articles — food bloggers in particular are notoriously supportive. If there’s a writer you follow, ask if they’d be open to exchanging guest posts. More often than not, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.

10. Optimize Your Images

Food bloggers use lots of quality images to show off those tasty-looking meals. Use a WordPress plugin to reduce the file size of your images so your pages load faster — which results in more traffic, engagement, and sales. Two free image optimization plugins you can use are Smush and EWWW Image Optimizer.

11. Leverage Affiliate Offers

One of the fastest ways to monetize your food blog is linking to affiliate offers you personally vouch for. Only share products and services you’ve vetted and know are legit — when you link out to something, you’re putting your stamp of approval on it. Here’s a free list of the top affiliate marketing companies you can sign up with. Choose the offers you believe in and find helpful for your audience. Commission rates vary by offer.

12. Prioritize Your Own Products and Services

In most cases it’s far more profitable to emphasize your own products and services over affiliate offers. Other people’s products are easier and fun to promote, but having your own offers is how food bloggers make most of their money. Some offers you can develop yourself include:

• Dropship products (kitchenware, specialty ingredients, gadgets)
• Membership access
• Ebooks and recipe books
• Online courses
• Private consulting
• Food preparation services or catering
• Coaching or mentoring

Bonus Tips

A food blog takes three fundamental things to succeed: valuable content, strategic marketing, and time — technically four, if you count lots and lots of images. Valuable content always comes first. Don’t get discouraged if you only have a dozen followers after a week or two. In time you can gain thousands of visitors and subscribers.

Above all, don’t obsess over search rankings when you’re starting out. Write naturally, write honestly, and have fun. Your readers can sense when you’re writing from the heart, and they’ll respond and share your content in kind. That’s what keeps the value-to-traffic cycle going.

If you would like personal help starting your food blog and turning it into a real income stream, book a free 30-minute call with Trent here.