Know in simple steps about How to start a food blog?
So how to start a self-hosted food blog or for that matter how to start a blog ?
And what the hell is the term self-hosted? or what is a host for that matter?
…and like me, you just love everything about food and want to share your culinary skills with everyone in the world or just want a platform to showcase the food you cook and preserve your memories in an on-line dairy?
I know you love to start a food blog and keep postponing it for years or you think it is a rocket science to open a blog/website of yours?
No let me actually make it simple for you..Are you ready to start a food blog of your own? Follow the below steps and know how to start a food blog right now!
Before I start, let me tell you two cents about self-hosted and hosted blogs.
A HOSTED BLOG that resides on the servers of companies like Blogger.com,WordPress.com and is hosted for free.
Examples are yourblog.blogspot.com or yourblog.wordpress.com. They are totally free!
A SELF-HOSTED blog/website is hosted on a company’s server for which you pay and you actually OWN your blog!
It is not FREE but it is sure worth the money!!
Leave a comment below if you are not clear on the above points and I will update this post.
HOW TO START A FOOD BLOG!
These are the three simple steps you need to follow (Don’t worry I will explain it for you J)
1.Domain name
2.Hosting
3.Installing a blogging software(Install WordPress)
4.Make it look nicer!
Let’s dig in!
Step #1 DOMAIN NAME
This is so much simple to understand. It is like your name; .So, domain name is name of you blog and forms the URL. Like mine is sirisfood.com. Always try to keep it simple and memorable.Once you decide on a name ,see if its available for you to use as you can’t have two blogs/websites on the same name on the Internet.
See step 2 for this as both domain name and hosting can be supplied by the same hosting company.
DOMAIN NAME is free if you are hosted with BLUEHOST!!(it is a web-hosting company that’s reliable and most used in the market)
Step #2 HOSTING
Understanding the word Hosting is simple. You need someone to give space for your blog to exist on Internet.A hosting company is one that keeps your blog on their servers and you pay them money.
So you own your blog and have full control on it!
My blog is hosted with Bluehost.com .Bluehost is one the most reliable and fastest web hosting providers known in the online market.They are believed to be the best in the price/quality ratio of services they offer.
Some cool features of BLUEHOST to help you choose the most reliable web hosting service!
- Great customer support in all means phone/email/chat
- Offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains(yes, you can just buy another domain and host it on the same account! voila!!) and unlimited email accounts.
- Easy to use and the hosting service recommended by WordPress itself!
- Ok to go prices like starting from 3.95$. Long term contact will come for cheaper rates.I took a 3 year contract that costs around just 3.95$ a month. And you get for what you pay! Trust me!
how -to-start-a-food-blog-hosting-wordpress
Check below to proceed on this step.Click on the image to proceed further.
Enter your desired domain name here,and it will tell you if available
If you have a domain name already you could just buy the hosting services and switch your blog from the old host to bluehost.
Example : If you have your own domain(yourblog.com) that is hosted on Google/Blogger , you could switch it from there to a new host i.e Bluehost in this case.
Step #3 INSTALLING WordPress
Okay now that we have a name and hosting for your blog, it does require a set of functions/program to present your content on the blog. You could call it as a software or content management program. Examples are WordPress, Blogger,Tumblr.
WordPress is my choice for sirisfood and for obvious reasons. It is one of the best SEO-friendly(will write more about it in future posts) blogging software on the Web.You could see why I prefer WordPress to Blogger(which is again a blogging software) in my previous post TOP 5 Reasons am moving from Blogger to WordPress)
Once you complete registration with Bluehost you will need to install WordPress to start blogging. Let’s see how it works..
Login to your Bluehost account and click on hosting tab.You will Website Builders in cPanel.Click on WordPress and follow the remaining steps which should be straight forward.
This is the screen on your cPanel
Once you complete the above process you will need to login to your Admin account of WordPress inorder to start blogging.
It will be like https://yourdomainname/wp-admin
Username is your registered email address while installing the WordPress.
WordPress login screen
Step #4 MAKE YOUR BLOG LOOK PRETTY
This is a fun part actually! this can go as crazy as you select a dress for a party evening! It is all about making your blog to look super pretty.WordPress offers number of free and premium themes that can shape your blog in the way you dream. While most of the free themes offer what you want, premium themes have some nice extra features which gives you more control on your blog.
Genesis Framework – This is the framework am using for SIRISFOOD and I also use the child premium theme FOODIE THEME from Shaybocks.com which I found apt to my requirements.
Click here to purchase the combined package for Genesis frame work and Foodie theme
Explore all the themes and pick up one that suits your style and personal choice. There are thousands of themes waiting for you!
Once you do all these steps, you might want to add necessary PLUGINS to customise you blog.
Examples are plugins that protect your blog from spam comments, install email subscription forms etc.
TADAAA..you are done! Now you own a blog that is completely yours! Play with it ,go crazy,get serious and enjoy your online presence!
Now you can post the recipe about your signature Chicken curry to the whole world proudly!You are all set up with your own food blog now!
Disclaimer : I have written this post with my own experiences and learnings and this is not a paid post.All of the products mentioned in this post are the ones I use for my blog so you can contact me for any doubts related to them.Also this post contain few affiliate links(when you click and buy I get some commission and this won’t effect your final pricings!!).Thanks for supporting my blog.
Please leave a comment below about any questions/suggestions or improvements.Also based on your responses I will ty to keep updating this post with relevant details.
FAQ
1.Is this post useful for only food blogs?
No, this can be used as a guide to open any kind of blog,Just choose the theme according to your niche of blogging.
2.Is bluehost the only available hosting service provider?
No, there are others like GoDaddy,Hostgater etc, but I luse and recommend Bluehost.
3.Does this self hosted blog cost too much?
It’s definitely not free, but you will see that every penny you spent is worth!
4.Can I go for a free theme so I can reduce my cost?
Yes, there are hundreds of free themes available on WordPress.It all depends on how we want our blog to look like.
5.I already have my own domain on blogger.Can I still follow this process?
Yes, but you will need other steps like
- Transfer you domain from your old host Google to new host,Bluehost(sure will write a detailed post about this)
- Import the posts from you Blogger account to WordPress(also called Blogger to WordPress Migration, yes am already working on this post 🙂 )
6.Can you reach me for any help while starting your food blog or while switching from Blogger to WordPress?
Certainly 🙂 , but I do take some time to respond as I am a full time and boring Software Professional during the day and a lazy wife/cook over the evening. So be patient 🙂
TO YOU..
So what do you think about this post? Do you think you learnt a new thing today? Do care to leave a comment on what is interesting (and boring 🙂 )about this post. I would love to hear from you.
To keep you updated with more of these kind of blogging tips and reasonably good recipes , please sign-up using the below form.
Take care ,
Until next time,
Siri
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Great work Siri ! I have really started liking your new craze , writing about Blogging 🙂
Thanks Nupur!
I thought it is fun to share my learnings with my peers!
Very detailed post Siri. I’m sure it will be useful to many like me who want to take that next step.
Hi Preethi,
Glad you really liked it! Love your sewing blog.
Keep rocking with creative collections!
Super andi ;0)
So you finally done it. All the very best, I hope you’ll make your first affiliate sale pretty soon.
P.S: I’m also writing a post on increasing affiliate sales on my blog soon. Catch you there.
Keep rocking Siri.
Hey Rahul,
I would be the first person to land there as soon as you hit publish 🙂
Thanks to you for making me realise that I need to learn a lot in blogging.
Thanks for your encouraging words.
Thanks Siri for the detailed post. I will get in touch with you once the kids go back to school.
Must mention I have become a huge fan of your writing!
Hey am happy you liked it Madhu..Sure ,also you post your questions meanwhile so I know what is required to update blogger bites section!
And thanks for the encouraging words there. Love it.
Have holiday fun!
Pretty detailed stuff for newbie food bloggers…., must say sirisfood is a creative blog…. way to go 🙂
Thanks Anish!
Hey, informative post. Can you do a post on image optimization for better SEO? Also about the best software for bulk optimization and what size should the food picture be when uploading on blog.
Hey Sooriya,
Glad you liked it! all my images I crop into 650×975 resolution.
Also did you check this on image powder for a food blog
http://www.sirisfood.com/2014/08/blogging-tips-how-to-add-alt-text-to-images-in-blog/
Very informative post – thanks for this!
Thanks Marie!
Siri .. first time here.. i found these informations are really useful.. you are doing a great job.. Happy Blogging 🙂
I was looking for one such blogger who shares her knowledge on blogging with no hesitation.Hats off to you Siri. You will really have the credit of making many bloggers who had always wanted to blog but dint know how-to and where-to. You are a 100% professional:) Salute 🙂 And it is so lovely to see you replying back for every comment. It is the most essential quality but 99% bloggers lack:(
Thanks much Kalyani for your encouraging comment, my blog is solely for readers
Thanks Sireesha 🙂 for your detailed guidelines for starting a blog. i had an idea to start a food blog and when i don’t know how, your guidelines helped me a lot and you are my inspiration. thanks once again.
Glad it helped you in starting your blog Jayannthi,do leave me the link to your blog