I wish I had some magic secrets or shortcuts to share, but the truth is that food blogging is hard work. I receive questions about the subject fairly often, so I sat down to compile my best tips for food bloggers and ended up with an even twenty. You’ll be more likely to develop a successful food blog if you follow these guidelines.
1. Be authentic.
Post about what you love and produce the best content you possibly can.
2. Don’t give up.
Blog growth is slow at first and gains momentum as time goes on, assuming that you stick with it and do your best.
3. Post original content.
If visitors like what you do, they will keep coming back for more.
4. Show your personality!
Enthusiasm is infectious, so don’t be afraid to show it. One of the coolest things about blogging is that you can connect with people who share your undying love for, say, avocado on toast.
5. Make friends and help each other.
In other words, network! Connect and cultivate friendships with other bloggers who share your interests. Leave thoughtful comments on their blogs, chat with them on social media and promote their content.
6. Make yourself accessible.
Be present and responsive on social media as best you can.
7. Keep your site design clean and easy to navigate.
Clutter detracts from your content.
8. Make it easy for visitors to follow your blog.
Place links to RSS/email subscription and social media prominently on each page.
9. Make it easy to comment on your blog.
No CAPTCHAs or required logins, please. Find a way to let your commenters know that they are appreciated, whether that’s by emailing them privately, responding to their comment publicly or by commenting on their blogs.
10. Make it easy to share your content.
Provide social media sharing buttons at the end of each post. Say thank you when others promote your work.
11. Post fantastic recipes only.
You don’t want visitors to invest their time and ingredients into a recipe and end up disappointed, right? Better to let the blog go quiet for a few days than to post a recipe you can’t stand behind.
12. Cite your sources.
Always. Not cool: reposting recipes verbatim, posting other bloggers’ photos without permission. Cool: original recipes, sharing links to your inspiration, linking to further resources on the subject at hand.
13. Don’t sell out.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try to make money off your blog, but don’t align yourself with a brand or project that isn’t a good fit. You are the company you keep. Focus on producing your best content and building your audience and the opportunities will come.
14. Post on a regular basis.
Whether that’s every day, once a week or once every other week, don’t let your blog look abandoned.
15. Get your own domain name.
If you want your blog to be taken seriously, just do it. You can buy a domain name for less than twenty dollars a year through GoDaddy (affiliate link).
16. Build a self-hosted WordPress blog.
That is, if you want full control over your design and content and plenty of room to grow. If you don’t know how to do these things, pay someone good to do it for you or shower your geeky friend with homemade cookies until he agrees. Find a step-by-step guide (and food blog design and web hosting tips) here.
17. Learn about search engine optimization.
SEO isn’t black magic; it’s about making your quality content findable. It’s important to understand and implement the basics. Here is Google’s SEO starter guide [PDF].
18. Submit your posts to recipe submission sites.
When you’re getting started, submission sites may be a good source of new visitors. In the past, I’ve submitted my posts to Foodgawker, Tastespotting, Tasteologie and Finding Vegan (when applicable). Keep a text file that contains the submission information so it’s easy to copy and paste it onto each site. If your photo is rejected the first time around, edit it or choose a different photo and resubmit. Don’t forget to pin your new recipes to Pinterest, too!
19. Learn how to take appetizing photos.
People are much more likely to want to eat, make, share and pin your recipes when they are presented alongside appealing photos. Find my food photography tips and equipment recommendations here.
20. Do what your mama told you.
This should go without saying, but be nice, be constructive, be respectful, be appreciative, be humble. Work hard.
More resources for food bloggers on Cookie and Kate
Questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
alison
These are great tips Kate, thanks for taking the time to share them! I need to do a better job tackling SEO…it can be overwhelming sometimes.
Sigh Wadud
Our**
lisa
Find recipes about Hot water Cornbread. hot water cornbread recipe from the hot water cornbread recipes collection at hotwatercornbread.net.
Erin
Thanks for all the great information! Two girlfriends and I just got a food blog started last month, and it can be so overwhelming. So nice to find this kind of info from people who have been there! :)
Abby @ The Frosted V
Thank you for this, I needed it! It seems like the blogging world is overwhelming, so this helps break it down!
Kate
You’re welcome, Abby. I’m so glad you found it helpful.
Jessica
Thanks Kate, these are some great tips. Appreciate you spending the time to put this list together and share with us :)
sarah @ two tarts
All great tips. Original content & great photography is so important, at least that’s what I care about when I look at other people’s food blogs. I need to be better with comments & SEO for sure!
Jodi
This is so great! Thank you Kate! I absolutely love your blog and appreciate you sharing these tips – yay!
Kristen
Such great tips!
Maria
Great post! Thanks for sharing! Your blog is a favorite of mine!
Kate
Thank you, Maria! I’m really happy to hear that.
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl
Such great advice, Kate – love all of the articles you shared as well. Can’t wait to dig in!
Nikki
Thanks so much for this. I’ll be spending time looking at all the links as well. Having just started my food blog, this is extremely helpful!
Kate
You’re welcome, Nikki. I’m so glad you found it helpful.
JulieD
Awesome tips, I agree completely…especially with number 1!!
Margaret
Great tips for any newbie blogger. Thanks for sharing your wisdom. :)
Mike
I just stumbled upon your blog looking for food blogging tips. This is a great post. Thanks for sharing!
Laura
Can I add, make it easy to print out a recipe. It frustrates me to no end to find a recipe I really like the looks of, but there isn’t any easy way to print it out without all the extra stuff down the sidebars of a blog. I know there are sites I can copy the link into and then print from there (like Printfriendly), but in reality, chances are I’m not going to take that step.
Kate
Great point, Laura! Thanks for chiming in.
Reginald McCoy
“And then blog gods from the heavens above, thanked you for writing this post.” (Lol).
I’m so new to blogging and have so much to learn. I feel like such a moron, at times. Thanks again.
Becky @ A Calculated
Hi Kate, thank you so much for all your great advice! If you have a chance to check out my new blog, I would love that. Also, what is that delicious-looking stuff in the photo with the title of this post? Is it lemon curd?
Kate
Thank you, Becky! Your blog looks lovely. The photo is of my meyer lemon and blood orange curd.
Charlotte
Thanks for the tips Kate, really useful as a new blogger! Love your recipes, recently went vegetarian for a month and they were such an inspiration!
Katy C
Thanks so much for sharing these tips! You inspired me to really start focusing on social media and accessibility. I haven’t really kept up with the times (how sad, right?) as far as Twitter, Instagram, BlogLovin, etc., but I know that in order to do this right, I need to figure that out and stop living in my own little blog bubble! This weekend is dedicated to tip #8 on this list. Thanks again for your thoughtful post. If you do have a chance to check out tastylittlecrouton.com, I’d love to get your feedback (I know my photos need a lot of work… I’m budgeting for a DSLR but working with an iPhone at the moment. Oh gosh!).
Hope to talk to you soon,
Katy
Kate
Hey Katy, thanks for the comment! To be honest, I have the hardest time keeping up with social media and other blogs. I try, but some bloggers are so much better at it. I checked out your blog and it’s looking good! Your iPhone shots look good to me. I noticed a few of the featured post images on your home page are pixelated, so they aren’t being viewed in their full glory. That might be something worth figuring out. Stuffed poblanos, yum!
Just Desserts Here
Great advice – I’m just starting out and starting to have some fun getting into it so thanks for the tips.
Nicole A
Thanks for the foodgawker tip, I totally didn’t think of that myself! :-)
Aamir Lehri
Thanks for the awesome tips :)
Anastasia Kennett
Thank you so much for this. I want to have a food section for my blog and this really helped me.
Kate
You’re welcome, Anastasia! Glad you found it helpful.
Katy
Kate, thanks so much for putting this list together and sharing. I just started my own food blog a few months ago, and there is so much to learn! Really great links on SEO in #17. I’ve been putting that off a little bit, but it’s time to tackle the bull by the horns!
Kate
Glad you found the tips helpful, Katy! SEO seems tricky at first but it’s really worth the effort to learn.
Smishri
Thanks for the comprehensive list very informative.I have my own Indian food blog,will try out the tips here.
Samantha
These are great tips!
I think people are so focused on promoting themselves that they forget to give back to the community so I really liked that suggestion :)
Kelley
Thank you so much, Kate, for these awesome tips! I’m a *newish* food blogger and am looking to amp things up ;) I really appreciate all the advice, I’m going to go browse around some more now! Kelley
Karie Fraley
This was really helpful thank you. I was feeling really discouraged this morning after being banned from veggie boards, apparently you can’t use it for promotional reasons. I should’ve done what my mama told me! Lol
Daniel Weidman
Thanks for the thoughtful and practical tips. We’ll definitely be implementing for our site. Keep the great advice coming!
Tabitha
Thank you so much for these amazing and fully comprehensive tips! It is all such useful info even though the thought of SEO is a bit daunting! Thank you, thank you
Helen @ Scrummy Lane
Thank you, Kate! These tips and links are so helpful. I’ve just started my blog and am going to add the link to this post to my ‘blogging tips’ page, if that’s OK!
Kate
Yes, of course, you’re welcome to link to my site! Thanks, Helen!
aneesh ahmad
Thanks for the comprehensive list very informative.I have my own Indian food blog,will try out the tips here.
Amanda
Hi Kate! I just found you via an internet search for food blogging newbies…and instantly fell in love with your blog. Thank you so much for these great tips! I’m looking forward to jumping into the food blogosphere soon :-)
Kate
Thank you, Amanda! Good luck with your food blog!
jordie @ thefitnut.com
Thank you for your tips! I love your website. I have one question, what program do you use/suggest for writing different word/styles on your photos? I love to post recipes and would like to mix up my fonts/styles on my photos. And I also post workouts, but haven’t been able to find a program to write workouts (in a cute font) on a photo. I hope that makes sense ;) thank you!
Jordie
Kate
Hey Jordie! I use Photoshop to add text to my photos. Photoshop Elements might be a more affordable option but I haven’t used it before. A free option is PicMonkey.com.
Kav
I just published my first blog post after several weeks of putzing around with setup and using trial versions of numerous photo editing softwares. I found that the new Adobe Creative Cloud offerings can be a fairly affordable way to use a full featured photo editing package. I believe it is subscription based, so you pay fees per month to use 1 or all of the Adobe offerings. I used Lightroom and Photoshop, but I agree with Kate, there are cheaper and easier alternatives if all you require is editing your photos to add text.
Christine |Taste of Divine
Hi Kate!
This page was one of the first pages I came to when looking at starting my own blog! I bookmarked it, and now I’m back again :)
After being at this for a few months, I can see even more how important these tips are. Thanks for what you do!
And what? You have an undying love for avocado on toast? ME TOO!!!!
Kate
Thanks, Christine! :)
Ranjani Raj
Kate.. How sweet you are.. Really these 20 tips are highly helpful.. the files which you linked are amazing.. Keep helping new bloggers like this.. Hats off to you :)
Victoria
Kate, thank you so much, you shared very useful tips for rookies. I have recently started my own website. Initially I developed 2 language versions, and while my Russian-speaking audience is growing, the English is at the same position, which is close to zero. I had no clue how to promote my website internationally, but now I have some ideas. Thanks again!
Kate
You’re welcome, Victoria! Good luck!
Cristina Guimarães
Thank you so much for sharing all this information!
corinne
Thanks for this, just starting out a food blog! :) http://www.strikingly.com/cookingforcam
Jodee Weiland
Some great tips here…very useful! Love it…thanks for sharing!
Kate
You’re welcome, Jodee! Thank you for commenting.
Leah
Hi Kate! I’m Leah. Thank you so much for having a post on blogging tips. This is very helpful for me considering I just started my blog a few days ago. I, however, have no content yet besides an “about me” section. I’m still working on the desin and set up. I have to say I love your blog and your dog, Cookie, is adorable!
I will definitely use all of these tips when it comes to progressing my blog.
Thanks again!
-Leah
“Gourmet After Dark”
Kate
Thank you, Leah! Best of luck with your new blog! Love the name.
Caralee Caldwell
Thank you for this post and your others sharing what you have know about food blogging. I can’t wait to make some positive changes to mine.
Grace @ FoodFitnessFreshAir
Good tips! The food blogging community is amazing. But every successful food blog takes momentum, and reminders like these are great.
Jake Arandela
Great job! I’ll follow all your advise. I just started my foodblog about cooking filipino dishes and some cooking tips. www.jeepneyrecipes.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Nicah Santos
Thanks so much for posting these tips! I’m in the process of conceptualizing a food blog I want to get started, but I’m a bit concerned about the ethics of it all. I have a few questions:
1. What’s the proper etiquette for posting a recipe adapted from another food blogger or the results of trying out another blogger’s recipe (assuming the results were stellar)?
2. Is it okay to post personal reviews of restaurants?
Thanks, and I hope to hear back from you!
Kate
Hey Nicah, great questions. 1) The general rule is to change at least three significant aspects of the recipe and type up the instructions in your own words. Always give credit where credit is due. If you don’t want to change the recipe, you can always just write about your experience making it and link over to the original blog post instead of providing the recipe on your blog. 2) This isn’t my arena, but I don’t see you you couldn’t post reviews of restaurants! You might want to google that subject to be sure.
Carolina
Thanks for putting all these resources together. I appreciate your desire and passion to help others. Having these resources from you is really helping me to start my own food blog journey.
Kate
Thank you, Carolina! Best of luck with your food blog!
Traci @ Vanilla And Bean
Hi Kate,
You’ve got such a thoughtful, well planned site, so I appreciate you sharing your wisdom here. I am a new blogger, finding my way. SEO is a mystery to me but am working on understanding it. Your resource links for SEO optimization are very helpful! Thank you for sharing your practical advise!
Kate
Thank you, Traci! Best of luck with your blog!
Clare
Just found this after it was suggested I combine my love for local, quality, natural, sustainable food, travel amd storytelling into a food blog. Lovely that you want to share your knowledge and experience and great to have some practical tips. Thank you!
Kate
Thanks, Clare! Good luck with your food blog!
Sara @knowmoreveggies
Thank you!!! Your tips are very helpful!
Rachael Renee
Thanks for the tips and reminders! It can be tough to stick through the growth period, but very well worth it in the end… I really need to get out there and network more often with other food bloggers. You’ve inspired me to get busy doing that! :)
Kate
Good luck, Rachael! Networking is fun once those other bloggers turn into friends. :)
Ashley
Hi, I just found your blog today and I LOVE IT
I am new to blogging and am not computer tech-y at all and have been feeling somewhat lost and in the few posts of yours that I have read, I feel so much better. They/you are so helpful
Kate
Thank you, Ashley! I’m so glad you found my blog and my tips! Best of luck with your new blog!
Adrian
Thank you for your tips I hope to put them in place :)
Kiano
I was faced with #13 today. Seeing this post made me feel much better about my decision to stay true to my blogger-taste
Nicole
This was SO helpful! Thank you!
Erica
These are excellent tips! I have a bad habit of abandoning my blog every time I get busy with “real life” stuff – sometimes for several months at a time! It’s always taken a back seat but recently I decided to get serious and commit to posting at least every other day. Even when I don’t have a recipe to share, I find myself writing about life in general, and it’s an excellent way to let out some steam and sort my thoughts :)
I’m thinking of investing in a self-hosted WP site with my own domain (right now I’m on WP.com) but I don’t think I’m quite ready to make the jump/write the check. I’m wondering if I should just do it now – will it be a huge pain to try to move my whole site later on? Any thoughts?
Thanks for the tips!
Kate
Hey Erica! I have definitely been guilty of letting my blog sit stagnant when life gets busy. If you’re serious about blogging, I’d say there’s no time like the present to make the switch. I think the bigger your blog gets, the more tricky it becomes. That said, you could totally just buy a domain name and hook it up to your current blog. Then you’d have a .com name for $20 or less per year—might be a great compromise.
Megan B
Thank you so much for your advice! I have been wanting to start my own food blog for a long time now, and have had no idea where to start. I’m mostly having trouble coming up with a name. But I think I have a good idea now of where to go once I figure that out. And your blog is great! Thank you for sharing!
greenevi
Great tips! Thanks
Kike
The feeling is mutual Kate! I LOVE avocado on toast too <3
Thanks for this post, there are a lot of pages that you named that I'm going to have a good look at, and although this is the first time that I visit your page I think I'll come around soon! Nice stuff. Congrats!
Indian Food
Thanks a lot Kate! I just got started with my food blog and feel lucky to have found your blog. These are geart tips.
kat @yummyumfoodlover
Thanks for all your information I just started my food blog and you have been very helpful. I will be checking back in often Thank you
Kate G
What a succinct and honest description of the blogging process! Thank you for your encouragement…you do make it sound easy and have helped eliminate any excuses I may have had preventing me from just starting. Now on to Step One….
Kate
Thanks, Kate! Good luck!
Lynn Lovejoy at Order in the Kitchen
Kate! These are fabulous tips, much like all the incredible tips you offered at ChoppedCon. Thank you so much for all of your fabulous tips and feedback for little bloggers like me who admire those like you!
Kate
Thanks, Lynn! :D
Damon
Thanks for the informative article, Kate. My wife just started her very own Personal Chef business here in Connecticut and we’re currently building the website/blog for it now and these are some really great tips. This piece has been saved for maximum viewing so we can use it as a resource.
Azedine
Hey Kate,
I can’t argue more on those tips and I think they are essential not just for food bloggers. Easy tips but their vital.
Keep up the great work.
Shantelle
Thank you so much for posting this. I have already used some of your tips on my own website and I am seeing positive results.
Penelopi
I really loved all the information! I just started my blog last night and I still a lot about!
Many thanks! :)
Kate
Thanks, Penelopi! Good luck!
Kanmani
Really loved all the information! Thanks :)
Sisley
Hi Kate!
Thank you so much for these tips! I’ve been struggling to get my blog out there and I think these will help a lot :) X
Kate
Thanks, Sisley! Best of luck with your new blog!
marlene
Thank you for this very informative post, I really need it as I’ am just new in this world of blogging.
Annanomous
Thanks for writing this, Kate! I’m glad I found your blog…I’ve been blogging for about a year now (about food), and I am so discouraged by the lack of following. I’ve been hunting for tips and tricks to improve it and get more traffic…this post definitely helped. Also, your blog is beautiful! Top notch.
Thanks again!
Kate
Thank you! Glad I can help. Food blogging is really tough!
dynamicmike
fab article… it’s not often that i am intrigued to read every word.
Now i’m off following your links to see what else I can learn.
;-)
drishti roy
Thank you for this information. This information is very useful for me.
KitchenChemistry
Great article Kate. Thank you for sharing those tips. These are really useful for bloggers like me who are just starting off with blogging.
Amby Felix
Thank you for the tips! I’m continuing to grow my blog (just made the move to wordpress too) and am looking for further progress. I have been now looking into food submission sites! I will check out the ones you recommended. :)
Kate
Best of luck with your blog, Amby! Sounds like you’re making progress!
Paul Mc Cormack
Hi Kate, I just finished reading several of your posts and just wanted to say WOW, great tips, great insights and you are very generous with sharing your knowledge. Loved the photography tips and the Top 20 tips for Food Bloggers. I live in Ontario wine country, Niagara-on-the-Lake, with a bountiful of produce and ‘other’ ingredients – maybe its time to share the love….
Kate
Thank you, Paul! Glad you found the resources helpful. I think it’s time! :)
Duygu Simsek
Thanks for the post. You mentioned wordpress, would live to hear what you think food bloggin on tumblr. I have started posting my recipes in 2015 on Tumblr. Concerning about its usability and reachability.
duyguskitchen.tumblr.com
Kate
Hey, great question. It’s been a long time since I looked at Tumblr. I think that for best visibility in search results, your recipes need use microformatting, and I doubt that there is an easy way to do that on Tumblr. You might look into it.
Ohmydish.com
Thank you for sharing this great insight, Kate! We’ve started our foodblog half a year ago and it’s been great fun, but hard work! Makes you respect other (food) blogs more.
Annaliese
Thanks for all the lovely tips :) I have now submitted photos to food gawker and finding vegan!
Sammie
Hi Kate, thanks so much for all your helpful tips. One problem I seem to have is that when I check my sites SEO it says it doesn’t have a title tag or pages – I have no idea what this means. I’m self hosting on WordPress.org and I have the WordPress SEO Yoast plugin. I thought each individual post would be allocated it’s own page??? I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong!! If you get a spare 5 mins I’d really appreciate you taking a look at my site http://www.feastingisfun.com
Thank you in advance – Sammie
Kate
Hey Sammie, it looks like you are missing title tags somehow. You need to go into your WordPress SEO plugin and check your settings for “Titles & Metas”. I’m not sure what you mean by missing pages, do you mean page titles? Here’s is a guide to using the plugin: https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
Cassie
This is a great resource! My biggest problem is because I came from 2.5 years of book blogging, my followers seem to still be only interested in that. Ive participated in #sundaysupper chats and gotten some new followers but that’s about it. I am trying to build the FOODIE following!
Sammie
Hi Kate, thank you so much for taking the time to look at my site it is very much appreciated. Apologies for the late reply, I have been trying to reply, but it keeps jumping to Apps or saying there is an error – so I thought it best just to leave a new (not reply) comment. I will check out the yoast plugin link and yes I think it possibly is page titles. Once again thank you Sammie x
Kate
Oh no, that should not be happening! Thank you for letting me know.
Leyla
Really great and refreshing advice, thank you. :-) x
James Brown
I particularly appreciate how simple these tips were. It is overwhelming enough when starting a new blog. Thanks Belle!
Tasty Gujarati Food Recipes Blog
Nice Recipes Blog Ptomotion Tips, I Have a Blog on Gujarati Recipes in Gujarati/English Language. i have it prmoted in general but can help me your tips.
Tj Walakani
Hi Kate,
Thank you for sharing the tips with us. As a beginner blogger, things can be quite overwhelming sometimes. I Love your site by the way!
Take care
Tj
Cherie
A BIG thank you. I was desperately looking for it and I’m glad that I found all the necessary stuff at one place. I should now take time to go through all the links. Thank U once again.
Kate
Thank you, Cherie!
Caroline
Hi Kate! I love your blog and the recipes you have created. This week I am going to try some of your salads. They look so delicious! I am a beginner blogger; my blog is about health and wellness. I find so much inspiration in your beautiful pictures and delicious recipes.
Kate
Thank you, Caroline! Looks like your blog is off to a great start.
Caitlin Iles
I love this post! I’ve been blogging for a while, but don’t really know much about how to expand my reach. Thanks for all the great tips :)
Windie
This is going to help my blog so much. Thank you for sharing!!:)
Arya
Thank you very much for the precious recommendations! Today i’m feeling i need this.
Fe
Great tips! I’ve dabbled with the idea of doing a food/travel blog– and this shared some tips into what it really takes to run a legit blog. I think being ‘you’ and having a fun way to bring people in can really make or break a blog– unless you’re doing it just to do it, in that case– good for you!
Really helpful tips though- especially on the tech side (SEOs, domains, log-ins- Oh My!)
Thanks!
Fe
Kate
Thanks, Fe! Your blog concept sounds like a lot of fun, good luck!
Emily
Thanks so much for your help Kate! You are inspiring. I am excited to learn more about food blogging and food photography!
Sanghamitra Chowdhury
Thanks a lot kate for this awesome post..truly helpful it is.I just have started my own food blog recently and am trying to follow your valuable inputs as well.
Michaela
Hi Kate,
thank you for this post!! I have just discovered your blog recently and I really like it! I will definately try some of your recipes, but for now, thse tips have inspired me as I am starting, so it is always enriching to get some tips from experienced bloggers and I found especially points 17-19 very useful!! :) THANKS!
Tikamika
Thank you so much for your advise! I’ve just started my food blog and the direction you’ve provided will help me move along the right path. Hopefully you have a chance to visit my blog (fingers crossed I get my act together by then!). Cheers!
Kate
That’s great to hear! Good luck with your new blog, Tikamika!
Gisela Valcarcel
Thank you so much for such an excellent article! Will be putting your tips to good use :)
Allison
These are such helpful tips! Especially since I am just starting a blog :)
Niddhi
Hi Kate,
Very useful tips and information. I am just starting my new blog on food. I hope to keep the patience and abide by tips you gave.
Kate
Good luck, Niddhi!
Mariooch
Well said! I like #2don’t give up! Thank you for the inspiration. I started my food blog in June and work hard every day to produce interesting posts. It’s been a lot of fun. Best of luck!!!!
Mariooch
Kate
Good luck, Mariooch!
Fred Summers
Thanks for the tips. I have been needing a reason to blog and this really helps. I love the tip on being unique. I think that doing something local is a way to be unique because everywhere is different. I’ll have to keep these in mind.
Irina
Great resource! Thanks for sharing!