How to Start a Food Blog | Step-by-Step for Beginners



Calling all chefs, bakers, & foodies! Ready to start your food blog? Let’s go step-by-step as you learn how to make a WordPress food blog, monetize it, and get a FREE DOMAIN. Note: I’m an affiliate for Bluehost, which means you’ll get 60% off your web hosting (paying only $2.95 per month!) and I’ll receive a commission. Thank you for your support, it helps me continue to create more resources for your blogging journey.

👇 PLEASE USE MY AFFILIATE LINK FOR 60% OFF BLUEHOST WEB HOSTING

https://www.blogwithben.com/food-blog

YOAST SEO PLUGIN UPDATE

Yoast recently deployed an update to their plugin that changed some of the steps of the plugin configuration portion of this video. So, I created a separate video that walks you through the new steps. Please visit the link below to see the updated Yoast configuration walkthrough.

https://youtu.be/-HiQpdbteWU?t=223

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IMPORTANT LINKS FOR THIS VIDEO

https://www.blogwithben.com/food-blog-links

RECOMMENDED PLUGINS

https://www.blogwithben.com/food-blog-plugins

THE ULTIMATE FOOD BLOG GUIDE (FREE EBOOK)

https://www.blogwithben.com/ultimate-food-blog-ebook

WANT TO EARN INCOME WITH YOUR FOOD BLOG?

https://www.blogwithben.com/courses

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IN A NUTSHELL

By the end of this video, your self-hosted food blog will be:

✅ Innovative & mobile responsive
✅ Built on a professional foundation (Bluehost & WordPress)
✅ Optimized for leads
✅ Ready for affiliate marketing

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TOPICS + TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro & Video Outline
6:25 How to Start a WordPress Blog
29:52 WordPress SetUp
57:07 How to Configure WordPress Plugins (Yoast has updated their Configuration Wizard. Please see the Yoast link in the show notes for a walkthrough of the new process.)
1:18:57 How to Install a WordPress Theme
1:23:33 How to Create a WordPress Child Theme
1:31:23 How to Create a Logo & Favicon
1:47:05 How to Configure Your Primary Navigation
2:03:53 How to Configure the Sidebar Part I
2:15:14 How to Set Up Social Media Icons
2:20:47 How to Create an About Me Page
2:51:47 How to Create a Contact Form
3:09:13 How to Set Up an Email Marketing Strategy
3:31:47 How to Create a Landing Page
3:53:00 How to Configure the Homepage Part I
3:57:16 How to Publish a Blog Post & Recipe
4:15:20 How to Set Up Social Share Buttons
4:19:19 How to Publish a Non-Recipe Blog Post
4:42:32 How to Configure the Homepage Part II
4:45:29 How to Create a Recipe Index Page
4:57:06 How to Configure the Sidebar Part II
5:05:28 How to Create a Footer Menu
5:15:19 How to Configure the Homepage Part III
5:21:09 How to Monetize a WordPress Blog
5:41:41 How to Create a Privacy Policy Page
5:47:27 How to Create an XML Sitemap & Submit it to Google
5:53:45 How to Launch Your Blog

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Thanks for watching!

#howtostartablog #howtostartafoodblog #howtocreateablog #foodblog #blogwithben

32 thoughts on “How to Start a Food Blog | Step-by-Step for Beginners”

  1. Hi Ben I am working through your tutorial to build my food blog with the Kale theme and Kale child theme. I have run into a problem. My sidebar does not appear as a sidebar. Instead it is situated in the center of the page (my theme only consists of one column, no sidebar). Also when I go to the second step (sidebar default) on my custmization menu the search, recent posts and recent comments are showing up as block, block, block and I am unable to remove any of them. Can you offer any help or advice? Thank you so much for your time.

    Reply
  2. Ben's tutorial has been so helpful. It was a lot to take in, but he did such a good job of making things clear. I did skip over some of the email marketing stuff when first setting up my blog, but now that it is up and running I am going back and rewatching the tutorial again. He has also been so helpful with any questions or problems I have had along the way. Thank you

    Reply
  3. WOW! I never thought that I could set up a food blog. I happened upon Bens blog and thought let's give it ago. Of course being an older chick and non tech savvy, I stumbled here and there and every time I reached out to Ben, he came back and helped me move on. My little Food blog is up and running and I can't wait to develop it further. I cannot recommend Ben highly enough. How blessed are we to have someone who gives his time so freely and genuinely wants you to succeed. So many thanks, you are indeed one in a million and I wish you every success.

    Reply
  4. Loving the tutorial and I've been steadily progressing with your help! I have a question…since I have been working with the Kale pro most of it is pretty intuitive but Im at the point where I am ready to copy and paste the Kale Child github code into the appearance theme, and am wondering if this will sync with the Pro version? I get a pop up box with a warning.

    Reply
  5. Thank you for sharing, I have a question if we have a food blog website, do you think it’s a good idea to sell the food photos on other sites like shutter stock? I’m curious!

    Reply
  6. Thank you Ben!!! This was super useful, I've wanted to do a food blog for so long and this video was incredibly helpful. I've always used sites like WIX or GoDaddy previously but now I have all the tools I need to successfully create my own blog using WordPress/ Bluehost. I listened to the whole video before starting so now I have a better understanding and will use this on another screen to create my blog step my step, exciting times!. Thank you so much for putting the time into this, really really appreciated

    Reply
  7. I really can't begin to thank Ben enough! This tutorial is beyond helpful, extremely thorough, and so well put together. Everything is laid out in detail, with step by step instructions. I really never knew how much work went into the "behind the scenes" of setting up a blog! Without this tutorial and Bens help I don't think I would ever of been able to set up my food blog! Ben offers his help freely and is readily available to help anyone who reaches out, and I am extremely grateful for you and what you have provided in this tutorial! Now I am ready to get the creative process rolling and share yummy recipes! THANK YOU a million times over Ben!

    Reply
  8. Hi ben.. Plz help my blog post featured image is not showing in google, I'm ranking few article right now but the image is not showing, but when I click the article its shows the image what should I do

    Reply
  9. Thank you for your easy to follow videos. I have a question about the blocks jump to recipe and video, using the wp recipe maker. I would like to make both of those with a bigger text size, different colors or a button so they don't get lost in the text of the rest of my post. Can you help please?

    Reply
  10. Thank you Ben! I just have a question about how my kale theme looks. My theme looks much more wider than yours. I mean your content looks more compact and there is more place for the background image. Thats why my texts look smaller than yours. I hope I could explain myself right. 🙂

    Reply
  11. Hi Ben, Thanks for the top notch tutorial. I tried the steps mentioned by you, however I met an issue with index page. Somehow my thumbnail Images are not showing up. Do you have any idea why it is not shown?

    Reply
  12. Up until now (2 hours in) this tutorial has been amazing. However, trying to log back into wordpress via Bluehost on day 2 all I get is a blank white screen on the wordpress page. I'm wondering if there have been updates to plugins or other changes that I might need to fix/change. Any idea what to do now?

    Reply
  13. I have watched a lot of instructional videos on You Tube, but never one as thorough or as easy to understand as this one. I used to build websites, but two strokes and Adobe stopping support for GoLive (which I completely had control of) when they bought Dreamweaver, which after the strokes was just beyond my learning curve, and I had to quit for a while. This is going to make it possible for me to start over again, but this time just websites for myself. I have about seven blogs planned with the food oner connected with a book I just published on Keto Dieting. Since I quit I have had two more stokes caused by an injury over 60 years ago and a divorce a few months ago.. Starting over completely new at 77 years old and I cannot begin to tell you how much better I feel tonight after watching the first seven sections of this video. You have recreated the belief in me that I can do this again, but even better.months about marketing, writing, blogs and Social Media with three Tony Robbins seminars. This is the final piece of the puzzle I have been missing and I could not afford to pay someone to do it for me. Thanks you so very, very much for this and I found it at exactly the perfect time.

    Reply
  14. This video was so, so helpful for me starting my food blog. I went from knowing nothing about how to set up a website or use WordPress to being able to design a pretty, functioning website. Seriously couldn't be where I am today without this video! Also, I recently had an issue with my site and I reached out to Ben for support via his website. Not only was Ben knowledgeable about the problem, but he was also extremely quick to respond and very patient with my lack of expertise in the IT area. 🙂 Within 24 hours of my site being down, Ben had it back up and running like normal, all free of charge! I've worked with several companies and people in the IT support area, but Ben's customer service was by far the best I have received. Highly recommend his "Blog Support Services" to all new bloggers out there!

    Reply

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