[ad_1] Whether you realize it or not, food is central to our lives. Some use it for fuel, while others present recipes as an art form. If you’re in the latter group, and you want to create a food blog to share your passion, WordPress is a top platform. With the number one Content Management System (CMS) at your side, you’re able to work on your site and publish it in no time. What’s more, it’s extendable using themes and plugins. In this article, we’ll show you how to create a food blog with WordPress. Before this, we’re going to give you all the context you need to get started. What a Food Blog Is On paper, the concept seems simple. A food blog does what it says on the tin. You’ll post regular content about food, although there are a few different ways you could go here: The blog could be all about cooking. Recipes are going to be a big part of your content. You could review restaurants and other establishments. This isn’t going to feature recipes so much, and it will be heavy on text and media. The blog could review kitchen gadgets. This will use affiliate links to monetize your blog in most cases. There are lots of other types of food blog too, but we’ll focus on cooking-based blogs for this post. Though, once you have the fundamentals down, you’ll be able to apply them to any type of site you wish. Why You’d Want to Start a Food Blog In short, you’ll want to start a food blog because it interests you. This seems obvious, but you should have a passion for food-related subjects first and foremost. If you’re looking to make some money from your blog, or otherwise share your knowledge with the public, there are a few good reasons for doing so: Spinning up a WordPress site is straightforward, and quick. Expanding on this, it’s simple to add monetizing functionality if needed. You can build a massive following, because food blogging is popular. By extension, you can influence the industry if you have a lot of followers. If you like the sound of these points, using WordPress to create a food blog is going to suit you. In fact, let’s dig into this further next. What Makes Up a Stellar Food Blog If you look at some of the top blogs in the space, they all have a number of elements in common. Of course, there are different niches when it comes to food blogs, but for recipe-based sites, there are a few consistent elements: Readable text and good typography choices. Gorgeous images, often taken by a professional (or even a passionate hobbyist). Dedicated recipe formats, often as part of a theme or plugin (more on this later). This is a bare-bones tick-list, but if you have these in place, it’s enough to get started. Depending on your exact requirements, you might want to add aspects such as related posts sections, and social media feeds. Though, a food blog is a simple concept, with the complexities covered in your content and media. When it comes to some of these core elements, WordPress is ideal. Why WordPress Should Be Your Platform Of Choice Before we get onto how to create a food blog, we should chat about your choice of website builder. We’ve covered lots of other platforms on the WPKube blog, such as Wix and Squarespace. Though, WordPress is by far our preferred choice. Here’s why: It’s the most popular CMS on the market. WordPress is open-source and free (as in both speech and beer). You can extend the platform in whatever way you choose given the right skills, themes, and plugins. WordPress is secure and stable. The community of developers, users, and volunteers is rich. We could wax lyrical on why WordPress is amazing for the next 10,000 words. Instead, you should check out our article looking at the ins and outs of WordPress itself. What You’ll Need in Place to Create a Food Blog At this point, we’re beginning to get into the ‘nitty-gritty’. Now you’re aware of the scope of a food blog, you can begin to gather the necessary tools and services. Consider this mise en place for your site. Most of the following will be essential, but we’ll give you a heads-up if one element is optional. Of course, if you need something specific for your vision, feel free to add it onto the list. Still, to create a food blog with WordPress, you’ll need the following: A domain name. Suitable web hosting. WordPress. A theme that’s right for your goals. Some almost essential plugins to cover security and contacting you. Further plugins to help you build your site and add functionality based on your needs. For this last one, there could be any number of aspects you’d like to add to your blog. For example, you might want to enhance comments, or add social media feeds. You’re even able to connect email marketing services to your blog. Though food-related functionality should be a prime concern. Recipe post formats and sections are going to be a big deal on your site, so you could argue that something like this is also essential, if it’s not covered by your theme. During the next few sections, we’ll outline some of the more popular and worthy choices when it comes to each of these, although our blog has lots of articles on each of these aspects. How to Create a Food Blog With WordPress (In 5 Steps) Once you have an idea of what type of food blog you want to create, it’s time to get up and running. We’ll cover the following steps next: Select a suitable hosting platform and register a domain name. Install and set up WordPress on your host. Find and install a suitable theme for your site. Choose and install plugins to help you add essential functionality. Launch your site. Though, without a host
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