Resources for Starting a Blog

This resource page is set up to help you with some of the main steps that it takes to start your own blog. I’ve had personal experience with all the companies and products that I’ve listed below and I’ve found them very helpful and trustworthy.

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and if you purchase through those links I’ll receive a small commission with no additional cost to you. I’m only affiliated with companies and products that I recommend and trust.

First Things First

Before I tell you some of the things that you need to start a blog, there’s something I want to mention first.

If you have no clue how to use WordPress to set up your blog – here is a little suggestion. It’s called the Website Creation Workshop.

This is a course by Christina Hills for some of you who really have no experience at all with setting up blogs or websites. I took this course a few years ago and and I would highly recommend it. I feel that it has saved me a lot of money in the long run.

Christina is an excellent teacher and her course is very thorough. I learned enough through her course that I haven’t had to hire anyone to create my blog but have been able to do it myself.

Click on this link> Website Creation Workshop, to find out about the 2019 course that Christina is offering.

Choosing a domain name and hosting

Whether you want to start a food blog or another type of blog, the first thing you need to do is to decide on a name. Take some time and really consider this because it’s something that identifies you. You need to feel good about your choice and connected to it in a way that relates to what you’re blogging about.

Think about a few names that you like and the next step is to see if any of those domains are available. Most people feel that a .com domain is the best and not too
lengthy of a domain name. It’s also best not to have hyphens if possible. You want to make it easy for people to find you.

A great place to buy your domain name is through Namecheap. They are really reasonably priced and have great service.

 

The next step after buying your domain name is to decide on hosting for your blog site. I use Bluehost and I love them. They have always helped me out and patiently walked me through things that I haven’t understood. I think Bluehost is a great hosting company with great customer support especially when you’re first starting out.

After you sign up for hosting, you can then set up WordPress on your domain. The support people at Bluehost are very helpful with walking you through what you need to do to set up WordPress. Your site will automatically set up with the most recent free theme from WordPress if you want to use that or you can start looking at different premium themes and choose to buy one that you like.

Choosing a theme – my favorite theme companies

Studio Press has top quality themes for WordPress. Their selection covers every category of blog you might want to create. They have awesome food blog themes like Foodie Pro   

 

Beautiful themes at Restored 316 Designs! They’re very helpful and their customer support is THE best. Just great folks that are amazing, responsive and top-notch! Click on the banner below to check out all the lovely themes they offer.

Last but not least, another beautiful theme that I’ve used is called Rosemary and it’s from a company called Solo Pine. The people at Solo Pine are very nice and their customer support is great.

 

More Valuable Resources

I have to say that I love Food Blogger Pro. This is a monthly membership course that you follow at your own pace. It takes you step by step through how to start a food blog. Created by Bjork and Lindsay Ostrom from Pinch of Yum . Over 300 step by step video tutorials and a very active community forum – this is a must, in my estimation, for learning all the ins and outs of having a food blog and having excellent support along the way.

At the present time, they are closed to new members but Click on the banner or the link above to get on the waiting list to be notified when they reopen to new members.  Don’t hesitate to hop on board – you’ll be so happy you did!  It’s a wonderful resource and great community of bloggers.  

Here are links for 2 FREE EBOOKS from Food Blogger Pro called 10 Mistakes that Bloggers Make and also The Number 1 Thing

Photography is a huge part of being a food blogger. You know that saying, “You eat with your eyes first” is so true.  Lindsay Ostrom of the food blog Pinch of Yum, has an excellent eBook called Tasty Food Photography   Click here to visit Pinch of Yum – Tasty Food Photography eBook.

A Couple Other Important Things

Something that’s really necessary is to make sure that your blog content is backed up. If something happens and you lose your blog content, Vault Press has the backup and can restore your site. 

There are different plug-ins but my favorite and the one I use is Vault Press. It ‘s very inexpensive and well worth it. They have helped me out so much and offer great support. 

Editing Your Photos

Pic Monkey is a great resource.  I love the Monkey! PicMonkey is great when you’re just starting out and can’t afford to spend a lot of money but still need to be able to edit your photos. With PicMonkey you can resize your photos, crop and adjust brightness, saturation, sharpen your pics, etc. and it’s very easy to use.

 

I hope this is helpful information for you to get started creating your own food blog. Best of Luck!