Now that you have created your blog, what do you do next? Here are some basic blogging tips to help grow your blog.
1) Post quality content, regularly
Post quality content and post regularly. Set yourself a posting schedule so that you are posting consistently. For example, plan to on Tuesday and Friday. It gives your readers an idea of what to expect. Posting 2-3 times a week is a good number. Don’t make your readers wait a month between posts.
I use the Epic Blog Planner to plan my posts. There is enough room to plan for the entire year and makes my life sooo much easier! I highly recommend it.
2) Improve your food photography
Your photos are what draws people to your website. The better your photos, the more views your posts will get. The formula is that simple.
I highly recommend the Tasty Food Photography e-book to help improve your food photography. This book contains tons of tips and tricks to make your food photos stand out and attract more viewers.
3) Submit your photos to foodie submission websites
Once your photography improves, foodie websites will accept your submissions to their websites. This will drive more people to your website. It’s basically free advertising.
Foodie websites to submit to include:
4) Advertise on social media
I share every blog post on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. Make sure you have social media icons to allow your readers to follow you on social media sites easily. I use the Simple Social Icons plug-in for the social media buttons on my side bar.
Use Pinterest! Pinterest is HUGE for blog traffic. I highly suggest creating special Pinterest photos for your posts. This means creating a photo that contains both text and images to make the pin look nicer to draw more people in. See some examples on my Pinterest board.
5) Keep learning and connect with other bloggers
The way to grow your blog is to never stop learning. If you keep researching different resources and ideas on blogging, the only thing that you can do is to improve. Connect with other blogs and leave comments. Gain inspiration from others who have been in the business for much longer that you have.
Food Blogger Pro is an amazing resource with a ton of information on food blogging including food photography tips, making your blog grow and monetizing your blog. Subscribe monthly to access this information.
6) Monetize your blog
Make money from your blog.
- Set up ads. This is the easiest way to make money by doing nothing! I highly recommend an Ad Network like Gourmet Ads. They make it so easy!
- Join affiliate programs
- Work with companies to create sponsored posts
- Freelance photography
How to Monetize your Food Blog is an essential e-book that teaches you how to make money from your blog. It is full of tips on how to achieve success in these areas (eg. ads, affiliate programs, sponsored posts).
Media Kit: This media kit helps you summarize your blog on a pdf template to help you “sell” your blog to companies that you want to work with (scroll down to the bottom of the linked website).
Don’t have a food blog yet? Learn how to get started today!
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These are some very good tips. In food particularly, I think pictures are extremely important.
The photos on a food blog carry so much power. They are critical for sure but they also seem to take a ton of practice and effort.
These are great ideas!
These are cool tips for beginners and great reminders for every blogger – new or old!
I’ve focused too much on content creation and not enough on marketing. Thanks. I’m saving these tips!!
You presented some great tips here. I am not a food blogger, but I am fairly new to blogging and I definitely agree with posting more content. The challenge is finding the time to create as much as I want!
These are all great blog basics! Although I am not a new blogger, I love reminding myself of the basics and checking my blog to make sure it is in line.After reading this tonight, I need to make some changes!
From what I’ve witnessed, #4-6 are pretty underrated but so necessary! Great pics by the way!
This is a great read for any blogger. Pictures and content can make or break your blog.
Excellent tips! I agree with all of them and use all of these everyday! My next step is that I need to connect more and join FBP. Running a food blog takes a ridiculous amount of work, haha 😉
Thanks, Tiffany! Yes, running a food blog takes a lot of work!! I used to blog 3 times a week but with everything else going on in my life, I have had to cut it down to once a week. I did see my traffic drop slightly, but it has started to go back up 🙂
Great tips! Would love for you to link up with us at 100 Happy Days! http://www.akreativewhim.com/link-party-39
I’m trying to convince myself to add more recipes (I love to cook and rarely post the recipes) especially while I’m pregnant since I don’t have the energy to do my normal crafty house projects!
These are great tips! The only one I personally don’t follow is the first one. I have read a lot that posting once a week is enough. If the post is enough length and quality, it will do your blog more than posting several times a week with more fluff. A food blog may be an exception though, since the posts tend to be smaller if it only contains a recipe. I have a finance blog so I am just speaking from experience. I 100% agree with the photography one though! And if you are not good at taking photos, use stock photos (there are a lot of places you can get them free!).
I love your blog name, design and content Sam! Thanks for all the great tips!
Thanks, Terry 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips! I love your photography. That is a tricky one for me. But I’ll keep working on it!
Thanks, Kristie! Just keep practicing, it will start to get easier 🙂
I don’t have a food blog, but these are great tips nonetheless! I’m currently working on improving my photography skills (up until about two weeks ago I had no idea what an f-stop was.. I’m getting there!) and I’d love to eventually dabble in freelance photography, or offering stock photos. Thank you for the tips!
No problem, Leah! I’m glad I could share some tips with you 🙂
Great tips! I will definitely be following these!
Thanks, Amanda!
Great tips! I started posting three times a week last year and burnt myself out. Now I only post on Saturdays and it seems to be going a lot better. If I could just get myself to post twice per week I bet I would see huge growth.
Thanks, Kari! I am currently posting 3 times a week and I agree, it is a lot. I just went on a weekend getaway and missed my usual Sunday post and I felt so bad about it, although the break felt very nice! It’s hard to let go of routine but now that I have some content, I am slowly starting to consider posting two times a week to give me a bit of a break.
Your photography is beautiful! I’m part of Food Blogger Pro as well 🙂
Thanks, Jess! Isn’t Food Blogger Pro the best? I’m loving all the tips and tricks that I am learning from there 🙂
GREAT post! Suddenly I am very hungry!
Hehehe, thanks Melissa! 🙂
These are good tips for any niche! 🙂 I’m a lifestyle blogger but can use these ideas as well. (plus I need to step up my game on photography)
Thanks, Cindy! I am glad the tips were helpful 🙂 And you are certainly right, they can apply to any type of blog!
Very helpful tips, absolutely love your images!
No matter what kind of business you have you absolutely have to
create a blog and let everyone knows what you are doing 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Emi! Glad you dropped by and liked the tips 🙂