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How do you start a blog, you ask?
But my best advice to get started is to JUST START!
You’ll learn a lot along the way.
Make mistakes. Learn. Improve. Iterate. Grow.
While I used to be in the IT industry for many years before becoming a Culinary Nutrition Expert and food blogger, I had to study and learn as I went in order to build a blog myself.
Here are some of the resources I use or have used in this blogging journey.
I hope you’ll find this page useful!
Domain Registration
Namecheap – affordable pricing with free WHOIS privacy included.
Website Hosting
Cloudways – with a Vultr server. This is what I use now.
For beginners though, I would suggest using Siteground. There is an affordable option to start with.
Website Platform
WordPress.org – I think WordPress is pretty flexible and powerful. Avoid the wordpress.com platform and go with a self-hosted wordpress.org website.
If you’d rather go with a template type website, check out Squarespace, Wix and Weebly.
Theme
Genesis Framework by Studio Press – lightweight and the use of child themes makes customization easier to manage.
Child Theme – I use Cook’d Pro by Feast
Plugins
Recipe Plugin: WP Recipe Maker – I use the premium version
Akismet – to block spam
Broken Link Checker – to avoid broken links in your posts
Easy Affiliate Links – to manage affiliate links in one place
Pretty Links – to create shortcuts to internal or external links
ShortPixel Image Optimizer – to optimize the image sizes for faster loading
UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore – free plugin with cloud backups to your Google Drive or Dropbox account
WP Rocket – caching plugin, to speed up your site
Yoast SEO – free option is good enough to help with Search Engine Optimization
Mailing List
Mailchimp – free up to 2,000 subscribers
Social Media Management
Tailwind – for scheduling Pinterest pins. I like the tribes and ability to just set the pinning schedule and queue up pins.
Later – for scheduling Instagram posts
Creative Resources
Adobe Lightroom – for processing photos. The Lightroom app for your mobile phone is free, but the Lightroom CC desktop version requires an Adobe account.
Canva – for creating content like Pinterest pins, Facebook covers, e-books
Blogging Education
Food Blogger Pro – I found this membership site very useful when I first started. I tried to go through all the video training – from starting a food blog, configuring the website, using social media, search engine optimization and more. I enjoyed the food photography and video courses as well. There is also a Food Blogger Pro podcast that is quite a wealth of information as well!
Small Business Resources
Of course, making money through blogging is a business. Here are some tools I’ve used.
Payment Processor: Square
Accounting System: Wave – free accounting software, invoicing and receipt scanning
Project Management: Trello – for managing work through a Kanban board