Reading the articles on this website or going through the posts of other foodies will have evoked a desire of having a blog of your own, in your heart. Who knows you must have even written a few articles and published them on other websites? However, you must be wondering how to realize your dream to get your very own food blog. There are various blogging platforms on which you can create your account and start uploading posts. However, the complete freedom and control you will enjoy on your own website will not be possible to get elsewhere. Here, I am going to tell you how you can easily start the food blog of your dreams.
Use A CMS
You can use a Content Management System (CMS) to start your blog. Sounds technical? Well, don’t worry as these tools are easy-to-use and do not require you to write any computer programming code. Think of a CMS as a do-it-yourself kit that allows you to create a website even if you do not have technical knowledge. So, this means that you can build your blog without needing to hire a developer. The most popular CMS in the world is WordPress. According to some estimates, it powers about 34% of the total websites in the world. There are other CMS as well like Joomla, Drupal, Wix, etc. but of all of them, WordPress has the easiest learning curve.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress was created by Matt Mullenweg in collaboration with Mike Little. It so happened that Matt, who was and still is an avid blogger like you, found out that his preferred blogging platform B2/Cafelog stopped receiving any support from its developer. He teamed up with Mike to extend the B2 codebase to create WordPress.
This CMS is open-source, meaning that you can download it for free. Just go to its website and download its files on your system and you are ready to go. More on its features later after I tell you how to start the food blog of your dreams with the platform.
Get Hosting And A Domain Name
Hosting is where your website or blog will live. There are companies that provide hosting services. You will get a space on their server where your blog will reside. There are many companies that provide services that have been customized for WordPress. They provide you the convenience of installing WordPress from your hosting account. You will also require a domain name for your blog. You will have to register the name and this facility is also provided by many hosting companies.
Choose The Suitable WordPress Flavor
There are two types of WordPress:
WordPress.com: This is the fully-hosted variant meaning you make an account and purchase a package that will include hosting. The WordPress installation is available for free.
WordPress.org: This is the self-hosted version wherein you will have to purchase your own hosting and domain name subscription. You can download the core files for free.
The “.com” variant seems to be the ideal choice, isn’t it? Hang on a bit and read on to know why you must choose “.org”.
Select A Theme
WordPress provides you with themes to create your website. These themes are just like a website with pages and all the different sections. All these templates are divided into different categories based on industries, professions, and interests. Just try searching for WordPress themes for food blog and you will see numerous suggestions. All these layouts will have items you need like pre-built recipe sections and stock images.
When you choose WordPress.com, you do not get access to all themes. Moreover, you cannot use a custom domain name like “myownfoodblog.com” and you will have to use “myownfoodblog.wordpress.com” instead. The “.org” variant gives you more control over your blog.
Get Some Plugins
Plugins are readymade items that will add a specific feature to your website. Let’s say you want to add a contact form to your website that people can use to register. Then you can just add a contact form plugin and design your form and include it on your website. This is sounding technical, right? However, once you start working with the CMS, you will find it easy to use.
Creating Your Blog
Once you download WordPress, you will get access to a dashboard with a default theme. You will find a menu that gives you access to all locations of your blog. You can replace the default theme by going to the relevant menu link and then searching the theme directory for a new template. Similarly, you can search and add plugins. You can make all the changes by simply pointing and clicking and you will not need to do anything very technical like writing code. There are numerous free as well as paid themes and plugins. In essence, you only need to spend on hosting and domain name, to get your food blog. WordPress is not too difficult to understand but if things get hot you can always look for professional help from a developer.
It is better to try and fail rather than not trying at all. So you can try using WordPress or any other CMS that you like to start the food blog that you always wanted to and see how things pan out.
