These are a Few of My Favorite Things
I am not a techie person. So when I was setting up my blog it was important for me to find awesome tools and plugins for food blogging that were easy to figure out. I also didn’t want to use anything that would take a lot of time away from what I really wanted to do, which was write blog posts! The most important things for me were, and are, continuously learning, creating beautiful images and writing easy to follow recipes. All of these are a work in progress, and always will be, which is part of the fun.
I put together a list of a few of my favorites for food blogging. If you’re already a blogger, or just thinking about it, check them out and let me know what you think. And also let me know if you have ideas for me! Some of these are affiliate links (meaning I’d get a small commission), some are not, but these are all things I enjoy using almost daily.
Tutorials and Blogging Info
- Food Blogger Pro. I can’t say enough about how much I value this membership and how much I’ve learned. From their informational podcasts, community boards, video lessons, food photography advice and more – I needed all the help! Most bloggers work solo and don’t have a team of experts helping them figure things out. Food Blogger Pro is the closest thing I have to a team and a mentor. For example, here’s a screenshot of some of their video course offerings:
The thing about Food Blogger Pro is that, like a school, they have limited enrollment times. The good news is that they are opening up enrollment very soon!
- YouTube: I mean, YouTube has a video tutorial for everything! Can’t figure out something in Google Analytics, WordPress, MailChimp, a specific plugin, whatever – YouTube it. Seriously, even if you think your question or issue is too specific, there will be a video for you. It’s a true blogging life saver!
Images
Images are everything for a food blog. You know your recipe is delicious, now how do you translate that and convince someone who’s not standing in your kitchen to try it? We live in such a visual world that your best bet is to bring people in with your food photography. I was a complete novice to photography when I started Artful Dishes and I found that I really liked it! I didn’t go into it thinking I would become a professional photographer, but I hoped I would be able to make my food look both appetizing and beautiful. Here are a few of the things that helped me:
- Camera: I had never used a “real camera” before I started taking pictures for my blog. Since I wasn’t sure how good I would be at it, or if I’d even enjoy it (I do!), I didn’t want to make a huge investment in a camera. That being said, even the less expensive cameras are still not cheap. But boy-o-boy does a real 35mm camera make a huge difference in your pictures! I still use the the first camera I bought, the Canon EOS Rebel T5. Believe me, Cannon is many generations past this model now, but I thought it was a good place to start.
- Lens: I learned most of my photography skills from Food Blogger Pro, including the fact that the most important lens is the 50mm for closeup shots. It’s really the only lens I use.
- Canva: I use the free version of Canva to create Pinterest and Instagram images, e-books, freebies, you name it. Basically anything visual you want to put on your site or on social media. (Like the image at the top of this post!) And while it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Photoshop, it’s much easier to use! I’m still learning how to use it, and again, YouTube is definitely your friend when you’re stuck. Canva also has a paid version if you get to the point where you want more options.
- Tasty Pins: Google has lots of rules and secret things they do to rank your site and your images. Anything you can do to up your Google ranking will help your blog post show up higher on a search, which will increase your traffic! Tasty Pins is a paid plugin that helps you to boost your SEO (search engine optimization) and Pinterest rankings. Basically it allows you to have one image description for the “alt text” (text that shows in place of your image or when you hover your mouse over it), and a separate description that will populate when your image is pinned. Pinterest is a search engine like Google, and has it’s own rules for what will rank your pins higher than others. Pinterest also just started allowing hashtags on images, so with Tasty Pins, you can easily add those too.
- Food Props: Otherwise known as dishes, placemats, cutting boards and napkins! My favorite places to find inexpensive items for food photography are Target, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx and World Market. I never buy anything I wouldn’t use in real life, and this also helps my image look more like “me”. World Market has the best white dishes. I do use other colors sometimes, but white dishes really make the food shine. You can add color and texture in the background of your picture with your counter top, cutting boards, placemats, tablecloths and napkins.
Recipes:
If you’re interested in food blogging, then you probably like to read recipes like I do. My husband is always amazed at my ability to sit down and read a cookbook like it’s a novel. I’ll bet you can relate! Keep your recipes concise and direct. Generally speaking, list the ingredients in order of use and write the step-by-step directions without making assumptions about the reader’s skill level. As in, put in all of the information! And of course, use a good recipe plugin. A plugin is software that gives your site additional functionality. In this case, it organizes and displays your recipes.
- I use Tasty Recipes as my recipe plugin. You can do a Google search for “recipe plugins” to see all of the options out there. I used a free recipe plugin when I started my blog, but the software developer abandoned his plugin! So the code wasn’t kept up to date, problems weren’t solved, and questions weren’t answered. Tasty Recipes is a paid plug-in, and if you have questions, the folks behind Tasty Recipes are really responsive! I like it.
- Nutrifox is a paid plugin that calculates the nutritional value for your recipes. You can also add specific ingredients for your recipes. Most people use Google to search for recipes, and Google ranks sites higher that include this nutritional information. And, bonus – when you use Nutrifox in conjunction with Tasty Recipes, you’ll also be able to add a nice nutritional card to the end of your recipe!
- I love this article from The Kitchn website on how to write recipes
- And of course there are books on the subject too! When you’re reading your favorite cookbooks, think about the way the author writes their recipes and how this makes them easy to follow.
One Last Thing
If you’re still in the planning stage of setting up your blog, one of the hardest things to do is pick a name. Obviously it has to be a name that you like and captures your idea, but don’t fall in love with a blog name until you’ve checked the most important thing – that the domain name is available! I did a little word association, stream of consciousness activity when I was thinking up my blog name. Once I had a list of words, I started combining them, then using the domain name checker. As I eliminated names I was able to hone in on what I wanted. And then, truth be told, my husband thought up the name Artful Dishes! Even luckier, the name was available. Use the domain name checker below if you’ve already got some ideas.
Once you’ve found your perfect blog name, buy it! Don’t give someone else the chance to own it before you do.
If you decide to use any of these awesome tools and plugins for food blogging, let me know what you think! And have fun.
Disclaimer: any links to products or services in this post may be affiliate links. This means I would get a commission if the product was purchased. I only link to products I like and use myself, or are similar to what I use. Thanks for your support!
