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How to Start a Food Blog:  Going Beyond the Basics –  Part 2: Social Media & Promotion

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How to Start a Food Blog:  A Series on Things I Wish I’d Known from the Beginning

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This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase via the product link,  I’ll receive a small commission.

This is the second in a series of posts about things I wish I’d known when I first started my food blog.  My hope is to help other bloggers avoid some of the pitfalls and mistakes I’ve encountered along the way.  In case you missed the first post in the series be sure to check it out here.

This post is all about social media!  While I’m a big fan of social media – I actually worked for LinkedIn, with a focus on helping clients use social media to sell more effectively,  initially I underestimated the importance of social media for my blog.  I knew I’d need to promote posts and be active on social media, but didn’t really know where to focus, so hopefully I can help you with that a little bit.

Pinterest, Group Boards & TailwindHow to Start a Food Blog: Social Media Tips

This one is HUGE!  While I was definitely Pinning when I first started blogging, it was kind of sporadic and unplanned.  I’d pin each post to my blog board after I published it, and then maybe pin it to a few of my other boards.  I didn’t belong to any group boards, and I only pinned a few times a week.  Then I heard other bloggers talking about how Pinterest was their number one traffic source and knew I was doing something wrong  – it was like #10 for me at the time.  So I joined a bunch of group boards and made the investment in Tailwind.  Now I Pin about 20-30 times a day and Pinterest is one of my top 3 traffic sources.

Instagram

While it’s difficult to track traffic from Instagram, this is one platform that I wish I’d started on sooner and where I’d highly recommend investing some time.  It’s easy to build a nice following is you have high-quality images, and by placing links to your blog posts in your Instagram profile you can drive some direct traffic.  Brands are becoming more and more interested in bloggers with high-quality Instagram feeds, so you never know where this investment may lead.  Joining a group dedicated to Instagram really helps with likes and comments, and don’t forget your hashtags!

SEO & Keywords

This is definitely something I wish I’d paid more attention to in the beginning.  I highly recommend using one of the SEO plugins that are available to help you understand how well a post will perform with search engines.  I also started using Google Adwords to help post titles perform better in search results.  Here’s a great post from Food Bloggers Central about post titles and SEO!
This is something I really wish I’d paid more attention to in the beginning.  I highly recommend using one of the SEO plugins that are available to help you understand how well a post might perform with search engines.  I also started using Google Adwords to help with post titles.  If you can make your post title somewhat unique, while you may show up in fewer searches you will rank higher in those searches so ultimately you should end up with more traffic to your blog.

Building Traffic

While it’s really tempting to spend a lot of time figuring out ad networks, without traffic the best ads in the world won’t do you much good!  And while ads are certainly an essential part of any monetization strategy, you don’t want your blog and your lovely photos covered by ads!
When you are first starting out basic ads from Google Adsense are just fine.  Once your traffic builds you can add other networks and affiliate links.   Focus on traffic first, then once you have it start adding some income sources.
So, how do you build traffic?  Spread the Word – Tell EVERYONE you know about your blog – don’t be shy about this.  You don’t have to blast the world, however your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and clients are probably interested.  I cannot tell you how often I mention that I write a food blog and someone asks me for the link – pretty much every time!    But don’t get caught up in the numbers – it’s not all about pageviews.  If you want to work with brands that’s important, but so is engagement.   If your content is interesting and you have a good, engaged following brands will still want to work with you.
Building an audience takes time and lots of patience!  I still find this to be one of the most difficult aspects and I don’t have the silver bullet answer for this one.  Focus on good content, social media and SEO!
So, how do you build traffic?  Well, I don’t have the magic formula for this, however a couple of things come to mind.  First, Spread the Word – tell EVERYONE you know about your blog – don’t be shy about this.  You don’t have to blast the world, however your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and clients are probably interested.  I cannot tell you how often I mention that I write a food blog and someone asks me for the link – pretty much every time.   Keep focusing on good content that people will want to read, and share with others, and always think about social media and SEO.  I read somewhere that you should spend 3-4 times the amount of time you spent writing a post promoting it – that’s a lot of promotion!

Networking with Other Bloggers

Don’t be shy about reaching out to other bloggers – I wish I’d done this more in the beginning.  And don’t be shy about asking for advice.  People are happy to help by sharing advice and recommendations.  I often link to other bloggers content in my posts.   No one can write about everything – and those who read food blogs typically want more!   Bloglovin is a great way to build yourself a daily feed of your favorite food blogs.

If you are new to blogging drop me a note with your blog in the comments – I’d love to come check out your content!!

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  1. These are great tips! I, also, wish I had realized earlier what a huge role social media plays. I think I sort of assumed the big social media accounts were only for after you “made it,” where of course now I realize they are critical to building that initial traffic in this day and age. I’m still a complete newbie, but enjoy food blogging, and also love how it motivates me to learn about all these tools, so it’s time well spent to me!

    Reply

    • Hi Monica – I’m glad you found them useful! Your blog is great – love the photos in your most recent Weekend Mix post!!

      Reply

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