There are plenty of food blogs online, but what makes for a really good food blog? Maybe you’ve been thinking about starting a food blog or you’ve recently started a food blog. What should you do? Learn from other food blogs, that’s what!
Pick a Specific Sub-Niche
There’s a lot of food out there! Sure, a food blog is a niche, but it’s still a bit broad. You want a sub-niche. You want a particular kind of food, narrowed down by ingredient, region, or preparation method. For example, the Candy Addict blog is about only candy. The Junk Food Blog is only about junk food. Kitchen Warfare, on the other hand, is a very nice blog but it just doesn’t have a tight focus. And the title of the blog doesn’t really tell you what the blog’s about.
Other sub-niche food blogs:
Pictures Matter
Pictures matter. A lot. You can’t smell or taste anything on the web, so if you want to convince your readers that a recipe or a dish is to die for, you have four choices: text, pictures, audio, and video. Video is very powerful because of the combination of moving pictures and sound. Mostly, though, words and pictures are all you got. And the one thing that’s really going to get someone’s attention is a nice, big, high-quality picture of a scrumptious dish, like this:
Show a Real Passion
You don’t always have to be an expert in something to have a great blog. But you have to be passionate about your subject. For example, you may not find a more enthusiastic bunch than Homebrewers or people who are gonzo for a particular food, whether it’s Japanese food or junk food. The more you really love what you’re blogging about, the more you will attract others who love it, too–or, better yet, people who didn’t even know they loved it until they found you.
It’s Not Always About the Food
Food is inherently a part of the place and the culture where it is grown, prepared, and eaten. In order to be more than just a recipe/review machine, you want your food blog to include the wider world of the food you’re blogging about. You can do this by:
- Tapping into a region’s history and customs.
- Discussing pop culture and food trends.
- Relating the food quality to the growing and preparation techniques.
- Recounting personal stories and memories evoked by the food.
- Making the connection between food and the law, politics, regulation, and safety.
Provide Real Value for Readers
Like any other kind of blog, a food blog will not succeed or become popular if it doesn’t provide real value for its readers. You have to go beyond just talking about food and whether you like a certain dish or style of food. Here are some ways that good food blogs provide value to their readers:
- Offer recipes (that people can actually follow and that work).
- Review products, places, and preparation/cooking methods.
- Offer other kinds of how-to advice and tutorials that aren’t recipes.
- Offer video of preparation techniques that are difficult to describe in writing.
- Offer video and pictures of place-based food preparation (food tourism — think Anthony Bourdain).
- Offer product resources to like-minded people.
Fantastic Revenue Opportunities
Speaking of product resources, food blogs are an awesome blog niche to monetize through everything from AdSense to affiliate sales programs. For examples, check out the Candy Addict blog and the Chocolate Gourmand blog. Monetization efforts are not something that makes a good food blog, of course, but I think it’s worth a brief mention here at the end.
As I was researching this article, I did some searches for food blogs that I was sure would exist for certain types of foods, only to be disappointed. I was surprised! Not everything under the sun has been done in the blogosphere. So if you’ve been considering a food blog, there is plenty of room on the plate for more!
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