Bake with Shivesh

100 tips to grow your blog

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100 TIPS TO GROW YOUR BLOG- PART ONE

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I get e-mails and messages from new and aspiring bloggers everyday who are struggling to grow their blogs. It’s not an easy task but its not impossible either. To help you strengthen your food blogs, I’m proud to present to you- 100 tips to grow your blog. These tips have been collected from some of my favorite food bloggers from across the world. They’ve been around in the food blogging industry for a while and are doing some great work. I look up to them for their dedication, passion and engaging content and trust me-they’re the best help you can get to help you grow your blogs!

I’m publishing these 100 tips to grow your blog in two parts. Read part 2 HERE.

A big thanks to the 25 fantastic food bloggers who gave their insightful inputs for this part of the blog. Read on-

 

THE LITTLE PLANTATION

1. As a food blogger it is essential that you learn about food photography. Practice as often as you can. Get a book on food photography, study your food blogger heroes or attend a workshop. People eat with their eyes so the visual have to be right!

2. Find you niche and own it. If your blog is too generic it will be harder for you to be known and noticed. Focus on one type of cuisine, type of food or style of cooking and be creative with it.

RAINBOW PLANT LIFE

3. Meaningful engagement with the community– If you want to grow your account, you have to engage with your relevant community. On Instagram, search for hashtags related your page and leave thoughtful comments. “Wow” doesn’t count. Tell the person why you like the photo or caption or why the image resonated with you. Do this on a daily basis and people will start to notice your account. You’ll also make friends and build a community, which is awesome.
4. Invest in your photography. There are literally millions of bloggers and professional Instagrammers these days, so you have to stand out. The best way to stand out is by delivering useful, high-quality content. One way to do that is to make sure each photo you post on your blog or Instagram page is aesthetically pleasing and beautiful.
If you post low-quality or blah photos, nobody will want to follow you, especially on Instagram which is a mostly visual platform. So if you don’t know the basics of photography and photo editing, make sure you invest the time (and money) to do so. There are tons of resources online that can turn you from a novice into a near professional photographer.

JERNEJ KITCHEN

5. Consistency and quality. So posting as many times a week as possible, but post high quality content that’s unique, that’s yours. For example: Coming from Slovenia and growing our own food we try to combine those two together and truly show our own twist on dishes that are cooked in our family or that we bring home from travels.

6. Language. We speak Slovenian, but that’s a language only 2 million people speak so we put a lot of time and effort into learning new languages like English, Spanish, German, so we can connect with people around the world as well.

TWIGG STUDIOS

7. Make your photos stand out!

If your photos are good and make the food look good then people will want to cook your recipes. And if you have a certain style of photography it will make your pictures recognisable to people, often people say the can tell it is my photo with out even reading the caption on Instagram/Pinterest which I have found helps. Also if it’s a great shot people are more likely to click on it or even pin it on Pinterest which will drive more traffic to your site.

8. Make sure to keep updating your blog with new content, even if it is once a week or every two weeks (I am guilty of not doing this recently) but think about upcoming events/ seasons and post in time for that as people are always Looking for ideas for different holidays . I have a calendar of special days that I can create recipes for, not just the holiday but national pasta day  etc. If you don’t have time to keep your blog with new content then repost old recipes on Instagram, Facebook.

TUTTI DOLCI

9. Blogging is a journey of consistency over time. Blog because you absolutely love what you do, not because you hope to be discovered overnight! Behind ever successful blog are countless hours of recipe testing and development, food styling and photography, great writing, social media networking, web design..  prepare to work hard and to work often, growing your skills and evolving with every post. Along the way, you’ll build relationships and a community that loves What you do. Those are the people that energize you and encourage you to keep going, even on the hard days!
10. Don’t be afraid to take risks or try something new. You may fail (and that’s a scary feeling), but you may also grow beyond what you ever imagined! Facing your fears and stepping forward anyway is the greatest act of courage you can have. This will help you continue to grow, evolve, and develop your skills!
11. Find your niche, something you’re really passionate about & use that as a starting point to offer your readers/audience content that will engage them. Where possible, get them to guide you to content that they would like to see.
12. Never give up! The road ahead will be rocky and the creative industries are saturated but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for you. Be patient, work hard, learn from your mistakes and try and try and try again until you develop and refine your craft.
13. Success doesn’t often happen overnight. It takes time to build your blog and following, but be patient! If you work hard and post quality content regularly, your hard work will pay off!
14. Be kind, humble, and encouraging to other bloggers. There’s enough hate in the world, let’s sprinkle kindness like confetti! We’re all in this together!

MASTERCHEF MOM

15. Create great content that is original and also present it in your own unique style .

16. Build loyal audience for your blog by being consistent in posting and try to connect with them .

OMNIVORE’S COOKBOOK

17. Focus on SEO

Install Yoast plugin and follow its guide, read and learn SEO related articles from an early stage, and do your keyword research before naming your blog post title. It’s the most important thing to learn to grow your traffic fast, way more important than social media.

18. Find a filter for your photos and stick to it

I highly recommend using a filter as a food blogger, because it gives your image a consistent color and feel, which send a strong branding message. Plus it speeds up the editing process a lot and make your photos look stylish effortless.

TAIPEI FOODIE

19. Be Authentic

Stay true to the content you post and yourself. It is ok to do sponsored posts as long as you are honest. People love authenticity and that’s what differentiate yourself from other accounts/blogs. To stand out from the sea of blogs out there, it is very important to make sure you are posting original and quality content.

20. Make yourself accessible and interact with your followers!

Try to be responsive to DMs and comments as much as you can. Building this relationship with your followers or site visitors is extremely crucial in terms of having a loyal following and getting that initial following base. People go to you because they think you are the expert in what you do or they enjoy the things you post.

PLAYFUL COOKING

21. CONSISTENCY: This is the key to growing any social media account. When I started my blog, I was very consistent for the first 4 years in sharing at least 2 posts a week and my blog had amazing traffic. Then, I got pregnant and things slowed down for the next 2 years. In the process, I lost a lot of my followers and my rank also dropped. For the past 1 year, I started again in full form and am seeing growth in my traffic flow. So, be consistent and share at least once or twice a week, even if it’s a small post with just a couple photos and a small write up.

22. SEO: I use Yoast SEO plugin in my blog. It is very easy to use and it is extremely helpful to make your post appear in search engine. You need to remember to name your photos as the name of the subject of the post. Just don’t just leave it as a random 123 number. Also, use the correct keywords as this is extremely important for SEO. If possible, provide internal and external links to all your posts.  Make your posts easy to read and easy to understand.

 

WHISK AFFAIR

23. Be focused from day one and put the most amount of effort in doing the SEO right.

24. If you want to make blogging into a paying carrier, you will have to take it seriously and will have to invest as much time and devotion (May be even more) as you would have given in any other job.

 

BINJAL’S VEG KITCHEN

25. Quality content- It is the most important thing because that give readers a great reason to subscribe every time when you publish.

26. Promoting blog- Be active in social communities, groups, forums etc…so you can easily promote your blog content with members, to grow your blog.

 

OFF WHITE BLOG

27.  Be true to yourself and true and authentic to your followers. It’s fundamental for a long term relationship.

28. Be interested in other accounts and build up little community. People, you support and inspire and who inspire and support you in return. It’s all about giving and getting back.

 

TASHA’S ARTISAN FOODS

29. Post regularly. Your readers want to hear from you… don’t lose that connect.
Write for yourself..find your style and work on that. Your writing should not come across as contrived.
30. Give it time, when writing a blog post you don’t have to rush through the process – get lots feedback, understand your readers and while you should write for yourself, take ideas from the audience to ensure you’re delivering the best quality content you can.
31. Create a niche but remain diverse– Choose a topic that you enjoy and are willing to devote time to regularly. While general blogging is great, you want to target the set of people looking for a specific topic (example weeknight meals, health and fitness, creative breakfasts, eggless recipes,  and of course, desserts). Having a niche makes you look like an expert and being diverse within the niche expands your horizon to attract new visitors to your blog.
32. SEO- You’ve heard about it, rolled your eyes and wondered why get into the technical aspects of what goes on behind the scenes when your content is good enough, right?. I did that too and later when I figured out that my cakes were not reaching the people who are actually looking for the exact same thing, I knew I was missing out. Trust me, it is worth the effort to understand and implement SEO. A few changes here and there increased my traffic by 10 times over two years. Lots of information available on the Internet.
33. Be patient with growth expectations.  It takes time to grow brand awareness and trust.
34. The numbers game and comparison can quickly impact your work and well being. Just don’t go there. Take social media breaks regularly. Set your pace and standards that work for you without judgement, then put your best out there!
35. A lot has changed from the time I started by site in 2008 until now. With so many good sites vying for attention, it is a difficult task to get readership these days. But my focus has always been on creating content that inspires me rather than the numbers be it social media or the number of visits on my site.
36. I took a while to set my site during which I trained myself in photography using professional equipment, learned how to write recipes professionally for the international and national audience and in trying to find a web developer and graphic designer who could cater to my aesthetics.
Good photography and accurate recipes are the strength of a food site or blog and if you have a story to tell, it adds more charm. All these three aspects put together make for a winning combination bringing in audience from across different spectrum. But great cooking is the key which ties all the loose ends and brings everything together. So it’s good if one hones these skills before embarking on starting a site.Writing about what deeply inspires you with a focus to share genuine knowledge, rather than what the Google Gods proclaim will get more visits, will not only bring in the satisfaction but also keep one going on the long run. 
37. Remain connected to your readers. I make it a point to stay connected to my readers and respond to their comments, social media comments or even DM’s. Even if you are not able to answer each one of them individually but respond and acknowledge in any ways. It creates a genuinely connected audience, which is why I started blogging in the first place. Social media plays a crucial role to stay connected to your readers and know what they want to read next.
38. Creating genuine content that resonates with your readers is important but, knowing little bit about technology goes a long way. Choosing right platform, good hosting, choosing a right theme for your niche and content is important too. Decent photography skills also add up to your food blog success.
Food blogging as a career is very satisfying but be prepared to work hard just like any other career. There is Coding, photography, video making , accounting, creating content plans, being a social media ninja and there are thousands other things. Once you start to understand all this food blogging is a rewarding career
39. I started my blog anonymously and kept everything personal out of it including which country I lived in and even my first name. I did no self promotion if any kind. I had 7 followers for about a year… strangers who randomly came across my page. Then in 2012 I had a high risk pregnancy (quite a serious medical condition that had me in and out of hospital and on bedrest for weeks) and it was then that I started to open up on my blog about more personal
stuff than “Look. I made this cake. Here’s a recipe”… and despite still not self promoting, people began to connect with me. It’s not a “strategy” per se to share a bit of your personal reflections in amongst posts of food. For me it is absolutely second nature now. But whereas one chocolate cake can be similar to another, no one has your story or life experience. That is what sets us apart from each other, gives us a point of difference, and (unless we just blindly follow trends and copy others) gives our work a certain tone and perspective that is infused with our own experiences.
40. I also believe firmly that authenticity resonates and people want more of that. I think, to a certain extent, “being yourself” is *the* strategy for bloggers who are not overly concerned with strategy.
41. My tip for growing your blog audience is to use Pinterest. Half of the traffic of my blog is coming from Pinterest.
42. Second is to be real. To write about topics you really love. No matter if the topic is popular. As a blogger you need to have fun to stay motivated.

43. Follow you heart when it comes to recipes, always post food that you really enjoy..not trendy ones.Be authentic

44. Always reply to people’s comments on your posts in a nice way.Interacting with your followers is really important to build a connection with them.

 

PASSIONATE ABOUT BAKING

45. Try and add a story to connect with your audience
46. Be part of the community, however big or small.
47. I often get asked how I got so many followers: Show the people that your profile or your blog is what you love to do and that it reflects your passion and not you posting things simply to gain attention and followers. This is the answer I would give to that question. There is no short cut to success, it’s hard work and patience.
48. As a food blogger I always connect in like-minded networks. For example I am in various facebook groups and I also join Group Pinterest boards this helps you gain exposure and you can learn from other bloggers
49. Don’t compromise on your content for sponsored posts– Remember why you got into blogging and why your readers love you and follow you. If you compromise on your content and create something that doesn’t interest  your readers or doesn’t tie your brand with the sponsored product correctly, they will eventually lose interest and unfollow you. A good way to do paid endorsements would be to give a lot of thought to the product and how it ties to your brand. Then come up with ways to project that creatively. This will not only keep your readers engaged but also provide actual value to the brand you’re endorsing. Also make sure you have a good organic vs sponsored content ratio.
50. Endorse products you can stand behind – lots of times brands will approach you to endorse products that you can’t stand behind. Maybe you’ve used their product and didn’t it, or it’s just against your personal values. The best thing to do in this case would be to be truthful and decline the endorsement. If it’s not a products that you actually love and would use yourself, there is no point in misleading your readers. Remember they follow you because they value your opinion, so don’t misuse it.
Stay tuned for the second part, with 50 more tips on how to grow your blog, which will be live next week!

 

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Comments

  4. Smita says

    Thankyou Shivesh! Some truly useful tips. You are such a sweetheart. Continue doing what you do best. Best wishes!

    Reply

  6. Nia says

    This is very useful, Shivesh. Thanks for taking out the time to write something that’ll inspire other food bloggers to keep going.

    Reply

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  12. Kwik Foods says

    thank you so much your blog is very helpful nice posts please share some new ideas and cooking easy tips for dal Tadka Making daily cooking quick, easy & effortless, while making sure the food is super fresh & Healthy.

    Reply

  15. ebrevinil says

    I was very pleased to find this website. I wanted to thank you for your time for this wonderful post!! I definitely enjoy reading it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.

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