Do you want to start a food blog, but you’re having trouble coming up with ideas? Before you learn the technical details of how to start a food blog, you should brainstorm what kind of food blog you want to create.
Coming up with a unique food blog idea can be difficult: there are seemingly endless food blogs already out there, and you want yours to stand out! While it may be nearly impossible to create a totally unique food blog, you can still create a great blog with the right focus, original content, and hard work. Many food bloggers have even managed to make money food blogging, making them a fun and lucrative project!
Before you start blogging, consider the type of food blog you want to create, a topic or theme for your food blog, a catchy name, and what kind of content you’ll post.
Types of Food Blogs
Different food blogs share different types of content. You can run a food blog as a master chef, or as someone with no skills in the kitchen but a love for food! Consider what kind of content you are interested in and what you’re capable of writing before you get into the details of your blog.
Some of these food blog types have overlap: that’s okay! As long as your blog is focused and stays on whatever topic you choose
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- Recipe Blogs
- Restaurant Review Blogs
- Cooking Blogs
- Food Review Blogs
- Food Blogs by Location
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Recipe Blogs
Recipe blogs are probably what you first think of when you consider a food blog. These blogs share homemade recipes and often tips or background information on how readers can make them at home. This is a very broad topic, so the best way to start a recipe blog is to focus it on a more concise topic.
We’ll dive deeper into topic ideas later, but there are plenty of potential topics for a recipe blog. Some you may consider:
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- Recipes under 30 minutes
- Recipes for Kids
- Gluten Free Recipe Blog (or any other dietary restriction)
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Restaurant Review Blogs
For those of us who love food but can’t cook well enough to start a blog about it, there are plenty of successful blogs that simply review food. Restaurant review blogs are popular because they help readers learn where to eat and what to try! This kind of blog works well with a foodie Instagram account showcasing the food you try in your adventures.
Some restaurant review blogs can double as travel blogs if you’re traveling and trying different food establishments along the way. If you grow your blog to a large enough audience, restaurants may even invite you to come critique their food! You could even review private dining experiences for people looking to host parties. Before you get to that level, however, you can still enjoy an excuse to try lots of different food and share it on your blog.
Cooking Blogs
A cooking blog may seem too similar to a recipe blog, but there are some differences. Cooking blogs are generally more focused on a specific type of cooking – think of all the blogs dedicated exclusively to baking. A blog that is focused on cooking can also be more about learning techniques, how to cook, and different flavor combinations, rather than just recipes.
If you want to start a cooking blog, you could even walk your audience through a cookbook. If you remember the movie Julie & Julia, it was actually based on Julie Powell’s blog about cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Often, people struggle to follow the threadbare instructions in a cookbook. A cooking blog could walk them through the steps, as well as provide reviews about what recipes you liked or didn’t like.
Food Review Blogs
Again, a food review blog may sound similar to a restaurant review blog. The difference is that you can review any food, or whatever is in your pantry. A food review blog could look at the differences between different brands of cereal, their flavors, ingredients, nutrition, and more. You could try food from shops as well, which may blur the line between food review and restaurant review, but like we said before – it’s all about what you want to write about.
When you consider nutrition as well, a food review blog can be extremely popular. Plenty of people wonder what’s actually in their groceries, and how healthy certain health food really are. Comparing different brands or types of the same food product can yield a surprisingly large audience.
Food Blogs by Location
If you’re looking for something to eat in your city, you’ll likely turn to the internet. For this reason, a location-based food blog can be extremely successful. Many foodies explore their cities or hometowns, checking out all the best places to eat and sharing what they find on a blog or a foodstagram.
This is essentially a restaurant or food review blog, but you can choose to work in your own recipes with local ingredients or add some other local twist. The idea behind a location-based food blog is that you can build a local audience who are interested in food opportunities near them.
Food Blog Topic Ideas
Within each type of blog, there are various niches you can choose to narrow your focus even further. A more specific theme or focus can help your blog stand out from other popular food blogs.
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- Nutrition or Diet Blogs
- Cultural Food Blogs
- Blogs for a Certain Type of Food
- Food Blogs Targeted by Audience
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Nutrition or Diet Blogs
A blog based on nutrition or a certain diet can be hugely successful. Nutrition-based blogs can share nutrition facts about grocery food or restaurant food, or could share healthy recipes to make at home. This blog topic can really dip into all the other types of blogs, but the focus should be on the health and nutrition facts of what you’re eating.
Diet blogs could be about fad diets, like Keto, Paleo, Whole 30, and so on. They could also focus on dietary restrictions, like gluten allergies, dairy allergies, vegan food, vegatarian, pescatarian, or other restrictions. It can be hard to find both recipes and restaurants that accommodate these kinds of diets, so a blog is a helpful resource for those in need of recommendations.
This blog topic could work well with a weight loss or fitness blog, which could also bring in different readers than a blog that is totally focused on food.
Cultural Food Blogs
By cultural food blog, we mean a blog that focuses solely on the food of a specific culture. You could also do a blog about food around the world if you’re committed to trying a wide range of foods.
Whether you love Italian food, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, or any other type of cuisine, there’s plenty of material to base a blog totally on one cultural niche. You could share recipes or cooking tips for those cultures, or visit the best restaurants that make that type of food, or both! Picking a specific culture can help focus you and give your blog a unique twist.
If you choose the food of your own culture, you can discuss what that food means to you or use it to learn more about your family, ancestors, or simply learn more about your culture in general. This gives an extra personal touch to your food blog!
Blogs for a Certain Type of Food
Need an excuse to try a bunch of different types of pizza? Well now you have one! A popular style of food blogging is honing in on one specific kind of food, whether it’s pizza, sushi, baked goods, ice cream – the list goes on. You can try every pizza shop you encounter, or try a bunch of different pizza recipes.
The idea behind this kind of blog is that you’ll be an expert on that specific type of food. If you’re also a locally based blog, you could try every sushi place in the city and generate reviews for all of them. Once your blog takes off, someone could turn to you to find the best sushi places, or burger joints, and so on. If you have a deep love for a certain type of food, or even ingredient, make your blog all about it so that you can stand out against all the more generic food blogs.
Food Blogs Targeted by Audience
Another option is to focus your food blog by considering your audience. You can cater your blog to beginners just learning how to cook, those cooking on a budget, or someone with little time to throw meals together. A food blog for moms on the go can be extremely successful, or for college students learning how to cook for themselves. Another option could be cooking for singles, as many recipes are family-style and yield too much leftover for an individual.
You should always consider your target audience when you’re blogging, but spinning your content to appeal to a certain audience can make for a unique blog.
Food Blog Name Ideas
Coming up with a name can be harder than anticipated. If you don’t already have a name in mind, you can drive yourself crazy trying to come up with the perfect name.
When you’re coming up with a name for your food blog, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, the blog name should also be your domain name and web address. This means you need to keep it relatively short and easy to spell. A shorter name will also be easier for readers to remember, so they can easily come back to your blog or recommend it to a friend.
The more memorable your name, the better. This is why many food blogs pick names that are punny or relate to a common food phrase of some sort.
Try to include some or all of these elements:
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- Your name (if you want to share it)
- Your food niche
- Your location (if it’s relevant)
- A pun
- A rhyme
- Alliteration
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The first three points will help establish who you are and what your blog is about. The last three points are more about making a catchy, memorable name.
Alliteration is when you use the same first letter in repetition. For example, my name is Erin, so I could start a brunch blog called ErinEatsEggs. If you’re starting a vegan blog, you could name it PlantBasedPlates to include your niche and make a pithy, memorable name. Play with different food puns, rhymes, or alliteration to come up with a short but easy to remember blog name.
Research food puns or consider common food and cooking phrases for inspiration.
Food Blog Post Ideas
Once you’ve figured out the type, topic, and name of your blog, you’ll have to come up with content to share. Depending on your focus, this could be easy – you’re just getting started, so there’s plenty to share. After you’ve shared all of your original ideas, however, it can be hard to come up with fresh topics.
If you’re in need of fresh content ideas, here are a few that could work! Make sure you stay on theme with the rest of your blog and try sharing a few of these topics, or alter them to make them your own.
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- Food hashtags to share your meals on social media
- Recreate a recipe to make it healthier, make it fit your diet restrictions, or add new flavors
- Go on a food tour of a certain neighborhood
- Invite a friend or family member to help with a recipe or try a new restaurant
- Share what you eat on a lazy day or when you’re in a rush
- Take a cooking class and share the experience
- Share a series of simple how-to’s on basic steps
- Interview a favorite chef or food blogger
- Collaborate with another food blogger on a project
- Share seasonal recipes or try seasonal foods
- Share a family recipe
- Discuss the reasons that you love food and why you started a food blog
- Provide blogging tips
- Share tips for cooking or eating out on a budget
- Recreate a dish that is typically considered boring
- Create party menu ideas
- Write about food photography and how you take your pictures
- Make a list of kitchen must-haves
- Create a top 10 list for restaurants near you or by niche
- Try your own food challenge
- Try a new style of cooking or an exotic new food and recap your experience
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There are plenty of other possible ideas you can use for your food blog. Check out competitor blogs for inspiration, or ask your audience what they’d like to see next!
Now that you’re full of ideas, learn the 8 easy steps to start your own food blog!
Amazing insight and tips i was personally interested in starting a restaurant review blog but still gathering all the data plus it requires a lot of travel and restaurant visits until you get invited by them and get noticed.