Do you want to build your own food blog? Want to try out a new company or plugin but your not sure which one to choose? Or are you just curious about how blogs work? Here is a list of resources that I use on Aberdeen's Kitchen to create a well-run, attractive and secure site as well as products and plugins specific to food blogging. As I add or change services, I will continually update this page to keep you in the know.
Disclaimer: Please note this page contains affiliate links. I only ever recommend companies that I myself use and trust. Please contact me if you have any questions about anything listed below!
Starting Your Own Food Blog
SiteGround - Think about hosting as the place where your blog "lives" online. You can either use a hosted option where everything is done for you or you can self host, where you control every aspect of your website, which I would strongly recommend. After orginally using a hosted WordPress option for my blog for a year, I opted to switch over to self-hosting to have more control over my website and really make it my own. Although I originally used Bluehost, I chose switch over to SiteGround host my website. The support is absolutely unparalleled, and they even transferred site over for free! They're available 24/7, by phone or even by chat. When you're struggling with your blog coding at 10:30 at night, they'll be there to answer the phone and I'm not going to lie, definitely did once or twice! They also have extremely affordable prices with different packages depending on your personal site.
Genesis Framework - This is one of the top rated frameworks when using WordPress. It's extremely secure and keeps security a top priority while also being search-engine-optimized, which when you have your own food blog is a definite plus! Once you purchase Genesis, you can choose from several child themes, free or paid for, to customize your site. I find this particular set up to be ideal for my blog, as it provides excellent security, SEO, and is an extremely efficient framework, without me having to do much! I run Genesis on Aberdeen's Kitchen with the Foodie Pro child theme.
Foodie Pro Theme - A gorgeously simplistic, minimalistic and user friendly theme that sits on top of the Genesis Framework. I absolutely love this theme. It's easy to customize to your own tastes including widgets, headers, page templates and it's even mobile responsive (which if you're not super tech savvy like myself, can be a real pain to figure out)! Instead of spending hours coding, this theme allows me to focus on the important stuff for Aberdeen's Kitchen, like the food ;-).
Vaultpress - When you have your site set up, it is absolutely necessary to get a back up plug in. Vaultpress is the company I use to back up Aberdeen's Kitchen. That way, if anything crashes, my blog is entirely backed up! I would be able to recover my entire site and continue on blogging. Depending on your needs, there are a few different pricing plans. I use the basic one, a very affordable and worth it $9 a month, which includes daily back ups, security checks, and spam blocking.
Food Blogger Pro - An absolutely amazing resource for those new to blogging, expert bloggers, and all the rest of us in-between. The site has extremely helpful, step by step tutorials on everything from setting up code to create your own professional blog, monetizing your content, and even improving your photography skills. It also has a massive community forum, where you can ask questions about all kinds of blogging topics and get responses from other food bloggers. An extremely easy to use, user friendly website, Food Blogger Pro runs at $29 a month or at a special yearly rate, and is absolutely worth every penny! If you're just starting out or you've been around a while but are looking to step up your blogging game, this site is definitely worth your while.
More Website Tools and Food Photography Resources Coming Soon!