Ive been debating lately about starting up a blog. I have a deep passion for all things food. I love to cook and will become a certified chef within a years time. I plan on starting up my own restaurant/catering company/food truck etc. I am currently thinking that I should start a food blog. I want the opinions of the people, because, well this is my main hub on the interwebz and I value a lot of peoples opinions from this site. So if you have a blog, follow others, or generally like throwing your two cents in, come on in and don't be shy.


Main questions:
Whats the best site to start a blog with/on?
How do I go about getting the word out?
How should I format it or what angle should I go with?
Any tips and tricks about getting one up and running?
Anything I should know?

Well, I have a blog on Blogspot, and it's fairly easy to use. I'm sure if you're even tech savvy in the least, you'd be able to manage getting the layout done and everything. If you prefer tumblr, you could use that as well. Both are fairly good from my experience, though I prefer Blogspot. To get the word out, you best put it in the sig. of all forums you're on, and join a couple cooking forums as well. Even if you post stuff like, "Ooh, that sounds nice!", your blog would get publicity simply since the link is there. However, it is obviously better if you post something intelligible, interesting, memorable, or even funny. That way the reader would know that they'd be getting more of that when you click the link to the blog.

Getting one up and running can be done in under an hour, and doesn't take a lot of effort. All I can say is, in most blog websites, people can leave anonymous comments. Don't pay attention to, or feel bad about the negative ones. Don't let them get to you, because those people are 100% trolls. If it gets you down, just start being awesome instead.

So yeah that's all I know. Hope it helps.

Wordpress is the most popular and for good reason. I'd recommend it. Further to that, I'd recommend getting a cheap hosting plan ($20 for the year will do) and getting the self-hosted Wordpress option so you can have your own domain and control your advertising - it helps to start with none.

It helps to have a hook. Whether that's... Food that cooks quick, food with game-related spins, whatever, it helps promote the blog merely by being unique content. Oh, that's the other thing - don't be a copycat by nature, though it's okay to borrow on occasion. As for the promotion, use your friends, post about it on social networking sites, that sort of deal. Helps to be persistent... Extremely persistent. Don't be discouraged if your first few dozen postings go by with very few commenters - the more quality content you have, the more likely you're going to have visitors.

As for format... Just keep it simple. Vibrant colors work well for food, and so does austere white (makes people think of chef's garb - or at least it does for me).

I second getting your own domain. Blogspot and Tumblr are good for personal blogs, but since you're starting a company it would help to be professional and have your own website. Wordpress is much more versatile and feature rich than Blogspot, and can be used to build the website proper once the time comes.

As for getting the word out, I'd start off by writing a few articles to draw people in before you even start linking people to it. Make sure everything looks good and you've figured things out. Then you can link to it on food forums, or in appropriate conversations. You can put a link into your signature, too. Not sure how feasible this is, but you might want to cater your blog towards a fandom - there's a Song of Ice and Fire cooking blog that got really big and was signed for a cookbook earlier this year. That is probably a bit myopic for what you want to do, but something like a post about how to make Oblivion Sweetrolls would draw a lot of extra views and get exposure outside the foodie crowd.