What I’ve Learned After 1 Year of Blogging
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I can’t believe it has been a year since I posted my first recipe!
And yet… I can.
It has been a long tiring, but ever so fruitful year of food blogging. It has been a great joy to create and experiment in the kitchen. Finding new recipes to make and tweak, and share with my family and you guys!
Food blogging has been a great way to share my love of food and photography in a way that I haven’t been able to do before. I always loved to cook and bake and try out new recipes. I had always wanted to do photography growing up but I didn’t know that I could blend them together for a job. It has been fun, and I hope it will continue to be fun and exciting and rewarding for many years to come, by the grace of God.
Growing up I didn’t want to have my own business, but here I am with 2! ( I also have an Etsy shop where I sell my original watercolor and acrylic paintings. You can check it out here! )
You never know where the Lord will place you and how your life will turn out. You just have to keep trusting Him and tag along for the process!
Starting something new, perseverance, and success …What I’ve Learned in My First-Year of Food Blogging
Many say starting something new is the hardest part. Once you start everything else will come easy or at least won’t be as hard as starting.
No.
No, starting is not the hardest part, continuing is the hardest part.
Yes, starting something new is hard, but what’s harder is continuing. Continuing when the enthusiasm is gone. Continuing when you are very tired but you need to post and you haven’t written the blog copy yet. Continuing when you don’t have as many views on your blog that you think you should. Continuing when your website goes down and you don’t know how to fix it. Etc, etc, etc.
The people who overcome and persevere are the ones who succeed and get the prize they are chasing.
When you persevere through it all, victory and success tastes sweeter, because you fought for what you got.
I have learned these and many other lessons in the first year of food blogging. I’m sure I will learn many many more lessons in the years to come. I hope you will stick around for the journey!
Things that have Helped my food Blogging Journey
Camera: Canon Powershot SX730 HS
When I first started food blogging last year, I was using my iPhone 6 to take all my pictures. It worked great, except I didn’t have that much space on my phone and it was pretty old.
A few months later I started using my older sister’s Canon Powershot SX730 HS. She wasn’t using it and she let me use it for my blog. My pictures weren’t noticeably better until I started shooting in manual mode. Everyone says it’s the best way to shoot but I didn’t want to learn how to use it. Wrong.
If you want to get into photography for food blogging, or whatever else – SHOOT ON MANUAL MODE. It will make your pictures come out so good.
I want to upgrade to a DSLR camera in the future, but this one works great in the meantime!
I recently purchased the Canon Eos Rebel T7.
Props
I don’t have that many props for food photography. Most of the things I have were gathered throughout the year. They are all props that I like and ones I feel fit with the aesthetic I am trying to create for my blog.
Many of the props I use in my photography, I either already had or bought from Marshall’s, Goodwill, or Walmart.
I believe when you are starting food photography or anything new, you should use what you have, then you can see what you need to add or change.
Blog Theme: Lyra themes
When you start a blog or create any type of website you need a website theme. This is the design of the website. You can either code your website yourself, have someone do it professionally, or buy a template. While I do know how to code a website from scratch, I didn’t want to do it for my own blog. It was already overwhelming with trying to set up all the other things I needed for the blog, and I didn’t want to tack on coding it from scratch as well.
You can find very affordable themes on Etsy, or Creative Market. There are many different styles, designs, and features available, allowing you to have a functioning website in no time!
I bought the “Kale” Lyra theme and I have loved it ever since!
Web Hosting: Cloudways
After you create your website, you need someone to host it on the internet. Web hosting can be expensive. I have changed web hosting providers 3 times in the last year for various reasons.
I used AWS or Amazon Web Services at first and liked it but it was going to get expensive for the size of my website.
I then switched to another provider, they were terrible 10/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND. I couldn’t post on my website for a few months because of it. I lost money. Being with them was such a headache and such a terrible experience.
Then I switched to Cloudways. I love them, they are great and they are not too expensive.
- If you want to try Cloudways you can get $15 credit when you sign up with my link
Blogging Legal templates: Amira at A Self guru
When I first started blogging I didn’t really think about if my blog was legally protected. I was more focused on getting into a rhythm with my blog – recipe testing, writing, shooting, posting, etc. But the legal stuff is important and shouldn’t be avoided.
I bought these legal templates to protect my blog from Amira at A Self Guru. She is a lawyer and blogger who has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs with their legal pages plus thousands of her clients!
She works full-time as a lawyer and has been working with business owners and entrepreneurs for more than 8 years helping them protect their online businesses legally!
Her Legal Bundle comes with 3 legal templates you must have on your blog + 9 additional bonuses!
Here are the 3 legal templates it comes with:
To learn about each template in detail and understand why you need it, check out her blog post here.
Canva: For Pinterest Graphics
Once you have your blog set up, it is time to start posting on Pinterest. I use Canva to create Pinterest graphics, mood boards, etc. I absolutely love Canva and I use it a few times a week.
Tailwind: Pinterest scheduler
Tailwind it helps me to schedule pins to Pinterest automatically. I can use it to schedule hundreds of pins months in advance for me, while I’m doing other things for my blog. I have the pro version and 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND.
Tasty Pins: Recipe Card
The last thing I use multiple times a week for my blog is the Tasty Pins plugin for my recipe card. I love the look of it and how easy it is to use.
Thank you for reading about my first-year blogging thoughts, challenges, and successes! I hope we have many more years of food blogging to come!
You can stay updated by following along with me on this blogging journey on the blog or on Instagram (@themidwestkitchenblog)! Have a blessed day!
