Looking to start a baking blog but need the right recipe? Find out to do exactly that today.
This post may contain affiliate links.
We are a reader supported website. If you make a purchase after clicking one of our affiliate links, we may receive a commission.
Are you ready to share your baking ventures with the world via a blog, but don’t know where to start? Read on for an in-depth guide to help you on your new creative journey into the internet world and learn how to start a baking blog in 7 simple steps.
Plan Your Baking Blog
While you can just start a baking blog, having a plan can help you be more successful. You can make sure that you’ll start a blog you enjoy working on. A plan may also provide a bit of motivation when you don’t want to write new posts or promote current posts.
You don’t need to create a blog plan with a ton of details. However, you should outline the type of baking blog you want to start and do some research on other baking sites. That way, you’ll be able to show that your blog has something unique to offer.
Picking a Niche
One of the essential parts of starting a baking blog is to have a niche. Baking can be a niche, but it’s a bit broad, so you would have to compete with all other baking blogs. If you focus on something more specific, you may be able to grow more easily.
Think about what you like to bake to come up with niche ideas. You can also think about your situation, such as if you have a tight budget or a busy schedule. All of those things can help you choose a specific topic within baking that you want to blog about.
You can also research successful baking blogs to determine their niches. Remember; it’s more important for you to like the niche so that you’ll stick with it. Consistency pays off!
A few good baking blog niches include:
- Baking on a budget
- Gluten-free baking
- Vegan baking
- Beginner baking tutorials
Find Competitors & Examples
Another vital step in planning your baking blog is to research your competitors. You can start by doing a Google search for baking blogs. If you want to focus on a more specific niche, such as vegan food, search for vegan baking blogs as well.
Make a list of all of the baking blogs you find. You may have to click into some search results that have a list of dozens of baking blogs. Either way, you want to take note of the blog name and URL.
Go to a marketing site like Semrush and enter each domain into the search bar. That way, you can see what keywords your competition is already ranking for. Semrush can also tell you what blogs are competitors to the blogs you’ve found.
Make note of any new competitors that you didn’t find on Google. Repeat the process with those new blogs to see the keywords that different blogs use. Keep a running list of those keywords to use when working on your blog.
Having competitors isn’t a bad thing, because it can help validate a need for your idea. If there aren’t any baking blogs that cover your niche idea, that may be due to a lack of interest from readers. You can still continue with that niche, but you may have to work harder to get readers.
When you have some competition, you know that people already want to read about that topic. So you can focus on writing good posts that attract new readers to help grow your blog.
As you review your competitors, take a look at each blog. Consider what you do or don’t like, such as the color scheme or the blog layout. Look at the categories and tags that each blog uses, especially if they have the same sub-niche as you.
You can also look at any comments on the blog posts. See what readers do or don’t like about existing blogs to see what you can do to fill in any gaps in the market. Then, you can further decide on the best baking blog niche for you.
Starting a Baking Blog in 7 Steps
Once you have a good plan for your blog, it’s time to get it going. Here are some steps to follow as you begin your new website.
1. Pick a Domain Name for Your Baking Blog
First, you’ll need to come up with an idea for your blog name. The domain name is the URL people will use to visit your site directly. You may need to come up with a few name ideas so that you can choose one where the domain is available.
As you brainstorm ideas, stick to shorter names. If you make the name more than four or five words, it can be hard for people to remember. Typing the name into the search bar will also take longer, which isn’t as convenient for readers.
You should also make the name somewhat descriptive of your niche. This is a great way to incorporate whatever sub-topic you want to cover within the baking industry. For example, you may include the word “vegan” in your vegan baking blog title.
A good blog name also avoids words with common misspellings. You should think about that if you want to include your name in the domain for your blog. If people don’t spell your name correctly, you might want to choose something else.
It’s also worth going on social media to see if the blog name is available there. You can alter the name for Instagram or Pinterest, but it will be less confusing if you use the same spelling across platforms.
Another way to find good blog name ideas is to look at your competitors. Don’t copy any of their names or use them as a specific template. However, you can think about the names you like and figure out why you like them to help find a name for your new blog.
Here are a few more tips to choose a name:
- Stick with .com as the ending
- Make the name easy to remember
- Use your sub-niche
2. Select Your Baking Blog Hosting
Now, you’ll need to find a good website host for your baking blog. Hosting is essential because it’s what will get your website online for visitors to access. Just owning a domain doesn’t mean you can publish a site.
Your hosting provider is also where you can set up where you’ll access and edit your site. As you look for a host, you will find there are a ton of options. Some hosts are free to use, but others charge a monthly or yearly fee.
When you first start, you may want to go with a free host. However, free plans almost always have some sort of limitation. You may not be able to make money with your blog, or you might not have as much control over the design.
Fortunately, you can find some paid hosting plans that are relatively affordable. A few plans cost less than a single trip to the coffee shop for a full month of hosting.
Paid hosts also tend to offer better customer service and assistance. That means you can get help if your site goes down or if you have trouble with the initial setup.
You’ll also have access to WordPress with a paid host. While you can use WordPress.com for free, it has a lot of restrictions like other free options. A third-party host allows you to use the WordPress software, but you can do a lot more with it.
Be sure to look for hosts with good introductory deals to save money on your first year. That way, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to test out a blog. If you happen to not like it, you can close your blog after a year, but you may want to keep up with it.
3. Install WordPress
A lot of blog hosts have their own website builders that you can use. Those can work fine, but WordPress is by far the most common blogging platform. You can install it on almost any paid hosting plan.
Some hosts offer a 1-click installation of WordPress. That way, you don’t have to download the software and upload it to your host and risk doing something incorrectly. SiteGround is one of the best options for easy WordPress installation.
Once you set up everything, you can manage your website using the WordPress dashboard. That makes it easy to add posts and other pages or to update your website. You can also easily find and add plugins to make your website do more things.
Plus, WordPress is free to install, so you just need to consider the cost of your host. You can pay extra for certain plugins or extensions, but those aren’t necessary to start blogging.
4. Find a Baking Blog Theme
A WordPress theme is a template that you use to help design your blog. Many themes have menus and sidebars to help organize your blog content. You’ll find hundreds or even thousands of available themes to choose from.
In your WordPress dashboard, you can go to Appearance, then Themes. Click on Add Themes to view the available options. You can look at some of the more popular themes and preview how each theme would look.
Another option is to review the latest themes that developers have uploaded. If you’ve favorited WordPress themes, you can view those in the Favorites tab.
Maybe you don’t find any themes that you love, so you use the Feature Filter section. One option is to search for themes that are best for blogs. But you’ll also be able to look for themes that use block editing or that offer different layouts.
If you still can’t find the perfect theme, you may need to look at paid options. You can search for paid themes on Google or Etsy. Some themes are relatively affordable, so you can get the design you want on a budget.
While paid themes are nice, I’d avoid paying for one when starting your first blog. You want to make sure you’ll keep blogging to make the purchase worth it. Luckily, plenty of free themes are more than enough to help you start your blog.
5. Personalize Your Baking Blog
After you choose a theme, you’ll want to edit it a bit to make your blog unique. Go to Appearance, then Customize, to bring up the right menu. Here, you can review your theme and change it if you want.
However, you can also edit your site identity, which includes your site title and tagline. You’ll be able to change the colors you use for the background, text, and links. Add a header or background image, and set up menus for your site.
The specific changes you can make will depend on the theme you activate. Go through the list of options and click on each one. You’ll see the changes in real-time, and you can choose to publish them or not.
If you don’t like a certain change, you can click the X in the top left corner. As you make changes, consider how they’ll look on desktop, tablet, and phone screens.
6. Carry Out Keyword Research
Before you write any posts for your blog, do some keyword research. This is where you find search terms that people might use and look at the analytics for those terms. Review your list of competitors and the keywords they rank for in search.
Go back to Semrush and look at each of those keywords. Consider how much competition each keyword has, and narrow in on low-competition terms. It will be easier for your new blog to rank in search results for those keywords.
If you focus on competitive search terms, your blog may never rank in search results. The existing baking blogs will probably take over the entire first page. So as you consider different keywords to target, focus on the amount of competition. In general, the more competition, the less chance of visibility.
You can also review the search traffic for those keywords. It helps to choose terms with at least a few monthly searches. Then, you’ll be able to get visitors when your blog posts start to rank for those terms.
When using Semrush, be sure to use the keyword magic tool. This will help you discover more questions or keywords that people are searching for, so you can address them in your blog. If your competition hasn’t targeted those keywords yet, you may be able to rank in search results.
7. Publish Your First Baking Blog Post
Assuming you did your keyword research, you should have a keyword with a relatively low amount of competition. Now, you’re ready to write a post about that keyword so that you can publish something on your blog.
When writing the blog post, be sure to use your baking expertise. You should also look for any questions people may have about the topic. An excellent place to search for this is Google by using the “people also ask” section.
Maybe you’re targeting the keyword “vegan chocolate cake.” Some of the questions have to do with whether vegans can have that or how to make a vegan cake more moist. Include those questions and others that you find in a blog post outline.
Depending on your topic, you may be able to answer questions naturally throughout the post. However, you can also add a list of frequently asked questions to the end. That way, you can provide as much information and value as possible.
After you write the post, be sure to proofread it to find any spelling or grammatical errors. You can also run it through a tool like Grammarly or have a friend proofread the draft.
Add any photos or videos to help people understand the topic. You can do this by uploading media to your WordPress media library. If you want to link to a video on YouTube, you can copy the link and embed it in your post.
Then, in WordPress, you can hit Publish to post the article immediately. However, you can also schedule the post if you want to delay the publication.
Here are a few more tips to help you publish your first post:
- Choose a topic you know about to make writing easier
- Break up the text with headings and images
- Write within WordPress
Marketing Your Baking Blog
You could be the best writer on the planet, but that doesn’t mean people will automatically find your baking blog. Even with good keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO), it can take a while before your posts show up in search engines.
Until that happens, you’ll have to promote your blog and individual posts yourself. No one will know about your blog if you don’t tell them.
Now, you don’t need a huge marketing budget, and you can start with the current tools you have. You can:
- Tell people online about your blog
- Tell people in person when they ask what you’re up to
- Aim to spend about as much time on marketing as you do on writing; that way, you can get traffic before search engines start to show your posts
- Know your target audience
- Make your content easily shareable to other platforms
- Collaborate with other blogs
SEO for Your Baking Blog
Researching keywords is a massive part of SEO for any blog. However, you should do more things to help optimize your baking blog for search engines.
After choosing a keyword, make sure to focus on that main term. You can use other keywords to help search engines recognize the topic you’re covering. However, you shouldn’t try to optimize one post for multiple terms.
On the other hand, you should only use a keyword for one post. That way, you can keep from competing with yourself to get the top spot in search results.
Include the main keyword in the title of your post as well as in the introduction and conclusion. Use the term in a header and in the alt text of any images you include. Then, you may show up in an image search.
When designing your blog, make sure it’s easy to use and navigate on all devices. As more people use mobile devices to browse the web, a responsive design is even more important. If your site is hard to use on a small screen, you may not show up in search results.
You should also aim to keep a consistent publishing schedule. It doesn’t matter if you publish twice a week or once every two weeks. Find a schedule that works for you and stick to it as best as you can.
That can show search engines that you’ll continue to have new, up-to-date content. Speaking of which, after a while, you may want to review your existing posts. The baking niche doesn’t change that often, but you might need to update your posts with new links or product recommendations.
To summarize, keep these things in mind:
- Continue to research keywords whenever you’re ready to write blog posts
- Keep a running list of good low-competition keywords and topic ideas
- Be consistent
- Keep your links and other information updated
- One focus keyword per post
Social Media Marketing for Your Baking Blog
A fantastic way to market your baking blog is with a social media presence. You can choose from platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest. Think about your baking sub-niche and which platforms your ideal readers use.
Then, select one social media platform to use at the start. You can expand your presence later, but you should focus on one to learn how it works. After that, you’ll be able to repeat the process and keep up with multiple accounts.
Once you select a platform, start posting content consistently and frequently. You can share links to your blog posts, and you can create content specifically for social media. Maybe you share a recipe on your blog, so you make a video of the steps to share on Instagram.
You should also use social media to connect with others in the baking world. Of course, this can include bloggers, so you can build a good relationship that may lead to a collaboration in the future.
Another option is to connect with your favorite brands in the baking industry. After you grow your audience, you may be able to ask those brands to sponsor you or your blog. That can help you make money from your efforts.
You can also use social media to connect with current and potential readers. Then, you may be able to grow your traffic more quickly and build trust with your audience.
In summary:
- Create relationships with other bloggers
- Partner with brands when possible
- Use multiple platforms
- Use trending hashtags and sounds to increase your visibility
Content Marketing for Your Baking Blog
As the name suggests, content marketing is where you use content to promote something. Blogging is a form of content marketing, but you can use other methods to promote your baking blog.
Popular content marketing options include video, podcasting, and infographics. Maybe you write tutorials for beginner bakers, so you make a video tutorial to help show readers what steps they need to take.
Or you might create an infographic of the steps to make a certain dish. You could also pitch yourself to podcast hosts in the baking niche or other home-related niches. Then, you can be a guest, and you can usually talk about what you do, so you get to promote your blog.
If you’re more comfortable writing, you can publish a guest post on a different blog. Many blogs let you include a link to your website. That means you can get more exposure, and people who read your guest post may click and read your blog.
Like any blog or business, content marketing is a fantastic option. In many cases, it’s free to do, so you don’t need a massive budget. Along with social media marketing, you may be able to get a decent amount of traffic to your new blog.
Plus, with so many options, you can focus on content marketing that suits your strengths. That way, you can increase your chances of getting good results. Here are a few more tips:
- Use social media to get podcast or guest blog spots
- Create videos of your existing blog posts
- Consider your strengths and interests
Email Marketing for Your Baking Blog
Email marketing is an important tool for any business, and you can treat your baking blog like a business. When you start an email list, you collect email addresses from your blog readers, and you can easily send them newsletters and other exclusive content.
You can also repurpose your blog posts or social media posts for emails. That way, you don’t have to create a ton of content to market your blog.
Using email marketing allows you to reach your loyal fans directly. You don’t need to worry about search engine or social media algorithms to get consistent traffic. If Pinterest or Instagram changes something, you can still contact people through their inbox.
As you start an email list, consider creating something free just for subscribers. For example, you might offer an exclusive recipe that you won’t publish on your blog. Or you might offer a printable checklist full of baking supplies.
Offering a free download can incentivize people to sign up for your email list. You can then send them useful tips and tricks for baking. That may help keep people from unsubscribing from emails.
There are tons of email marketing providers, and many of them offer a free plan. That means you can start your email list without having to invest any money. However, you may want to pay for a P.O. Box since many providers require one.
Here are a few other email marketing tips:
- Send a regular newsletter with links to recent blog posts
- Set a schedule for writing and sending emails
- Promote your email list on your blog and social media
Paid Advertising for Your Baking Blog
After a while, you may want to continue to grow your baking blog. Organic options, such as SEO and social media, are great. However, you may want to eventually pay for ad space to get more people to visit your blog.
You can pay for ads on social media or in search results. Both options may help you reach more of your ideal readers, and you don’t have to wait for organic traffic to come to you.
If you’ve had your blog for a few months but haven’t had much traffic, ads may help. You can use search engine ads to show up ahead of your competitors who have the top organic spot.
On social media, you can target ads to reach your ideal reader. Many platforms let you set a daily budget as well so that you don’t spend more than you can afford.
If you’ve never run ads before, you may want to hire help. An ad specialist may know how the platform works and how to set up ads for more success. If you don’t want to do that, you can go through a program, such as Facebook Blueprint to learn how to use ads.
You can also learn by experimenting, but that can quickly get expensive. If you aren’t careful, you may lose a lot of money.
Here are a few more paid ad tips:
- Run your ads for a few weeks to make sure you get results
- Track your ad performance
- Make changes when something isn’t successful
Monetizing Your Baking Blog
Some people blog for fun, but it’s worth making at least a bit of money from it. As you start your baking blog, consider how you can monetize the project. This is where you set up different methods for your blog to earn money.
You can monetize your baking blog in a lot of ways, so think about your interests. Consider how much time you have to work on your blog. That can help you determine if you need more passive income streams that don’t require you to work a lot of hours.
For example, you may offer baking classes, or you might sell baked goods using your blog. But both of those take up your time, so they’re not the best if you have a full-time job.
You might prefer something like display ads or affiliate marketing. Those options require some work, but the amount you work doesn’t directly affect your earnings. So if you have a lot of obligations, you may still be able to earn a good amount of money.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to choose just one monetization method. You may start with one income stream, but you can add more as your blog grows. That way, you can increase your income more easily.
Also, remember that you probably won’t make money from your blog for a while. Even methods like classes require some traffic and trust from your audience. It takes time to build that, so don’t give up if your blog doesn’t make money in the first year.
Here are a few monetization options to consider:
- Display ads
- Affiliate links
- Sponsored blog posts
- Baking courses
- Baked goods
- Pre-packaged ingredients
- Monthly membership site
