Blogging Resources
Thirteen years of food blogging, minus the mistakes.
I started this blog on a free theme with a point-and-shoot camera and no idea what a keyword was. Here’s the stack I’d hand my younger self — and why each piece matters more than the thing you’re probably shopping for instead.
The honest version
Nobody’s first hundred posts are any good. Mine certainly weren’t. What moved the needle wasn’t a course or a plugin bundle — it was picking one thing I actually cared about, publishing on a schedule I could keep, and slowly learning to photograph food in daylight.
So this page isn’t a shortcut. It’s the small number of tools that removed real friction for me, in the order they mattered. If you buy through a link here I may earn a commission — it costs you nothing and it keeps the recipes free.
Start here if you’re brand new
- Pick a niche narrow enough to be recognizable.
- Buy hosting and a real theme. Skip the page builder.
- Publish 20 recipes before you touch analytics.
- Learn window light before you buy a lens.
- Start the email list on day one, not year three.
The stack, in the order it mattered
Four categories. Each one solved a problem I felt every single week.
01
Hosting that doesn’t buckle
My roux post has been shared for a decade. The first time it went wide, my cheap host folded and I lost the traffic. Managed WordPress hosting costs more per month than a bag of good flour and has never done that to me since.
02
A recipe card plugin, not a plain list
Readers want to jump straight to the ingredients, and search engines want structured data. One plugin does both. This is the single change that most improved how my recipes performed.
03
Email you own
Platforms change their minds. Your list doesn’t. I waited far too long to take this seriously; a simple weekly send is now the most reliable traffic I have.
04
One lens and a reflector
Not a studio. A 50mm prime, a window, and a piece of white foam board fixed more of my photos than every gear upgrade combined.
Browse by topic
Each of these gets its own guide as I write them. Tools, settings, and what I’d skip.
Content
Instagram Reels
Shooting a recipe vertically without reshooting the whole dish. Hooks, pacing, sound.
Craft
Food Photography
Window light, angles, props, and the styling tricks that survive a plate going cold.
Craft
Blogging
Finding a niche, writing headnotes people read, and publishing on a schedule you keep.
Platform
WordPress
Themes, the recipe card plugin, and the handful of settings that actually matter.
Platform
Hosting
What I moved to after a cheap host dropped my biggest traffic day, and why.
Growth
SEO Tools
Keyword research for recipes without turning your writing into keyword soup.
Gear
Camera Gear
Body, one prime lens, tripod, lighting — the full list lives on Shop My Kitchen.
Gear
Editing Apps
My Lightroom presets, the mobile app I edit Reels in, and how long it really takes.
“Peter, I followed your setup notes and had my food blog live in a weekend. The recipe card advice alone saved me a month of second-guessing.”
— a reader who now runs a gluten-free baking site
Questions I get every week
How much does it cost to start?
Realistically, hosting plus a theme plus a recipe plugin. Under a few hundred dollars a year. Everything else can wait until you’re publishing consistently.
Do I need to be a trained cook?
No. I’m not one. I sell real estate. What matters is testing your recipes honestly and writing like you’re talking to a friend at the stove.
How long until it makes money?
Longer than any course will tell you. Treat the first two years as tuition and the blog as something you’d do anyway.
Will you look at my site?
Often, yes. Send me a note — I answer every reader email that isn’t a pitch.
Want the setup checklist?
The one-page version of this whole article, in your inbox, free.