This section is meant to share resources for beginner food bloggers as we work to grow and share Dwardcooks' recipes. Dwardcooks started with a trickle of recipes during 2017, and toward the end of 2018, Ed really started to pick up steam both with the WW program and with his own recipe creation.
His main venue for sharing recipes was his Instagram account @dwardcooks, and as his followers grew, so did the demand for a clean, organized
This is where I came in
Growing up, my parents owned a small, local printing company. I grew up in the back offices of their little shop, helping to collate menus, eventually helping to input typesetting for jobs for local restaurants and offices. I spent a lot of my time during my teenage years tinkering with this random old iMac (I don't even remember where it came from), learning through trial and error how to code basic websites and create web graphics.
My interest in graphic design and web design is completely self-taught, and the learning curve, especially with all of these new online tools, is steep. Through my research (and, yes, tinkering), I hope to combine my husband's love of cooking and my love of design and curiosity to support the growth of our little corner of the interwebs.
This section will receive updates as I continue to learn more about the process of food blogging.
Resources for beginner food bloggers
Pinch of Yum: This site seems pretty famous around the food blogging world, and their income reports during the early months of their growth were some helpful reading for me as I worked to transfer the site from a WordPress hosted site to our new host: Bluehost.
Feast WordPress Themes: I purchased our theme, Foodie Pro, and its parent theme: Genesis from this design company. Since I'm completely learning this as I go, it has been really helpful to work with a theme that comes out of the box, so to speak, with a beautiful, functional layout that allows me to showcase Ed's food photography and recipes without too much technical knowledge. I was really nervous to start the migration - but it looks like it's gone off without any MAJOR hiccups.
Tips from Food Blogger Pro: This site is an online community for beginner to intermediate food bloggers. Its registration is currently closed, but I'm anxiously awaiting my invitation link. The site at the above link contains some really useful tips and information about basic SEO terms. There's a LOT to learn... that's what I'm learning.
Plug-ins I currently use
WP Recipe Maker: Allows you to tag all of your recipes, insert them in posts around the site, and make them PRINTABLE.
Yoast SEO: Gives each of your posts and pages guidelines for better optimizing their SEO potential (which pretty much means making it easy and simple for search engines like Google to find your site). I've found this really useful as I re-organize Dwardcooks' old posts and structure them more clearly.
Mailchimp for WP: This is a new venture. This plugin enables us to collect subscriber information and to send out beautiful email newsletters with recipes and tips for our subscribers.
Note: Some of the links above may contain affiliate links. This means that Dwardcooks may make some money if you make purchases from those sources.
