When I first started food blogging I felt like an island. My blog was this tiny little thing in the middle of the sea and no one even knew I was there.
Part of me was operating on a build it and they will come mentality (probably out of self preservation) and part of me was wondering what the heck I was doing wrong. Looking back I don’t necessarily thing I was doing anything wrong, I just wasn’t doing enough right.
‘Built it and they will come’ is only part of the equation when it comes to building a blog (or business of any kind). When applied to business the saying should really be built it, promote the heck out of it, and then they will come. If you’re not doing everything you can do get people to stop and look then why would anyone bother?
It’s not that I didn’t know that I needed to share my blog everywhere, I just didn’t know where to go. Other than Pinterest I was completely clueless. It was months before I even realized that Food Gawker was a thing, but at that point my photography was so bad I didn’t have an icebergs’ chance in hell of getting anything accepted.
Eventually I found myself creeping around The Food Blogger Pro (<—affiliate link!) community forums which opened my eyes to all of the different places that I could share recipes. Little by little my photography improved, my list of submission sites grew, and people started to come to my blog.
photograzing sites: what are they?
Think Pinterest but for food and smaller photos! Food Submission sites  are websites that rely on community contribution from bloggers. They share a thumbnail sized picture of your recipe, the name, and a link back to your blog. Sites like Buzz Feed and the Huffington Post are also known to visit these sites when looking for recipes to include in their recipe roundups.
submission sites for food bloggers
This is my ever growing list of food grazing sites that I submit to on a regular basis. Each site has different requirements, but in general they are all going to ask for:
- an email adress
- link to your recipe
- a cropped photo
- name/short description of the recipe
- Food Gawker (now shut down)
- World Recipes (you can submit recipes in six different languages)
- Yum Goggle
- Recipe PleaserÂ
- My Foodies
- FoodGoggle
SPECIALTY FOOD
7. Finding Vegan <—must be vegan
8. Oh My Veggies Potluck <—must be vegetarian
9. Healthy Aperture <—healthy recipes
10. Jalapeno Mania <—recipes with peppers
Foodista is another great site that you should check out. They have daily features for “Food Blogger of the Day” & “Drink Blogger of the Day”. You can submit your own blog to be considered through the contact form for a chance to be featured which means that your blog will be shared on their Facebook page (over 260,000 likes so far) and a link on their blog which is always helpful for SEO.
summing it up
As a rule of thumb I don’t submit to sites that include my entire recipe instructions and all, but that is a decision that is entire up to you
I recommend keeping an eye on your Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from so that you can focus on submitting to those sites. When I was only getting a few thousand page views a month I submitted to as many as I could for a few extra page views – back then 10 clicks from Food Spreading meant a lot. Now that I’m getting significantly more traffic I have narrowed down my list to submitting to the sites that send me the most traffic so that I can focus more time on creating content that is worth sharing.
On average it takes me about 30-45 minutes to submit my photos. It’s incredibly tedious work, but it’s easy. I’d recommend sitting down with a cup or coffee/tea, putting on some music and just powering through.
Also, don’t forget sites likes Pinterest, Yummly, Flipboard, and Facebook are great for sharing content! If you’re anything like me self promotion doesn’t come naturally, but it’s necessary if you want to grow your blog and spread your message.
What about you? Where are your favorite places to share blog posts and connect with other bloggers? Leave me a comment below if you have anything you’d like added to the list!Â
Rachel Fink says
Thanks for this! My blog has a food section and I’ve been wondering how to get more traffic to that part. Will be trying out all the resources you recommend (plus I already asked to join the facebook group you recommended in a comment)
Sarah says
Awesome! Glad you found it helpful!
Lili says
Hi Sarah!
Thanks for a great article, saved a tone of time for me! I used to have a healthy food blog back at student times, I wish I could have found your article back then!
I’ll be visiting more often since you have plenty of useful info here. “Low fodmap” was something I didn’t know, hope this Wiki particle will be helpful to folks like me just starting with healthy lifestyle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP
Thanks once again and continue the great job!
Sarah says
Hi Lili! Glad you found this helpful!
Eve @MagneticCooky says
Sarah,
Thank you for such inspiring article. I want to transform my blog to a recipe one. I already get like 60k views from search engines.
I just published my first recipe but my photos are away to be any good.
Is still worth submitting to websites if my photos are still at the beginner level?
Appreciate your thoughts.
Sarah says
Absolutely! A lot of these submission sites aren’t moderated so any/all photos will be accepted. Some of the larger ones like foodgawker are pretty picky, but it’s always a fun way to measure progress when your first photo gets accepted! They also provide a little feedback on why a photo may not have been accepted. That feedback was helpful to me when I first started. They’ll just say something like “poor lighting”, “awkward angle”. “composition” etc.
You can always try it out for a week or two to see if it’s worth your time. If it doesn’t look like you’re getting much through you can always give it a break until you feel like your photos have improved.
Good luck! 60K is great – as long as you stick with it you’ll keep growing!
Tracy says
Thanks for the tips! I’ve been a food blogger for three years but some I’d never heard of, like Food Yub which is bringing in tons of traffic!
Sarah says
Glad it was helpful! I stopped submitting to most of these after awhile because it takes so much time but I love food yub – sends so much traffic!
Supriya Kuttty says
Thanks for sharing and informative list with us. As all the list consist of many different and unique kind of dishes And all the dishes are mouth watering. Thank you. Best regards.
Markas says
This is so great. But some links don’t work anymore. For example – foodfotogallery.com is completely dead. Your should remove it.
Sarah says
Thanks Markas! It’s been awhile since I’ve used some of the smaller sites so that completely went past me
Emman Damian says
Thanks for the comprehensive list! It is very helpful to be honest!
Sarah says
Glad it can help!
Sophie @ Delightful Plate says
Hi Sarah!
Thank you for sharing this useful information! Your first paragraph described exactly what I feel at this moment. I started my food blog 3 weeks ago and I’m struggling with finding ways to make my voices heard. I will try to submit photos to those websites. I’m still in the process of learning how to take good food photos though. There are just so many things to learn and I knew nothing about those things before starting my blog. I’m still not sure how to promote my blog, how to make use of Pinterest to reach potential readers, etc., but I know this is still the beginning and having a food blog has been an amazing experience for me. I feel encouraged after reading your blog post. Thanks again.
Sophie
Sarah says
Hi Sophie! First of all – I LOVE your blog! Vietnamese cuisine is probably my favourite type so I’m excited to try some of your recipes!
Second – congrats on starting your blog! That is so exciting and for 3 weeks in it’s already looking fantastic! My first 8 months of posts were pretty terrible so you’re on a much better foot than I was 🙂 I think the thing to keep in mind is that things are going to take some time. I didn’t really see any traction in the first 6 months of blogging and that’s pretty typical for the majority of people.
If you haven’t already heard of it this is a really fantastic facebook group for food bloggers https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodbloggerscentral/
I was so clueless until I found/joined that group & I have learned SO MUCH. The people are really friendly and I’m constantly learning new things. If you’re into podcasts look up the Food Blogger Pro Podcast & The Chopped Podcast. I really love listening to those because they both get into the nitty gritty of growing a blog. It’s also really nice to hear that everyone is going through the same struggles. Again, I’ve learned so much for both of those. Can’t recommend them enough.
I think if you look into any of those 3 things you’ll find a lot of really helpful info. Just stick with it and you’ll be great! Can’t wait to seem more of what you come out with! Also, feel free email me or leave comments here if you need any encouragement or tips. I’m happy to help in any way that I can 🙂
Sophie @ Delightful Plate says
Hi Sarah!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m also glad to hear that Vietnamese cuisine is one of your favorites. I actually have to thank my husband a lot. He’s an IT guy and managed a website before, so if it hadn’t been for him, the blog would have looked much worse. However, we are both terrible at taking photos especially composition and camera angles. Your comment made me realize that we shouldn’t try to move too fast and taking it slow seems to make the journey much more enjoyable :).
I did hear of the Food Bloggers Central facebook group. I filled out the form and sent a request to join a week ago but it hasn’t been approved yet, maybe all the admins are busy. I really want to join since I like so many articles on their website so I hope they’ll approve my request soon. I’ll definitely check the podcasts out.
Thanks so much again and I will visit your blog regularly!
Sophie
Aarina says
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for the wonderful links and resources- it made my life easy. I have been blogging for a while and was wondering how to direct readers to what I share.
Thank you again.
Sarah says
Hi Aarina! Thinking back on my blog growth I’d have to say improvement to my photography is what really made a difference. Until I was able to start taking better pictures my site had zero visitors. Once I started to figure out my way around a camera my pictures started to do better on Pinterest which is how to majority of people find me now.
The other thing that really helped was when I joined this facebook group for food bloggers https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodbloggerscentral/ It’s been a really great resource. Everyone in there is so kind and helpful – I’ve learned so much about blogging/social media. Joining that group would be a great place to start!
Kristi says
Thank you for sharing this info! I’m so happy I stumbled upon you, I am currently starting my own blog, hoping to get a few posts together this weekend and make it public. This is all good to know! I feel like a minnow lost in the ocean right now. If I can help just one person though, it’s worth it. =)
Sarah says
Ooh that’s so exciting! Let me know what when you start posting and I’ll be happy to take a look and start sharing things on pinterest. If you ever have any question about any of it I’m happy to help in any way I can 🙂