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
Tino Nguyen says
Hi Sarah!
I read this article again > 3 times in this tonight.
I want to say you so great, what you shared really the same currently my status. I felt like an island when building my blog too. I don’t know which way for my site is good. I try to ear more backlink from the forum, site 2.0 but still no happen for now. Traffic so poor, 4,5 visited per day.
If you have more time, could help reviews my site and give me some suggestions, advice plz.
Here is my blog: https://www.dowhatuloves.com/
Also check out my profile for clearly if you can: https://www.dowhatuloves.com/about/
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Tino! So long as you keep working on your blog by trying and learning new things it will get easier! It took about 8 months before I found any sort of traction for my blog and even then it was slow until I got the hang of things. Just keep at it and I know you can do it too!
I just took a look through your blog and I think you have a lot of great/helpful content to work with, but the overall theme is a bit confusing. I think this is because dowhatuloves has two main content creators (you can Rebecca). It just seems like you guys might have different ideas about what to share and that comes across fairly quickly just scrolling through the home page. As a reader, I’m not sure if you’re a food/recipe blog or a review site. You can be both, but right now it’s not clear what the focus is. I think you might find it helpful to sit down and get specific about your goal for this site. Try to sum it up in 1-3 sentences what you do and what you want people to get from your blog.
I can tell right away that you focus on healthy eating and reviewing air fryers, but the main focus seems to be on air fryers. While those two things do go hand in hand it doesn’t look like you have many healthy recipes actually made with an air fryer. I’m guessing that one of your goals with the site is to sell things (like air fryers) through affiliate marketing. The best way to do that in way that seems authentic and helpful to potential readers would to create recipes made with/for the air fryer. Unless someone is actively interested in buying an air fryer they might not have a lot of reason to stick around browse the site.
The other main thing that I think you need to work on is the recipe index. Right now you’ve got the big list of recipes, but it doesn’t really seem like an index for people to easily find things. I’ll link here to a few different types of recipe indexes that you might want to try emulating:
https://www.asaucykitchen.com/recipe-index/
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes
https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/channel/vegan-recipe/
https://pinchofyum.com/recipes
Find a way to organise your recipe index so that people can easily find and search for recipes. I recommend keeping the index to showcase a thumbnail image of the recipe and the name and that’s it. It’s a bit difficult to actually find any recipes because right now there’s a lot of scrolling. Most people will probably click off the page before getting to recipe 100. You want to keep in mind that the majority of people using your site will most likely be using a phone.
I think the main takeaway is that you should focus on figuring out what you want to achieve here. Do you want to share healthy recipes? If so then pull back on the air fryer promoting just a bit. Do you want to promote air fryers? Make more recipes with the air fryer so people can see what can be done with it. Is there a specific type of recipe/cuisine you want to share? Your Vietnamese recipes all sound amazing and I think would be most interesting to potential readers – I’d focus on sharing more of those!
Like I said earlier, I think you’ve got a lot of great content to work with – just try to get a little more focused in your goal and just keep at it! I hope this helps!
Tino Nguyen says
Hi Sarah,
Thanks again. You so cool, I take noted and bookmarked your site.
Shristi Patni says
Hi Sarah! What a great article! I’ve been following your blog and cannot help but appreciate all the effort you put in especially in the article “How to Start a Blog.” It helped me start my own. Keep up the good work!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Shristi! I’m so glad you’ve found them helpful! I just looked over at your blog and I just want to say that your photography is BEAUTIFUL!
ELISHA KATIKALA says
thank for your valuble information, i was wondered when studying your article. and i really loved yor article, and i recently started my food website named with https://www.elishafood.in/. if any one of you intered to know about indian recepies please visite my website
sauteandsecrets says
Hi Elisha, I loved your chicken biryani recipe and going to try that right away..I searched for posting comment in your blog, but didnt find any scope for that, so replying here..I will also like to connect with you being a food blogger myself..Let me know if you are interested in getting connected
Fahim says
Thanks, Sarah, for the valuable information. I’ve decided to proceed with content marketing and spreading the word about our restaurant for my restaurant. Do you have any suggestions for restaurant owners?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Fahim! I’m afraid I don’t really have any experience when it comes to restaurant marketing so I’m not sure how helpful much advice I can give, but I think there are a couple of things you could probably work on.
Since you’re trying to promote your restaurant, I think there would be a lot of potential in trying to find your audience through local social media. I see that you’ve got a twitter and a facebook account for your restaurant. Do you have an instagram as well? Since it’s a visual platform, Instagram could be a great way to show off your dishes to get people interested in showing up to your restaurant. Go through hashtags focused on your location/London foodies and start engaging with people in those tags because they are your most likely target audience.
Here’s a link of a few restaurants who are used their instagram to leverage their brand awareness – there are a few local restaurants in this list as well: https://bellecommunication.com/restaurant-instagram-marketing-top-10/
I recommend just looking for some sort of instagram/social media course for restaurants or local businesses. Sometimes it helps just to have actionable steps laid out to follow until you get the hang of it. Good luck!
Poulami Chatterjee says
Hi Sarah!
Thanks for sharing such an informative post. I have been searching endlessly for articles suggesting how to get more traffic, and then got to see your post. It’s been a month and a half I’m blogging and struggling to get the traffic. I’ll surely try to submit my posts on your mentioned sites. I would be really thankful if you can visit my blog once and share your feedback with me. Though I’m not a professional cook or photographer, but I’m trying hard to learn new skills.
Here’s the link – https://www.poulamiskitchentale.com/
Thanks again for sharing this wonderful post!
Regards
Poulami Chatterjee C
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Poulami! You have such a beautiful site and so many recipes for one and a half months in! As far as traffic goes – you’re still way early in the process and I’d be more surprised if you did have tons of traffic already. It takes time (usually a few months) for google to even start recognising your website and an authority. Most people don’t even see much as far as traffic goes for at least 6 months but for many it’s closer to a year. Blogging really is a long game so I wouldn’t sweat the traffic right now. I would just continue sharing recipes and trying to grow your social media in the mean time.
A couple of blog related things that you can also work on:
*Make sure you share at least one vertical picture of your food in each post. Vertical pictures do much better on pinterest that square or landscape pictures and you’ll really want to utilise pinterest for growth as much as possible.
*Try to learn more about best SEO practices for food blogs. Since you’re a new blog this is a great opportunity to create a solid foundation for your site going forward. Join this facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodbloggerscentral/ and use the search bar in the group to search for Casey Markee. He’s a SEO expert who specialises in food blogs and is a WEALTH of good information. Also make sure to look up what Alt Tags are (these are for your photos). The idea is to make your blog as search friendly as possible.
Again though – don’t sweat the traffic now! The best thing you can do for yourself is to learn best SEO practices and just keep doing what you’re doing. The traffic will follow!
Poulami Chatterjee says
Thanks Sarah, for your response with so many helpful tips. Will surely include some vertical pics in my future posts. Thanks again for your kind words. 🙂
Sarah Nevins says
My pleasure 🙂
Mariam Sodawater says
Hi Sarah,
I just love it how you reply to each comment with so much patience. Here’s my blog https://Recipe52.com.
Love your post about recipe submissions sites.
Thanks
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Mariam! Happy to help 🙂
First off all I am absolutely DROOLING over your recipes! My husband & I like to make fried chicken once a month and I’m totally going to make your Bohri Fried Chicken next!
Looking through your blog – you’re doing a really great job! I had a site audit about a year and a half ago and you’re pretty much doing everything that my SEO guy suggested in post. Your photography is mouth watering, you give a lot of really helpful in post, your recipes are well written.
Two things that I think you’d really benefit from is growing your social media (mainly pinterest) and making videos to go along with your recipes.
Have you joined any pinterest sharing groups on things like facebook yet? If you haven’t already I highly recommend this facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/foodbloggerscentralsocialsharing/ Sometimes you just need a little help getting your content out in front of new eyes. That group in particular is my favourite because it’s active and there are a ton of people. Once you’re accepted, check out the different sharing threads – they’re great for helping you get your recipes out to new people. Apologies if you’re already a member!
As for my other suggestion – I noticed that you used to make videos but you haven’t made any new ones in a while (I’m guilty of this myself). I think you should start making them again! Because you share a lot of recipes that aren’t necessarily things everyone is familiar with I think it would be helpful to have video to go along with your recipes. New recipes can feel intimidating, but seeing someone make them demystifies the process making it feel a lot more approachable.
Quick side note about the videos – when it comes to sharing them on social media (facebook, pinterest, and instagram) you usually want to crop the videos so that they’re square otherwise they don’t fit as well on mobile devices. You might see a slight improvement in views if you crop your videos when sharing on social. I always film full screen (1920-1080) for videos that go on my blog and youtube and then crop the videos to a square (1080×1080) to share on facebook and pinterest.
Also – don’t forget you can share videos on pinterest. Videos are doing extremely well on pinterest right now.
I hope this helped!
Mariam Sodawater says
Sarah, I want to hug you.
I’m member of FBC social sharing group but I have not taken it seriously. After your word I will definitely check it in detail.
I absolutely agree, my recipes are regional and love your words that video can make it interesting and easy for everyone.
I also love your tips about sizing. I will definitely apply it. I really appreciate your feedback. Lots of success and blessings for you.
Sarah Nevins says
I am SO happy I could help! Even though I’ve been doing this now for about five years I still feel totally overwhelmed at times with everything that we constantly have to learn and implement, so I’m really glad I was able to help even a little bit. Good luck! I look forward to seeing your blog growth 🙂
Becky Ellis says
Thank you for this very helpful post Sarah! I would love your feedback on my blog: bubblybee.net
My blog features champagne/sparkling wine (with cocktail recipes too) and my creative recipes to pair with bubbly and cocktails.
I love it when companies send their products for me to try and I create recipes using their products. Any feedback on how I can attract companies to my blog would be very helpful.
Thank you for your time and for your inspiration!
Becky
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Becky!
First glance – I really love your blog! It’s got a really nice, clean design and it’s really easy to navigate! One area that you can work on that I think would help get more people to visit your blog would be to work on creating more pinterest friendly content. I went on to a few different posts and noticed that none of your recipes had any pinterest focused images with added text. It’s usually a good idea to have at least one picture that readers can post with text explaining what your post/recipe is. Those images tend to be more eye catching and popular on pinterest. I like using canva to help create my pinterest images because it’s free and pretty easy to use https://www.canva.com/templates/search/pinterest-pins/
I also recommend using this social media plugin from Mediavine called grow (also free): https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-pug/
As for attracting companies, in my experience instagram is the best place to start. Take a look at the instagram account of companies you’d like to work with. Look through their posts to see which hashtags they’re using and try to incorporate them as well. Make sure to interact, comment and like on those posts and eventually if they’re interested they’re reach out.
Hope this helps but feel free to reach out again for anything! I’m happy to help 🙂
Bella says
Is it just me or is there are problem with the link to Tastespotting? When I click it from this page, it takes me to a strange KODEZ page. I did find them by searching for them in Google, but it seems the link straight off this page is broken, or has a typo, or something – I can’t actually see what the problem is.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Bella! Strange! It definitely used to work so I’m not sure what changed. At any rate I’ve gone through the list and removed any links with obvious problems.
Bella says
One of the other ones, I forget which one now, had an expired SSL certificate which they should be able to fix up easily. I just went through setting up SSL certs on my site as apparently Google sees it as a ranking factor.
I *think* it was dishfolio, I created an account there and it is working for me now as I accepted the expired SSL certificate.
Foodgoggle says
Hello Sarah,
Great compilation of food submission sites. You missed foodgoggle.com a great recipe submission site where you can submit food blog links as well as youtube food video links. No long wait for approvals. Its like Pinterest but foodgoggle is specific to food related posts.
I appreciate if you can add our newbie foodgoggle to the above list.
Why wait sign up for free and share your wonderful recipes. Happy blogging!!
Thanks
Foodgoggle Team
Sarah Nevins says
I’ll add it to the list 🙂
Kara B says
Hi Sarah! This was really helpful for us but I wanted to mention that when I submitted to the Recipe Lion site and I went along with all of their posting requirements, I learned (after the fact) that they basically had me repost my entire recipe, all my photography, etc. and 1) that is not good for SEO for my site and 2) the link that they “gave” me in exchange was a “NO-Follow” link. This is not the way that this is supposed to go and I have written them a few times to get them to remove our original content only to fall on deaf ears. I urge you and your wealth of followers not to get involved with this site. It won’t help and it could hurt your standing with google.
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh thanks Kara – I’ve just removed it from the list!
Ben says
Hey thanks for sharing this article. I just started my own site which is a contributor based vegan platform. It’s only just started but hopefully it’ll grow soon. It’s http://www.tattooedtomato.com. Check it out