So, you’re ready to start a blog, huh? Great decision. I absolutely LOVE blogging! It’s a great release, journaling, and publishing to the public. It’s also very rewarding to hear from readers and the icing on top, getting income from blogging!
Mommy blogging is a somewhat new phenomenon that started popping up more and more over the last decade or so. What is a mommy blog?
Simply, a blog written by a Mom! Many think mama blogs have to be about your day to day about being a stay at home mom, chasing after your kids, making cool lunches, etc. And, it certainly can be. It can also be so much more!
I think of a mom blog as a mom-written blog about anything: frugal living, outdoors with your family, working from home, homeschooling, being a fashionable mama, and more.
Readers connect with mom bloggers because they have at least one thing in common: they are a mom!
So now you know what a Mom Blog is…. I’m going to teach you how to start your own. It might feel overwhelming or super challenging but friend, it’s really not that bad. You can set up your blog start to finish in about 20 minutes, no joke!
Now, it’s blog creation time!
- Start with hosting and your domain
- Visit Bluehost and select a hosting plan, along with registering your domain.
- Link Bluehost with WordPress (see video)
Once all 3 steps are complete, congratulations, you have a blog!
Next, here are 10 super useful tips for starting a mom blog:
1. Pick a professional, attractive theme
Your theme is EVERYTHING! Ok, haha, not everything, but it’s super important. You want your theme to be clean (not busy), attractive, and user-friendly. My favorites: Studiopress and Bluchic. I would recommend getting a Genesis Framework theme (available on Studiopress). The framework has SEO built-in and other super important features that help you skip several steps with blog exposure and traffic, meaning, if you don’t get a framework-driven theme, you’ll have to do some extra steps to catch up. Read all about the Genesis Framework here.
2. Perfectly pick your niche
Think long and hard about your niche. When thinking about your blog niche (topic), keep in mind that you want a topic that you can write about FOREVER! I mean, something you are so passionate about, you can write about it every day for years and years. When you feel like you’ve found that topic, you’ve struck gold!
3. Write often
When you start a new blog, you need to have content. My recommendation? Launch with at least 5-10 posts ready to publish. That means you launch and hit publish on 5-10 prewritten, ready to go articles. This way when readers hit your blog, they won’t bounce so quickly. They’ll have some content to look over so they can stay a while and look around.
I also recommend getting on a schedule. Editorial calendars are great for this. It doesn’t have to be a fancy calendar, it can literally be a post it note or piece of printer paper labeled with dates and topics on what you’ll blog about. This way, you don’t accidentally write about the exact same topic 5 times in a row, which can get boring.
4. Get organized
Organization will help you tremendously. Get on a schedule. Take advantage of the editorial idea I mentioned above in #4. Map out your goals. If too much is on your plate, don’t be afraid to outsource. What is outsourcing? It means that you get other folks to do the work for you instead of yourself doing it all. Get a VA for admin-related tasks or responding to emails, a freelance writer for your content, a tech guru on retainer in case any tech glitches happen, etc. This will cost you money of course, which might not be ideal for a new blog but it’s a great way to really create passive income with your blog. Pro Tip: Get a planner.
5. Make friends in the blogging world
It helps out a lot, trust me. Get on Facebook groups and Pinterest group boards. Introduce yourself, make connections, network, and make friends.
It will be helpful because you will be part of a community, you’ll learn cool, new things, and get help when you need it.
When I first started getting into Instagram pods, I met a cool lady who became my Internet bestie. She was in Texas just like me and we took to each other right away. We became friends and talked, texted, and chatted online about business every day. Finally, someone to talk business with! It was awesome. You cam make connections just like that.
6. Get traffic the easiest way ever for free
It’s called Facebook Groups, my friend. Join groups and participate in engagement threads.
There are reciprocal threads that let you gain social media followers, get blog subscribers, get Facebook ratings, get Facebook comments, get blog comments, get Stumbleupon stumbles, and much more! It’s all pretty incredible. You can participate in as many as you’d like. In fact, I’m in 75+!
Get my list of 75 Facebook groups I am in and start joining.
7. Get help
Don’t procrastinate on this one. Get help if you need it. If you don’t, you will continue to put it off, and days will turn into weeks, will turn into months. Need help with a tech issue? Get a freelancer. Need help with a glitch or have a WordPress question? Find an answer.
Some great resources:
- For freelancers: Upwork and Freelancer
- For tech help: Grayson Bell (is the bomb!)
- For admin-related tasks: hire a VA from Upwork
8. Get social
Create social media accounts for your blog. You don’t have to create an account for every single social network. I recommend you focus on 1-3 to start and you can add more later if you want to. My top networks: Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Try to make sure your bio name matches across all platforms or is something similar, so your readers aren’t confused or have difficulty finding your account. Be active and post frequently. You can use tools to automate as much as you want:
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- Tailwind (my TOP pick!)
- Boardbooster
9. Use Tools
Using tools can help you out big time and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a paid tool either. Here’s my super huge list of helpful mom blog tools:
- IFTTT: Free tool that lets you automate any little thing in your life, business or personal
- Google Mail: My favorite email provider, also free
- Google Analytics: Free analytics tracking
- Bluehost: Fast hosting, user-friendly and newbie-friendly
- Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course: Learn all about affiliate marketing from six figure blogger, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
- Tailwind: My favorite automation tool for Pinterest
- Instagress: Super growth tool for Instagram
- Narrow: Super growth tool for Twitter
- Crowdfire App: An application to help you grow your Twitter following (free and upgraded options available)
10. Invest in continuing education
Become a course snob. You see in #9, 2 courses listed as cool tools to help you with your blog. Investing in courses and ebooks is worthwhile. You get to learn how to be a better blogger. SEO, social media, making money through blogging ,affiliate marketing, analytics training, and more are just a few examples of what you can learn as a mom blogger.
These tips will help you conquer the world of blogging. Do you have any special tips that have helped you? Share with us, by commenting below. That’s all for today. Til’ next time friends!
Note: This post may contain affiliate links.
Great post – thanks for sharing. I work with lots of moms starting their own businesses, and this is such valuable information that I’ll pass on to them. Really appreciate all of the tools and tricks!
Thanks Lisa. Perfect, thanks for sharing. I appreciate it 🙂