This post does contain affiliate links
Have you thought about starting a mom blog? Has it been months or years, and you are still putting it off? Have you read blogs on how to start a blog, and got overwhelmed?
I got you friend! My goal is to make blogging achievable and accessible. As a blogger of 6 years, I love being able to share what I have learned because I had to learn the long way. Blogging has been such a blessing in my life, mentally and financially, so let’s get you on your way to creating your very own blog!
Now, there are many ways to start a mom blog. But, I’m going to show you how to start a blog with the intention of making it an income. Because of that intent, there will be some start-up costs associated with these steps.
Before we create your blog, I want you to brainstorm WHY you are wanting to start a blog. Who are you helping? What are they gaining from your blog? Answering these questions will help ensure you are reaching your desired target audience. SEO (search engine optimization) is a very important piece in growing your blog, so I suggest clearing this up sooner than later. SEO is key to your blog placing well in google search engines! This is a whole other topic, but I feel very important to keep in mind when creating a blog and blog posts.
Naming Your Mom Blog
This will link to your first step, which is naming your blog. If you are a fashion blog, you probably don’t want to name your blog Amy’s Recipes. There are different opinions on naming your blog your own name, but I personally say go for it if you are branding yourself as the focus. (A great route for lifestyle blogs). Something simple, easy to remember, and catchy is the way to go! You also want to ensure you can claim this name when creating your blog (next step) and on all if not most social media platforms.
Got that done? Perfect, let’s get you to the step of:
Creating Your Blog
For your blog, you will need a domain (themamahoney.com is an example of a domain) and I recommend being self-hosted. This means you aren’t using a free blogging platform for your blog to sit on but will own the site. I made mine on WordPress You can buy your domain independently, however, I bought mine with Bluehost so it would be free! The biggest reason for this is you want to own your site. If you leave your site on something like Wix, if Wix ever goes down, so does your site since it is hosted on that platform. WordPress provides a lot of flexibility as a blogger.
When you go to Bluehost, you can get started with a self-hosted site. I personally chose the plus, but I would always encourage you to compare prices and benefits!
You will now be able to set up your domain or connect one if you have a domain currently. When you do this, you will be able to click “next” and the next page will let you know if it is available or taken with alternative options.
You’ll then be able to fill in your account information, and you’ll be redirected to your dashboard. There will be a section that sends you over to WordPress to connect to an account and start creating!
Setting up your blog
You will see a dashboard for your WordPress account now, and I’m going to give you a few helpful areas to get familiar with. First, posts. This is where you’ll write your posts (like what I am doing now) that are individual posts in certain categories. Within posts, you will click “categories” and create the categories your blog focuses on. For mine, I have “blogging”, “motherhood”, “lifestyle”, etc.
Next are the pages. These are separate areas within your website that you will create based on need. This can be a static homepage (meaning it stays the same with how you customize it) or a latest posts page (meaning it will display and update as you create more posts). You can also create pages for an about section, contact us, etc.
You’ll also set up menus under the appearance tab,
The next important area will be the plugins tab. This is truly where you get the most freedom in building your dream website. It can be a bit overwhelming with the large library so here are a few favorites:
- “Insert Headers and Footers” to customize the html tags in your header and footer. This is important if you are installing google analytics and need to place the html code in the header
- “Instagram Feed” to insert your instagram feed right on your website in pages you would like
- “Yoast SEO” or “Rank Math SEO” to have an aid in optimzing your search engine optimization
- “Classic Editor” to easily create blog posts and have the layout you are needing
Let’s get to writing now!
Writing your first blog post
Now that you have your pages set up, and plugins installed, you can get to writing!
Click post, and add new. *write up your magical post*. Before clicking publish, I have a few tips for you.
Scroll down past your post to where Yoast SEO would be located. You’ll want to do your best to increase your SEO score and readability.
It is a great way to increase your opportunity to rank well on Google. Next up, on the right-hand sidebar of your post, you can scroll down to “categories” and create a new category or choose the one you created beforehand. These will be how you categorize your blog posts and where they show up on your menu. My best advice is to keep your categories very focused and only have one broad area to cover multiple topics. Tags are also an area to include for each post.
Lastly, “featured image” is an area you want to ensure is completed. This will be the image that comes up as a preview when your link is shared and on your website’s blog post page.
You can now publish or schedule your blog posts!
My last tip for you all is to head over to the settings and discussion section. You will be able to turn off e-mail notifications for areas you don’t want. I learned this the hard way and received too many unwanted e-mails!
Hello new blogger!
I am so proud of you for starting your blog and I hope you are feeling the excitement of taking on this new journey. Start writing away, and building up your blog so that you can build up your blog for future prospects. Now, how to make money? You can do this through a few ways that I have blog posts created for. If you are interested in sponsored posts, which are currently my mainstream from my blog, read here.
The most important piece to remember is while it is wonderful making money, you need to have your passion for writing and stay consistent. Consistency is so important as a blogger, and many blogs “fail” because they give up. Stay consistent, provide value, and share your knowledge with the world.
