Staying home with your kids is a privilege that once you’ve experienced it, you don’t want to lose it. But, sometimes finances don’t stretch as far as you’d like and you start trying to figure out how you can bring in some money while still staying home with the kids. The idea of starting a blog that makes money sounds great, and you hear success stories about people who have done just that, but is it possible for you? We will guide you through what you need to know so you can understand how to start a Mom blog and make money.
Choose a Focus
The first thing you need to do is decide on the topic your blog will focus on. You need to choose a niche. To do this, think about what you want to be known for. Are you the Mom who cooks? The Mom who travels? The Mom who crafts? Or, is your blog about something entirely different?
You don’t have to choose a topic specific about being a Mom. I blog about digital marketing tactics you can do yourself. I am a Mom, I stay home with my kids, and I love spending time with them. But I’ve decided that isn’t what I want to be known for online. I want to be known for helping entrepreneurs demystify SEO.
So, choose a topic that makes sense for you. Determine what you want to be known for and how you will create targeted blog content to help make that happen.
Understand Who You’re Talking To
Once you understand the focus for your blog, figure out exactly who you’re talking to. The best way to do this is to create a marketing persona.
You want to have a clear idea of the exact person you want to help. Once you have this, you’ll be able to write each blog article and social post to resonate with that exact person. Being clear about who you’re talking to will allow you to write persuasive content and help establish you as an authority in your niche. That way, you’re more likely to attract a passionate reader who will eventually convert when you have something to sell.
Create Your Blog
Now that you understand the focus of your blog, and the audience you want to attract, it’s time to create your blog. You’ll choose a platform and a host as well as name your blog and get a domain name. Then you’ll choose a website theme, configure your site, and start building out content. To see exactly how to accomplish all of that, view the complete guide on how to start a blog.
Identify the Content People Want to Know
Once you’re ready to start creating content, you need to make sure you understand what content your audience is interested in. Creating content takes time, so you want to make sure that time is spent writing about topics people are searching for.
To do this, you need to conduct keyword research. Keyword research will allow you to brainstorm content ideas and identify which terms have a high monthly search volume and low competition. That is the content you’ll want to start with. View the full keyword research guide to learn exactly how to perform keyword research and download a free template.
Post Consistently
Once you’ve finished your keyword research, you’ll want to plan out your content calendar. Determine how often you will publish new blogs and decide what content will be published for each of those dates.
Ideally, you’ll want to post a new blog article weekly. But, quality is more important than quantity. So, if your schedule only allows you to post a new article every other week or once a month, make that your goal and schedule accordingly.
Regardless of the posting frequency you choose, you want to make sure you are posting consistently. So, choose a timeframe you can commit to and then make sure you are consistently adding new content to your website.
Time to Monetize
Once you have a following, determine how you will monetize your site. Now, it’s not bad to have an idea for how you will monetize even before you have an audience, but be flexible. You want to make sure that your monetization efforts align with the audience you’ve attracted and help them solve a problem. Sometimes as blog traffic grows, our audience can shift one way or another. You may find that a different monetization route makes more sense for the audience you’ve attracted.
There are several different ways you can monetize your blog. You can offer coaching, you can sell an ebook, a digital course, or a digital download, or you can make money with affiliate marketing. To learn more about each of those monetization paths and determine which one would be best for your site, view our complete guide on how to monetize a blog.
Creating a blog won’t bring you money overnight. But, if you have a clear focus and post consistently, it will grow into a profitable business.
Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode: