Whoever it was who first said ‘kids don’t come with an instruction manual was correct. Everyone raising a child has similar experiences – incredible joy, the most profound love, occasional near-hysterical laughter, and the odd moment of sheer terror!
Each of us gets advice and, at some point, likely gives some advice, too. Our parents or siblings might provide guidance (honestly, some advice parts are better than others).
In the olden days, parents might have met at village wells or maybe markets and perhaps shared the news, swapped tips, and sought and received advice. Those days have gone for most. But the tips and hints are still wanted and needed. And sharing information between ourselves can even today create a sense of community, support, and not being alone.
The contact and sharing are why a ‘mommy blog’ or ‘mom blog’ can be influential and why thousands of people find them engaging. And when they find yours, you can start making money.
How do you make money as a mom blogger?
Puzzling, funny, or scary, it is usually the case that whatever we are going through has happened to someone else in the past. You might be having your first experience with a kid who won’t eat or won’t stop crying or sleep – but it’s not the first time it has happened, that is for sure.
If you have a tried and tested solution to a problem that other mothers will likely face, they will undoubtedly want to know. Say you have found a way to get a child who is usually a fussy eater to have some vegetables without drama: You can be confident that this method will be read with great interest by many other parents.
If you have a recipe that the kids love which also gets them to eat healthily, then share it and maybe a photo of the finished dish, too: You will engage your readers, who will be interested, enthusiastic, and grateful. They will feel they are getting to know you a little and are more likely to come back for more.
Have you got a surefire way of getting a kid to lie down and sleep? What did you do? What worked for you? Snippets of this type will be golden nuggets for tired parents.
It is the case that everyone who has a family to raise wants, from time to time, a bit of guidance on quite how to do it. Money comes with it when you provide the value that other parents need.
Women bloggers
When people search, they often seek reassurance – support, maybe, encouragement, affirmation.
Maybe you are considering starting a mom blog as a side hustle to make a little extra money. You need to make sure it is positive and supportive. It is lovely to talk about disasters and failures along the way; learning from mistakes is all part of life, but what your audience wants to know in the end is how you solved the problem. It is OK if the idea came from someone else initially – what the reader wants to know is what worked for you because then they can try and see if it will work for them as well.
Many women report differences in how men and women interact with others, for example, in their workplaces. Women often say that they find other women more collaborative and cooperative, more likely to share and assist one another, and less driven to ‘win’ every exchange.
Think about the village well. When the parents met there, the talk was likely often domestic. We might be physically more separated now, but the desire to be reassured and gently guided is still very real.
Blogging tips – content is Queen!
Your readers are interested in you, your experiences, and your knowledge. So in reality, they are more interested in what you have to say (your content), than in the layout. These blogging tips will make sure you get it right the first time.
It is necessary that any information you are putting out must be easily accessible and reasonably well organized. Still, a fancy-pants website with little to say for itself won’t keep readers’ attention or encourage people to return.
And as far as possible, your blog should be about you. How much information you share is up to you, and you might not want to post the names or details of your child or children: That’s fine, but you can still describe ‘Kid #1’ or ‘Boy’ or whatever. Same with photos: You can include pictures with the faces blurred, should you wish. The people at the village well would have been listening to you – how did you, in particular, solve a problem – and that desire to connect on a personal level, that feeling of you being their acquaintance or even friend is still a driver.
Blogging for money
In order to make an income from your blog, you need to remember the metrics that affect advertisers.
According to Network Advertising, advertisers are interested in a return on investment (ROI). They will want to know how many visitors there are to your blog, how many unique visitors are, how long they spend reading, and so on.
Blogging for income is about attracting people to your page, engaging content that will make them want to spend time there (which means material that is valuable to them), and encouraging them to return.
If making money is part of your motivation, then personal engagement is key: That feeling that your visitors are coming back to see you and learn more about you will drive traffic back to your blog.
It is also true that people have to find you before you can engage with them and make them want to stay.
You may have heard the term ‘SEO’ – this stands for ‘search engine optimization’. In short, this ensures that if people enter words into a search engine (like Google), then yours will be one of the websites they see in the search results. Attracting these visitors is the first step to engaging with them and is one of the critical factors advertisers will look for.
To do this, you must ensure that search engines find the words they will be searching for. Remember the example from before? If someone is searching for ‘how do I get my toddler to eat vegetables’ then enough of these words need to be in your article if it is to appear as part of the results.
There are a lot of blogs out there. Yours may be terrific with first-rate, engaging content, but you still need people to find it.
It is always worth directly sharing a link to your blog with friends and family. If they visit and maybe share the link with others or mention it on their social media feeds, this can be a great start to getting engagement and feedback.
Only a small percentage of bloggers or vloggers can attract enough attention to make these activities a sole income source. They are generally working full-time hours to achieve this. However, earning big money from a mommy blog is possible.
How to start a mommy blog
Look to WordPress if you want hints and tips on the mechanics of starting a blog. And remember, people are interested in you – what worked for you and how you solved a problem or overcame a challenge. Make it positive and personal, and by all means, be funny, if you want, but not all jokes unless you secretly want to be writing comedy!
Try a posting or two and see how it goes. If people comment, reply to them and have a conversation – after all, they are there to meet you. If you respond, this will drive up engagement.
You don’t have to blog for money; you can do it just for fun. Few people (other than ‘A’ list celebrities) can quickly attract enough readers to make any meaningful income. If you see blogging as a fun hobby with the potential to be more, maybe you can enjoy it and learn from it.
If you decide to try your hand, enjoy your blogging!