In March 2016 I published my first blog post on my site, Twins Mommy.
It was my first time writing as a mom of twins and working from home because on my other blog it was all professional and I couldn’t really talk about my life at home.
That is the reason why I started blogging on Twins Mommy – I wanted to connect with other work at home moms.
And after all these years, I’m humbled by all the amazing mama’s out there blogging away!
I’m not going to say that my journey was easy.
I made many mistakes, had some tiffs with other bloggers and got hit with many algo updates.
But, I’m still here!
I’m still making a living as a mom blogger.
That’s why I wanted to share some important lessons I learned as a blogger.
Let’s get to this!
1. Branding Is More Important Than Blogging
With the explosion of AI writing tools like Jasper and ChatGPT, I’m sure you’re seeing more and more generic blog posts, right?
No originality or personality.
This is going to happen and if you truly want to have a successful blog that makes six or seven figures a year, you’re going to have to create a strong brand.
Sure, there are niche websites that don’t have an About Me page showing a person’s face and they can still make good income every month.
But, I’m pretty sure that isn’t their ONLY website. These niche bloggers have multiple sites.
If you DON’T want to have a portfolio of 5-6 websites or have to pump out five blog posts a day (even if you do have a subscription to Jasper AI), then you NEED to have a stellar brand.
Plus, people remember the person behind the blog, not the blog.
Some simple ways to brand your blog:
- Create a cohesive color scheme
- Make every Pin one main template that showcases your blog theme/brand
- Use one main font for your Pins and blog content
- Have one main headshot of yourself and use that for social media and your blog’s About Me page
- Develop a writing voice that is uniquely YOU!
All of this will take time and you may not have everything lined up in the first year of your blog, but that’s okay.
When I started Twins Mommy, I emulated Melyssa Griffin’s blog voice.
But, doing this actually helped me find my own voice and now I use this when I blog!
2. Being on Social Media Is Very Important
Over the years of blogging on Twins Mommy I learned how important social media is.
In the beginning, Facebook was THE place to grow a blog audience and gain comments and insights.
From there I learned that Instagram was also a great platform to really connect with other mom bloggers.
This isn’t all to say that you need to be on ALL the social media platforms.
My suggestion is to find one or two and double down on them by creating consistent content.
Why?
Because being on social will build brand awareness.
People are more prone to be on social than on a blog and that means you can reach them every day at various times of the day.
Being on social also means putting yourself out there and doing this ONE thing can actually help you explode your brand.
I found out about Nakisha on her Youtube channel.
She mentioned she had a viral video and that just grew her brand awareness.
She has 58.6K subscribers on her channel!
She can use her Youtube channel to funnel people to her blog.
I know when I watched her videos, I wanted to see her blog!
You can also see this with mom blogger Cassie.
I found her first on Instagram where she has 38.8k followers.
I learned about her weight loss story and immediately wanted to see her blog and she’s doing over there.
Again, proof that when you are on social media, you can funnel viewers back to your blog!
And for me, I now that my freelance Youtube channel has resulted in many course buyers.
When you are on social media sharing your brand message and helping your audience, they will trust what you have to say.
This is amazing and seeing this just makes it something obtainable.
But what if you don’t want to show your face and just blog anonymously?
You can definitely have a faceless Youtube channel or you can use Canva to create branded social posts for Instagram or Facebook.
So, get on social media!
3. Pinterest Still Works
I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest.
When I started blogging on Twins Mommy, Pinterest was amazing.
I was able to get almost 5,000 pageviews in my FIRST month…Unheard of nowadays (unless you’ve been doing this before).
But Pinterest started changing and with every new algo update, my Pinterest traffic was tanking.
So, the only thing I did was do try SEO and that served me well….so much so that SEO was the way to go from now on.
That is until I started a new website in 2021.
I started SEO RIGHT AWAY and as as afterthought, got onto Pinterest.
Well, after one year, Pinterest is my MAIN source of traffic (and income).
This affirmed that Pinterest is still works and is VITAL for brand new blogs.
Now, I know there are new bloggers out there that say Pinterest is not helping them one bit.
After years on Pinterest, barely any traffic.
My suggestion is to look at your niche. Pinterest is VISUAL and if you don’t have a visual niche, you won’t do well.
My freelance Pinterest profile is a business one and it doesn’t get much Pin traffic.
So, if your niche is more business, medical or too niched down, then you have to try another way to gain traffic (SEO).
4. Don’t Rely on SEO Only
Now I just got finished telling you to try SEO if Pinterest doesn’t work.
Well, just make sure you don’t rely on SEO ONLY!
It’s extremely hard to gain massive traffic just from SEO.
The blogs that are getting that much pageviews, are exploiting AI writing tools and published dozens of content per day.
This is not our blog strategy!
No!
We have to be on social media so my thoughts are to use SEO to get those initial traffic and then use social to connect with your audience as a way to grow a solid audience that will buy from you.
I had to learn this and it didn’t occur to me in the beginning.
For me, I kept thinking, “I just need to rank in Google and I’m set.” And, when this happened I still had to continue working on traffic building tactics!
And this meant going on Youtube or Tik Tok.
5. This Is Your Own Race
Blogging isn’t a race.
There is no need to hustle or compare your blog to another’s blog.
This is something I learned later in my blogging journey.
At first, I was constantly comparing my blog to other blogs that started around the same time as mine.
I was always looking at my live traffic while I blogged.
I was in the rat race and it didn’t help my brand grow at all.
It just made me burn out.
I had to take a break and learn that it was okay not to publish a blog post every week.
I had to see that if I focused on
- building my email list
- connecting on social media
- creating more products
That my income grew and that meant I could stay home with my twins and live the live I wanted to!
I’m glad I figured that out along the journey and created a million dollar business as a mom blogger.
Are You Ready to Start a Successful Mom Blog?
I’m so happy I stuck it out with blogging.
I love writing for clients and writing for my own blogs.
It’s my creative outlet and it helps me be a better mom when I can express myself!
Tell me in the comments your lessons you learned from starting a mom blog!
I’d love to hear them!
Please Pin me!
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