6 Important Tips for New Bloggers (I Wish I Knew)

New bloggers, if you could have a roadmap to making six figures with your blog, would you use it?

You might say yes as a knee-jerk reaction, but just think about it:

Most new blogs fail. That’s right.

Over 80% of blogs don’t make it past 18 months.

So, why is that?

I started Elna Cain, my freelance site, in 2014, and it’s still churning out blog posts…and making money.

Then I started Twins Mommy in 2016, and…it’s still here thriving!

While my story isn’t typical, what I can say is I should let you know that the things I’m about to tell you are legit and proven.

This is a roadmap to having a successful blog.

So, pay attention, take notes, and do the work!

New Blogger Tips (So You Don’t Have Mistakes New Blogger Make)

Look –

Whether you are New York city bloggers, New Orleans bloggers, or UK bloggers, these blogging tips for new bloggers still hold wherever you live.

These are blog tips I wish I knew when I first started out.

And I don’t want new mommy bloggers to miss out on this roadmap I’m about to share.

So, let’s get to it.

1. Done is Better Than Perfect

I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “done is better than perfect,” which also applies to blogging.

I’m not saying to slap up a blog post or landing page to grow your email list or even a sales page to sell your first printable.

I am saying there is no need to have the perfect blog post before you hit publish or make your website live.

Many new bloggers start a blog with a backlog of 20 posts because someone told them that that’s what they must do.

Well, I never did that.

I started Twins Mommy with zero posts, and when I was ready, I wrote my first blog post.

And every other website I had, I did the same.

The point is that starting a blog is more important than having your first blog post.

Get your site LIVE, and let it SIT on the internet.

Aged websites do soo much better than brand new blogs.

Did you know that I bought Twins Mommy?

The website was old, and the person didn’t renew their hosting services and my husband was able to snatch it up.

Because Google knew the site was “old” when I started blogging, I had better success than when I started my latest niche website, Sponge Hacks.

With Twins Mommy, I generated 4,000 pageviews in one month.

With my niche site I started it in March 2022, and it took 6 months to reach 4,000 pageviews.

Now, for you, I’m sure you started a new blog and didn’t buy a blog as I did, but the point is to make it live and let it sit while you create your editorial calendar.

It WILL be easier to grow your blog traffic this way.

2. An Email List Makes You Money

My best advice for new bloggers? Start an email list right now.

I did NOT do this for Twins Mommy.

I waited many months because I felt no one would come to my blog, so what’s the point?

Well, the point is, with a landing page and optin freebie, your blog looks more established and not soo new.

New blogs are great, but when a reader comes to your new blog, they can tell since you don’t have many posts up, don’t have many pages up, and don’t have an email list.

Well, you can attack this by starting an email list, setting up a landing page, and writing blog posts.

So, what is the best email marketing service for new bloggers?

I really like ConvertKit, but I know many bloggers also enjoy MailerLite.

Both offer free tiers, and these services make creating landing pages and optin forms easy.

When starting your email list, make sure to offer a few freebies.

I started with Start Grow Earn email course.

From there, I created various lead magnets that stayed on this blog or retired.

I find having a few really good ones better than 10 different lead magnets your audience can get.

This will help you gain a target audience that will buy from you.

How? By having the right lead magnet that speaks to them!

I know that readers on this blog are new bloggers or moms wanting to start a blog and eventually make money from home.

So, what are my most popular freebies?

But I had to create other freebies to figure this out myself!

So, don’t be afraid and make freebies you THINK your audience wants, you probably should have, and freebies you see others doing (yes, you can gain inspiration not copying other people’s freebie ideas).

3. There are Many Ways to Make Money

Right now, Twins Mommy, this blog, earns a cool $1,100 per month just with display ads.

I do nothing but write a blog post whenever I want (I don’t have a posting schedule anymore).

But you know what?

I didn’t make this money from the start.

I also didn’t make this money until almost 4-5 years in!

It took me MANY years, and many mind shifts to use this monetization strategy for Twins Mommy.

Putting ads on your blog was something I felt was tacky and made your blog look impersonal.

I would never go to blogs with tons of ads everywhere on their website.

But, over the years, seeing where I can make money blogging and actually reading the blog posts I shunned, I was surprised that display ads really don’t take away from anything and that it’s an easy way to make money.

You need blog traffic though – a good amount of it too.

If you don’t have a lot of traffic, you don’t make a lot of money with display ads.

I could double or triple what I make with display ads if I had double or triple the traffic!

And, really, nowadays, growing blog traffic isn’t hard.

You need to find the right keyword, and you can use something like Jasper AI to help you write 2 or 3 blog posts a day!

So, besides display ads, what other ways can mommy bloggers make?

Offer a service
Do affiliate marketing
Do some micro-influencing on Instagram
Start a Youtube channel
Create sponsored content

There are even more ways you can make a legit business online so you can stay home for good.

These are just the ones I know of and have dabbled with.

But by far, offering a service like graphic design, Pinterest management, blog content, or social media management will help you make your first $100 or $200 fast.

4. SEO and Pinterest Are the Perfect Matches

SEO for new bloggers can seem like a huge mountain to climb, but it doesn’t have to be.

I wasn’t doing SEO for years because it seemed too much.

It was too much researching, too much analyzing, and too much competing.

But this all changed a few years after starting Twins Mommy.

Many of my freelance clients were giving me keywords to use, and I learned how to write SEO blog posts for them.

So, I decided, well, if I write SEO for them, I can write SEO for my blogs too!

And I did!

My blogs grew incredibly fast using keywords, and I was ranking in Google and growing on Pinterest!

Yes, Pinterest is the other side of the coin.

Using JUST SEO will not get you far. The same goes with Pinterest (of course, if you don’t get a viral pin, that is).

But together? *chefskiss

My newest niche website, Sponge Hacks, still gets most of its traffic from Pinterest. If I neglected Pinterest, I wouldn’t have 20,000 pageviews or almost $200 a month from Amazon affiliate marketing from this blog.

Pinterest still drives traffic and sales for me and SEO will be the long game strategy for me.

This is what happened with Twins Mommy.

Pinterest was my #1 traffic source for the first year or two.

Then slowly, SEO crept up, and over time SEO became my #1 traffic source.

So, as new bloggers, it’s important to start SEO from the beginning and use Pinterest to market your blog to gain an audience quickly.

If you need help finding the right keywords for your blog, check out my Easy Keyword Ranking Guide.

5. Dedicate the First Year to Learning

Look –

Starting a blog isn’t a race.

You need to take your time, which means for the first year, learn.

That’s all you need to do to be successful.

Learn about:

Building traffic
Starting an email list
Using social media
Trying out video with Facebook Lives
Writing a blog post
Content marketing
SEO

Do you see that none of those tasks revolve around making money?

You must build the blog and find an audience FIRST before you can profit from them.

In Ready Set Blog for Traffic, I teach you the recipe for making money with your blog.

There’s a system and steps involved, and you must do it right to see proof of your efforts.

And you know what?

It’s okay if you make mistakes or it takes you longer than a year to learn these things.

Your mom blog is YOURS, and you want a community around it.

So take your time crafting the perfect Pin or outlining a blog post idea you are dying to write.

6. Have a Goal and Then Reverse Engineer It

It’s important to have goals with your blog.

What is your blog for?

Why did you start a blog?

What is your hope for your blog?

Answer these questions to help you form tasks to achieve that goal.

This is reverse engineering your goals!

For example, let’s say your goal is for your blog to have 50,000 pageviews.

Well, how will you get there?

Use Jasper AI to pump out 2 blog posts a week
Target only keywords
Use Pinterest, and for every post, create 5 pins to post
Get into Facebook that have promotions, and market your new blogs
Consider getting Tailwind to schedule your pins
Start an email list and grow your list so you can share your latest blog post with them
Connect with other bloggers and help each other out

It’s a lofty goal for sure, and this plan may not work. For Sponge Hacks, it’s a very hard challenge for me to get to 50,000 pageviews.

Right now, I’m sitting on 20,000 pageviews.

From the list, I’m NOT doing: 4,6, and 7.

So, if I decide to implement those tactics, I probably could reach 50,000 pageviews by the end of the year.

But I don’t want an email list for that blog, and I don’t want to market on Facebook, either.

So, I will go slow with this site!

And for you, you can do the same too!

Pages and Posts New Bloggers Should Have

Okay.

So now that you know what I WISHED I KNEW as a new blogger, let’s look at the pages and posts you should have.

1. The WordPress Pages You Need

After you start your blog, you can create the pages on your website.

These aren’t pages with a blog post. These are pages that add to your website.

Pages you need are:

About Me page
Resources/Tools page (for affiliate marketing)
Blog (to house all your articles)
Contact page (it’s a good idea to have a contact page to make your blog legit)

2. The First Blog Posts to Have

The first blog posts you want will vary depending on your goals.

If you want traffic, I suggest starting with keyworded blog posts.

I would start with a resource type of post.

For example, if you started a craft blog, you can search for quotes or ideas, as these are popular on Pinterest and rack up the traffic.

Look at this golden keyword to use for new bloggers!

Craft quotes has over 1,000 people searching for it. Nice!

And from the results, new blogs are ranking for this keyword.

So find a keyword tool and type in craft ideas, quotes, resources, skills, etc.

These are helpful blog posts for your readers, and you will attract people to your blog this way.

Other types of first blog posts include:

Pillar pieces. These are instructional blog posts to show off your expertise. So, for the crafting blog, it might be a tutorial on a craft, or it might be a breakdown of how to sell crafts. These are great for bringing in massive views.
Case studies. People love reading about what others are doing. This is what I did when I started Twins Mommy. I shared my journey to growing this blog. My first blog post in that series got dozens of comments and shares. I was shocked. That was my first time looking “inward” and sharing my thoughts like that.
Roundups. I love roundups.
They are list posts (and high-list posts) and bundle up the best of the best. I did many of these for my other blog, Smart Mom Ideas. The first one I did took off and became my first viral pin.

Best Themes for New Bloggers

So now, let’s talk about blog themes. I’m one for free themes.

I used a free theme when I started Twins Mommy.

This theme is not updated, but there are many free WordPress themes that are chic and feminine.

Find a free theme you can work with and use Youtube to see how to customize it.

I like the Astra theme, and I made a Youtube video for customizing Astra.

Best Tools for New Bloggers

Do you need paid tools as new bloggers?

Well, yes, you do.

If you get away with all free, it will take you longer, and you may not be as successful.

For example, a lot of the free SEO tools don’t give you a complete picture of a keyword, and you may target a keyword that is challenging and one you can’t rank for.

That’s why investing in some tools is a good idea to get you ahead.

My favorite tools for new bloggers are:

Canva Pro. You can get by with the free version, but the Pro allows you to do soo many more things and access to many more templates, graphics, and photos.
Jasper AI. To really ramp up your blog, you should use an AI writing tool. I still prefer Jasper over ChatGPT as it’s much easier to use, and you get better content from Jasper.
LowFruits. A budget-friendly keyword tool.