Stay at home mom - Need help in starting a blog

Thanks! Will definitely look into that.

Honestly, no. I've heard you can earn money through ads but I'm not sure where to start. What is the best way for a newbie like me to earn money in creating a blog?

Thank you, this is definitely something I would have to take note of.

Yeah, SEO is something I would have to research on. I'm actually not that familiar with it but thank you for bringing it up, I'm sure this'll help me in the future.

This the most important step you must do before you start any blog. Just building it and hoping they will come will not work.

I agree with Michelle, you must have a clear idea of how you will make money and where you will find customers

This is TERRIBLE advice:

Yes, you need to blog about something you're passionate about. But you DON'T need to wait until you've got a significant audience to start monetizing it. Frankly, no one really knows your blog is new unless you announce it, especially if they're not "techie". Be professional and people will feel comfortable with you from the beginning.

"Build it and they will come" only works in the movies. It does NOT work in business.

Also, you need to train your people what to expect from you from the very beginning. If you spend 6 months or more giving them free stuff and then suddenly decide to pitch something for sale, you'll likely get some negative feedback if they're trained to expect nothing but free stuff.

And yes, you CAN train your peeps to buy from you in a non-sale-y, non-icky way.

BizQ is absolutely right: start with the end in mind and reverse engineer it.

Who do you want to serve? What do you want to sell? Blogging can be incredibly time-consuming and you'll stick with it a lot longer if you're making money.

Some VERY important points about reverse engineering it:

1. Pick a niche and topic you know something about and have some passion for. You'll need to be able to stick with this at least 6 months, even if you still haven't made a dime.

There are TONS of mommy bloggers. If you're passionate about "mom topics", then go for it. But if not, don't feel like you have to do it. Pick something you know and love.

If you decide to do "mommy blogging", narrow it down. How can you differentiate yourself from all of the other mommy bloggers out there?

I'm not a mom, but personally, I love what Courtney Joseph does over at Women Living Well.

2. Pick some products or services to sell to this market. You don't have to sell digital products. You can sell physical products, either as an affiliate or via dropshipping. If you decide to sell physical products, you could have a Shopify store.

3. Build an e-mail list! The process for making sales online goes like this:

Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

I can't stress this enough.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Your blog/website is NOT for making sales! It's for building your list. Put your opt-in form in the header of your site. (And other places.)

E-mail is for making sales.

It's a two-step process. So don't be short-sighted and sell banners and ads on your site and send all of your hard-earned traffic AWAY from your site. Everything on your site should funnel your visitors to your e-mail list.

THEN you can either offer your own products or others' products (as an affiliate) via e-mail.

Learn how to write autoresponders which sell.

Ok, some resources for you:

1. Check out Derek Halpern at Social Triggers He has a course called Blog That Converts, which teaches you how to build a blog that makes sales. It's not open all the time, so get on his list and watch for when he offers it again.

2. Read what Ryan Deiss says in this post: How We Grew a Blog to $6 Million+ in 12 Months

3. If you want to sell physical products, check out Ben Adkins' Arbitrage Magician. He doesn't have it available all the time, so get on his list and watch for it. Or you can e-mail his team and ask when it will be open again.

You can find him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/drbenadkins His website is The Official Blog of Dr. Ben Adkins | Serial Progress Seeker

He doesn't offer his stuff all of the time. Usually, he'll open something for a limited time and then close it, so get on his list and pay attention.

He's VERY good at what he does and I've learned a lot.

He also has two different trainings when teaches you how to write autoresponders which SELL:

Followup Master Plan and Followup Master Plan: eCommerce Edition. Both of these products literally HAND YOU the exact e-mail sequences you need to sell a digital or physical product. They are very, very good!

Again, they're not available now, but get on his list.

4. Pick a good WordPress theme

5. Pick an e-mail service like AWeber and hook it up to your website.

Ok, that should be enough info for you. So your next steps are:

1. Pick a niche and topic
2. Pick one or two products or services you'll sell.
3. Now put up a website and write your first autoresponder series for your first product.
4. NOW create an enticing freebie offer to get people on your list and start building your list! Since you have the autoresponder in place, you'll almost immediately start making money as you build your list.

This is what a lot of us (including myself) didn't do. We put up a website, spend some time and money building a list but because we don't have the backend in place, we don't make money. You'll save yourself a lot of time, money and grief if you follow this overall process and reverse engineer it.

Hope that helps!

Michelle

You're right. I did. Sorry about that.

Let me revise my post:

"Do your keyword research and write long, interesting blog posts on topics that get LOTS OF SEARCHES and have MINIMAL COMPETITION."

There. Hope that's helpful and not too overwhelming.

Michelle

As you can see, you will be getting a ton of different opinions and ideas - and some of them have most likely got you pretty confused now about where to start!

That being said, mommy blogging is a bit different than say, a marketing blog. Mommy blogs DON'T have to be narrowed down to a tight little sub-niche like so many people recommend. You will see some of the most successful ones have topics in DIY, crafts, parenting, recipes - and everything in between.

Yes, it is better if you can focus it down to a really small niche, but if you do, you better be able to keep the interest there and know enough to keep fresh content coming all the time!

My mommy blog covers all areas. I make money through affiliate offers, (I have links in different posts to products of interest to my readers), advertising, (Adsense), and sponsored posts - which unless you are actually a mommy blogger, you likely wouldn't understand a lot about.

There are entire services set up to connect mommy bloggers with brands and businesses looking for people to review and write about their products - in return for free product or payment.

So seriously - I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about getting it just right. The mommy blogging niche isn't as cut and dry as other marketing niches - you CAN change your focus later on if you find yourself leaning more in that direction. For now, start writing about what interests you, and start getting content out there. Start building your social following, because that is where you will get a lot of your traffic.

For now - just get started and don't get too overwhelmed with everything else. You can learn as you go......just like pretty much every other mommy blogger out there

The rest will come as you learn - SEO, affiliate marketing, testing, tracking.......

The best thing to do is just get started.

Stop thinking about it because you're wasting your time. Buy hosting and a domain TODAY and start blogging.

Anna,

A good resource to visit is Darren Rowse's ProBlogger web site.

It's not specifically about "mommy blogs" but he is very good at giving you tons of great ideas about how to make money from your blog, if that's your intent. Darren has done it and is a good teacher and his site has a ton of information to help you monetize the blog.

The very best to you,

Steve