How to Start your own Super Successful Mummy Blog in 2024

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” - Walt Disney

Hey beautiful mamma’s…

So if you read my post Is starting a blog right for you? and you’re here now, I take it you’re ready to learn more about how to start a successful mummy blog – woohoo!

I’ve made this post as simple as possible for you, breaking everything down into bitesize chunks, so you don’t get overwhelmed.

You can literally set up and have a blog online within an hour or two – yes you heard that right lovely…

Blogging really isn’t that technical (unless you make it so).

Yes, there’s techie stuff and websites can have a million and one things done to them to make them amazing, but trust me, you can do it all yourself, simply, easily and with absolutely no coding in sight.

So let’s get into it shall we and show you how to start your own super successful mummy blog, so you can join the other amazing mummy bloggers out there…

“This post does contain affiliate links throughout and if you make a purchase using one of my links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you”. 

Why I started Blogging for Mums…

Blogging for Mums isn’t my first blog – oh no!

I’ve had a few other blogs over the years, in all kinds of niches…

But none of them were ever what I call my “True Passion Project”.

I had an idea of wanting to write a blog for mums (like me) to share all my knowledge and experience of blogging that I’d gained over the years!

I wanted to help as many mums as possible to start and grow their own blogs because it’s a truly amazing journey to go on…

I needed to show you, my lovely mamma, that no matter what – there would be something you could start a blog on!

Whether you have expertise or knowledge in something, a creative side that you can showcase or a journey you are embarking on and can share your story with others – there’s a blog to be started…

It took me what feels like a lifetime to get it off the ground.

I was always too busy, doing this and doing that (just excuses for my fear of starting a blog I think)…

Procrastination set in, doubt set in too wondering whether I was good enough to do it, so the idea ended up sitting on the backburner for a long time.

However, I finally pulled my finger out and started putting it together in 2020 and after much deliberation, getting out of my own way and comfort zone, I dubiously hit the publish button and launched Blogging for Mums in March 2021!

And boy am I glad I did.

I don’t know what I was so afraid of as I’ve had a great response to it and I know that I’m now doing what I’m supposed to be doing…

I’m creating content and getting to share it with all of you beautiful mummy’s because you deserve to feel passionate about something and build this awesome blog just for YOU!

What is a Blog?

So before jumping feet first into this whole “Starting a blog” thang… let’s take a brief look at what a blog actually is!

A blog is defined as any written piece of information which is online for the world to see…

Usually, the main purpose of a blog is to give help and advice to people’s problems!

People go online looking for answers and hopefully, they can stumble across your blog which will help them…

Your blog has the potential to make you a lot of money, but believe me when I say this – it is not going to happen overnight!

Oh boy is it not.

Blogging takes a lot of hard work, time and patience to grow and you have to be passionate and dedicated enough to push on through when the going gets tough.

There will be a lot of days where you’re spinning your wheels and not knowing whether you’re coming or going, but that’s all part of the journey.

Pushing forward and getting over those hurdles of whatever gets thrown at you will be what enables you to continue.

I want you to pursue this passion because it’s so liberating to know the freedom that blogging can bring.

To work when and wherever you want…

With a laptop, a coffee and someone to show you the way (step-by-step) you can start a blog, fall in love with your blog and help others along the way.

Why you should start a blog!

If you want something to call your own – another baby (so to speak) that you can nurture and watch flourish and grow – then starting your own successful mummy blog is definitely going to fulfil that…

Blogging is fantastic for so many reasons:

• It’s a great creative outlet.

• You get to build relationships with other amazing mummy bloggers (mummying can be lonely).

• You can start as a side hustle and grow it into something so much more!

• You can earn an income as there’s many different ways to make money blogging.

• It can really turn into a business (with time, effort and dedication).

Hand on heart, I cannot think of a better way for any mum to be able to earn money alongside bringing up a family.

Whether you’re a stay at home mum or a working mum, you can start and grow a successful blog – even if you only have a handful of time within your day.

You can work on it as and when your time allows – whether that’s around nap times or in between playdates.

It really is the most flexible and “work at your own pace” J.O.B. you can have!

I’m so glad I’m on this blogging journey and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

I have so much passion and love for Blogging for Mums, it almost feels unreal.

I wake up every day and can’t wait to grab that oat milk latte, turn my laptop on and get right into it!

I get up earlier than the kids, so first thing in the morning’s when I have complete quiet, calm and I tend to work at my best.

This is what I want for you and I’m going to do my best to teach you everything I can and help you every step of the way…

Things to think about BEFORE starting a blog!

So you know you want to start a blog, but what do you need to look at before kicking it all off!

Well firstly, think about what time you have available to work on your blog!

Do you have a few hours a day or a few hours a week…

Look at the times you work best!

This can change over time as your children get older.

You may not have much time when your babies are teeny, but as they grow and become more independent, the time you have to blog will increase.

You need to be working when you feel most energised and most productive!

So have a think about how you can incorporate your blog into your daily/weekly routine…

Whatever time you do have, when it comes to your “Blogging Time” you need to make sure you’re taking action and doing things that are helping your blog to grow.

Why am I wanting to Start a Blog?

This is a great question to ask yourself…

Do you want to blog to:

• Help people

• Share your advice

• Make money (hopefully this isn’t your only reason, but it’s a good motivation to blog for sure)

• Promote your business

• Reach more people out in the world

• Advertise

• Find a job etc…

Knowing why you’re blogging in the first place will help you set some much-needed goals!

Your blog needs to have a purpose for it being out there…

I blog because I LOVE it and couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but I also want to help as many mums as I can (just like you) start a blog so they can share their awesomeness with the world!

That is my goal – to reach as many mums as I can by sharing my knowledge of blogging. 

I feel I would be doing myself and you a disservice if I didn’t share what I know.

What’s the point in knowing something if I’m not going to share it and help others…

Setting Goals for your Blog

I feel we should always be dreaming big because having hopes and dreams is what pushes us and motivates us every day.

It’s dreaming big which leads us to set goals, which gives us the reason to take action so we can achieve those dreams.

Having dreams and goals in the things we do, moves us forward in life!

So it’s all well and good having a blog to write and publish posts, however, you need to have some kinda plan as to what you actually want to achieve with it in the long run…

Now I’m not saying you need to have clear, crystal goals right now, especially when you’re just starting out – not at all…

You’ll be concentrating on so many other things to get your blog up and running, but, you do need to have a focus on what you want to be getting from your blog!

There’s no set rhythm or rhyme to goals and how they should be set.

Everyone’s goals are individual and unique to them, depending on where they want to get to and what they want to achieve.

Having both short term goals and long term goals are something you need to consider for your blog.

Short term goals can be as simple as getting your first blog post written within the next 2 weeks, or it could be getting your first 100 email subscribers within the first month!

Whatever your short term goals are, they’ll help you get to your bigger, long term goals.

The bigger long term goals are for things like:

• How much money you’d like to make.

• Making enough money to quit your job.

• Increasing blog traffic

• Creating a course

• How many blog posts you’d like to have written over the entire year

• How much time you want to spend each week on your blog etc…

What do you want people to gain from your blog?

When someone visits your blog, what is it you want them to get from it?

Are you a blog that gives news stories, so you want them to get the latest news to keep them well informed for the day…

Are you a blog that gives fashion advice, so you want them to know how to dress smart for the day…

What is it you want your blog to do for a visitor when they stop by?

Whatever your blog’s about, think about what it is you want your readers to take away from it.

So there you have some fundamentals and things to think about before you start your blog!

I don’t want it to be overwhelming for you.

Just sit down with a pen and paper and jot down some rough ideas for your blog goals, along with what you want to get from your blog and what you want to give with your blog.

This will help you get clarity from the “off” as to why you’re starting this journey in the first place.

Now we can move onto the actual “getting started” stage…

1. First things first - choose your Niche

A niche is basically the topic you need to pick that you want to blog in!

It’s one of the most important aspects of blogging when you’re first starting out because all your content (blog posts & freebies etc) will be created around this topic.

Ideally, you want to be “niching down”.

The more niche down you go, the better you’re able to help your audience and readers.

Let’s take a look at some examples of this…

Example #1

Niche (too broad) – GARDENING

Niche Down – GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

Niche Down Again – PLANTS & FLOWER TIPS IF YOU’RE NEW TO GARDENING

Example #2

Niche (too broad) – FITNESS

Niche Down – FITNESS FOR MUMS

Niche Down Again – FITNESS FOR MUMS POSTPARTUM

Example #3

Niche (too broad) – FOOD

Niche Down – BAKING

Niche Down Again – BAKING ON A BUDGET

You can see how this works…

The more targeted you are with your niche, the more people you’re going to be able to help on a specific level!

This is how you’ll reach success faster!

The thing about blogging is, although you have free reign to write about whatever you want, you can’t really talk about all kinds of different things on one blog…

Well, you could, but it would be very confusing for your readers.

People visit blogs to get information on things they’re interested in or they’re browsing looking for answers to problems they have.

If they come across a blog that has answers to their question of “How do I maintain a healthy weight”, they’re more than likely expecting the blog to be full of health, diet & fitness information.

For the same blog to then have information on fashion, parenting or gardening, for example, would be completely confusing and would broaden your niche far too much, meaning you’d struggle to be found and rank in Google.

When it comes to choosing a niche, there’s a few things you can look at:

What are you passionate about?

• What do you love?

• What do you talk about (or want to talk about) all the time?

• What do your girlfriends ask your advice on?

• What could you write a ton of content on?

• What would you never get bored of?

• What are your hobbies and interests?

Asking yourself these questions will really help you find a niche that you can not only start a blog in but build that blog up over time, with real love and dedication.

Does your niche have the potential to make money?

Another element you need to look at is whether the topic you are looking at can make money!

There’s many ways blogs make money and making sure your topic can is a must.

If you want to grow a blog that can truly grow to success, being able to monetize it is super important!

But how do I know I’m picking a good niche?

The simple answer to this question is to do a bit of research.

Check out Facebook groups, Pinterest and do a Google search.

Type in the niche you’re thinking of and see what comes up…

Are there lots of questions being asked?

Are there lots of searches?…

Take a look at the blogs you like and frequently visit…

Why do you like them/don’t like them?

What could you do better?

What comments do they have on their blogs you can answer? (your blog post ideas).

If you can do some research and cover these bases, then you’re probably onto a winner!

The popular niches in which there are a lot of blogs tend to follow these rules:

• They’re popular enough that people are searching for them all the time.

• They have the potential to make money with products & services (whether they be yours or other people’s, which is known as affiliate marketing).

• They are on a topic which is broad enough that you’ll have plenty to talk about, but not too broad that you’ll be hidden among all the internet noise.

• They’re in a niche where people are already spending money.

With all that said above, you’re probably wondering what some actual popular and successful niches are, so here’s a shortened list for you (because I could go on and on):

• Health & Lifestyle

• Gardening

• Baking

• Arts & Crafts

• Personal Finance

• Parenting

• Gaming

• Fashion

• Travel

2. Which Blogging Platform do you use

When it comes to choosing a platform – there’s really only one which’ll cut it…

Now I know as mums, we’ll want to try and get as much as possible for free because having kids is expensive (I hear ya) but your blogging platform is not one of those instances!

Saying that though, the actual platform itself is free – it’s the hosting and domain name that costs the money…

It’s that you need this platform so that you can use the hosting and domain name alongside it.

A lot of the free platforms don’t allow you to monetize your blog, which is a big no, no!

Having the ability to make money (even if it’s not initially something you want or need to do at the start of your blogging journey) is an option you want to have…

The platform I’m sharing and the one I use myself is WordPress.org…

It can quite confusing, as there’s WordPress.org and WordPress.com and they are NOT the same.

You need to go with the .org version because this is the self-hosted platform.

This means you purchase a domain name and are able to have full control and customization over your site.

It’s self-hosted, because you need a hosting company in order to actually have your blog online.

The hosting company I use is SiteGround…

They’re absolutely awesome and their customer service is second to none!

I can’t recommend them enough…

More blogs and websites are run on WordPress than any other blogging platform out there!

They also have an amazing amount of support, in the form of blog posts, videos and WordPress forums…

Another great reason I love WordPress .org is the fact they have hundreds of plugins that can be installed to help with anything from lead generation to cookie consent!

3. Choose your Hosting Company

I’ve used a few hosting companies in my time, but SiteGround are by far the best!

They have unbelievable customer support, are really reliable and will help you with anything.

I’ve messed up so many things on my blog (mummy brain) and didn’t have a clue how to sort it out and they’ve always got me out of it & had me back up & running ASAP!

They also have a live chat feature, which quite frankly, I couldn’t live without sometimes.

If I have a problem, I can hop on there and someone will be there to help within minutes.

This is a great option to have when you want to get back on track & blogging again fast!

What does a Hosting Company do?

Before we dive into getting and setting your hosting up, let’s take a look at what a hosting company actually does…

The hosting company provides services and technologies so that blogs and websites can be viewed on the internet.

They do this by using special servers to host them.

Your blog has to be on a server somewhere in order to be seen on the internet!

Hosting is a necessity for any site because, without it, there’d be no blogs and websites online.

So let’s get you set up with your own hosting…

Firstly, go to SiteGround's website and choose their StartUp plan.

This will be more than enough when you first start out.

Once you’ve selected your plan, you’ll enter the next screen, where you need to choose a blog/domain name and register it!

4. Choosing your Blog and Domain Name

Your blog/domain name is what you’ll see when it gets typed in the search bar!

It’s your “online address” so to speak…

Choosing a name is really important as it reflects what your blog and brand is all about, however, when choosing one, don’t take forever to do it!

Maybe it’ll be your name or your business name…

If you’re building a brand, then it would be a brand name…

Take a day or two to brainstorm some ideas.

Get creative and see what kinds of words go together, sound good together and feel good to you.

Take a look at other blogs in your niche and see what kinds of names they have for some much-needed inspiration.

Once you’ve come up with some ideas – ask family and friends what they think of the name you’ve come up with, or see if they have any ideas too!

You want to be unique and stand out!

I know we all want the perfect blog name, but seriously, do not waste a ton of time on this.

Ideally, your blog/domain name needs to:

• Resonate with what you’re talking about.

• Show off you, your brand and what your blog is about.

• Be short, punchy and catchy.

• Ideally have the .com version.

• Has no rude or cursive words

• Simple and easy to remember.

• Easy to spell

• Is something which you like.

• Reflects who your blog is for.

Try and avoid things like hyphens and numbers though, as they’re not easy for people to remember or type correctly.

This is the screen you’ll come to when you need to enter in a blog domain name…

If your domain name is available, you can click Proceed and move on.

If it isn’t available, you’ll get a message saying “The domain name you’ve chosen isn’t available. Please try a new domain name search in the domain name box above”.

You’ll then need to think up another name.

TIP: When brainstorming ideas, it may be best to come up with 2 or 3, just in case the one you want isn’t available.

Note – Just to make you aware, you can see another option that says “I already have a domain” in the screenshot below.

If you happen to have purchased your domain name from another company, this is absolutely fine, you can just select this option and continue with the process as normal.

Once you’ve picked a name (and it’s available) you can go ahead and pay on the following screen.

5. Installing WordPress

It’s now time to install WordPress itself.

Don’t freak out though, you aren’t doing anything techie here – SiteGround does all of the hard work for you…

You just need to click a few buttons that’s all!

This is soooooo exciting as you’re so close to having your very own blog set up and ready to go…

Start by logging into your SiteGround account on the login screen.

Enter the account details you just set up when purchasing the domain and hosting package!

Now you’re ready to set your site up within SiteGround.

I can’t physically show you this exactly – as I haven’t got a new domain to set up, but I can explain what you need to do as best as I can…

On the homepage when you first log in, there will be a button that says Set Up Site.

If you click on this, it will take you to a page where you can Add New Website.

Select the Start New Website option (with the little greenhouse next to it) and click Finish.

You then need to choose the WordPress selection, enter in your email address and generate a strong password!

Hit Finish and you’re done.

This then allows SiteGround to automatically create and set your new site up.

That’s it – you can sit back and wait for the magic to happen…

6. Logging into the WordPress Dashboard

Once the install has been completed, it’s time to move on and log into your account.

Grab the login details you created previously (username and password) and enter them into the login screen here: http://YOURNEWDOMAIN.com/wp-admin

Note – I mentioned earlier that you also have the option to add a domain purchased from another provider. If this was something you did, you may not be able to enter your dashboard for a while, as they need to do a bit more work behind the scenes!

There’s also an extra step where something called Nameservers has to be pointed to SiteGround so your blog can actually work. This is really easy to do and needs to be done within the domain name providers account.

7. Installing a Blog Theme

So you’re into your WordPress dashboard finally and doesn’t it feel amazing lovely.

You’ve worked super hard to get it all set up and raring to go!

Now it’s time to choose a blog theme for your site.

There’s so many out there, that it can get confusing and overwhelming trying to find one to suit you and your needs.

The theme I use and recommend because it’s so easy and versatile is the Divi Theme by Elegant Themes.

You can create a fabulous looking site with the awesome drag and drop builder, plus it integrates really well with the WordPress editor you’ll be using to write all your blog posts!

You want to choose something clean, simple and easy to use.

Having a headache over techie theme issues is not something you want to be experiencing (I’ve been there and it’s not great at all)…

If you head on over to Elegant Themes, you can purchase the Divi Theme.

Once your account is created, you’ll be able to download the Divi Theme as a .zip file.

You’ll need this in a moment back inside your WordPress Dashboard…

Once logged in to your WordPress Admin Area, navigate to the Appearance tab and click on Themes.

Don’t worry about all the tabs I have within my dashboard – these are just for plugins I’ve got installed and we’ll be looking at a couple of the essential plugins you need later on…

You’ll now be able to add the .zip file you downloaded by clicking on Add New.

Simply click on Upload Theme, Choose File and finally Install Now.

Tada! You now have your theme installed and are ready to start building your blog!

8. Add some important Plugins

Plugins are amazing for WordPress and a way to eliminate a lot of coding and faffing around!

However, too many plugins can cause your site speed to be slow and cause all kinds of issues with compatibility!

A few awesome plugins are all you’ll need…

All in One WP Security & Firewall

This plugin adds some extra security to your site to prevent hackers from attacking your blog…

It’s super simple to set up, won’t mess up the functionality of your site and it’s completely FREE!

There’s not really much to say on this except it will give you peace of mind your site has an added level of protection.

Yoast SEO

Yoast is the #1 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugin in the world.

It contains everything you need to maintain your SEO for your blog.

I’m not going to talk about it in this post, as SEO is a mammoth beast to go into.

You can however find out all about Yoast and how it works in this complete SEO guide…

To install Yoast, simply go to the Plugins tab and click Add New and then type in the search box Yoast SEO.

Click Install Now and then Activate and you’ll have added your plugin…

This is all set then ready for when you start writing your blog posts.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk

This plugin will help to protect your blog from spam.

No, not the ham stuff…

The bots, censored words and rude comment type spam…

It takes about 5 minutes to set up and you can get reports emailed through to advise you of how many spam attacks CleanTalk prevent!

This is definitely a plugin you should have installed.

Again, you just need to head on over to the Plugins tab, search for Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Then Install and Activate, the same as you did with the Yoast plugin.

Social Warfare

A good social sharing plugin is a MUST, giving your readers the option to share your posts!

This one won’t slow your blog down and it’s built by Social media marketing experts, so they know their stuff. meaning all that good stuff’s been placed within the plugin!

It’s super simple to install and set up and you’ll have gorgeous buttons built to drive traffic…

ShortPixel

This is an image compression plugin, whereby you can manage image optimization right from within your dashboard.

It’s all done automatically in the background…

Having this plugin installed also increases SEO rankings.

It is FREE to use, however, and you get a quota of 100 credits a month, which should be plenty when you’re first starting out.

You search and activate it the same as the others.

So that’s 4 simple and essential plugins for your blog installed and activated.

The on-screen instructions are pretty straightforward when it comes to setting them up too.

Just follow the step by step guidance they give.

GDPR Cookie Consent

This is another plugin you need to have in order to make sure your blog is legal.

Letting your readers know you use cookies on your blog is important.

This plugin allows you to create a subtle cookie banner (which can be customized to suit your brand) in the header or footer.

9. Creating Legal Pages

Before your blog goes “Live” you need to make sure you have some legal pages in place.

Don’t worry, I know it sounds daunting, but honestly, it’s not bad at all.

You have two options:

1. Create them yourself

2. Outsource them or purchase templates to customize

If you want to generate them yourself for FREE, this is really simple to do.

Privacy Policy

This is a really important page to have on your site.

In fact, I feel that this is the most important page to have on your blog!

Every blog should have this for legal reasons, because you’re collecting personal information from users, such as emails, addresses, payment details etc.

Users want to know that the information they provide you is safe and by having this page, you’re showing your users that they can trust you with the care of their details. 

It’s also a requirement for third-party services you may use. 

The contents of your Privacy Policy may vary to mine, or anyone else’s for that matter. 

You can look up plenty of information online in regards to this (and you should) to get familiar with what you need to provide in your own Privacy Policy.

Head on over to the Free GDPR Privacy Policy Generator where you can generate a privacy policy simply and easily.

Just enter the details inside the form and click Next until you reach the last one where you can click on Generate My Privacy Policy.

You can see the steps in the screenshots below…

In the second screenshot, if you’re unsure of which ones to select, I’d select “Yes” to all three, so that you can’t get into trouble for not including them.

That’s it!

Once you’ve generated the policy, you’ll reach a screen (like the one below) where you have the option to either add the policy as a link or you can copy the text into a page on your blog.

Disclaimer Page

The Disclaimer page is there to protect you from legal liabilities for the content you publish on your blog. It does so by limiting your liability to others while helping protect your rights also. 

The Disclaimer form (from the free disclaimer generator) is just as simple to create as the Privacy Policy we’ve just done!

The screens look identical and you complete the same information and then generate the policy at the end, so I’m not going to go through it all again and bore you.

Terms & Conditions Page

This page sets the rules, rights, responsibilities and terms for anyone using your blog!

Although it’s not required by law, it is something which I highly recommend you have.

This can be created using the free Terms & Conditions Generator again, exactly the same as you’ve generated and created the Privacy Policy and Disclaimer pages. 

So that’s all the Legal Pages covered, on a basic level for your blog!

If you don’t want to go as far as doing all this yourself, then you can take the other option and purchase a legal template bundle, whereby you have it all pretty much done for you and then you upload and use them on your pages.

10. Other Pages to create

As well as the very important legal pages, there are a few other pages you’ll want.

• Homepage

• About Me page

• Contact page

• Resources page

Homepage

The homepage is the first page a visitor will see when they come across your blog!

Some blogs use a default homepage, which tends to show all their latest posts alongside a sidebar (showing freebies and ads).

This is what’s known as the “standard homepage”.

I’m not a fan of the standard homepage, because I just feel that with it being the first page your visitors will see, you want to give an amazing impression and give them a good starting point to your whole blog!

My homepage has a big, bold call to action at the very top, which offers a freebie to help mums figure out what they want to start a blog in!

This is a great way to get people to sign up to your email list from the off…

I then have a bit about what the blogs about and what my visitors will get from it, following my top 3 posts which will help my lovely mummy’s get started blogging!

Finally, I have my footer bar which contains a freebie offer once again (it’s good to give multiple opportunities for visitors to sign up) some social media buttons, disclaimers, my support email address and the legal pages…

It’s simple and not overdone but has everything on there I want my blogging for mums homepage to have.

About Me page

Your About Me page is where you get to share a bit about your life, how you’ve got to where you are and why you love what you do…

Everyone loves to find out more about a person – it’s human nature and I think it’s really important to share a little of yourself and your life if you want people to know, like and trust you!

I share a little about myself and my life with my husband and children, along with what I love to do, my passions and how I really want to help other mummy’s like me start a blog!

Contact page

The contact page is basically where someone can go to reach out to you if they need help or support!

A lot of times, people tend not to use a contact form so much nowadays, because, with email platforms, it’s much easier to communicate back and forth via email.

It’s still a good idea though to include one to make it easy for people to contact you right from within your blog!

Resources page

This page is a great opportunity for making some money…

This is where I have affiliate links to products and services I use to keep my blog running smoothly.

I have a disclaimer at the top letting all my visitors know that I receive a small commission from purchases so that I’m being honest and transparent with them.

I’ve broken my blogging resources down into sections to make it easier to see what’s what, but you can put yours together however you want.

You don’t have to include this page at the beginning of your blogging journey if you don’t have anything to recommend.

It can be added in at a later date when you do!

11. Create your Blog Categories

Thinking up some blog categories now will help you a ton when you start writing your blog posts.

When it comes to categories it’s best to have 6-8 main categories and these should use the main keywords that you want to rank for.

These are topics that your blog will cover and which lots of different posts can be written on.

So, if your blog is going to be on Travel say, let’s look at what categories you could have:

• Destinations

• Great places to Eat

• Family Travel

• Travel Advice

• Inspiration

• Travel Tips

• Guides

• Experiences

• Reviews

These would be all the things that people interested in travel would be searching for, so you can create categories under those topics.

How do you create Categories

Setting up your Categories is simple to do.

It’s great to have your categories within a menu on your blog so that it’s easy for your readers to navigate and find the content they’re looking for.

To find the Categories tab, head over to the Posts section and then you’ll see the Categories tab nestled in there!

Once there, you’ll see the following screen…

You can add in the following:

• Name of your new Category

• Slug (the URL you want to have)

• Parent Category if required

• A Description

If you complete all these and click on Add New Category, it will add it to the list on the right-hand side.

You can see an example of one of my Categories below.

Do this for all the categories you want to include and then you’ll have them all set up ready to add to!

You can add your blog posts to a Category when you’re writing and editing them within the Editor.

12. Creating your Blog Menus

Next up, we’re going to look at another important element of your blog lovely and that’s your Menus!

Menus are extremely important as it’s what’s going to help your visitors navigate around your blog and get from one page/post to another!

Different themes allow different menus. The Divi theme allows you to have 3 menus – Primary, Secondary and a Footer menu…

You can find this out by clicking on Manage Locations.

To get to the Menus tab, simply click on Appearance, then Menus or you can see once you’ve clicked on Appearance, it brings up the Divi theme we installed earlier and you can see the Menus button located underneath there also!

Now I’ll take you step by step and show you how to set up a Menu…

Start by clicking Create a new Menu.

You then need to name your Menu in the Menu Name section, to something which resonates with you (keep it simple here).

After you’ve created and named your Menu, it’s time to add some items to it.

Here, you have the choice to add:

• Pages

• Posts

• Custom Links

• Categories

To add items, click on the dropdown arrow (1) to open up the relevant items (pages/posts etc) and then click on view all (2) where you can select all the pages/posts etc to add to the menu (3). Once you’ve selected everything you want to add, simply click Add to Menu (4).

Your selected items will then appear over on the right.

Once the items are there, choose where your Display location is going to be for your items – Primary Menu | Secondary Menu | Footer Menu.

You do also have the option to Delete Menus as well if you decide you don’t want or need it anymore.

Another option you have is to remove the individual items from the menu, by clicking on Remove.

Just don’t forget to hit “Save Menu” after so it actually deletes it.

The last thing I’m going to mention on menus is that you can also drag and rearrange the items within the menu itself.

Just hover over the item, hold the left mouse down and move the item to where you want it.

You can also drag the items slightly to the right of the menu item above, which creates a subitem.

13. Create a Logo

A logo is a great way for you to create that brand feeling for yourself!

It’s what people will see and remember you by.

All the big businesses and brands have really memorable logos.

Just think of McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca Cola and Ford, to name a few!

Whenever you see their logos, you know it’s them instantly.

Logos are extremely powerful, so it’s always great to design (or have designed) a logo for your blog and brand.

You want to really think about what resonates with you and your brand and what type of logo would suit your blog!

Sometimes people have images, some just have text, or some have a mixture of the two.

It’s really easy to create a logo inside of a program like Canva (which is FREE), because of all the templates they have.

Once you have a logo created, you just need to upload it into the Divi Theme Options, from the dashboard.

Remember to Save Changes.

You can then play around with the size and how it looks on your blog by going to Appearance > Customise > Header & Navigation > Primary Menu Bar.

14. Create a Site Icon (Favicon)

As well as creating a logo, you can also create a Site Icon, which is the little icon that appears within the address bar of your browser.

This is also simple to do within Canva and once created, can be added here – Appearance > Customise > General Settings > Site Identity.

Note – For both the logo and site icon above, the places to add it are subject to using the Divi Theme.

If you use another theme, this could be different.

15. Let people see who you are

When people come to visit your site, they want to see who you are!

This shows you’re a real person, you’re relatable and can help build trust.

Choose a photo that resonates with you and your blog, one that gives a good impression and shows off who you are!

Good places to have a photo of you are:

• Homepage

• Sidebar

• About Me Page

16. Set Social Media accounts up

Now’s the time to set up your social media accounts (for your blog) if you haven’t already done so!

Have a think about what platforms you’ll need and check out whether you’re able to get the same account names across all of them…

• Facebook Page

• Facebook Group if you require this

• Pinterest Business Account

• Instagram Business Account

• YouTube Channel

Pretty much all of us are on some kind of Social Media platform – if not all of them…

When you first start blogging, you want to stick to just one or two platforms.

Do some research and find out where your target audience is hanging out!

The idea is to get really good at being social and sharing your content on one platform and also build up an audience of raving fans.

You can learn all there is to know and really get to grips with it, BEFORE you move on to another platform. 

Once you’ve decided which platforms to go with, you need to set up your accounts.

Stick with your branding colours and fonts etc… and have something which is congruent and follows suit across all your platforms.

I have a similar photo on all of mine so that I can build that trust and authority!

You want people to instantly know it’s you – and people do that by either recognising a photo of you, a logo, or a particular colour etc…

17. Setting up your Domain Email Address

You want to look professional when it comes to your blog.

Having a standard Gmail email address doesn’t spark professionalism – so setting up your domain email address will give that air of authority.

It’s really easy to set an email client up within SiteGround and no matter which hosting plan you have, you get an unlimited number of free accounts you can set up.

I have two email accounts set up for Blogging for Mums – support and a normal business one.

18. Researching Ideas for Blog Posts

Your blog is now set up and ready for you to get blogging!

The time has come for you to brainstorm some ideas for your blog posts because a blog is nothing without content…

Whatever niche you go into, you’re going to need to do some research to find out what people actually want to read about…

Get a notepad and pen (or google docs as I like to use for this) and write (or type) down some ideas you come across

So where can you get ideas and inspiration from:

Look at what other blogs are writing about around your topic!

Check out their top posts and see what points they’re making in them. 

What can you do better? 

How can you write something better?

Look at the comments readers have left on the posts and see what they’re asking for, what they like and dislike about the post, what they didn’t get from the post.

You can then use these comments to write posts for your own blog, for things that are missing within the posts already out there…

DON’T STEAL OTHER BLOGGERS CONTENT THOUGH…

Find problems people are having

When it comes to problems – we all have them, on everything, so you’ll always be able to find problems and issues in whatever niche you’re in.

People are constantly searching online looking for answers to things…

I was just on google searching for “How to clean my washing machine the right way” lol!

Find those problems and provide a solution to them within your blog posts.

Google Suggestions

Everyone loves a bit of Google and that’s because it’s super powerful…

I love the suggestions that it comes up with when you type something in.

I typed “How to start” and you can see it automatically comes up with the most searched keywords.

I also love the “People also ask” section, as this can also give you some fab blog post ideas on things you may not have even thought about, but which are relating to your niche!

Quora

Quora is a question/answer website where you can also find some awesome ideas for blog posts.

It’s simple to use – you just type in the search your topic (1) and select the Questions under By Type (2) and the results will come up…

Social Media

Places where we spend such a massive amount of time nowadays (unfortunately) are Social Media platforms. 

BUT – alongside just endlessly scrolling at really tasty looking food the mum from the school run has made and flawless celebrities we want to look like lol, it can be extremely useful and amazing for finding problems for your blog posts…

People love to join groups and ask questions all the time, so maybe join a couple of good Facebook groups within your niche and check out the posts being made and the comments also.

These groups can be a goldmine for finding topics for posts!

Ask!!!

You can just ask your readers…

Once you have a few blog posts on your blog and people have left some comments, ask them what they want!

You can also do this when you have email subscribers…

Ask them what they want to hear from you! 

Ask them what kinds of content they prefer (written posts, videos, or both).

The power of actually asking people what they want is incredible and will help save you a lot of time just writing about things no one wants to hear about…

UberSuggest

I couldn’t leave this section without mentioning a Keyword Tool – and a FREE one at that…

All bloggers need to use a keyword tool at some point, but I’ve always felt quite overwhelmed & intimidated with a lot of the ones out there because they have so many bells and whistles.

I just wanted something easy and simple to use and Ubersuggest is exactly that.

I’m not going to go into how to use Ubersuggest but will give you a very brief breakdown.

It’s a tool you need to play around with and get used to using every time you write a blog post.

Enter the site and then select Keyword Analyzer > Keyword Overview (1) and type in a keyword into the search bar (2). Click Search (3).

Once you’ve hit Search, all the ideas will come up.

Ubersuggest gives you 3 Free searches a day, which is plenty when you’re first starting out.

You can see in the above image the keywords which have come up under the Suggestions tab.

If you continue scrolling down the screen, you’ll even get a section on Content Ideas, which will also help give you blog post ideas and let you see what keywords there are.

Keyword Research is not a topic for this blog post, as there’s so much to it.

I will be doing a post on it though in the near future.

19. Deciding how often you want to post

How often you want to publish your posts is entirely up to you…

The whole idea behind blogging (and why so many people choose to do it) is because you can fit it in around you and your life!

Being a mum has a lot of challenges – with time and getting everything in we need to do, so make sure when you’re deciding how often and when to post – you find something you can stick to and what works around you and your kids!

Having a plan at this stage will help in weeks, months and even years to come…

Whatever you decide, being consistent and posting when you say you’re going to post is super important.

As you grow (and you will if you put in the hard work and stick with it) you’ll find that your readers will come to know when you post. 

They’ll almost expect you to, as they’ll get into a routine of knowing what days and times your blog posts come out.

Be completely honest with yourself. 

If you know that you can’t post once a week, then don’t try and push yourself to post once a week.

Post every two weeks instead, or even every month!

The main goal is to be posting consistently and to post amazing content.

If you know by posting once a week, it’s going to be a hash job of throwing something together quickly, just because you want to get a post out there, DON’T!!!

It can do more harm than good to your blog.

Your readers would much rather wait and have something awesome to read, than have you post something you’ve not put any time and effort into.

It will show – trust me!

It may take a few months to get into the rhythm of things, but that’s ok as we all need time to get to know what suits us and what doesn’t.

20. Your Permalink Settings

Before you start writing your first post, you need to make sure you’re permalink settings are set up properly.

To get to it, from the dashboard click on Settings > Permalinks.

There’s many options to choose from, but the one you want to select is the Post Name.

It looks the cleanest, is the simplest and will help you with your SEO the best.

That’s all you need to do here.

Any other changes to blog post titles will be done from inside the editor when you write the post.

21. Writing your first Blog Post

This is an exciting time – writing your very first blog post!

You’ve come so far in your blogging journey already because you’ve set a whole blog up from scratch and now you’re ready to get some content on there.

Before you launch your blog, you ideally want to have between 3-5 posts already on your blog.

Putting a blog post together comes in stages:

• Preparing your post 

• Writing your post

• Editing your post

The PWE as I call it… (Prepare, Write, Edit)

Concentrate on preparing your post properly and writing will be something you can flow through and enjoy.

As long as you think about who you’re writing for, what you want to tell them and how you’re going to structure your post, you’ll make the process for yourself a lot easier.

The first posts you should always start with, are your Pillar Posts…

Pillar Posts

You’ll want to start by writing some core posts for your blog.

These are known as pillar posts.

I currently have 3 Pillar Posts (this being one of them) and these are the lengthy, in-depth posts!

Pillar Posts are the foundation posts that support your blog and are usually larger posts with between 1000-2000 words.

They’re the posts written on topics that are actionable, engaging and will help your readers the most. 

They’re also posts built to withstand time – the ones which should be updated and added to whenever required, to keep the information up to date and fresh!

All other blog posts stem off the pillar posts and usually, you’ll find many interlinks between pillar posts and all the other content you write, because the pillar posts will be referred back to over & over again.

You’ll probably find that once your blog has been going for a while, the pillar posts are the ones that generate you the most traffic!

You should try and write a pillar post for each of the categories you have on your blog, as they’re the main topics you’ll be writing all your posts and content under.

Writing posts will get easier and you’ll get more confident, the more posts you write. 

Practice makes perfect so they say…

Once you’ve written your pillar posts, continue to research and see what your target audience wants/needs are and carry on writing and putting out fab blog posts each week/two weeks/month etc, building up your content library of awesomeness for your readers…

Always write an outline for your Posts

I can’t stress to you enough how it will make your life so much easier if you plan your blog posts out!

I know you want to just sit down and start typing whatever comes into your head (I want to do this so bad sometimes), but not planning your posts out properly can end up wasting a lot of your time. 

Planning a rough blog post outline of what your headings and subheadings will be, will make everything flow smoother for you!

It gives you that much-needed structure to follow and will make the time you take to write your posts, a lot quicker!

22. Interlink posts

What is Interlinking – It’s where you link to other posts on your OWN website.

By doing this, you’re making it easy for the search engines to crawl and index your pages.

It also allows them to see how your site is structured.

Search engines like Google want a nice clean structure, so they can match the pages and posts you have on your blog, with the search queries they get from people typing things in the search bar.

Interlinking isn’t just great for getting more traffic and boosting your SEO efforts, oh no!

It’s also great for keeping more visitors on your site…

If someone is reading a really awesome blog post on your blog about the 10 Best Chocolate Cakes Out There, wouldn’t it make sense to have a link to another blog post on your site, which shares some of your best chocolate cake recipes…

Don’t you think this is something they’d also be interested in and want to check out – of course…

This interlinking is allowing your visitors to remain on your site for longer, by giving them lots of other useful, helpful and valuable information for them to read and take action on.

23. Create a Freebie

I call them freebies, but they’re also known as Opt-Ins, Giveaways, Sign-Ups, Lead Magnets, incentives and Free gifts…

They’re all the same thing – something which is given away to your readers for free, in exchange for an email address!

Creating a freebie is where you can really let your creative juices flow.

As people, we love getting something for FREE – it’s human nature…

Bloggers tend to use freebies to entice readers to join their mailing lists!

A freebie is offered in exchange for an email address (and this is done using email marketing software, which I’ll talk more about in the next section).

I always LOVE giving things away to my readers and I often have more than one freebie per blog post.

Not only do I love creating them, I feel great knowing that I’m giving away valuable information, that can be used, implemented and taken action on…

I put just as much love and care into my freebies as I do for something I’d sell.

Just because you’re giving it away for free, doesn’t mean it should be a load of rubbish.

Never treat your freebies as tat!

Bad freebies will mean people won’t touch your paid products.

Make readers think that if the free stuff is great, then the paid stuff would be unreal…

This can take a lot of time to start with (especially if you’re a bit of a perfectionist like me) but as you create more and more, you’ll get quicker and more confident in your creative skills!

Freebie creation will then become a natural process!

It really is a lot of fun to do and you can let your imagination run wild!

Try and think about the following things when creating your freebies: 

• Always create something to give away, which is relevant to your blog and niche.

• Add your freebies to your homepage, within blog posts and in the sidebar!

• Don’t create a freebie which is too long or too short. 

• Keep it to the point and ALWAYS give something which can help your readers. 

• Put time and thought into your freebies – plan them out as you would a blog post (although it won’t need to go into as much depth as a blog post plan). 

I use two programs when it comes to freebie creation:

Canva for 99% of them (things like checklists and cheat sheets) as it has so many templates, elements and stock photos you can use within its platform and Powerpoint which I create a lot of the PDF’s and slide decks in.

I love them both, but seem to be using Canva more and more for freebie creations, because they’re always adding new awesome things to it.

What kinds of things can you have as a Freebie?

It’s important to research and brainstorm ideas for your freebies before you go ahead and create them (just the same as you need to for blog posts).

Find out what people are wanting, what their problems are and give them the solutions within your freebie.

Quick wins, actionable steps and hot tips are all great things to offer!

There are many different things you can create as a freebie…

• Checklists

• Templates

• Cheat sheets

• eBooks

• Video Courses

• Email Courses

• Printables

• Infographics

• Newsletters

• Workbooks

• Planners

• Quizzes

• List of Resources

• Transcripts to a video or audio recording

• Quick start guide

• Reports

• Challenges

• Case Studies…

Plus many, many more ideas…

You can literally give away anything, as long as it’s of value and helps your readers!

So go ahead now and think of one thing you can create to complement your blog posts!

Put in the time and effort to create something really great, that you’re proud to give away.

24. Get an Email Marketing software

Building an email list is something you really need to be doing from day 1!

You know all those emails you get from your fave bloggers, influencers, online retailers and subscriptions you’re signed up to – they all come from an email marketing platform…

What is an Email Marketing Platform?

In a very brief overview, it’s a piece of software that is used to collect email addresses and helps you create and send your own email messages out.

They do a whole range of other things including: 

• Landing page creation

• Automations

• Sequences

• Form creation

• Broadcasts

It’s a software that can deal with all your email marketing needs!

Collecting emails and building up your “subscriber list” as it’s called in the blogging world, is something you need to be doing right from the very start!

I’ve heard so many bloggers say that if they could do one thing over again – it would be to start building their email list right when they began their blog!

It’s an extremely powerful strategy and one where you can offer your readers a great freebie in exchange for their name and email address.

The idea is, you give away a free gift and then send them weekly or monthly emails etc (depending on what you want to do and what suits your blog niche and goals) where you can share other great content and inform them of products and services you recommend…

It’s a way of staying in touch with them and building a relationship and many subscribers stay on their blogger’s lists for years.

If you always give great content and genuinely help your readers wherever you can, you’re going to build sustainable relationships with your audience. 

Give, Give, Give and it will come back to you…

Which Email Marketing platform should I choose?

I’ve used loads of different email marketing platforms over the years and there are many out there to choose from, but ConvertKit is the one I absolutely LOVE…

It’s simple and easy to use and navigate around, which you need it to be, as you’ll be in it a lot once you get going…

If there’s one piece of advice I can offer, it’s to pay for an email marketing provider as soon as you’re able to afford it.

It’s one of the paid tools I can’t stress enough you should have, because it’s the tool which is going to help you make the most money over time!

I’m not going into how to use Convertkit here, as I’m going to write a separate post on this, but basically, you’re able to create landing pages and sign up forms, place them on your site and then people can subscribe to get your freebies.

The platform also allows you to send Broadcast emails (one-off emails) set up Email Sequences (welcome, educational and sales) and automate it ALL!

You can even create, manage and sell digital products with it too…

It does a lot, lot more, but that’s a basic overview!

You can check out ConvertKit’s help tutorials here to get started…

25. Start Building your Email List

So now you’ve got an email marketing platform ready to go, it’s time to start building your email list!

A lot of people hear the words “Email List” and think it’s something overly complicated to do, but in actual fact, it’s really simple – it just takes time to grow and nurture an email list.

If you want a thriving and engaged email list, then it will take time and effort to build it (and keep them there).

But it’s time well worth spending on because your email list (as I mentioned above) is going to be the way you end up making most of your money, as most subscribers do end up converting into customers at some point.

Email is the way you can build fantastic relationships with your subscribers and share all kinds of amazing things with them because it’s personal and intimate.

You can talk to just them…

By adding relevant opt-in forms to your blog, on the things that matter the most to your audience (fantastic freebies) you can entice them to sign up and grab those freebies.

They’re then added to your mail list as a subscriber.

You can then nurture them, help them and give as much valuable information as you can to them through emails (broadcasts and sequences) leading them through all kinds of automated educational sequences and sales funnels.

It’s a great way to give them tips, show them what works and what doesn’t and promote your latest products and services.

You can see an example below of one of my welcome email sequences.

It can be a little scary to start with – sending out your first email, but the more you do it, the easier and less freaky it becomes.

You’ll get to the point where you really look forward to the time when it comes round, for your next email to go out…

There’s lots of things you can do to grow your email list. It’s all about testing and seeing what your email list likes, doesn’t’ like and learning how you can help them as best you can.

26.Getting Traffic to your Blog

Traffic is one of the most important aspects of blogging because, without traffic, no one is seeing your posts or blog!

It’s not just about getting traffic though, it’s about getting the right traffic!

It’s pointless driving traffic to your blog that has no interest in the topic or content your blog has.

The traffic has to be targeted and you need to make sure you know what you want your visitor to do when they get there (sign up for a freebie/join in a discussion/purchase a product)…

There’s all kinds of ways to drive traffic and my advice is, don’t try and battle all the ways at once.

Learn one or two strategies, get really good at them, have them in place getting steady traffic and then move on.

I’m going to share the two ways I get traffic because where I only launched this blog at the end of March, I haven’t started on other traffic methods just yet.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual search engine and one of the easiest platforms to get set up on and use.

I absolutely love using it for my blog (and for personal use too. Yummy doughnut recipes anyone!!!)

It’s great for driving traffic through what’s called the “Pinning” process.

The way Pinterest works alongside blogging, is you write your blog post and then create 3-5 Pin Images for that blog post and strategically pin them onto relevant boards regularly.

It sounds simple right, that’s because it is…

So to get started with Pinterest:

1. Start by sign up for a Pinterest Business Account

2. Create some main category boards relevant to your niche and topic

3. Create 3-4 Pin Images for each of your blog posts and freebies

4. The Pin Images can then be pinned to your boards regularly

I use Canva to create all of my pin images.

Canva makes it so easy with all the templates you can change up and it means you’re never having to fully start from scratch (unless you want to).

How to make sure you have a great Pin

A great Pin can have the following elements:

• Keep fonts bold and clear – squiggly fonts may look great but they aren’t very readable!

• Catchy title to entice readers to stop scrolling and click on your pin…

• Bold colours to stand out amongst all the other pins.

• A good quality image, relevant to the pin and your brand.

• If you have a logo, you can include this on the pin somewhere.

• Always, always add your blog URL too, so that people know it’s your pin.

Ways to Pin Images

There’s several ways you can pin images to your boards:

Manually – where you go into Pinterest and physically upload and complete all the details for the pin and publish it either immediately or schedule it for a later date.

Click on Create > Create Pin and the following screen will come up where you can complete all the details for the Pin image you want to upload to Pinterest.

• Title

• Description

• Alt text

• Destination Link

• Publish immediately or at a later date

You then need to add it to the relevant board (select the board from the drop-down menu in the top right corner) and click publish.

Social Sharing Buttons – A social sharing plugin, such as Social Warfare within your blog posts, which allows you to pin the images from within your posts. It also allows others to pin the post too.

Chrome Pinterest Save Button extension – This is a great extension that places the little Pin Save on your pin images, so you can share them to Pinterest.

There's a really cool tool called Tailwind which is a scheduling tool for not only Pinterest but Instagram too!

You can schedule your pins and Tailwind will pick the best times to post them (based on when your pins get the most traction).

You can see how many posts you have scheduled too in the top left corner.

All your scheduled posts get placed in a scheduler which you can see and change around to suit.

This has been such a handy tool, as I can pin things on the go (with the Tailwind mobile app) and create pins from within the tool itself to schedule.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it’s known as is the process that content goes through (such as a blog post) in order to rank higher in the search engines (mainly Google).

It’s about increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your blog, via organic searches.

The aim is to optimize your content as best you can, to try and rank on Page 1 of Google, so that when people are searching, it appears.

There are all kinds of things involved with SEO, including ranking factors, keyword research and links and link building to name a few.

SEO is definitely a long game and something which you won’t see instant results from but is something you definitely, definitely want to be included in your blogging strategy.

A great way to start with SEO is to install a plugin.

I’ve just started using a new plugin recently called RankMath and I have to say, it’s very easy and simple to set up and has some great features. I’ll do a post about it in the future and share how I’m getting on with it.

However, Yoast SEO is the most popular one out there and is the one I recommend when starting out.

Yoast allows you to complete SEO information for every blog post you write, including things like a focus keyphrase and meta description.

It also has a traffic light system, so you know when things are great and when they need to be improved.

Note – Don’t get hung up on the traffic lights. I know it’s human nature to want it all to be green and to complete all the information just so, but you’ll drive yourself crazy. Do it as best as you can and leave it at that.

I shared the Yoast SEO complete guide above (in the plugins section) so you can read this and get to grips with all Yoast does.

As well as installing an SEO plugin, there are things which you should be doing when it comes to your content, to give it the best chance possible at ranking highly.

Not only that but including these things will give your visitors a better, more fun experience when reading your content.

This is called On-Page SEO!

So let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to give your on-page SEO the best chance…

Use H2 and H3 Headings

Including a mix of H2 and H3 headings will break up your text into manageable, bitesize chunks and will bring important topics to your reader’s attention, making them stand out.

Include Bullet Points

I love how bullet points highlight important information and list items throughout your posts.

They’re also great because they allow your readers to scan your posts (which is actually what a lot of readers tend to do, to get to the bits they’re after).

Use Longtail Keyword Phrases

Use Longtail keyword phrases throughout your posts as these are easier to rank for.

An example of a longtail keyword would be “Crochet for Young Kids”, rather than just “Crochet” (which would be much harder to rank for).

Use a Primary Keyword & Secondary Keywords

Have your Primary Keyword – the main focus keyword and Secondary Keywords – keywords that are related and more in-depth throughout your posts.

These can be used for your H2 and H3 headings.

Optimize your Images to include Alt Tags

Optimize your images to include alt tags, because images are indexed by Google.

It’s much better to have an image that says “ConvertKit’s automation tab” rather than IMG0004838.

Short URL’s

Make your post slugs (URL’s) short and descriptive.

They need to be easy to understand and relate to the post/page in question.

Clear, to the point Post Titles

Make your titles catchy and focus on including the longtail keywords people are searching for.

It’s important to create a fab title because this is the first thing people see in the search results.

Interlink to your other Posts

I’ve already mentioned interlinking further up in the post but wanted to mention it again here, as it’s really important for SEO that you link between your own posts.

Keeping people on your blog for as long as possible will really help them, giving them more information, but it helps you too, as it shows Google that you have authority in the topic you’re writing about, which will boost ranking.

Link to External Sites

As well as linking to your own pages and posts, it’s important to link to external sites too.

Only link to quality content, which points towards authoritative websites, with high volumes of traffic and content that’s relevant to you and your blog.

Use Anchor Text wisely

Anchor text is the clickable hyperlinks within your text.

When you link to something, don’t just say things like “click here” or “find out more” as they’re wasted and won’t do anything for SEO purposes.

Have the link as your targeted keywords.

Don’t Keyword Stuff

It’ll be very obvious to Google if you start stuffing your posts with Keywords.

Your content should flow naturally and not read in a stilted manner, because you’re trying to get all 10 of your keywords into that one sentence…

It’s not accepted by search engines and you could end up being penalised and end up being removed from them completely.

Write Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is where you write those posts that stand the test of time…

The ones that constantly and consistently bring in traffic to your blog!

They’re not seasonal, or on “current trends” they’re written on topics that will still be talked about in years to come.

You’ll probably find that your pillar posts are evergreen content.

They’re more than likely on topics that are frequently asked questions or wants and needs within your niche.

They’re the posts you’ll have poured your heart and soul into and the ones which will be linked to from your other posts, over and over again.

Optimize your Site Speed

Site speed has a huge impact on your SEO.

It all comes down to giving a great user experience for your visitors and a fast site gives a really good user experience.

Google has also made site speed a ranking factor, so it’s important to look at your website and make sure there’s nothing on there to slow it down.

I recently paid a company FixmySite to take a look at my site and make sure it was as optimized as it could be.

They removed any unnecessary plugins and just did an overall check to see what could be done to speed my site up.

Things that tend to slow sites down are:

• Too many plugins (you don’t need many at all to keep your site safe, secure and working at optimal performance).

• Bad plugins (poorly coded, not regularly updated)

• No caching or caching plugins

• Not using HTTPS

• Your PHP version is old or not up to date

• Poor quality hosting

• Not having optimized images (ShortPixel can sort this out)

• No CDN (Content Delivery Network)

Facebook

Facebook has many great things about it which can help drive traffic to your blog!

It’s not just a place to hang out and connect with friends anymore.

It can be used to target your audiences and promote your blog and brand, BUT, it has to be done in the right way…

The best way to start out on Facebook is to find some groups in your niche and participate within them.

Help others in the group out, comment on their posts – visit their blogs!

It’s all about building those relationships up with other bloggers so that you can help each other out.

You can guest post on each other’s blogs (if it’s a good fit) or share each others content

When you’re on pages for the people you look up to or the influencers you follow, comment as your Facebook page rather than your personal profile.

This will build your brand up and will help to expose your blog/brand to more people and you never know – they may even head on over to your page and then check out your blog too…

I do have a Facebook page, but it isn’t a traffic strategy I’m concentrating on right now (one at a time remember)…

I do post to it every now and then, to have some content, but it isn’t a main priority of mine at the moment.

27. How do you make Money with your Blog?

The famous question is always how to make money with your blog, especially as a beginner.

There’s actually 6 main ways you can make money from your blog and they can all be part of your monetization strategy and incorporated right from the start of your blogging journey.

Affiliate Marketing

The easiest, simplest and BEST way when you’re a beginner is through Affiliate Marketing.

It’s where you find products and services that you can get a special link (affiliate link) for and every time someone purchases through that link, you make a commission!

There’s lots of different affiliate programs and platforms out there, the biggest being Amazon!

You could easily find 5-10 really awesome products within your niche, ideally, they need to be ones you’ve used yourself so that you can be honest and transparent with your readers about them and give them as much information as possible to help and guide them.

Write a roundup blog post about how awesome they are and how they can benefit your readers and make their life better and then include the links to them (affiliate links) throughout the post.

This is a natural and genuine way to promote products and services, without just saying “hey – buy this product”…

You’re giving them a helpful post full of the benefits and features of the product/service, so they’re armed with all the information they need t make a decision whether to purchase or not.

There’s affiliate platforms in all niches, you just need to find one that has products and services to promote within yours.

Some Affiliate platforms and networks you can check out are:

• Amazon

• AWIN

• eBay

• SiteGround

• Clickbank

• ShareaSale

• CJ Affiliate

• Teachable

• ConvertKit

• Fiverr

• Rakuten

• Elegant Themes

• Shopify

• Impact

• Thinkific

• TripAdvisor

These are in no way all of them – there are literally hundreds upon hundreds out there.

If you find or use a product, contact them and ask whether you can be an affiliate for it or check out their website and see if there’s an affiliate section on there to sign up!

Another affiliate marketing strategy is to share affiliate links on your social media platforms and in YouTube descriptions for your videos, plus utilise holiday seasons with specific posts highlighting and showcasing relevant products for that time of year.

Christmas, Easter and Black Friday are great times to write posts to promote.

Ads

Not one of my favourites I have to say but Ads can be a good way to earn money on your blog.

I find them very distracting (unfortunately on a lot of food blogs) because I’m always having to click off them every five seconds to actually view the content on the blog itself.

The way Ads work is usually by either Pay Per Click (PPC) where you get paid when someone clicks on the ad or Pay Per View (PPV) where you make passive income which is based on how many people see the ad on a certain page or post on your blog.

Ad networks such as AdThrive or Mediavine often need at least 100,000 page views a month before they’ll even consider letting you join and for beginner bloggers, this can take a while to get there.

If you want to consider Ads as part of your monetization strategy, then here are some other networks you can check out:

Infolinks

Ezoic

Media.net

Taboola

Digital Products

One of the best ways to make money with your blog is by creating your own digital products.

You could sell a simple eBook or printable which gives a quick win or some actionable steps.

Start small with a $7 product which is a great way to get confidence in selling on your blog…

If you sell 20 of those $7 digital products, you’ve already made your first $140 with your blog – woohoo!

You can create them for FREE using Canva and then sell them through ConvertKit, using the “Products” tab within its dashboard.

So other than eBooks and Printables, what other digital products can you create to sell on your blog:

• Templates

• Courses

• Planners

• Tutorials

• Stock Photos/Images

• Digital Stickers

• Reports

• Guides

• Recipes

• Patterns

• Apps

Physical Products

Maybe you’re in a business where you can offer physical products to your audience.

Although people can’t receive them instantly, like they can with digital downloads, there’s something about being able to touch something physically.

Physical products you could sell include:

• Mugs

• T-Shirts

• Binders and Planners

• Diaries & Calendars

• Canvases

• Photo Books

Offering Services

As well as digital products, you can also sell your services.

This is basically selling your time for money…

I’m sure there’s something when starting out you could offer someone.

If you can do something for someone (so they don’t have to) or teach them something one on one, then this is a great way to earn an income.

Some of the services you can offer are:

• VA (Virtual Assistant) services

• Coaching

• Video Editing

• Graphic Design/Creation (such as Social Media Graphics)

• Voice Overs

• Logo Design

• Web Design

• Translation

• Data Entry

There really are so many different services you can offer someone.

Also, because so many people are short on time, they would rather pay someone else to have a finished product.

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are those you get paid to write.

This can be done by other bloggers/companies or for specific products.

When you write a sponsored post, you have to let your readers know it’s sponsored.

Joining a blogging network can be a great way to get sponsored post opportunities, especially when just starting out.

A couple of networks are Acorn and Blog Meets Brand.

If doing sponsored posts is something you fancy doing, don’t be put off if things don’t happen immediately.

Getting turned down is inevitable – keep trying and continue putting out great content, so you can get recognised.

28. Invest in your Learning

Investing in yourself, so that you can learn more and grow (which in turn helps you teach more to your audience) is vital in blogging.

I’m always taking a course and learning new strategies and ways to grow my own blog!

I also love the experience of taking new courses and love supporting and helping out other bloggers by doing so…

A couple of amazing courses I’ve taken are Suzi Whitford’s Blog by Number course and her Printables by Number course.

The Printables by Number is amazing if you want to learn how to create amazing printables to use as freebies or sell, this course will really help you out!

29. Network with other Bloggers

Blogging can be very lonely, especially when you’re just starting this road of awesomeness…

That’s why finding some other bloggers in your niche will help you out, not only with the loneliness but with growing your blog.

You can reach new audiences you wouldn’t have had access to before, build relationships for life and gain new friends, with whom you can arrange meetups with possibly.

Connecting with people is a massive part of blogging and having a tribe of like-minded people and other bloggers around you, will make it a much more pleasant experience all around.

You need people to fall back on to ask for help when you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious or unsure of yourself.

You can hold each other accountable, guest post on each other’s blogs and maybe even attend events in the future…

Of course, we all have our family and friends, but sometimes you need people who are in the same trenches as you and know what you’re going through because they’re going through it or have been through it already!

So how do you connect with other Bloggers?

So now you know that connecting with other bloggers is a fantastic idea, let’s look at how you can connect with them:

• Comment on their posts to show interest and support

• Answer questions and help where you can on posts

• Follow and connect with them on Social Media

• Share their content with your audience

• Include links to their content within your posts

• Reach out to them with a friendly message or email

• See how you can help them

• Include them in expert roundup posts

It can take time to build relationships with other bloggers, but if you’re always authentically being you and helping out wherever you can, you shouldn’t find it hard to attract people, who will resonate with you.

30. Promote your Blog

We’re nearing the finishing line and you’ve done amazing!

You’ve set up your blog, written your very first post(s) and looked at how you can monetize it too.

I just want to say congratulations from the bottom of my heart xxxx

You should be super-duper proud of yourself and how far you’ve come. 

I’m soooooooo proud of you and you definitely need to celebrate this massive milestone in your blogging journey…

Now’s the time for you to actually get your blog out there and promote it!

Woohoo…………..

Ways to Promote your Blog

So how can you promote your blog so that the world can see it…

• Share your blog on Social Media

• Via email to your email list

• Add an email signature to include your blog URL

• Create Infographics for your blog posts to share

• Make sure your On-Page SEO is in place

• Create a video for your posts and upload to YouTube

• Promote within relevant, niche Facebook Groups (if allowed to do so, but always make sure you’re contributing and helping out first – don’t just share links. Always check the groups rules too)

• Start your own Facebook Group/Page

• Run Giveaways for your products/services

• Repurpose your posts into different formats, to reach more people

• Interact with your readers and reply to comments on your blog and social media platforms

• Comment on other blogs comments section (with useful, helpful and valuable information)

There’s lots of other ways you can promote your blog, but these are just some to get you started…

31. See what's working and what isn't

Blogging’s all about testing, testing and testing some more…

In order to grow, you have to monitor and keep track of what’s working and what isn’t.

What freebies are converting the best?

Where are you getting the most traffic from?

See which posts/pages get the most traction and are performing the best!

How many email subscribers are you getting a day/month…

Which social platforms are working out the best for you?

These are all the kinds of things you need to be paying attention to and adjust accordingly.

It helps you save time and stops you spinning your wheels on things that aren’t working or doing your blog any good.

You’ll learn the mistakes to avoid and the things you need to do more of as time goes on and you’ve been blogging for a while!

So that’s it, you’ve reached the end of the post…

You conquered problems, you pushed through the barrier of fear and made something amazing happen. 

Your blog will bring you a whole lot of joy in helping others and hopefully an income in the future too (along with issues and other things you’ll have to overcome).

You got this far undeterred, so don’t give up when things get tough on the road ahead!

Keep showing up and you will make a difference to someone out there.

Consistency is the key to your success…

This is just the start…

You’ve set the blog up and now with dedication, motivation, hard work and patience, it’s time to turn it into something special.