The Harsh Reality of Blogging with Kids
“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill
Blogging is phenomenal, don’t get me wrong… but there are a few things that you don’t always tend to hear about – or choose not to lol!
Yes, we hear ALL about the wins, the successes, the thousands of $$$ bloggers are making, but what you don’t see is the “less pretty” side of blogging and what it actually takes to get to those wins, successes and thousands of $$$…
It’s not that bloggers aren’t being transparent about it, not at all. I know loads of bloggers that share the blogging mistakes they’ve made and how hard it’s been for them to get to where they are.
I think it’s more that you start a blog, are surrounded by “successful” bloggers and you think that you’re going to be like that in an instant – and that’s just not the case…
Well, I’m gonna be that person who shares all the things I wish someone had told me about blogging. Sorry lovely mama, but I am!
I want to make sure you’re going into blogging with your eyes wide open and that you know exactly what you’re letting yourself in for.
I see blogging as easy, yet hard at the same time if that makes sense.
It’s easy to get to grips with the actual “blogging” itself, but it’s hard because there’s so many moving parts and things that need to be done.
What’s hard is “doing all the stuff”, trying to fit it all in around our children and families.
But it can be done, it really can, so I hope by the end of this post, you’ll still want to start a blog because it absolutely can be life-changing.
I’m not trying to put you off at all, I promise…
So let me share with you now the the harsh reality of blogging with kids…
“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”
Things WILL come up
As mums, things ALWAYS come up!
Whether that’s an unexpected doctor’s appointment for your toddler or a naptime that’s NOT going to plan – as mummy bloggers we have to accept that our blogging life isn’t going to be as easy or uncomplicated as others.
I used to get so frustrated if I sat down to work on something on my blog and then my baby would wake just as I pressed the first key on the keyboard…
It’s super annoying – yes, but it’s also part of mummy life. The sooner you get into the mindset of this is going to happen rather than if it happens, you’ll already be in a better place mentally to deal with it.
You will feel Frustrated & Overwhelmed
This is also going to happen A LOT!
Frustration and overwhelm will become a part of your life when it comes to your blog – at least it will be at the beginning of your blogging journey.
There’s so much to do and so many things to think about – and that’s just on the blogging side of things. You then have to factor in all the things going on within your family life too – all those frustrations and overwhelming feelings and emotions of being a mum…
It can feel like too much and this tends to happen more when you’re learning and trying to find your feet with blogging.
Because everyone is so different and we all deal with stress and frustration differently, there isn’t a “one answer fits all” solution for this.
All I can say is, take things slow – snail’s pace if you have to. It’s totally fine to do that.
Part of the reason blogging is so great for mums is because you can truly do it at your own pace and I rant on about this all the time!
Blogging should be fun and it will only be fun for you if you take things at the pace that’s right and comfortable for you.
I do have some tips that may help though when it comes to managing your time as a mummy blogger!
You HAVE to find the Time
I know you’re gonna hate me for saying this because time is limited when you’re a mum, but if you want to make a real go of blogging and build it to success, the only way you’re going to be able to do that is to find and make time!
It can be anytime that suits you!
Maybe it’s early in the morning before your house wakes up (unless you’ve a new-born and the days and nights all merge into one)… or maybe it’s later on at night when everyone’s in bed…
Maybe it’s grabbing an hour when the baby’s napping! Whatever time you can work on your blog is all time that pushes you forward.
I know you’re tired and probably have the energy of a sloth, but when you want to genuinely build something and you’ve set your heart and mind on it – the only way it’s going to get built is by dedicating time to it.
Excuses can be made of why you’re sitting watching TV instead of working on your blog, but those excuses are only going to hurt YOU!
As your family life changes and your kids get older, you’ll have more time to spare, but when time is restricted, it’s all about grabbing every hour you can!
Just have the end goal clear in your mind. That goal is the success and joy of a blog that helps people and makes you money…
You won’t know EXACTLY who your Target Audience are to start with
Ok, technically this isn’t completely true as you’ll have some idea of who you want to write for, however, your target audience is what comes over time.
The more you write, the more you’ll find out who resonates with your content – the types of people who enjoy, buy and want more from you!
This could change over time and who you may be writing for to start with maybe completely different further down the line.
Don’t let this stop you from blogging. Just because you may be a bit fuzzy around who your target audience is, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t carry on and see where your content leads you.
For example you may start out blogging about arts and crafts in general, but then over time, maybe that turns into writing more specifically about arts and crafts for kids.
Another example: your blog may start out writing about the generalised topic of healthy food, but then you may end up branching out into healthy foods for vegans or getting children to eat more healthily.
The only way you’re going to really know and find out who your REAL target audience is, is to start writing and see where it takes you…
No one has all the answers and no two blogs are the same. You just have to take a leap and see what happens and you’ll figure it out along the way.
Blogging may take you longer as a Mum
Because of the lack of time you have as a mum and all the distractions that come along with it, you’ll probably find it takes you longer to grow your blog.
But that’s ok. Just because it may take you longer, doesn’t mean you’re not going to get there.
We have different priorities as mums – our children being that #1 priority! They always come first which means your blog always comes second.
As long as you’re working on your blog whenever you’re able to, then you’ll see progress.
I always have this saying in my mind… Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint…
You MUST be Consistent
Following on from the above point, not only do you need to be working on your blog when you can, but you need to be working on it consistently.
Consistency is KEY and yes, I know you’ll have heard this a gazillion times, but it’s true!
No matter how you set your schedule, whether you want to post once a week, once every two weeks etc… stick to what you say you’re going to do.
This is the same for emailing your list. If you’re going to email once a week, make sure you do and get people used to you showing up in their inbox and being top of their minds!
Consistently working on your blog and publishing posts is what will see your blog traffic grow and your blog reaching success.
My advice would be to try and work on your blog every day. That doesn’t mean you have to spend tons of time on it (we physically don’t have that time) but try to do small tasks and small steps every day to help you build those stepping stones.
Maybe it’s half an hour creating some pin images for Pinterest. Maybe it’s an hour where you start to write a blog post… All the tasks for blogging can be broken down into bitesize “work” chunks, making it easier and simpler for you to do it around your children.
Networking is Vital
Not only is networking with other mummy bloggers vital for your blog, but it’s also vital for your sanity too!
There’s nothing like having other like-minded mammas by your side, cheering you on and vice versa.
Joining Facebook Groups and following bloggers in your industry can all help build relationships. They’re also great places to ask questions and even answer questions too.
Answering questions and helping people out as much as you can, will help with your credibility and authority, making you stand out!
Networking is how you get to know other bloggers and how opportunities will arise. Opportunities such as collaborations and guest posting!
Blogging communities are a definite MUST in my book and when you start blogging (or even if you’ve been blogging for a while) you should go and check out some awesome groups and communities!
Surround yourself with people who you resonate with, share the same ethos with and genuinely like to be around and click with.
It’s Lonely!
Blogging can be really lonely, unfortunately, which is also why networking with other mummies is so important!
You need to be around other like-minded people and often, those like-minded people are found online, rather than in your circle of friends…
You’re sitting there having to figure everything out on your own and it can feel really daunting, plus, no one really gets what you’re doing (or may not even know), which can also feel really lonely as you can’t really talk to anyone about it!
Once you become part of communities, you’ll 100% feel less lonely. All of a sudden you have people to ask advice from, people to hold you accountable and people who can become friends for life!
You’ll be exhausted a LOT
Haha, we’re exhausted a lot anyway as mums, so what’s a bit more exhaustion added into the mix!
No, that’s not the way to think of it, but because you’re trying to fit blogging in around any spare hour you may have, day or night, this can ramp up the tiredness on another scale.
Being a mum is exhausting and learning anything new (which you’re always learning when blogging) is exhausting too – so you now have a double whammy of exhaustion right there…
I’m very much a person who says work at your own pace, find the right balance for you and make sure you’re getting enough rest… I try to follow my own mantra for that too!
Exhausted mammas are grouchy mammas and no one wants a grumpy mummy all the time.
But sometimes, that can’t always happen if you want to make something happen!
Sometimes the late nights and early mornings have to be done in order to get anything accomplished on your blog. It’s just the way it is.
I don’t like it and neither should you, but it’s a sheer fact of blogging.
A blog will never grow by just sitting there abandoned…
It won’t be forever and the more you blog, the more you’ll find your feet, see what works, what doesn’t work and get into the groove of how your own blog works.
It can take time to make money
You can start making money with your blog fairly quickly and easily, however, this isn’t the norm for every single blogger out there!
It can take time to start seeing an income.
A lot of the time I see people saying you can make money having ads on your blog straight away, but do you know, most ad networks won’t actually accept you until you have extremely high page views…
High page views come from lots of traffic to your blog and that can take time. It can take up to 3 months for a blog post to rank in Google after it’s posted.
It is true you can start making money within your first few months, but the money isn’t just gonna roll in on a skateboard. You have to put in a lot of hard work and dedication to see results of any kind with your blog – one of those being making money.
Don’t ever just blog to earn money. People will see right through this.
Blog to help as many people as you can. Solve their issues and problems. Give them tons of advice so you’re their “go-to” person.
Building those relationships and that trust with your audience is what will bring the money in…
You have to really LOVE blogging to keep pushing forward
There’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind that you have to really love your blog to not quit!
The number of hoops you’ll have to jump through can be insane. The number of mistakes, hurdles and challenges you’ll face would make it so easy to just walk away…
But that’s what 99% of people do… Don’t be in that 99%…
Be in the 1% of people who stick with it and keep on pushing forward, even when the going gets tough!
They’re the people who have succeeded because they keep going no matter what.
Every time you feel like you’re going to quit – put your end goal to the forefront of your mind. That’s why you’re going on this crazy journey and doing all that you’re doing.
You MUST have a Thick Skin
Be prepared for people to leave horrible comments, dislike you, or disregard what you have to say…
People will want to criticise your blog and what you’re doing, but you don’t have to listen to them.
It’s not a case of if it will happen, it’s when…
In this day and age, where everything is online, you can’t get away from trolling and negative comments from people.
Learn to just darn right ignore them.
They’re not worth it and you shouldn’t let them judge you or make you feel a certain way about something that’s yours.
Always remember – you can’t and won’t be liked by everybody, but that’s ok. You will find your tribe of people who you will connect with and who will love you and the content you put out there.
You have to be Self-Motivated and Disciplined
It’s hard to work sometimes when there’s no boss sitting across from you with that evil eye 😂
You are the boss and you have to push yourself to get stuff done!
If you’re not a naturally self-motivated person, you have to change that, as it’s the only way you’re going to do anything on your blog.
Being disciplined to sit at your computer and work, when there’s Netflix in the other room and your phone next to you can be really hard, but again, in order to see any blog growth, you have to set strict routines for yourself.
When it’s work time, it’s time to work, so you do nothing else but work on something blog related.
This is especially important as busy mums because time is so precious. You don’t want to be wasting any of it – no matter how little the time block may be.
Getting organised and setting yourself specific times for specific things will really help you stay on track and reach your goals!
Your blog WILL become another of your babies
It’s inevitable that your blog will become your second, third, fourth… baby! It becomes a part of you.
You’ll think about it all the time and ideas to do with your blog will pop into your head at the most inconvenient moments…
You’ll watch it grow and you’ll nurture it into something beautiful and before you know it, that teeny tiny blog you started way back when, has flourished into this amazing, thriving business!
Treat it with kindness, respect and loyalty and it will treat you right in return, with loyal readers, a booming email list and an income.
You need to find what works for YOU
It’s all good and well looking at other bloggers and wondering how they seem to have it “all together” and how their blogs are so amazing, but what you should be concentrating on, is what’s going to work for you and you only.
Every blog is different, every blogger is different so yes, of course, look at other blogs/bloggers for inspiration and encouragement, but what works for them may not work for you.
It’s all about finding your own blogging path and what’s comfortable and fits in with you and your lifestyle.
That’s all that matters – YOU and what YOU’RE doing…
You will ALWAYS be Trialling, Testing & Updating things
OMG, do not get into blogging if you want to put something up once and be done with it.
This is soooooo not the case!
When it comes to freebies and posts especially, there’s going to be a lot of tweaking, chopping and changing things…
A post written and published is not a post written and published FOR GOOD!
It will always need updating, freshening up and new things added to it.
It’s the same with freebies. You can create a really fab freebie and it may flop, therefore you have to create more and more until you find one that works perfectly with your audience.
Blogging is ALL about trial and error and seeing what works and what doesn’t.
Although all bloggers go through similar fates with their blogs, your journey will be completely unique.
Blogging has no “set in stone” roadmap so to speak. The principles of blogging are pretty much the same for everyone, but the little details and individual elements that are experienced can’t be matched from one blogger to the next…
Just be prepared to always be experimenting and mixing things up because no two days are the same in blogging…
Comparing yourself to other bloggers won’t do you any good
You’re looking at that beautiful blog where the blog design is awesome and yours looks… somewhat bland!
They’re writing and talking about how they made $10,000 this month and all you can think is “why can’t that be me”… You want to be where that blogger is right now.
The truth is, that can be you, but do you want to know another truth? That blogger hasn’t just started out. That blogger has been blogging for years. They’ve put in tons of time and effort and that’s now being paid off with the $10k months we all hear about…
She’s gone through all the ups and downs you’re going through and she’s persevered through all of it to get to where she is today, so let me tell you this lovely… You will be where she is in the future, but right now, you’re at a different stage in your journey.
Comparing yourself to others never does you any good – not when it comes to your blog or when it comes to life…
We all do it, we all compare ourselves to others, which makes us feel crappy and unworthy, but we have to stop it because it’s unbelievably damaging to our mindset and mentality.
When you look at another blogger who is further along the line than you, think happy thoughts. Wish her well and congratulate her in your head. Putting these kinds of positive thoughts out rather than the negative ones, such as jealousy or envy, will make such a difference to how you feel and how you are.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a bit of inspiration from other blogs, but leave the doubt of “you can’t do it” and the green-eyed monster at the door…
Blogging ISN’T Free despite what you’ve heard
Despite what you may have heard, blogging isn’t exactly free…
Yes, you can do things for free and there’s plenty of tools and resources out there to do it for free, but we’re starting and growing a proper blog here mammas, a blog that’s going to grow into your business!
Therefore some investment is needed if you want to set up something reliable and robust.
Another thing you may have heard is that starting an online business is way cheaper than a brick and mortar business and that’s absolutely true.
You wouldn’t start an offline business with no capital, nor could you… You need money to fund things and get the business going, and starting a blog online is no different – it’s just ten times cheaper that’s all…
There are a couple of costs required if you’re serious about blogging.
They are:
Hosting – I use SiteGround
Blog Theme – I use Divi
Hosting costs are really cheap for the first year and you can go on the lowest plan at first. You can also find a premium blog theme such as Divi which only costs about $89 for the year…
As long as you have these two, you’re good to go!
You have to invest in YOURSELF & continue Learning
As well as investing a little bit of money into your blog to start with, you’ll also want to invest in yourself by taking courses and buying digital products.
I’m not saying go out and buy everything – you definitely don’t want to do that. Find someone you like and that you can learn from and then maybe invest in a course they have.
Also, only buy a course or product in something you actually want or need to learn about.
If you want to learn about SEO, find someone who offers a great course on SEO. If you want to learn about writing great content, find someone with a course who can help you with that.
I have taken and can recommend some great courses…
As bloggers, we’re always learning and things are forever changing. Taking a course on something will help keep you in the game and on top of new and emerging things…
You’re then able to pass this on to your own audience and help them even more!
You WILL Cry Lots
This isn’t a very nice one, but one I’m mentioning all the same.
I’m an emotional person anyway and do tend to cry sometimes, but boy oh boy, I‘ve cried a lot over my blog.
Things do not like to go our way sometimes with this blogging thang and that leads to frustrations and upset.
I nearly lost my whole blog once because of something techie and I couldn’t stop crying. It was all ok in the end, but it scared the bejesus out of me…
If you cry, it’s ok. You have to let your emotions out because there’s no point keeping them all bottled up.
But remember this – nothing is unfixable!
If you accidentally do something to your blog, it can be fixed. If you mess up and send an email out with the wrong link (or no link) – it’s ok, you can just send another “whoopsie” apology email out and your list will understand.
If something happens and it upsets you, sort it out and then take a deep breath and move on.
Mistakes are going to be made in blogging and that’s ok. You’ll learn from them and it will help you grow into an even better blogger than before.
Coffee may become your best friend
Ok, I just wanted to slip this one in here and it may just be me, but I drink far too much coffee when I’m blogging.
It just feels sooooo good and I kinda feel more productive and like I’m raring to go…
For me, coffee and blogging go hand in hand. They just go so well together and are a little match made in blog heaven…
The two cups of coffee I like to limit myself to during the day ends up being way more…
Coffee and blogging are totally a thing so I just want to warn you that you may start reaching for more cups than you anticipated!
You will become OBSESSED & ADDICTED to your blog
I can guarantee that you’ll become super obsessed and addicted to your blog.
You will not be able to get enough of it and that’s amazing, or at least it is until you have to pull yourself away to do something else lol.
I think it’s because blogging’s so fun and doesn’t feel like you’re working most of the time, even though you absolutely are.
Just knowing you’re building something for YOU and creating amazing content to help people is almost euphoric.
As I said before in this post, it becomes another baby you nurture and look after and you end up having this huge affection for it, which doesn’t go away.
Blogging really does bring a passion out in you that I can’t explain – but you probably know exactly what that feels like having your own blog.
You’ll probably feel embarrassed and not tell anyone
I still feel a bit queasy when it comes to people understanding “what I do” and how it all works.
People just kind of look at you because they don’t get it or they think it isn’t a “real job”.
Like, what’s classed as a “real job”. One where you have to go out to another place to do it…
It can feel embarrassing to tell people, especially friends and family.
It’s a cruel fact that if people don’t get what you do then they can be quick to dismiss it, but once your blog grows and you build more confidence, hopefully, that will change.
It can take a lot to be brave enough to have the courage to tell people what you do, but it will happen lovely when it’s right for you to do so.
Let’s wrap it all up!
So there you have it – the harsh reality of blogging with kids. Some of the things you’ve probably heard about and maybe some of them you haven’t and they got you thinking!
Whatever you think about them, blogging is truly amazing and no matter what anyone tells you, you won’t regret starting your own blog.
Don’t let any of your blogging fears or doubts stop you!
Blogging becomes easier once you know the basics, it just takes a lot of hard work, effort and time to get it to any kind of success.
Resilience and Consistency are the key things to keep going, even when you don’t want to.
