Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Mom Marketing Coach |
I didn’t grow up in the South, and neither did my Mom. But every time I hear Miranda Lambert’s drawl mimic her mama’s advice to “hide your crazy,” I always think of my own Mom.
My Mom was the queen of stoicism, a trait that I honestly admire and tried to mimic most of my life. My Mom always put people at ease with her calm voice and absence of outbursts. I grew up with zero stress because my Mom wasn’t one to complain or express dissatisfaction. This doesn’t mean that Mom didn’t have hardships or difficulties. She just didn’t feel that it was very lady-like to share them.
While my Mom had plenty of friends and lived a perfectly comfortable life, she wasn’t the first person people turned to for a good story. She wasn’t the life of the party, and she wasn’t one who you felt you could pour your heart out to unless you knew her well. Because of this, my Mom would have been a lousy blogger. She wouldn’t have shared enough. She wouldn’t have been authentic enough.
To have a successful mommy blog, you have to have readers. To keep readers, you have to offer value to your content by telling a good story or giving good advice. And you need to be authentic. Here’s how to show authenticity in your writing.
Tell It Like It Is
One of my favorite mommy bloggers is the queen of honesty. She writes about how exhausted she was after entertaining her three kids for almost an hour in the doctor’s examination room. She stops and takes a quick photo of her youngest, who is screaming on the floor at Target because she didn’t like how her socks felt on her feet.
Of course, you wouldn’t want to read about this chaos every day, and people might start to judge you if all your photos depict red-faced kids throwing fits. But reading about this blogger’s issues may make someone feel a little better about your three-year-old threatening to throw away your phone, makeup, and a coffee mug because you didn’t peel her banana right. Reading about how a blogger’s toddler woke up with a wad of gum stuck under her armpit might make you feel better when you just caught your little darling washing her hair in the toilet.
Try to Write Like You Talk
Some bloggers get so caught up by trying to depict a perfect life that their writing style suffers. They begin to sound like anal-retentive English teachers instead of regular moms who are just trying to get through their day.
If your tone is more formal and less conversational, try telling someone else what you want to write about in your blog before you sit down to write it. Sometimes writers start off loose and easy, but after a series of edits, their writing ends up being too stuffy and impersonal.
Quit editing so much. You’re not writing for the New York Times. No one expects your writing to be perfect, and no one cares if it is. If you live your life peppered with four-letter-words, use them in your writing.
If you are really ticked off with your husband because he threatens the kids with ridiculous punishments that he can never follow through on so the kids lose respect for you and start acting like a bunch of barbarians, don’t worry if you just wrote the longest-run-on sentence ever. Get it out, girl.
Get Off Your High Horse
I’m an eye-roller. I always have been. My Mom used to tell me that if I got hit on the back of my head during an eye roll, my eyes would stay that way. It’s a bad habit, so since I’m a grownup, I try to limit my eye rolls to times when no one is looking, or else I do an “inner” eye roll, which only I know about.
When I read Mom blogs of women who LOVE their kids SOOO much and have the PERFECT spouse who takes her on OMG – a SURPRISE weekend to wine country, I have to be careful not to hit the back of my head.
Where I grew up, people who talked like that were said to be on a “high horse,” which is kind of a funny expression when you think about it.
Not only are you making the rest of us feel bad about our unglamorous lives, but you are also losing readers too.
So, forget about hiding your crazy. Let it all out. Your readers will thank you for it.
This article was originally posted to Mom Marketing Coach
Blog Tips, Blogging |
Writing a blog post feels like solving a maze. You wouldn’t want to begin, knowing that you’re going to fail one way or another, probably over and over, until you reach the finish line.
But just like a maze, you have to start if you want to get it done! So today, let us help you plan your day as you write a blog post.
#1 Plan your day… realistically
For your own sake, don’t shoot for the stars, hoping that you will land on the moon. That’s not the best advice to take when you’re planning to write a blog.
You have to be more realistic because your responsibilities as a mother are in line if you don’t check what you need to do for the day. Carefully plan the non-negotiables of your day, like breastfeeding, preparing your toddler’s food, reading her a story before tucking her to bed, and so on.
Check this to-do list first, then set realistic goals for your mom blog. Don’t rush too much if you can’t finish a post the whole day. Based on experience, quality comes before quantity in your journey of mom blogging.
#2 Who are you trying to help?
Audience-targeting is usually done before you even buy a domain. This is on the upper part of the to-do list when you decide to start a mom blog.
Once you have a target audience, every post should be in service of them. But just in case you are targeting a different audience for this specific blog post or you haven’t really decided on your target audience, it will be best to do audience-targeting before you write a blog post.
#3 Check your previous posts
Our #4 step is about deciding on the topic to write. This is one of the most difficult parts in writing a blog post, so we advise that before you Google for something to write, check your previous posts first. You may have slightly discussed a topic before and you’d want to elaborate on that.
This is a good way to select a topic for two reasons:
- First, you probably have a little bit of knowledge on this topic.
- Second, this will help you create internal links between your blog posts. Internal linking is one of the powerful tools in SEO.
#4 Decide on a specific topic
If you didn’t find anything on your previous post, you can effectively choose a topic by thinking of your target audience.
How can you help them today in your post? What is something about your niche that you have struggled to figure out before and now you know completely and you think will be of great help to them? What is something trending in your niche that you want to express your opinion about?
Once you’ve decided on the topic, try to scale it down to something more specific, then create a working title out of it.
#5 Decide the type of post to write
Now that you have a topic, it’s time to make it easily readable for your audience. Here are the types of posts that you can choose from:
- How-to post – something like this blog post. It talks about the steps on how to achieve something. This is perfect if you’re teaching your readers the methodological process of how to get from where they are to where they want to be.
- News post – this is a more formal and more stiff kind of writing that often involves quoting facts and statements from others. This is more fitting if you’re writing about an update in your niche.
#6 How will you end it?
There’s beautiful advice from Malcolm Gladwell, the writer of the worldwide-acclaimed book, The Tipping Point. He said the best way to start writing is to know how you’ll end. He says, when you know the ending of what you’re writing, everything else will be so easy.
That’s actually an excellent point! One challenge in writing is that you can get lost in the middle. But if you have an ending to your blog post, you’ll have a guide to the finish line.
#7 Write for yourself
Start with a draft. Dump all the things you know – your research, your opinions, more research while you’re writing, everything! Write down every single thing in your head as if you’re the one who will read your post.
#8 Write for your audience
I really believe that the first phase of editing is refining your work to suit your audience. In step #7, you wrote as if you’re the one who will read it. This will allow you to freely express yourself.
But in the end, you know that you’re really writing for your audience, right? So rephrase your sentences, add some more words and sentences to explain your point, then deduct the unnecessary. This first phase of editing should be the part where you make your blog post easiest to understand for your audience.
#9 Edit and Proofread
In writing, the more you edit, the better your blog post becomes. Edit and proofread as much as you want.
Check your grammar. Refine your words and sentences more. Read the post over and over until you can say that this is something worth reading.
#10 Season your post with pictures
Lastly, help your post become more interesting by adding interesting photos that will illustrate the words you’re writing.
Photos will surely take away the boredom of reading. After all, you don’t have to take your own photos. There are lots of websites out there giving out free photos like Unsplash and Pixabay. And mind you, they’re not your average images, but photos taken by professional photographers! If you’ll be kinder enough, credit these photographers in your mom blog too.
In the ’90s when people started blogging, they were just writing their ideas almost without a filter. Those days, blogging used to be more personal – an outlet for those who wanted to share their feelings and experiences.
I don’t see any reason why mom bloggers should do blogging differently. Don’t be too conscious to the point that your consciousness will stop you from starting a blog post. After all, your readers may have 0% knowledge about the topic you’re sharing. Keep these readers in mind and forget about your fear of getting negative comments.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach
Blog Tips, Blogging Success, Mom Marketing Coach |
Congratulations on your decision to start a mom blog!
Just like all pursuits in life, you’ll not get it perfectly the first time and that’s okay! As the cliche goes, everything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first.
Of course, there are exceptions, but what I’m saying is that you don’t need to be disheartened as you bump into the gutters of the learning curve in this mom blogging journey.
And unlike ten years back, today, you can tap so many resources online every time you feel lost while you’re blogging. You have Wikipedia as the main source of legit information about anything. You have Google News to check for the latest updates on more serious matters. And you have, of course, Google itself to search for literally everything under the sun.
Just in case you get too overwhelmed, here are a few tips on how to look like a pro mom blogger even on your first week of blogging.
Start with the name
The success of your blog starts with the name you’re going to choose. It has to catch the attention of your target audience and showcase the identity of your blog. Keep in mind that the shorter your name is, the easier it is to recall. Come up with a name that contains all of these elements and you’ll surely have a winner in no time.
Find your passion
The passion you feel for a goal or a field of interest you want to pursue is the fuel you’ll need to keep going. It’s crucial to discover what you’re passionate about and focus on learning everything about the matter at hand. It can be something simple, like writing poetry, or something as complex as building cars.
No matter what you’re passion may be, you need to go out into the world and find it. Otherwise, you’ll be tossed in the wind by any trend or fad that comes along your way. Create social media accounts too and add awesome content on your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts.
Find out your strengths
Have you found your passion? If you have, it’s time to identify your strengths and capitalize on them. You need to find out what you’re good at so you can know how to focus your passion. At the same time, you also need to learn the areas where you’re weak. Knowing these things will help you improve and take your blog to the next level.
Keep learning
Now comes the exciting part – learning. Most people balk at the idea of learning new things but you shouldn’t. It’s a key element to your blog’s success. You need to read every significant article about your specific field of interest and watch every tutorial video that comes along with it.
You might also be interested in attending workshops or speaking to those who have been doing your passion for the longest time. Just keep yourself humble and hungry for the idea of learning and you’ll definitely go far with your blog.
Do interviews
Speaking of connecting with the right people, it’s also vital to interview them once in a while. You’re going to gain several benefits in achieving this goal.
First off, you get to learn from these people and the experience they have gained over the years. Second, you get the chance to practice your communication skills, both in speaking and writing.
Last, but definitely not the least, you get to have awesome content for your blog. Do these interviews on a regular basis, add some amazing photos, and your blog’s online presence and reputation will exceed your expectations. As you do that, keep in mind these 5 key elements in of a great blog post.
Be authentic
No one wants to read and follow a blog that doesn’t show any personality. People are attracted to authenticity and allergic to anything fake. Make it a point to connect to your target audience with utmost sincerity.
Try to learn the culture and find out what drives them in this life. Soon enough, your posts will connect to these people by adding value to their lives. The key point here is to always bring that personal touch to your blog.
Things like responding to comments, writing in an easy-to-understand style, and showing a bit of your daily routine will go a long way in connecting to the crowd.
This article was originally posted to Mom Marketing Coach
Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Mom Marketing Coach |
These days when opening your laptop is like going outdoors and meeting tons of people, you don’t really need to be away from home to reach out to the world. Communicating with your friends and family and with people whom you share the same interests with can be done within the confines of your home. That in itself is a lot of fun!
Gone are the days when women with children seem to be locked inside the toxic world of motherhood, without anything else to do but to take care of their children. Now, you can do so much more, learn so many things, and connect to the world even when you’re a stay-at-home mom. But a lot of moms like me have discovered that there’s a way to use that global access for something more productive. That’s by having your own mom blog!
You may be hearing this ‘mom blogging’ for the first time. In that case, you might want to read our earlier post about how to start a mom blog. And if you decide to push through with this journey, you’ll be one of the thousands to millions of moms out there who took this path and hopefully, you’ll love it too.
As for me, these are the reasons why I find mom blogging very helpful for all the mommies out there.
It’s fun.
When all you do for the rest of the day is to change nappies, cook meals for your kids, play with them until they get tired, and take a peek on social media when they’re too tired to play, you’ll surely find mom blogging sooo fun!
Imagine sharing your ideas to the whole world for free and exchanging thoughts with those who have the same experience as yours. You can share the ups and downs of being a mother. You can tell your fellow moms about the hacks on how to make a mom’s life easier. Above all, you can be yourself and share your passion to tons of people without having to leave the house. Isn’t that fun?
You can earn from it.
In case you don’t know it yet, a lot of mom bloggers out there are earning millions of dollars by sharing their true selves to the world through their blog sites. If other blogs can be monetized, you can moneytize your mom blog too! Not that we’re saying you should do mom blogging for this sole reason, but if you can earn while having fun, why not?
You can destress through it.
Moms understand that our journey involves a lot of inner battles. Our daily environment may be filled with children’s laughter and silliness, but there are private moments when you just want to give up. It’s during these stressful times that mom blogging can help you.
Instead of keeping everything inside, you can share your thoughts and feelings through your mom blog. It could be a personal journal of your struggles and victories as a mom. This will help you de-stress. Plus, you might get some insights and tips from moms like you on how to handle what you’re going through.
You will learn from it.
As you do mom blogging, you will realize that this journey requires learning new things. In fact, writing posts in your blog will lead you to the routine of researching. If you’re not the type of mom who reads a lot, don’t panic! Doing online research for your blog is not as boring as it sounds.
If you’re writing about what you love, like pop culture or the Marvel Universe for example, then reading about it will never bore you. It won’t feel like working at all. What’s great about blogging is that your knowledge base will only grow as you write more.
You will know yourself better.
Speaking of more, another good thing about mom blogging is that you will discover more about yourself. As you brainstorm content for your mom blog, you will find out more about your interests – what topics are dearest to you, what things you want to learn more about, and which ones you write the best about. You’ll discover new passions and pursuits. Your journey to self-discovery will grow deeper as your horizons expand in the world of blogging.
It will help you become a better mom.
When you know yourself so well and you continue to discover new things while mom blogging, you’ll also have more things to share with your children. When you have a passion that keeps you going every day, you’ll be happier and more content. You will have an outlet when you’re too stressed and you’ll have a sense of purpose. As you become a better person, your children will be the biggest beneficiary.
You should contribute to the mom community.
Since I’ve been mom blogging for years, I see it now as a responsibility to the mom community. We know that being a mother is not easy and if you have the chance to make it less burdensome for another mom, wouldn’t you do it? I would. What can stop us when we have free access to the internet and there are websites that offer blog domains for free?
You can help other moms out there by sharing what you know through mom blogging or by simply being an inspiration to all of us that a mother can have a meaningful life apart from rearing her children.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach
Blog Tips, Blog Traffic, Blogging, Blogging Success, Grow Your Audience, Marketing Tips, Mom Marketing Coach, Mompreneur |
Mom Blog’s Five Content Ideas
Social media marketing has been one of the most effective strategies in introducing a brand. It’s also a proven tool to sustain a good reputation.
The question is, have you been using social media to boost your business presence? And if you are, are you using it the right way?
These are the questions that we plan to address in this post. If you’re encountering problems like not knowing how to start in marketing your online shop or mom blog through social media or running out of content to share, you’ve come to the right place.
What we’d like to share with you first is that you can’t post just about anything in your online shop or mom blog’s social media accounts. But you cannot be too careful either that you tend not to post anything at all.
For us, the perfect balance lies in the diversity and sufficiency of content that you share in these accounts. Here are some content ideas that will help keep your social media presence consistent.
Blog Posts
Obviously, if you’re a mom blogger with your own blog site, you should publish these blog posts to your social media accounts. If you write once, twice, or even more frequently in a week, then you should have more content to post in your social media accounts.
Even online shops should have a blog page in their website where posts can be published. This is where your ideas, tips, explanations, and elaboration about your products and services can be written.
Quick notes on publishing blog posts to social media:
- Always upload an attractive featured image that goes with the link to your blog post
- Make a very short description as the caption for the link post
- Instagram doesn’t show a clickable link so you might want to shorten the URL of your post by using third-party apps or programs like Rebrandly
- Better to have a uniform caption across all social media accounts for consistency
Your Own Photos
Photos are eye candies. This has been proven by the popularity of Instagram as a photo-sharing site. People love sharing and looking at photos whatever those photos may be so make sure you show yours.
If you’re selling products from your online shop, share photos of them on some days when you don’t have any new blog post to share. If yours is a mom blog site, share a photo related to your niche and write a catchy caption for it.
Graphic Design
As we said earlier, the content of your social media accounts should be diverse. Aside from purely single photos or collage of photos, post graphics on some days too. This kind of content is more catchy than pure texts and it’s effective in delivering a message at one glance. It could be a graphic design of your promo for the month or an infographic explaining something on your niche.
If your mom blog is about parenting, you might want to share a creative infographic showing a day in a businesswoman-mom’s life. If you’re selling healthy baby products in your online shop, you might want to share graphics showing the advantages of those products. Extend your imagination and go as creative as you can. You have so much time to do that with 7 posts a week, one each day, or more!
Website Pages
Still not enough graphics, photos, and blog posts to share? Then post a link of your website pages to your social media accounts.
Publish a link post of your About page and write a very short summary of it as the caption. Share your Reviews page so your audience can see how trustworthy you are. You can also share links to your Service pages to tell everyone what you can do for them.
Use these website pages to introduce yourself, your products, and your services to your audience little by little.
External Sources
Now, we’re going offsite. You can make your social media posts highly diverse by sharing something interesting from another website every once in a while.
For example, if there’s a latest global news that everyone is talking about, share a link from a news site to your page and put a caption that people can relate to. The same strategy applies when there’s a local news in your country that’s worth sharing.
Some other external sources that you can publish in your social media accounts are links, videos, and photos about trending online topics. They will easily catch the attention of your audience so expect to reap thumbs ups and hearts when you post them!
Last Piece of Advice
Consistency is the name of the game in social media marketing. You cannot stop because you don’t have a content to post. Instead, you should keep looking for content so you’ll have something to share with your audience. This is how you start building and maintaining a strong presence in this marketing arena.
This article was originally posted Mom Marketing Coach
