Blog Tips, Mom Marketing Coach |
How To Skyrocket Your Traffic
Is the traffic to your website dwindling? Are you struggling to rank in even the least competitive keywords? Here are three reminders of ways to inch your way back up in the rankings, one click at a time.
Here are tips to Grow your traffic
If you have ever suffered from a weight problem, you know how important it is to weigh yourself every day. If you let a month pass before you step on the scales, you get a harsh reminder of all the times you skipped your morning workout or ate that extra plate at your favorite Indian buffet.
Instead of getting down in the dumps about your ranking, let your lousy traffic remind you that it is time to get back to the basics. We aren’t going to share any brand-new strategies, but these are tried and true techniques that will enable you to inch back up the rankings. Just as you will eventually inch back into your favorite jeans.
1. Be the best content for moms 2020 and beyond.
Be the ultimate guide in your niche. You want your website to be the ONE that a friend recommends to another friend for a specific child-related issue.
Do you specialize in picky eaters? Then you need to have the best recipes that teach other moms how to hide kale in macaroni and cheese or carrots in chicken nuggets. You need to have valid research from certified nutrition experts to back up your techniques. Your website needs to have depth and substance. It can’t be full of 200-word blogs about how your little Jonah finally tried watermelon.
Perhaps you have found your niche in sensory-friendly clothing for children. You need to be the one-stop-shop for all those frustrated mothers who are trying to find socks with no seams or shirts without tags. You need to find research-based methods to help your child expand their clothing options, and you need to teach those tired moms strategies for getting to school on time.
If you are serious about increasing the ranking of your website, you need to be serious about your website. The information should be helpful, realistic, and content for moms 2020 and beyond.
2. Evaluate your images.
Words are great, but when you are trying to get the attention of busy moms, you only have seconds before they become distracted and leave your website. Sure, you need to have research-based, in-depth articles, but you also need to accompany them with eye-catching graphics full of the valuable information you are trying to share.
You can’t be good at everything. Instead of spending frustrating hours trying to develop a sharable graphic for your website, consider hiring a freelancer to do it for you. Find a graphic designer on Fiverr or Upwork to create a visual that shows an appropriate amount of sleep for each aged group or a step by step guide on how to add bling to a child’s dance costume.
People share images. They put them on their Pinterest boards to refer to later, and they share them on Facebook to help out their friends.
Believe us, if you get a few attractive graphics that are full of top-quality information, your rankings will inch higher and higher each week.
3. Use SEO checkers.
If you are like most mommy bloggers, your priority is to provide a safe place for people to discuss parenting topics. You probably have a niche that you are passionate about, and you want to give other parents resources that have helped you in your parenting journey.
You probably didn’t start your website because you LOVE to learn about search engine optimization strategies.
Unfortunately, to help others find your website, SEO is part of the game. You probably have read guides found on our site, but you also should be aware that there are applications available to help you as well.
Take a look at Content Analysis by SEO Review Tools and Content SEO Checker. Both look like typical word processing programs, but after you write your content, helpful SEO strategies and reminders appear at the bottom of the page. You will receive a reminder to write a meta description and to include your keywords in one of your headings. Seriously, these tools could change your life.
More than anything, remember not to get discouraged. As cliche as it sounds, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it will take time for your website to become an authority in your subject matter.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach.
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Blog Tips, Blogging, Mom Marketing Coach |
Funny Content That Entertains Your Audience
Your followers are tired, stressed, and bored. They have organized their closets, completed all the cheap home improvement projects that they can, and they have thrown their carefully-planned children’s schedules out the window. Their favorite festivals have been canceled as well as their children’s summer camps. They don’t want any more “how to articles” or “let’s stay calm” articles. Instead, your readers are bored, and they are ready to laugh.
While recommending a particular product or service, consider sharing funny motherhood content to liven up your affiliate marketing Facebook page. Not only will funny content get you more shares, but it may encourage your readers to take a closer look at the products you are recommending — especially if you can present them in funny ways.
But humor is hard. It’s much easier to inform, persuade, and encourage. How do you improve the humor of your marketing page if that has never been your thing? Here are some tips.
1. Read funny writers.
There are lots of funny women to turn to for inspiration. Consider reading Tina Fey, Nora Ephron, and Mindy Kaling. These women have written about pregnancy, motherhood, and being a woman. They will give you ideas for topics and how to present funny material.
Here are some quotes to inspire you:
“Having a child is like getting a tattoo … on your face. You better be committed.” Elizabeth Gilbert
“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.” Nora Ephron
“Having children is like living in a frat house — nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.” Ray Romano
2. Post old content that seems new.
The only problem with much of this material is that it has been posted to death. Your readers will have read most of these quotes and books from modern writers.
But we would also like to recommend a writer who your mom or grandma probably read faithfully — Erma Bombeck. Bombeck wrote a newspaper column from the 1960s to the 1990s about motherhood, middle-class life, and suburbia. She also wrote bestselling books including, “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?” or “The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.” Although some of her content may feel dated, many of her observations about children and spouses are timeless. Here are some quotes from her to consider sharing with your readers.
“One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.” Erma Bombeck
“I came from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” Erma Bombeck
“I will buy any creme, cosmetics, or elixir from a woman with a European accent.” Erma Bombeck
“My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.” Erma Bombeck
“When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.” Erma Bombeck
You may also consider looking at the work by Teresa Bloomingdale and Phyllis Diller.
“If you have older children who avoid you like the plague, buy yourself some expensive bath salts, run a hot tub, and settle in for a long soak. Teenagers who haven’t talked to you since their tenth birthday will bang on the door, demanding your immediate attention.” Teresa Bloomingdale
“I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.” Phyllis Diller.
3. Look for the humor in your own life.
It will be easier for you to find humor in your own life after you have read current and past humorists. Besides telling stories of your four-year-old waking up with gum under her armpit, try to find the humor in even the most annoying situation.
It’s not going to be easy to add humor to your content. As we said before, comedy is hard. Luckily, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
If you are reviewing diaper genies for your blog, find diaper-related jokes or quotes in your post.
“Changing a diaper is a lot like getting a present from your grandmother – you’re not sure what you’ve got, but you’re pretty sure you’re not going to like it.” Jeff Foxworthy
Or if you are writing about driving schools in your area, post the following quote:
“It is amazing how quickly kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, the dishwasher, or vacuum cleaner.” Unknown
Start small. You aren’t going to turn into Tina Fey overnight, but you may gain more clicks and shares for your effort.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach.
Blog Tips, Blogging, Blogging Success, Mom Marketing Coach |
Become Local Influencer Mom Blogger
Marketing experts have conducted interesting research to determine how millennials pick products or services to purchase. It shouldn’t be a surprise that old-school forms of advertising do not speak to people in their thirties. Instead, they are more likely to be swayed by the advice of a knowledgable person in their circle of social media friends.
Marketing experts are using this knowledge. Instead of making appointments with TV stations to buy local advertising spots, they are reaching out to local influencers to try to develop a relationship. Of course, this relationship will ultimately benefit the company as well as the influencer.
How do you become a local influencer with your mommy blog? It is important to know that becoming a local influencer is not going to happen overnight. It may take years of work until you are in a position of power.
Here are some tips on how to become a local influencer.
Find your niche.
We have said it before, and we will repeat it. One sure-fire way to increase the number of followers is to find your mommy niche. The choice may be yours, or it may be thrust upon you.
Examples of niches may include
Children’s fashion
Topics about ADHD
Childhood nutrition
Vegan children
Kids with peanut allergies
Special needs children
Homeschooled children
Children with dyslexia
Children with sleep issues
Musical kids
Kids who love crafting
Children and horses
Teaching kids to garden
Teaching your kids about the tenants of Catholicism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc.
Country kid issues
Raising your child in an urban area
Kids who love soccer/dance/gymnastics/volleyball/football/wrestling/lacrosse/swimming
The possibilities of niches are endless.
- Grow your blog.
Work hard to give your blog some substance. Add photos. Write snappy copy. Give your readers valuable information.
This takes time and patience, especially if you have multiple kids or a full-time job. As you grow your site, you can scroll through your work with satisfaction. You will celebrate each time you meet a milestone of followers.
- Schedule a consultation with an SEO expert.
Once you have worked on developing your voice, consult with an SEO strategist. Tell the strategist that you hope to become a local influencer.
There’s no need to find someone in your local area. Instead, look for someone who can assist you with your content strategy. He or she should be able to give you a list of keywords and phrases to use in your blog to make sure it can be easily found by people searching specific kid-related topics.
- Improve your content.
Take the advice you received from the SEO expert to improve your content continually. He or she may recommend that you add more tutorial videos to add to your blog. Perhaps the expert will encourage you to develop Pinterest-worthy posts. Maybe the photography on your blog is mediocre and needs to be improved. Regardless, learn a little bit each day to create the best mom blog that you can. - Check out influencers from other areas.
Do you want to write the ultimate blog for parents with dyslexic kids in Baltimore? Check out the work that is being done in other areas of the country. See how other bloggers present tedious information regarding state education mandates and tutors for dyslexic kids in your area. - See what websites pull up about your subject in your local area.
Learn from the websites that appear on the first page of a Google search in your area. What type of content appears on these sites? How is the information presented? - Finally, reach out to businesses in your community.
Once you have developed a following and your rank has continued to grow, reach out to businesses in your community that serve the same population as you do. Discover ways you can work together to give your readers and their customers quality information that would be mutually beneficial to both of you.
Perhaps you will agree to share a link on your page for private horseback riding lessons in exchange for discounts for your child. Maybe a local kids boutique will give you items at a discount for a mention on your blog. Perhaps the local plant store will donate seedlings for your children’s garden in exchange for a shout-out in your blog.
Final Thoughts
Your newfound deals and status as a local influencer may cause you to relax a bit and not post as much new content as you did previously. Unfortunately, followers are fickle. Take care to make sure you are consistently providing brand-new content for your readers, so you can keep the relationships with the companies that you developed.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach.
Blog Tips, Grow Your Audience, Mom Marketing Coach |
Using Pinterest to Promote Your Mommy Blog
Last week, we began our discussion on how to use Pinterest to promote your mommy blog.
We advised you to create a free Pinterest business account. From there, we told you to develop a niche for your Pinterest Page so that followers could find your board based on their needs. We then gave you instructions on how to create a Rich Pin, which gets more attention than a regular pin. Finally, we discussed how to write a Pinterest bio that was rich in keywords.
Sorry to leave you hanging, but we have more ideas on how to use Pinterest to promote your blog.
Here are the next steps of the process
Determine the best blogs to pin.
Look at the content you have created. Which articles do you feel would be best for the Pinterest audience? Do a little keyword research by playing around on the website. For example, if you type “potty training” in the search bar, the first thing that comes up is “potty training boys.” The next is “potty training girls 2 year old tips.” The fourth search option is “potty training puppy.”
Do you have any content that would help anyone with those scenarios?
If you have decided to only post articles on your board offering nutrition advice for kids, you may search Pinterest for “hiding vegetables in kids food.” Others have searched for “hidden vegetables” or “picky eaters.”
Do you have any articles that would help anyone feed picky kids?
Although every type of content can be found on Pinterest, you may have the most luck with “how-to” pieces that other moms may pin to reference over time.
Choose an image to accompany the pin.
Choosing the best image to accompany the pin is one of the most critical steps in this process. Some bloggers develop a specific style that they use for each of their images. Having a style helps brand and identify their blogs. Others experiment on what images receives the most clicks.
Regardless of what image you choose, you must include text with your image. Otherwise, your beautiful photo that took 45 minutes to get right will be meaningless to the person browsing Pinterest.
If you have a rich pin, at least there will be some surrounding text to explain the image, but don’t rely on it. We told you last time that it sometimes takes Pinterest a few days to process your request for a rich pin.
Write a description of your pin.
Once a person clicks on your pin, he or she will see a description of what type of content they would receive once entering your website. Write a clear, concise sentence or two about what your reader will learn. Use different keywords to describe your content.
Pinterest allows you 500 characters when writing a pin description, but don’t feel as if you need to use every single character. Use hashtags to describe your pin as well.
Make sure your pins are searchable.
It would be a pity if you went through all this trouble only to find that your pins weren’t searchable. Go to your account settings and make sure the search privacy setting allows users to find your content.
Engage.
If you are an experienced mommy blogger, you know what “engage” means. If you are new to this gig, “engage” means to follow the people who follow you. Like and comment on your followers’ pins. Repin items that would appeal to your audience. Respond to comments on your own pins.
In short, become a part of the Pinterest community just as you did with the blogger community. Bloggers do not work in isolation. They work together to promote each other.
Make sure you have a “pin it” button on your blog.
There are a variety of online tutorials teaching you how to create a “pin it” button on your blog, but probably the easiest way to do it is to WordPress plug-in.
Having a pin it button will enable your subscribers to help you gain a larger following.
Rinse, Lather, Repeat.
Why stop with one Pinterest board for your blog? Have one board highlight children’s nutrition. Create another board to focus on the cheerleading mom community. One board can focus on potty training, and another can focus on strategies to help your child with homework.
Soon you will have created a one-stop-shop empire that will answer all the questions that have plagued parents since the beginning of time. Or at least you will be able to teach moms how to hide spinach in their child’s chocolate cake.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach.
Blog Tips, Mom Marketing Coach |
Automation Tools for Your Mommy Blog
Try to remember why you decided to get into mommy blogging. You may have to think back several years and retrieve what was running through your mind at the time you made your decision to enter this field.
It could be that you chose to be a mommy blogger because you wanted to share your daily life experiences as a mom with others. Perhaps you decided to be a mommy blogger because you needed a creative outlet while staying home with your kids. Maybe you became a mommy blogger because you wanted to earn a little income to help with the family finances.
Probably none of you decided to be a mommy blogger so you could spend more time in front of a computer screen. But how many hours a week do you sit at the kitchen table with your laptop in front of you? Some of you may feel as if you are working full time on your blog without the benefit of a full-time salary.
If you decided to become a blogger to spend more time with your kids, you have to stop and ask yourself if this is really happening.
If you find that your blog is taking all your free time, it’s time to work smarter. It’s time to utilize automation tools for your mommy blog.
Here are some ways that automation tools will make your life easier.
With automation tools, you can post at optimum times.
Weird people who loved taking statistics classes in college have figured out the best times to post on each of the social media platforms. In general, the optimum time to post is between 9 and 12 EST, Monday through Wednesday.
This means that if you are a mommy blogger, the best time to post is during storytime at your local library. The best time to post is when your toddler is most active. The best time to post is when you need to cut up apples for snacks, and when you want to cuddle up with your three-year-old and her favorite book.
Instead of pulling yourself away from these important activities, why not check out Hootsuite or Buffer. Create and manage your posts when the kids are asleep, and Hootsuite or Buffer will take care of the actual posting. Their service is sophisticated enough that you can vary your posting schedule depending upon the social media platform.
Look at Tailwind if you tend to utilize Pinterest more than any other platform. Tailwind allows you to schedule your Pinterest posts and also monitor the results.
With automation tools, you can reuse old posts easily.
Perhaps you have found that retweeting old posts with different images gets you valuable traffic. Consider using a WordPress plugin or Social Jukebox that will allow you to repost old content, perhaps in the middle of the night. Those following mommy blogs may follow different schedules than those following other blogs. If your blog focuses on babies and infancy, a well-timed post at 2 a.m. may attract those who are up with their babies.
Automation tools can manage your subscription lists.
Use technology to make your life easier, not more complicated. If you ask your readers or viewers to fill out a subscription form, automate your welcome emails. Check out how Captain Formworks with either MailChimp or Get Response. These work together to collect information and disperse emails to new followers.
Hire a virtual assistant.
Maybe you became a mommy blogger because you wanted to write, share, and make a few extra bucks. Perhaps all this tech junk that comes with blogging never has appealed to you. If this describes you, hire a virtual assistant to help you navigate subscription lists and posting schedules.
Look for people who are savvy in WordPress. Find someone who is an expert in social media and email management. Look for designers who will help you find your look. You can hire writers to write guest blogs for your website. You may even try to find someone who is an expert in affiliate marketing.
Hiring a virtual assistant will help you free up your time to focus on the part of mommy blogging that you love.
Automation tools can’t replace relationships with your subscribers and other bloggers.
While all of these automation tools work great to schedule your posts, it would be a mistake for you to put your business on autopilot. Make sure you are interacting with people who are commenting on your posts. Your authentic, individualized responses will get more attention than automated messages ever will.
This article was originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach!
Blog Tips, Grow Your Audience, Mom Marketing Coach |
Oh, how quickly things change.
One minute you are picking gum out of your daughter’s armpit, and the next minute you are helping her pick out a homecoming dress.
If you are earning an income as a mommy blogger, this change may cause you concern. It should cause you concern.
Here is why:
1. Your child’s “issues” aren’t quite so cute anymore.
Kids say the darndest things, and people like reading stories about what they say. The internet goes crazy over pictures of round-faced toddlers with crazy hair, and cute videos of toddlers often go viral.
As your child ages, their idiosyncrasies may not be as funny. Their tantrums become embarrassing, and their strange way of saying things becomes less cute and more cause for concern.
If you are earning your bread and butter from sharing these cute stories of your daily life with the rest of the world, it’s time to develop a back-up plan. Or you can have another baby.
2. Your child is going to begin to resent your blogging.
Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers may know that mommy takes a lot of photos and spends a lot of time in front of a laptop, but they are clueless as to the reasons why. Your grade-school aged kid will be much more aware of your hobby.
They will not find it amusing when a friend at church mentions an embarrassing moment that was chronicled in your blog. They will not be impressed when you receive hundreds of likes and shares on the article you wrote about bed wetting. And when your child’s friend finds a funny photo of your kid and shares it with their classmates, your child will become downright angry.
3. Blogging about your older children may be unsafe.
When your children are young, they never leave your sight. You don’t go anywhere without your kids, and your kids don’t go anywhere without an adult.
As your child ages, he or she will have more independence and freedom. This is a natural part of the aging process.
Even though most people are good, there are some creepy people who will see photos of your child online and have ill intent. You can protect your children from these icky people when they are younger, but you will have a more difficult time doing so if they are walking to and from school on their own.
While it’s understandable that mommy bloggers should quit when their children age, it really is a pity. Parenting doesn’t get easier as kids grow up, and people still need advice and reassurance. Even though parents of older kids aren’t as likely to read posts about teething or diaper rash, they would want to learn about issues that affect older kids.
You may be sad when your mommy blogging days end. The blogging community tends to be a close-knit group, and after you quit sharing the details of your day, you may feel as if you are losing a group of friends.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You can take the skills you learned blogging to earn a few extra bucks each month.
1. Change the focus of your blogs.
Perhaps your child is a figure skater or a golfer. Maybe your daughter shows horses. Chances are you have learned a lot about these sports as your child has advanced in skill. You probably have also learned a lot about the expensive equipment that accompanies these pastimes.
Write a blog about being a figure-skater mom. You don’t have to include specific information about your child. In fact, you can protect his or her privacy as much as you like. Other parents will still want to read your stories and advice if they also have a child who participates in those sports.
You can also use your influence and knowledge to create an affiliate marketing program. Write reviews on the best type of bedazzler. Write about where to buy golf clubs for your growing child. Create affiliate links to sell products through your website.
2. Guest write on someone else’s blog.
If you have developed your writing skills through your time as a blogger, you can utilize those skills and find freelance work on mom-focused websites. There are tons of jobs posted on Upwork that are seeking short articles. They don’t pay well, but they will at least keep you active within that community.
3. Assist others with starting a mommy blog.
If you gained popularity as a mommy blogger, you could teach others how you did it. Evaluating and editing someone else’s work may not seem as satisfying as writing your own copy, but you can at least feel good that you are sharing your knowledge and expertise with another mom.
This article is originally posted at Mom Marketing Coach!
