Part I
Discovering the Fun and Advantages of Mom Blogging
In this part . . .
Part I covers all the blogging basics that will help you build a strong foundation for your blogging business. I talk about what it takes to be a professional blogger from a business perspective and a technical perspective so you can determine whether mom blogging is right for you.
I also discuss generating writing topics that will help you kick-start your blog. And â most importantly for mom bloggers â I share some helpful insights on how to share personal information without infringing on the privacy of your family and children.
Chapter 1
Starting a Mom Blog
In This Chapter
Understanding what makes mom blogs different Exploring the range of opportunities you can develop with your blog Avoiding some of the easiest mistakes to make Getting to know some of the blog-writing basics Two big questions I was frequently asked while I was writing this book were: âWhy a book just for mom bloggers? How is that different from any other kind of blog?â These are actually fantastic questions â in fact, we purposely named the book âMom Bloggingâ rather than âMommy Bloggingâ because there are tens of thousands of moms who blog, but donât happen to make their family lives and motherhood a big part of the content of their blogs. Mommy blogging is a genre â whereas mom blogging is for any mom who blogs.
That being said, many moms who blog will find that they are treated like a mommy blogger even when they donât discuss mom-centric topics. I found this particularly prominent when I ran my Sparkplugging business blog network. I got pitched all the time to write about laundry detergent, diapers, or kidsâ snack foods â when my blog was only focused on Internet business and entrepreneurship. Brands have long known that moms are high-impact influencers, and that we control 85 percent of household spending in the United States. We are also natural online socializers and word-of-mouth marketers â 79 percent of moms are active on social networking sites, and 23 percent of these moms said they have purchased a childrenâs product as a result of a recommendation from a social networking site or blog.
In fact, mom bloggers are more likely to be approached by a brand than if they were just everyday bloggers â 33 percent of bloggers have been approached by a brand, but 54 percent of mom bloggers have been approached by a brand. As a mom blogger who has also worked in the corporate marketing world, I can safely say that this high profile as a target of marketers has been both a blessing and a curse for everyone involved. It has empowered moms to transform their influence into rewarding careers as publishers and marketers. Plus it has given brands unprecedented access to directly engage their most important customers and get real-time feedback.
A dark side has also emerged from both bloggers and brands. Some mom bloggers have let their influence go to their heads, thinking they are suddenly entitled to royal treatment â or (worse) using their blogs as extortion tools. Brands have also taken advantage of mom bloggers who have less business experience, exploiting all that eagerness as a way to get free (or extremely cheap) advertising.
There you have two of the biggest reasons I wanted to write this book. I wanted to give you the information and tools you need in order to turn your blogs into real businesses or career opportunities. I get raving mad when I see people whom I consider a part of my own online community getting taken advantage of. But I also want the mom-blogging community and industry to grow and change with the fast-paced changes in word-of-mouth marketing. Acting entitled and using a blog as a weapon hurt both the blogger and the reputation of mom bloggers as a whole. If youâre concerned about making sure you get appropriately compensated for your time and your talent, I go into this subject at length in Chapter 10, because I think we can all agree that we donât want to be taken advantage of!
What Makes Mom Blogs Different From Other Blogs
Itâs very difficult to make any blanket statements about moms who blog. But most of the mom bloggers I know share some commonalities. Mom bloggers are natural networkers and usually extremely helpful and supportive of each other. Mom bloggers also turn to each other for advice â as I said earlier, this is what makes mom bloggers so attractive to brands and advertisers: Brands hope that when moms give advice on their blogs, they advise readers to use the brandâs products or services.
Many mom bloggers talk about their personal lives in some way, even when their blogs arenât considered personal blogs. This is another big reason I wanted to write this book. Mom bloggers â especially mommy bloggers who write about parenting â are in a position to disclose highly personal subject matter about themselves and their families. It is this personal, from the heart writing that allows readers to so deeply connect with the blogger. But there are things mom bloggers should all do in this day and age to ensure their families are kept from embarrassment or worse, harassment, threats, and personal attacks. (I cover this in more detail in Chapter 3.)
There are few, if any, bloggers who start out knowing exactly where their blog will take them, myself included. I started blogging simply because I heard blogs would help your website get found in the search engines. I had no idea that blogging was such a powerful medium, that I would go on to create two different blog networks, sell one of them, and then write a book about it all. It sounds like Iâm such a big deal when I put it that way, but in reality, I still think of myself more like a newer blogger still learning the ropes. In fact, when I decided to make blogging my business, I had to get over my initial panic attack that I didnât know the first thing about how to make money from a blog. These are the lessons Iâm most excited to share â my highs and lows, my biggest mistakes, and how I finally created a blogging business that worked for me as a mom, a writer, and an overly right-brained entrepreneur with full-on attention deficit disorder.
Exploring the Opportunities Blogging Can Offer
Most moms I know who have found success with their blogs started out with a story similar to my own. They didnât have any idea that ...
