13 Most Important Things To Do Before Starting A Mom Blog

Starting your mom blog can be one of the scariest things you do if you do it the wrong way. And by that, I mean jumping right in without taking the time to prepare for your blog launch first. Because there is nothing more intimidating than staring at an empty page with a blinking cursor and having no clue where to begin.

That’s exactly what happened to me when I started my first blog. Now I know that there are a few things that I wish I had done before I started, to make it easier and a lot more enjoyable. So what are the things to do before starting a blog?

To help you off to a smooth blog launch and avoid you staring at a blinking cursor I put together those 13 things to do before you start your blog. One of the things you’ll need is hosting (which is the tech part and can be a bit confusing) That’s why I’ve created this FREE tutorial that shows you how to do it. And I’m sure you’re going to love how easy to use it is.

Because with a little blog planning upfront you can avoid feeling overwhelmed and instead make setting up your blog faster and way more fun.

In this post, I’ll show you 13 things that you absolutely must think about before you launch your blog. So if you’re ready to begin, let’s do it.

Let’s start by dispelling a myth.

1. Figure out your niche

Here’s something you should know before you start: despite what people say, not all niches are equally profitable.

Therefore as a blogger, the first thing you should consider is your niche. What is a niche? Your niche is the group of people who read your content.

But your niche is also what makes people remember your blog.

Imagine someone wants to tell another person about your blog. What would they say? “Oh, I found this amazing blog about… (your niche) the other day. Check it out!”

In order to help you find your niche, you need to ask yourself who you want to reach with your blog? Who are you trying to help and why? Who are the groups of people you want to reach with your content and why them?

This is something you should think about before starting a blog because the more specific your blog is, the more relevant it will be for your ideal reader.

For instance, on Any Mommy Can Make Money, I help mommies who want to stay at home with their kids, work from home and make money online by starting a side business, or a blog.

As a new mom myself I’m looking for ways to make money online so that I can stay home with my baby.

Ultimately, I want to reach financial freedom by doing what I love, such as blogging, and that’s why I want to help other mommies who have similar goals and ambitions (I’d love to hear what your goals are, so let me know in the comments!).

How to pick the right niche for your blog?

If making money from your blog is your goal, you also need to choose a niche that you can make money from. 

So, in order to make money from your niche, you need to ask yourself, will there be enough people interested in what you’re writing about?

Or would it be better to choose something a little more popular?

Popular can still mean a small niche, but one that can blow up and snowball over time, as crochet patterns did when they became crochet bikinis, crochet bags, and crochet skirts, and more! Nowadays, there are a lot of videos available for crochet beginners, but it is still a relatively small niche.

However, it’s a very popular one, if you know what I mean?

2. What problem does your audience have and what can you do to help them solve it?

Whatever niche you choose, the most important thing is to understand who your audience is and what they need help with. 

To put it another way, what problem are you trying to solve for your audience?

Because your blog will not make money unless you solve your readers’ problems. That’s the only way you can grow your blog and get readers to come back.

My mommy readers, for example, are interested in making money online. As a result, all my posts are geared toward helping them solve that problem. That means you won’t find a post on AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.com about how to lose weight, do you see what I mean?

For now, I want you to think about your audience and their problems and how your blog can help them.

3. Think of a name for your blog

This is the fun part and if you haven’t already thought of a name for your blog now’s the time. But don’t just choose any name, though. Because the most important thing is that it appeals to your audience.

But you also want to pick a name that is easy to remember and spell, because if you can’t spell your name correctly, people will be unable to find you in a search (and traffic is very important).

Lastly, you should choose a name that is easy to pronounce.

You can find out if your name is easy to pronounce by saying it out loud. And if your name is a tongue twister or if you are embarrassed to say it out loud, then pick a different name.

4. Research your market

As soon as you know your niche, you want to do some research to see what others are already doing in your niche.

This is not meant to discourage you by looking at the success of other bloggers in your niche. Rather, it’s to validate an idea and to show that what you’re thinking of is already working.

Don’t feel discouraged when they see other bloggers being successful in your niche, but really, you should see it as a sign that your niche is viable. 

Because if it works for others, there’s a good chance that it will work for you as well. Do you know what I mean?

5. Set blogging goals

I’m a big fan of writing down your goals, and here’s why you should too. 

Because when you write them down, you start visualizing your future, you might say.

Have you heard of the saying “If you can see it, you can be it”?

For example, when I wrote my goal for “Make my first affiliate sale”, I had no idea that it would happen so fast.

Nevertheless, 3 weeks after launching my blog post, I made my first sale. At the time, I honestly couldn’t believe that I was crossing this goal off my list already.

It’s not that I didn’t believe I could do it (I know I can), but I wasn’t expecting it because I had only 4 visitors at the time.

So, write down your blogging and financial goals.

6. When do you want to work on your blog?

As a new mommy myself, I know how challenging it is to find time to work on your blog.

However, if you want to start a profitable mom blog, you should treat it more like a business than a hobby.

And that means that you cannot leave it up to chance whether (or when) you will write on your blog.

Decide on a time ahead of time that you will devote to your blogging business.

What are your available times?

Being a mommy means that your days are unpredictable, and just about anything can happen, really.

That’s why deciding when you would like to sit down can really be helpful.

In my case, my baby girl is my number one priority, followed by my household and then my blog. Because I know that when my baby is tucked in I will have about 40 minutes before she wakes (and hopefully stays asleep for another 40 minutes).

Next, I am trying to stay on top of my household chores, such as doing laundry, emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, preparing food, changing her sheets, emptying the nappy bin, and restocking nappies. Because I know that these tasks quickly pile up and feel overwhelming. 

When I know everything is being taken care of, I feel much calmer because I feel as if I am buying myself some time. In addition to all my grocery shopping online, I also plan my meals using this $5 meal plan.

It’s so simple and takes the guesswork out of meal planning that it gives me a ton of headspace to work on my blog, without stressing about food (because a hungry mommy can’t take care of her baby or work on her blog).

7. About Me page

Before you begin your blog, you should prepare an about me page. It will help you clarify why you do what you do.

Describe why you started your blog on your About Me page so your audience can relate to your journey and be compelled to follow you. It’s important because ultimately, your audience follows you rather than the blog.

Do you know what I mean?

Why not start your About Me page today if you can?

Think of it as your mission statement. If you need help getting started, you can read my About Me page here as an example and also give you some structure.

8. Decide what topics to write about

The next thing to do before you start your blog is to decide what types of topics you want to write about.

To begin, think about the problems you faced and what you did to overcome them. Because chances are, your audience is dealing with something similar. 

However, don’t worry. Because this doesn’t mean that you have to have all your content ready before you launch your blog.

Some bloggers launch their blog with 10 blog posts. Personally, I launched AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.com with just 1 post and started building my blog from there. But however you prefer to start, make sure that you do have a clear idea of what sort of topics you want to write about.

As a rule of thumb, I suggest you start with 3-5 categories but don’t have more than 5 categories as this will make it difficult to rank in Google.

You can also think about your core topic. Which topic would you write about most frequently?

9. Plan out your menu

The next thing you need to think about before you start your blog is your blog’s menu.

Most bloggers only do this after they’ve launched their blog, but this is a great exercise to give you focus for your mom blog and the categories you want to cover.

You can either use a spreadsheet like Google spreadsheets (which is free) or draw it on a piece of paper.

This exercise has been incredibly useful to me in clarifying what topics I want to write about and how I want to arrange them on my menu. And I hope it does the same for you. 

Can you guess the next one?

10. Think about your message

Your message is about something you believe that you want to communicate with your audience so that it resonates with those who share that same belief.

What do you believe in that relates to your blog? 

My goal at AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.com is to work from home to achieve financial freedom so that I can spend more time with my baby. That means I want my message to appeal to other moms who are also looking for ways to make money online rather than moms who don’t believe it’s possible to make money online, or moms who want to go back to work.

Do you see the difference?

You want your audience to remember your message. Therefore you should keep it simple and be single-minded when you come up with your message.

You can either add your message to your:

• tagline
• logo
• author bio box
• About Me page
• social media profiles
• in your content
• or in your email marketing

11. Think about your brand

Your brand is not the first thing you need to think about before you start your blog. That’s why I left it so far down the list. It does help, however, to think about building a strong foundation now so that your blog will become a brand people recognize over time.

Before I became a blogger I’ve worked for some of the biggest brands in the world for over a decade and the best starting point for building your brand is to ask yourself the following question:

What is the first thing you want to come to your audience’s mind when they think about your blog?

Because that first thing is your brand.

To give you an example, it could be a colour (“striking pink”), a word, your blog name, your brand message, or how you address your audience (e.g. ”mommy”, “muma”, “moma”).

However, that’s not all, as a strong brand is created through repetition, by using the same message over and over, the same keywords, the same phrase, etc.

So, what is the first thing you want to come to your audience’s mind when they think of your blog?

Let me give you an example. 

When I think of Elna Cain from TwinsMommy I think “grow your blog traffic” (and “tones of content”). 

When I think of Michelle from MakingSenseOfCents I think “making $50,000/mo with affiliate marketing”.

As another example, when I think of Ling from Finsavvypanda, I think of an “introverted blogger who hated her day job”, but also “quirky Asian character on pins” because that’s her style and I see them a lot on Pinterest.

How do you create your brand for your blog? Building a brand takes time, but there are a few things you can do from the beginning to set the scene. For example, you can build your brand visually by sticking to the same colour scheme or font. In addition, you can begin building your brand by repeating the same phrases or keywords or using the same message throughout your content.

This is my favourite thing about blogging because I can create your personal brand around who you are instead of trying to fit in. 

In the end, the more you let yourself be you, the more your blog stands out.

12. How do you want to monetize your blog?

There are many ways to make money from your blog. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start thinking about how you want to monetize your blog. For example, are you interested in offering freelance writing services? Do you want to become a Virtual Assistant or offer Pinterest VA services? Do you want to learn all about affiliate marketing or do you want to reach 50.000 page views so that you can apply for Mediavine?

As you can see, to achieve each goal you would need a different monetization strategy. That’s why it’s a good idea to think about monetization before you start a blog.

13. Pick hosting and start your blog

Finally, you need to choose your hosting provider before you can start the blog. And you must opt for a self-hosted blog if you wish to monetize your blog, even in the distant future.

This is why you need Bluehost and WordPress over a free blogging platform.

To help you set up your blog, I’ve prepared this FREE step-by-step tutorial for you (it’s as if I were sitting in the room with you). Because in this tutorial I walk you through every step so you’ll have your blog up and running by the time you read this post.

So, when you’re ready click here to start your blog on WordPress and Bluehost.

Summary of the 13 most important things you must do before starting a blog

Woohoo! You’ve reached the end of this post, so now you have a checklist of the 13 things to know before starting a blog.

Because I know this can feel overwhelming, I would just like to ask you this:

Have you heard of the saying “Done it better than perfect”? Because the same goes for launching your blog. What I mean by that is don’t stress about having everything perfectly set up before you launch your blog. 

The truth is, you can edit your posts at any time if you need to. 

Usually, I launch my post, even if it’s not perfect, and then keep editing and refining it constantly. As an example, to get a better sense of how I can format it better I like to read my posts on my mobile device. Then I edit my posts and improve bits here and there.

For now, the most important thing is getting your blog launched, because even the most “imperfect” post can still be very useful for your audience, and you launched your blog to help your readers.

Let me show you how in this FREE tutorial when you’re ready.

I would like to hear your thoughts. What was your favourite thing to do and which ones are you planning to implement in your blog launch today? Let me know in the comments.