It’s been about a month since I started this blog, and whoa have I learned a lot. This isn’t my first blogging rodeo, but it is the first time I am launching a blog as a business.
I won’t go into details, but my previous blogs were not strategic in any way. They were hobbies and were meant to inform whoever was interested about what I was interested in at the time.
Starting this blog has been significantly more planned and strategic than my previous blogs since I’m a full-time mom with two children under three.
While I don’t plan to do monthly learnings, I do want to share a few things I have learned in my first month of blogging so that you can apply them right from the start.
These tips and tools can help you start a successful blog, or improve the one you already have, today.
What I’ve Learned in my First Month of Blogging
*This post contains affiliate links which means that I may make a commission, at absolutely no cost to you, if purchase using my link*
Plan for More Time Than You Think
It takes a lot of time to start and maintain a blog, especially if you are running it like a business.
Getting the actual site set-up was fast. It only took a few hours (Need a site? I use and recommend BlueHost) but creating the content has proven to take more time than I expected.
Like me, I am assuming that you don’t have a huge team, and you are doing this in the odd hours when your small children are at school or sleeping (#5amWritersClub).
When I started, I knew to save plenty of time for content creation (e.g., blog posts), but it still took longer than I expected. Obviously, the blog posts are one of the most critical parts blogging, so creating valuable content is the goal, and it takes time.
Creating a content calendar right away will help you get as far ahead as you can. I didn’t have one right away, but I do now and it has genuinely helped me be significantly more productive when it comes to getting posts done.
A content calendar saves you time and, when used correctly, can help you make more money.
It is easy to get distracted by all the other fun and exciting aspects of running a business. There will be moments after you have written six blog posts when you daydream about setting up your email list.
Please don’t do it.
No one will come to your blog if you don’t have valuable content. Plus, the more content you create, the better you will get at it. You will find efficiencies in your work habits, become a legitimately better writer, and build your business.
Get the content created, edited, scheduled before spending time on the other items in your digital marketing plan.
Define Your Mission
If you’re starting your blog for a business you already own, your mission is already somewhat defined, though defining it is still essential. If you are starting a brand new blog that you are turning into a business, this step is critical.
There are loads of things you can write about on a blog. You can write about business, beaches, or beans—literally anything.
When it comes to blogging as a business, it’s essential to make sure that everything is within your niche and supporting your mission.
For example, I spent 12 years living the corporate life, and during that time, I always felt like many people needed to know about the truth behind why they weren’t getting promoted. So I wrote a blog post about it (my first one).
Seems ok, right?
Nope. The fact is, getting promoted doesn’t relate to my mission. At all.
Yes, I want to help people build a career and life they love, but that doesn’t mean everything related to business aligns with my mission.
My mission is to help women entrepreneurs build a successful and abundant career they love that also leaves them time to live their best life.
Do you know what women entrepreneurs aren’t worried about? They aren’t worried about getting promoted at work.
When you’re the boss, the CEO, the founder, the owner (you get the picture), you are not worried about getting promoted.
You are worried about a million other things, like making enough money in your side hustle to leave your current job and using affiliate marketing to bring in passive income from the start, and getting new traffic to your website to build your audience, etc.
Having a defined mission keeps your content focused on the right things so the right people will find you and stick around.
Create a Launch Plan
I thrive when it comes to executing a plan. I know this based on my own self-awareness, and based on the many personality tests I took while living the corporate life.
This means that I generally only need an idea of where I am going to go before I get started. I don’t need to know every single detail of the possible things that could come up.
It doesn’t mean I don’t plan at all, but I don’t deep dive into planning beforehand.
It isn’t a bad trait, but starting a business as a mom adds a lot to the already lengthy to-do list.
Having a checklist of what I need before I launch helped me prioritize the right things to launch sooner.
My launch plan included defining what I need to have completed before I launch, and what I would do for my launch.
For example, I wanted to have ten concrete blog posts published and four weeks of posts scheduled before I started doing any advertising, promoting, or setting up an email list.
However, I set up my Pinterest business account and started creating pins for each post as it went live.
There is no perfect plan. Make your launch plan work for you and your business goals, but I suggest you put one together.
Start with the Right Toolkit
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on starting a blog. In fact, you absolutely shouldn’t. But there are tools that I believe you need to start successfully blogging.
Bluehost and WordPress
This seems pretty obvious, but since I’m a digital entrepreneur, I visit my site every day and have spent a lot of time getting to know WordPress. So far, these are exactly what I need for my site.
There are other hosts, like Wix, which are great too (I use Wix for another site). For blogging I prefer WordPress on Bluehost.
Pages (Mac word processor, like Microsoft Word)
I draft all of my content in a Pages document before I put them in Grammarly and then post them. It works for me.
Grammarly
I love Grammarly, I genuinely don’t know which I love more, Grammarly, or Canva.
I use Grammarly because I tend to type too fast, which leads to skipped words and a lot of grammatical errors.
Thankfully, I fully appreciate editing, and God Bless whoever invented Grammarly. It is my favorite editing tool to date. It’s super easy, and all of my work is better for it. I don’t use every suggestion that Grammarly says, but I use a lot of them.
Grammarly allows me to focus on getting my thoughts out without worrying about all the tiny editing details.
Canva
In several other posts, I have already spoken a lot about Canva, so I won’t go deep into it. Canva is fun and easy to use and helps create beautiful, professional graphics.
I started with the free version but quickly went pro, and highly recommend it. On this site I use it for website images, Pinterest pins, blog banners, and I am sure I will continue to find new uses for it.
Even if you aren’t starting a blog or business, I am sure you could find uses for both Canva and Grammarly in your everyday life.
Pinterest
I check Pinterest every day, multiple times. It is inspiring and I have found tons of useful information for my own business on it.
I promote my site and brand on it. In one month (created my business account on 8/8 when I am writing this today is 9/8), I have gone from 0 monthly viewers to 936 monthly viewers, and 17 link clicks.
This may not sound like a lot, but considering the minimal effort I put in, I can tell you that Pinterest is the real deal for driving traffic.
I haven’t even officially launched my blog yet, which means literally the only other person who knows about this whole venture is my husband, and I can promise you he has never once logged into Pinterest.
Imagine the Pinterest possibilities you can get by putting in a little more effort than creating just a couple of pins…
SEO is Important from the Start
I don’t see mountains of traffic to my blog (*yet*), but I do wholeheartedly believe SEO is crucial for success when it comes to blogging. I have installed two SEO tools that I am currently testing in WordPress, Yoast and SEOPress.
They are extremely helpful in guiding SEO practices on my site and in my blog posts. You need an SEO tool so you don’t have to try to remember to optimize your site so people can find you while using search engines like Google.
I have the free version of both and have spent more time with Yoast, but both seem excellent. I’ll do a review in the future on them both.
Celebrate Small Wins.
Celebrating small wins is true about anything in life.
Even failure is progress.
Every step in the right direction is one step closer than you were before.
Remember that everyone’s small wins will be different. If you have never created a website with a custom domain, then you should celebrate when you did (Way to go!)! If you won your first customer, got your first 1K subscribers, whatever it is, celebrate it. Enjoy your journey!
Set a bar for yourself, and then move it up over and over.
Keep a list of everything you have done, especially if it was particularly scary or difficult. Then refer back to it whenever your spirits need lifting. You will be surprised at how much you have already accomplished.
Stay Inspired and Motivated
Find what motivates you to keep blogging, to keep hustling, to keep growing your business.
Join Facebook groups, follow inspiring business accounts on Pinterest. Find a place to go when you need that boost of creativity or proof that your dream destination is possible if you keep working at all.
Try to remember that you are doing something that other people only dream of doing.
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