Starting a mommy blog was a fun adventure that I knew would have a lot of ups and downs. Some of my biggest strengths contributed to launching one. However, I knew there'd be some major weaknesses hiding around the corners as well.
Of course there was the obvious obstacle about how to actually get a blog up and running. Luckily I muddled through that for you, and put together this ultimate guide to starting a blog. I spent hours and hours of trying to piece together choppy bits of YouTube video and blogging tutorials. Back then, I wish I had found one resource that laid it all out. So hopefully my step-by-step process will be a better starting point for you!
Want to know the one thing I didn't expect to happen when starting a mommy blog?
I didn't expect to improve so many diverse skills… and so quickly, too!
So what skills did my mommy blog improve within the first month of blogging? Almost immediately, I noticed personal growth in so many areas. Here are the top three.
1. Time Management Skills
Time management is easier for some than others. But, once you become a mom, it takes on a whole new meaning.
Life quickly becomes all about taking care of the little one. You almost forget to take care of yourself from time to time. If that's not enough of a flip, remember that there is no scheduling when it comes to a newborn. All the time-blocking and organized color-coded planners in the world won't stop a baby from skipping nap time or demanding food every hour.
All of that, I knew and expected. So what I honestly thought was that starting a mommy blog would be a short-lived hobby. I expected to be so time-consumed by the baby that my blog couldn't also be my baby.
But instead, here's what happened.
I realized how excited I was to stay on the blogging journey. In my most exhausted times, I couldn't sleep because post ideas wouldn't stop spinning around my brain.
So because of the passion and excitement to be a part of the mommy bloggers club, I jumped at every opportunity to write. Even when that meant just for 5 minutes at a time.
The overthinking and perfectionism traits that held me up in the past fell by the wayside. Partially because there was no longer time to overthink, and partially because I was too tired to care.
When you have less personal time, and you never know when the next session will come or how long you will have, your time management skills soar if you truly want to get something done. It's incredible how much we can get done in a short time when we REALLY want to.
Plus, while time blocking didn't work with a newborn, it did become a good technique later. It is a perfect skill to implement as baby gets a few months older. More predicable nap times and wake periods are prescheduled time blocks. Those short blocks of time are GOLD. Make a game or a personal challenge to see how much you can accomplish.
2. Search Engine Optimization Skills
Ah, the never-ending internet buzzword phrase for bloggers everywhere – search engine optimization (or “SEO” for short.)
While I had some very basic knowledge about SEO, it was very superficial. Certainly, I had never tried to put it into practice. I knew that key terms were important. I had a general idea about how to drop keywords throughout your blog posts to optimize their potential to be found through search.
But implementation took on a whole new level of skill development. One that I am still growing in daily, because there is so much to learn!
Even in the earliest stages of starting a mommy blog, understanding basic SEO can help you start one step ahead of others. Plus, the more you learn early, the less you have to go back and rework later.
For instance, did you know that even the saved file name of your images when uploading from your computer can help boost your SEO? I didn't.
And now I know that there are tools worth every penny, like the Yoast Plug-In for WordPress. As soon I realized this tool could do a majority of the heavy lifting for me, I paid for the pro version. But what's great is that because it walks through each step, I develop the skills to understand what sections it is analyzing and why. So now, even if I didn't have a keyword tool, I feel pretty confident that I could structure a well-optimized blog post in any niche!
3. Graphic Design Skills
Can you imagine how much you would be paying for someone to create all of your Instagram content, Pinterest pins, blog covers, etc? As a new blogger, those are expenses that just don't make sense. So by learning just a little bit about color palettes that work well and leaving some white space in your graphics, it's a skill that stretches a long way.
What I like to remind people is that you don't have to have all the skills. Nobody expects that from you. But if you can have all of the resources to point you in the right direction, that's all you need to get by.
So when I started a blog and dove deeper into online business, I realized that having Canva for anything and everything “design” was a game changer.
Even if you have the worst eye for graphic design, Canva has so many present templates that you never have to start on a blank page. And once I played with some colors and font styles to set up a brand, it was all saved in a “Brand Kit” on Canva. When you hear about how important brand consistency is, this tool is the secret to barely having to try.
The key with enhancing your graphic design skill is not that things have to be perfect. For me, it meant creating a consistent brand for my mommy blog, but also without having to pay for a freelancer to design everything.
This skill might be a bit of a stretch, but considering I had zero graphic design skill prior to blogging, it seems fair to say I really could have only gone upward!
Mom Has The Last Word
Starting a mommy blog brings more surprises around every corner. There are opportunities to make money with your blog. That, of course, is what so many bloggers tell us about. But what they don't mention are the invaluable thinks like technical skills and professional development that are happing when you aren't paying attention. Call me a nerd, but that's a pretty cool bonus for us professional moms!
