Are you hurting your mom blog by making these blogging mistakes?

For nearly two years I felt like I was doing well on my mom blog but I couldn’t’ figure out why I wasn’t attracting readers and why I wasn’t making money. I mean I had asked other “experienced” bloggers to check out my blog and give me any advice they had, but all of them would come back saying, “Your blog looks so great.”

Well then if it looks so good why isn’t it performing the way I want? Where are my readers? And why can’t I make more than $30 from Amazon? 

I was beyond frustrated! And I wanted to give up on my mom blog. Until I finally found out what worked.

This page may contain affiliate links, however, I will never recommend anything that I do not believe in and use myself. You can read more about my disclosure policy here.

1. I Wrote for Myself

This is one huge mistake that most new bloggers make when they first start a new blog. I am definitely guilty of writing about my life and what I found interesting thinking that everyone would just love reading about it. But I was very wrong. 

To get your target audience you have to write for them. People come to blogs to find a solution to their problem. Whether it be a way to make money blogging or finding out if their baby is getting enough breast milk.

So if you are not writing about topics that your target audience is looking for than your blog will never be seen. 

Find out how to grab the attention of your target audience with this amazing class by Carly Campbell – Engaging Your Audience.

2. Not Taking Any Blogging Classes

When most moms start a blog, they do it to make extra money or to replace their current job to be able to work from home as a mom blogger. The problem is that most new bloggers don’t want to spend any money on important blogging courses that can teach them how to create a profitable blog.

I was guilty of doing this in the beginning. I didn’t want to spend any money on courses but wanted to just take free ones that didn’t have as much advice as I really needed. 

But really think about this. You wouldn’t start a career without going through some type of training and maybe taking some classes right? It’s the same with blogging. And once I finally did take an amazing class taught by a good friend of mine my blog traffic tripled in a month. 

3. Not Being Original

Getting ideas and inspiration from other mom bloggers is completely fine and actually, a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t, but you still have to be original. 

Readers can tell if you are just feeding them reused content and not really making an effort to tell them a story and be personal with them. By writing to them like you naturally talk they feel more connected to you and start learning that they can trust you. 

4. I Didn’t Invest in My Blog

Making investments in things to help your blog run better is scary for many new bloggers. But when you start a mom blog it’s just like starting a business. You have to make investments to have it run properly. There are always start-up costs or your business will be a sham.

Thankfully, starting a mom blog is really inexpensive. And once you get established it’s worth taking the next step to have a paid professional theme to allow your blog to run faster and be more responsive for your readers. Here’s how I chose the perfect theme for my mom blog.

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5. Not Letting My Personality Show

No one wants to read just facts as if a robot was writing your blog. This happens far too often. 

Readers want to feel connected to the blog that they are reading from. And the best way to make your readers feel welcomed and cared about is to talk to them just as you would a friend. 

Keep them interested in what you are saying by putting your own personal spin on how you write. 

6. Being Afraid of Failure

When I first started this blog, I was terrified that I would fail at blogging. I thought that there was no way that anyone would want to read what I had to say.

But after I started having viral blog posts, I started to realize that people really did love to read my writing. And that’s when I realized that I had already succeeded by just starting my blog and giving it my all.

7. Not Choosing the Right Web Host

It was on Pinterest that I found a pin created by another mom blogger who had started making a full-time income while still raising her kids. And after clicking through her link and reading her post about starting a mom blog, I decided to take a chance and start my own.

But in the first few months, I experienced numerous problems with my hosting service. And it only continued to get worse once I started to get more visitors coming to my site. 

After hearing that other bloggers were having the same problems with their blogs, I finally switched to SiteGround Hosting and have never looked back. So don’t do what I did. Start your blog off right from the start with the best hosting service. 

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• How to Start a Money Making Blog
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8. Not Answering Comments

Answering comments that are left by your readers may not seem like a big deal but it actually is. When you reply to comments that are left by your audience, you are able to interact with them and talk back and forth.

Also if you have comments with the keywords that your blog post is talking about can help Google to learn that your blog post is worth reading. 

9. Not Using Tailwind From the Start

If you have been blogging for some time than you have surely heard about utilizing Pinterest to attract readers to your blog. I personally am able to get over 95% of my blog’s viewers from Pinterest.

The easiest way to use Pinterest for your blog is by creating pinnable images for each blog post for people to see and click on. And then once you have your image created you simply share it to Pinterest.

The problem is that Pinterest loves for us to be active all of the time. Which for moms like me who have two rambunctious kids along with other responsibilities, is difficult to do. There is literally no way for me to be on Pinterest pinning all of the time. That’s where Tailwind comes to save the day. 

Tailwind is an automated scheduler made specifically to share your Pinterest images for you. So while you are changing the baby, Tailwind is sharing. And while you are sleeping you can be assured that Tailwind is sharing your pins.

It took me over a year to finally break down and start using Tailwind, but I have never gone back. 

You can also try Tailwind for free for 1 month to see how much you like it. 

RELATED POSTS

• How to Increase your Pinterest Reach Without Spending Hours Pinning
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10. Making Unattractive Pinterest Images

Since almost all of my blog’s traffic comes from Pinterest, I have learned what works and what does not work to get readers to my blog. One lesson I have learned is that Pinterest images have to be eye-catching.

So for example, here are two of my Pinterest images for the same blog post. The one on the left didn’t get me many views whereas the one on the right is super bright and catches the attention of my target readers. 

RELATED POST

• How I Used Pinterest Strategies to More than Triple My Blog Traffic

11. Not Helping Others Succeed

Up until recently, I was never active in blogging groups because I felt that I had no advice to give. But now that I have been blogging for over 2 years, I know that I can help other aspiring mom bloggers by sharing my experiences. 

Helping other mom bloggers also helps you to share your name and they are likely to help you out in return. 

12. Neglecting Blog SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing your traffic to your website through organic search engines. 

If you don’t optimize your blog for search engines to find you through keywords, topics, and internal links, your blog will likely never be found organically. Now that I have learned more about using SEO practices on my site, I have gained more followers and my page views are much higher.

One of my favorite ways to ensure that my blog posts have good SEO is through the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. 

13. Not Connecting with Other Bloggers

I have met some of the most wonderful people and gained some lifelong friends through the blogging community. And one benefit of having mom blogger friends is that they will often share your blog posts with their readers and may even include a link to your blog in their blog posts.

It’s also nice to have other mom bloggers to ask for advice when you don’t have an answer to your blogging problems.

RELATED POSTS 

• 9 Inspiring Mom Blogs You Should be Following
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Start a Mommy Blog

14. Not Writing New Blog Posts Consistently

Consistency is truly key when you are trying to build a successful mom blog. 

In my first year of blogging, I would just write whenever I felt like it and most of the time I was lucky to get 1-2 new blog posts published each month. I believe this is one of the biggest mistakes I made with my blog. 

By not posting more often to have enough content for readers to find me and also stay on my blog longer with more to read, my blog was sinking.

And then once I took the Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic course by Elna Cain, I learned how to successfully create a blogging schedule that allowed me to publish 2 new blog posts every week. You see having that plan outlined gave me the structure that I needed to be more consistent and put things into action.

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15. Neglecting Social Media

Since most mom bloggers see a ton of traffic from Pinterest, many of them neglect to share their blog to other social media platforms. 

This is a big blogging mistake.

One way that I am able to get more eyes on my blog and have it shared even more by other bloggers is through Facebook Groups. There are literally a ton of Facebook groups for every blog niche.

Whether you are a mom blogger who writes about parenting or a travel blogger who writes about traveling the world, there is a Facebook group for you to share your new blog posts with others. 

Some other social media platforms that you shouldn’t count out is Instagram and Youtube which is where I share tons of videos about using natural products with your family.

16. Poor Writing

Not everyone can be a perfect writer. I know that I am not. 

But making sure that your writing is readable and has correct punctuation is very important for your readers to understand the message you are trying to get across. 

For this blog, I love using Grammarly to help me correct my errors when I am typing so fast and cannot seem to spell. 

Another important skill to learn is how to properly write a blog post so that it looks professional and has a complete thought outlined. My blog posts used to look horrible and all over the place until I finally took the Post by Numer course. 

17. Not Using Eye-Catching Stock Images

When I started off creating Pinterest images for my blog, I used the old fuzzy images that I had taken from my phone. And most of them were horrible and not remotely good for catching the eyes of my readers.

This is because when scrolling through Pinterest on our phones we are not likely to click on an image unless it has a very bright and vibrant picture. That’s why I started using more professional-looking stock images that are also bright and fun. 

18. Not Writing Long-Form Content

Google is very picky about choosing blog posts that it sees as informative and having long-form content definitely can help here. Long-Form Content is like writing a blog post that is over 1k words long. 

If your blog posts are good quality and have longer content you have a better chance of getting readers to stay on your site longer.

For this blog, I personally never like to publish a blog post that contains less than 1k words. 

19. I Gave Up Too Fast

Since I started my mom blog to make money, when I had tried for the first year and didn’t see any real results, I gave up and stopped writing for a few months. This was one of the worst blogging mistakes I have ever made.

By giving up, I let myself down. 

Once I picked myself back up and decided to try again, I learned what I had done wrong and decided to never give up on blogging again.

20. Trying to Sell

One of the most common ways that bloggers say they can make money is through affiliate marketing.

And affiliate marketing is great – don’t get me wrong. The problem I had was focusing on just adding an affiliate link to everything without really trying to help my readers. I just wanted to make the sale and make money but I was going about it all wrong. 

Now instead of focusing on making an affiliate sale, I try to truly help my readers and focus on giving them solutions to their problems.

21. Monetization Mistakes

In the beginning, I focused on the wrong way to make money – at least for my blog.

I tried to follow and use the same techniques taught by moms who were blogging about how to make money blogging, but the problem was that their blog was completely different than mine.

You see, blogs like Twinsmommy by Elna Cain has an audience of moms who want to start a blog and make money from it so her readers will likely click through and buy products to help them with reaching their blogging goals.

Whereas my blog is mostly informational. I help moms with solving a problem that doesn’t require them to spend money to get an answer to their problem. Make sense?

So this is why I had to rethink my blogging strategy and focus more on monetizing my blog through ads from Mediavine. So to make money this way I had to first increase my blog traffic to 25k sessions per month to join Mediavine Ads and then try to continue to increase page views to start making more money.

For mom bloggers like me that don’t plan to sell anything, this is the perfect strategy along with linking to affiliate products that mommy readers may be interested in. 

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• How I Earned $1,012 Last Month from My Mom Blog – I Make Money Doing What I Love
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Have you made any blogging mistakes that hurt your mom blog? What did you learn from them?