****This post contains affiliated links DISCLAIMER
Y’all, I started a blog almost a year ago and I must say that it has been an amazing journey!
I initially started my blog so that I could spit out my thoughts in order to stay sane as a new stay at home mom of two babies. I needed a place to go and share. I started by sharing our adoption journey, then recipes and fun crafts to do with little ones and my hobby blog started generating a little bit of side money, all from sharing my real life experiences! Everything from how we adopted, to time management, sharing my mom must haves and space saving organization techniques!
I was amazed that after two short months that I received my first affiliate payment! I was earning money just by sharing what I was learning as a mom! CrAzY! Right?!
Guess what!!! YOU, yes YOU darling, can do it too!!
How I Got Started…****the short version
Picking a niche…
Pick a what?! I had no idea what this meant. I wasn’t even sure if I was pronouncing the word right! A niche is basically what you want to talk and share about in your blog. This could be parenting, travel, cooking/recipes, DIY, whatever you are passionate about. That’s the key…pick a niche that you are passionate about! Mine, of course is parenting and lifestyle. For example, my best traffic stats are stemmed from posts such as mom must haves, diaper bag essentials, and our favorite toys.
Grab a notepad and start jotting down ideas about what you are most passionate about. This is going to help you in picking a name for a blog if you don’t have something already in mind.
What are you going to call it?
Picking a name for your blog can be tricky. I struggled to find the right name for my blog and got stuck for quite some time brainstorming. When picking a blog name, you want it to be short, direct and east to read. Some words when typed all together get lost or are hard to read, or maybe when the words are put all together they say something you don’t want them to. Think about branding and your niche. My blog is centered around being a mom, so naturally my blog name and branding gravitate more towards parenting.
Web Hosting…
Once you have your ideas on paper and are ready to take the next step, you will want to look into web hosting.
There are a lot of options out there for blog hosting and I contemplated starting up using a free host but after researching, I discovered there are more benefits to using a web host such as Bluehost Web Hosting
My bloggers toolbox…
After I got set up with my domain name, web hosting and installed WordPress, I was able to begin customizing by blog. Like I said, my blog was a hobby that started generating a side income that I was not expecting! I post quality, relevant niche posts and started joining rewarding affiliate programs all within a year of launching!
Over 90% of my traffic comes from Pinterest! 90%!!! By creating interesting boards, pinning new and eye catching content/images, I am able to take advantage of this huge resource and generate traffic! Which leads me to…
Tailwind
I wasted so much time manually pinning and did not join Tailwind until my 4th month of blogging. This, in my own opinion, was one of my mistakes! I should have immediately joined Tailwind! Tailwind saves me so much time allowing my to do what I love which is spending time with my family. Tailwind allows me to pin in advance, create and publish multiple pins and has opened my network of fellow mom-bloggers through their amazing feature tribes. You can try it free for one month here! My Pinterest strategy to increase my blog traffic went from manually pinning 10-20 pins a day (which took forever) to being able to pin around 60 times a day and increase my followers by 400% in just the 2nd week of using Tailwind!
Affiliate Programs
Once you have generated quality posts, have set up a business Pinterest account and are feeling confident in your brand, you can start applying for affiliate programs. My toolbox favorites are:
Share-A-Sale: A network of merchants and companies that you already use allow you to share your experience with their product and earn money through affiliated links. Just sign up through their affiliate program and begin searching for your favorite merchants!
Amazon: I am a Amazon mom. So naturally most of the items that I recommend as a mom can be found through Amazon. I am able to recommend items that I use daily and receive a commission through their affiliate program.
Strategy…
Like I mentioned before, blogging is a hobby that I am able to bring in some money on the side with. I didn’t have a strategy, a plan or expectations, I just really wanted a place of my own where I could jot down my thoughts and also share tips that might help another momma.
My strategy now that my blog is generating traffic and I am making money? I work on my blog while my babies are sleeping (roughly 14 hours a week). I use Tailwind to pin new and updated images that are linked to new and updated blog posts that contain affiliated links to items that I use and love. Through Pinterest I am able to grow my viewers and followers which ultimately leads to commissions through affiliate programs. ALL by just sharing about my CrAzY life!
QUESTIONS?
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