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To start a mom blog, you need to have something ‘mommy’ to write about. You also need to know a little bit of technical stuff. But don’t worry, today I’m going to show you exactly how to start a mom blog…easily.

In fact:

These are the exact steps every new blogger should take to get their blog off the ground. 

In this guide I’ll show you exactly how to do it with these simple steps:

1. How to pick a profitable mom blog niche.
2. How to select a domain name based on your niche idea.
3. Learn the blogging tools you need to get started and how to use them.
4. How to set up your blog host account.
5. How to set up your blog on WordPress.

But first, let’s quickly answer this question:

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Mom Blog ?

Starting out, your new mom blog will cost about $100.00 per year; this is for a reliable blog host and the purchase of your domain name. Both of these things need to be renewed annually, or you may renew for multiple years for a small discount.

As your blog grows, you’ll probably require more hosting capabilities and security. And with that growth comes an increase in your monthly cost with these considerations:

• a custom design
• the hiring of an assistant
• paying for advanced tools to improve your blog

But for now, those things don’t matter.

OK, now let’s get on to answering this question…

How Do I Start A Mom Blog ?

Step #1  Pick A Profitable Topic

The first thing you want to do is decide on a topic. 

In other words, what kind of mom blog do you want to start ?

Picking an exact subject can sometimes be a little challenging. What you plan to blog about now might change later…just a natural part of blogging.

And to be honest, you don’t have to write about things you love but you should write about things you’ll be able to research and then write about.

Is Your Idea Popular Enough?

How do you know if your mom blog idea is popular enough to stay alive?  Well, to be honest, I think every idea has an audience. That’s the wonder of the internet – everyone is on it. But the farther out there your blog is, the less interest there is.

Let’s narrow down some ideas

Like I said earlier, there are a ton of mom blogs out there so having a new spin on the whole niche will give you a better chance of growing your blog.  And we know that a busy blog means more money potential.

Here are some profitable and popular mom blog niches:

• Newborn learning lessons
• Toddler learning lessons
• Kids crafts
• Teaching Manners
• Breastfeeding
• Healthy eating for toddlers
• Kid fashion
• Single parenting
• Lunch kits
• Mom fashion
• Life as a working mom
• Raising a family on a farm
• Kids and their sports
• Family meal planning
• How to be a healthy mom (yoga, healthy eating)
• Organizing tips
• Makeup for moms
• Kid’s room décor
• Dating as a single mom

Wondering how you’re supposed to devote an entire blog to some of these topics, like lunch kits ? Well, the key is to have a main subject with mini-subjects worked in.

For example, using the lunch kits idea, you can blog about some of the lunches you pack, how you pack them, how nutritious they are, your kid’s “review” of the lunches.  And you can throw in a post about how to get blueberry stains out of carpet.  Mix up the ideas a little bit.

Here are some cool, inspirational blogs to check out:

MomTrends, by Nicole Feliciano.  She writes about all things mommy including fashion, travel and hobbies.
5dollardinners, by Erin Chase. She loves to share budget friendly recipes and help people spend less money on groceries.
momtomomnutrition is a fantastic blog covering nutritional advice from registered dietitian Katie Serbinski.
TheMogulMom, by Melissa Bolton.  This is a great blog that shows moms they too can run a business and a mommy life.

Step #2  Brainstorm And Select A Domain Name

A domain name is the name of your blog. Some call it a domain name, some call it a blog name, I just call it a name.

But no matter what you call it, it’ll cost you around $15.00 a year. 

Your domain name will have the “.com” suffix, like this: thewaryworker.com, where The Wary Worker is the name of my blog followed by .com.

I like to use this Domain Name Search tool to brainstorm some ideas. Just enter a topic and get some suggestions.

Spend some time brainstorming names and come up with several you like. I say several because when you get to the middle of the next step you’ll probably have to try a few of your names.

Got your names written down? Ok, now you’re good to go to step #3.

Pro tip:

Go ahead and be creative but don’t make the name too long because the shorter it is, the easier it is to remember. And easier for other people, aka your ‘visitors’, to type into the internet.

Step #3  Know The Right Blogging Tools

By now you should have an idea of what kind of a mom blog you want to start. You should also have a domain name you like.

Now let’s talk about the two tools you’ll be using:

1. The first tool is a host – the place where your mom blog lives on the internet. A host is where all the files, images, and changes to your blog are stored. I’m going to show you how to set up InMotion Hosting to “host” your blog data. This is a necessary tool and works seamlessly with WordPress. Remember, though, this will cost you around $87.00 a year.  I personally use them and I have NEVER had any problems. Plus, the set-up process can automatically link to WordPress, which is a hard to do otherwise.
2. The second tool is a content management system (CMS) – the platform that lets you create, design, write articles (aka posts) and make edits to your new mom blog. I’m going to show you how to use WordPress.org so you can create your blog. It’s free, easy to use, and offers a lot of options to make a nice looking blog.  And you don’t have to be a programmer or web designer.  Pretty much just click and go.

OK…now that you have an idea and know the right tools, let’s get things going.

Step #4  Set-Up Your Blog Host Account

Remember those tools I talked about in step #3 ? This step goes into detail on the first one, the host.

InMotion is the host we’ll use, which happens to be the bulk of your annual expense…like around $87.00…but necessary.

It’s one of the easiest web hosts to use, especially for new bloggers.

Setting up a host account can be confusing and complicated because it involves several small steps, but InMotion has simplified it for us and I’ll walk you through the process.

In fact, I use InMotion for The Wary Worker and I have never, ever had any issues.  And, as my blog grows, so too can my host capabilities.

Here’s how to get a blog host account with InMotion:

First, Go to InMotion Hosting. On the main menu, hover on Web Hosting and then select WordPress Hosting.

Next, select a plan.  Because this is your first blog, I suggest buying the cheapest plan. As of today, it is $6.99 a month for two years. For newbies, this is a perfect plan. You can always upgrade later.

Anyway, click the order now button, and then the 2-year option. Yes, you can click the 1 year option but let’s be positive here. You’ll be blogging for 2 years 🙂

Then, you should see a Congratulations page, which is where you configure your host account to automatically set up your blog on WordPress.

This is important: You need to select one of the WordPress installation configurations.  It defaults to Don’t Install, so select Plain WordPress.

You can leave the Backup Manger set to yes…it’s free for 14 days and they’ll email you a reminder when it’s ready to expire. At that time you can not renew.  I suggest going with the free trial because you need to have a backup of your blog, especially since you’re just starting to get a feel of things.

You can leave the Dedicated IP set to NO.

You can leave the Quick Starter set to NO.

On the right, you’ll see how much it’ll cost for your two-year plan.  Click the continue button.  Note how the image below shows the total of $167.76.  This is hosting for two years – one year would be around $100.00

Finally, the next screen is where you enter / purchase your domain name (step #1 above) and looks like this:

Remember the names you thought about in the first step? Enter the one you like best here and hit the search button. In Motion will automatically check to see if it’s available. If it is, great. If not, try your next favorite name. Add your name to the cart and hit the Continue button.

A little side bar here:  You have to initially buy a name, then renew it every year.  Your name costs anywhere from a few dollars to $15.00 a year and when you first buy it, it will be included in the total price charged by In Motion.  Don’t worry, you’re not missing out or spending more doing it this way.  You’re actually saving a few steps in this automation.

Like all other blog hosting companies, In Motion does a little up-selling. You can ignore all the little add-ons because you don’t need them.

Almost there !  You just need to enter some login information and billing info..

When all done and paid for, In Motion will send you a few emails:

1. A receipt for your purchase
2. A “welcome” email showing you the technical details. In this welcome email, you want to pay close attention to the WordPress Details portion. It shows your domain name linked to wordpress and looks something like this: http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/. This is what you type into your browser’s top bar to get to your blog’s administration page via WordPress.  Because remember, WordPress.org is the platform you’ll use to write your blog.

Step #5  Set Up Your Blog With WordPress.org

So now you’re all set up and ready to go. See, told you it was easy. Now go to your blog via the link included in the In Motion email you just got. This will take you to your WordPress dashboard where you will make a few changes

This is what your dashboard will look like (image courtesy of wordpress.org):

Take a look around.  See what all those links on the left do.  Don’t worry, you won’t break anything.

Now’s the time to make some changes.

Ready ?  Here we go…

Change #1: The Details

On the left side of your dashboard, you want to click Settings then General Settings. This is where you enter your site title and tagline.  In the case of TheWaryWorker.com, the site title is The Wary Worker and tagline is Skeptics Guide To Working From Home.  Fortunately, all the other important stuff is already inserted, thanks to In Motion Hosting.

Change #2: The Beautiful Theme

This is the final step before you start writing your blog. And the most fun. I love browsing through the themes because new ones are added every day. The theme you pick is the overall look and feel of your blog so it’s worth it to spend some time browsing through them.

Here’s how to pick and install a theme:

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance, Themes, then click the Add New button.  You can preview any theme before you install it, or just quickly install one and start working with it.  To preview, hover over a theme image and click the Details and Preview button.  If you like what you see, click the Install button.  Done !

Change #3: Customize

Now that you have a theme installed, you want to customize it.  Depending on what the theme creator has built into the theme, you have several things you can change:  color scheme, layout, font, menu location.  Go to Appearance, then Customize.  This is where all the customization options are displayed.  Play around with your choices.  Pick new colors.  See what the different layouts look like.  Have fun.

Change #4: Start a New Post

Ok, so this isn’t really a change.  It’s a start.  In the left-hand column of links, click on Posts and then Add New.  You guessed it, this is where you start writing your first mom blog post.  Just click your curser in the Title box and type in a title for your first blog post.  Plop your curser in the big white box under the Title section and start typing your post.

This is what a blank Post screen looks like:

Change #5: You Need Some Plugins

The definition of a Plugin, according to WPBeginner is ” A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites…” That pretty much says it all.

There are plugins that let you add floating social share buttons, slide shows, and backup functionality.

However…

The plugin I recommend, right off the bat, is Yoast SEO.  This will install little hints about your newly written post so you can improve your blog’s optimization.

To get the Yoast SEO plugin (or any other plugin, for that matter), do this:

In the left-hand sidebar, hover on Plugins, click Add New.  Then, in the search box located on the right, type the words Yoast SEO.  Look for the Yoast SEO plugin that comes up, click the install button, then the activate button.  Done.

This is what the screen looks like:

There you have it. I bet the whole process took less than 30 minutes. And if you have any issues with the installation of WordPress, you can contact In Motion Hosting, 24/7. They’ve been very helpful to me.

And, just like I told my friend Kaylee, here’s my favorite WordPress learning blog.  So much stuff to soak up.

The Ugly Part Of Starting A Blog

Sorry to tell you this but I wouldn’t be a great teacher if I didn’t: There are some negatives that come with blogging. Don’t worry though, they can be overcome.

Ready to hear them?

• It will take a long time – like maybe a year or more – before your blog really starts rolling.
• You won’t make much money – if any – for a while. Just give it time.
• You have to keep at it. A stagnant blog won’t interest people. You don’t have to write a blog post every day but you do have to add new content to it every once in a while.

Taa Daa ! You Now Have A Mom Blog On WordPress

How cool is that ? You are officially the newest member of the mom blogging world. I wish you all the best in this endeavor and hope for great success. Please feel free to let me know how you’re getting on with your new blog.

And most importantly: have fun!