Just Start - The Motherless Mom: Month 1
So as I’m one month in to this blogging journey of mine I thought it’d be “fun” for me to do a monthly check in of sorts. I promise to keep these short and sweet. My hope is to encourage other ladies to take the steps to get started by showing the "behind the scenes."
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from friends that they’ve always wanted to start a blog but just don’t know how or where to even start. To that I say JUST START! Put your pen to paper, or in my case thumb to notes app, and start collecting your ideas. I have notes on everything from ideas for content to the actual blog posts themselves. So far I’ve written every post in my notes app first - usually because the ideas hit me at inopportune moments like sayyyy walking my dog at 6:30am on a Monday before work....cheese! ----->
Start with your idea for content, figure out your why (not only the why of why you want to do this, but also the why of why someone would care to read your work), choose a hosting platform and hop to it. My site is hosted through Wix and I fucking love it. It is incredibly easy to use for beginners, so if web design isn’t totally your jam, Wix is a good place for you to start. If you’re setting this blog up as something you’ll do outside of your 9-to-5, pick a topic that excites you and comes naturally. The last thing you want to be doing after 9 hours at work is researching a topic you don’t really care about only because it’s popular. Motherhood and grief are very natural topics for me to talk about. I’ve been open and honest about my mental health for years now so putting those thoughts to paper doesn’t feel like extra work.
I’m going to make the assumption that if you’re going through the trouble of creating a blog you want people to actually read it. Once you're feeling good about your site it's time to think through your promotion strategy. How are people going to actually find your page? SEO is a great, but that takes time to build and optimize. Building a social media strategy should be your next stop. I started with Instagram because I knew my brand would be heavily weighted toward lifestyle imagery but I quickly added Facebook so that I could easily share different articles I'd come across. I plan to dive deeper into social media and SEO in subsequent months, so if you have any questions about those, please ask and I'll work the answers into those posts.
It's been a fun first month and I think each and every one of you for being apart of this journey with me.
What’s fueled me this month?
Podcast: The Mom Hour - I've been a listener of Meagan and Sarah for almost 2 years now. They have ushered me right into motherhood and I thank them for it. My Favorite episode has been Toddlers vs. Teens because....#Toddlerlife
Wine: Trader Joe's Blanc de Blancs - ok, I LOVVEEEE champagne (sparkling wine of any kind really!) so with July being a month of a promotion, a new blog and passing my digital test....mama's been hitting dat champs pretty hard. And this one is only $6....yeah you read that correctly.
Digging into fun memories of my mom. :)
Until next week my friends!
xoxoxxx
Rashida