Whether you’re looking for honest accounts of life on the home front, teething advice, or mom-friendly fashion inspiration, the Internet is full of hacks, laughs and information for parents. Therefore, if you enjoy writing or have a way with social media, starting a parenting blog is a great way for you to document family life and become part of a supportive online community.
Despite how popular the medium has become, blogging isn’t as easy as it sounds, and there are certain tricks you need to learn before you can get started. Here are four crucial tips to help you succeed as a first-time parenting blogger.
Figure Out Your Blog’s Angle
Before you start writing blog posts, you need to figure out what you want to say to the world. In other words, what is the purpose of your blog? Are you looking to share your daily struggles and laughs with other parents? Do you want to inform readers about a particular parenting topic, or is your blog simply a way for you to share photos and anecdotes with your friends and family?
If your blog is intended for a wide audience, you might want to choose a particular parenting niche, ranging from frugal living, home decor, cooking, travel or style. It’s OK if you combine elements of all these areas, especially if you’re blogging from a “lifestyle” angle. However, you do need to decide on your target reader and be sure you’re delivering relevant content for their age group and interests.
Decide What You’re Willing to Share
It’s important to decide what you are happy to share with your audience early on. If you have a spouse or older children, you should talk to them before featuring them in photos and videos. Otherwise, it’s entirely up to you to decide what you put out into the world and what you want to keep private, so long as your content is appropriate. Remember that your readers want to get a picture of your authentic daily life as a parent, warts and all, but they don’t necessarily need to witness arguments with your spouse or toddler meltdowns.
Join the Vlogging Community
If you want to try making videos, you could also become a parenting “vlogger” to drive more readers to your blog. Parenting vlogging is all the rage at the moment, and done right, becoming a successful YouTuber could present some lucrative business opportunities. Branding your channel to complement your blog is a great way to build recognition for your audience, which should be your first step toward increasing your following. Remember that viewers will be more likely to stick with your videos if they are visually attractive, so always make sure you film in natural light, limiting the clutter around you, and brand your videos using a YouTube intro maker.
Be Active on Other Channels
In addition to your blog, you also want to create accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to increase your outreach. Being active across a number of channels will broaden your scope and make your blog appeal more to a modern audience.
Don’t panic – you don’t have to create fresh content for each platform in the beginning. You can just use social media channels to link to your blog posts if you’re short on time. However, posting new images and videos to a regular schedule will help to engage your audience and improve your chances of getting shares and links back to your site.