Playing the role of mom in the family is always a lot. Whether you are a stay at home mom or a working mom – both have lots of time spent needing things done. As a mom, it is hard to have hobbies – really hard. Especially when you have more than one child and are trying to coordinate schedules – almost impossible.
A hobby I took up a few years ago was blogging. I used to be a blogger but took quite a few years break and then with having a three-year-old, I knew I had a lot of stories to tell! This seemed like a really great idea, especially since I was a full-time teacher that time going through a very competitive certification. Needless to say, life was preventing me from doing my hobby, writing and blogging. But, I made the decision that I was going to focus on it and work my way to extra income for my family while doing something I loved, writing.
But HOW!
Seriously, there was never any time. I should be doing laundry, playing with my daughter, doing school work, watching tv, or exercising instead of sitting in front of my computer or cell phone and blogging or posting on social media. Right?
The answer should be yes, but really, my answer is no. I found a way to include all of those things into my life and blog at the same time. It took a while to get it all working together and having my husband accept that what I was doing was useful and not just hanging out on social media. It also took some time to get into the groove of how I was going to make this work and would I have enough time in the week to follow through with all the pods that I had joined on Instagram and Facebook. Do any of these situations ring a bell with you? Are you having a hard time making time to include blogging into your life.
Here are a few tips to help you through this time and to keep doing what you love.
Create a schedule.
Scheduling your life daily can help you determine where your “Mom Time” is. With this, you will be able to determine when is a good time for you to set for working on your blog.
Designate a time every day to contribute to social media.
If you are not on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to help your blog, you need to be. Connect all of the sites together so that they can help you gain followers and traffic. Designating 30-45 minutes a day to engage with followers and send out your posts is totally worth it. Plus being in mom pods will help you make some really cool mom friends! My number one go to is Mom Bloggers Tribe on Facebook.
Schedule your writing/social media posts!
Now you can write out your Instagram posts and save the draft to post it. Your blog posts you can schedule out as far as you want. Scheduling out for the entire week is amazing – or even trying 1 or 2 scheduled so that way if something does come up, you have something ready to go.
Make sure to take some nights off and spend with your husband.
Usually Friday nights are my time off from blogging. I try not to pick up my laptop unless my husband is busy too, but we need some quality time after my daughter goes to sleep so pick a night that you will get some time together.
Join Instagram pods that you are able to comment.
These really help you drive traffic to your Instagram. If you are an influencer, you will need these pods in order to gain engagement for your posts so make sure you are using that time every day to engage in these pods and put posts up.
Bring your laptop with you.
If you are going on a trip, or having to sit through a long work presentation, bring your laptop with you. There might be some free time to blog and you want to take advantage of this!
Embrace the Wordpress mobile app.
This is definitely not the best way to post on your blog, but you can make edits on it, comment back, and follow other readers on it. You can also start a draft on there if you are on your phone and have an idea. I would suggest going to a computer to post the final post and create a featured image along with it as well, but you can embrace the mobile app for smaller things.
Affiliate links will help you start to make money.
There are so many websites out there that you can find affiliate links on to help you if you are on a mission to make money. These also require some time as well, but time well spent.
Write down topics that you want to cover on your blog that month.
Being a mom, you always have something on your mind. You might come up with an idea for a topic and then forget it later that day before you had a chance to write anything. Have a notebook that you can use to write down ideas for each month of topics you want to cover.
Do not give up.
Blogging is hard and gaining traffic is even harder. There are so many things to learn. It does not happen overnight or even in 6 months – it takes time. So don’t give up!
Overall
From one mom to another I hope that you find these tips helpful. Remember, these are just the basics. There are so many more things that you can learn about blogging! If you need any other advice please feel free to reach out to me.
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Great article! You nailed it on needing a schedule to make time. It’s been 9 months into this blogging journey and I still struggle to schedule and balance. Your Instagram Pod tip and connecting all social media platforms are very helpful! It sparked my interest. What is an Instagram pod? And how do I connect my social media platforms? Thank you thank you thank you!
Thank you ! They are groups of people who send pics and then everyone comments/likes them. I run one if u want to join email me ur Instagram name [email protected]