Looking for some blogging inspiration and wondering whether or not you should start your own blog too?
I’ve reached out to some other fantastic mom bloggers and asked them these questions so you all get a behind-the-scenes look into the mom blogger world! This is part 2 of the series – if you missed part 1, you can check it out here.
Today I’d like to introduce you to Samantha from Journey to SAHM.
Samantha
Samantha is a stay-at-home mom with her 2 kids. Her website, Journey to SAHM, is designed to help moms truly fall in love with parenting and showcases products and activities that are hand-picked to be the best for their children.
1. Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I had been a stay-at-home mom for about a year with my 2-year-old. We were trying for our second child and something just told me I needed something for myself outside of just being a mom.
I actually decided I wanted to blog about 5 days before it went live. I’m a very indecisive person, so it was a huge change to make such a big decision on a whim.
2) What goals did you have for your blog?
My ultimate goal with my blog is to make enough income to stay home when both kids start school.
When I first started, my goal was to make $20 in 6 months and I thought that it was going to be impossible. I laugh thinking about that now since I was making almost 8 times that a month by that time.
3) What was your strategy for reaching these goals?
I’ve always been a firm believer you need to work your hardest to achieve any goal you have. It can be discouraging seeing other people succeed while you’re still trying to make that first dollar.
You need to change your mindset from “why can’t I do that” to “what’s one thing I could work harder on so I CAN do that.”
4) What were the 1-2 main struggles you encountered?
Morning sickness. Haha, but really that was a big struggle. I was only about 3 months into blogging when I got pregnant with my son and the all-day nausea was terrible!
I took 2 weeks off blogging entirely to get back on track, so my summer stats were atrocious compared to where I could have been at.
I also experienced burn out. I tell people all the time that the first 6 months are the hardest. You’re learning WordPress, social media, how to write, what SEO even stands for, while trying to push out new content all the time.
5) How did you resolve these struggles?
I realized it doesn’t matter if I don’t have 10,000 followers on Instagram because my audience is on Pinterest. I don’t need to be like blogger X or blogger Y because I’m blogger Z. I do my own thing and focus on what works well for me.
6) What does a typical workday look like for you now?
Every day is different. I have a 3-year-old toddler and 4-month-old baby with me all day, so my day is planned around their schedules.
We do play dates or playtime in the mornings and then I work for about an hour while they nap in the afternoon. I then spend more time with the family and work on my blog for another hour after the kids are in bed.
The biggest AHA moment about working as a blogger is setting up time away from the house to work. I now work at a local cafe or library for 2-3 hours on one weekend morning. It allows me to focus on what I need to do and put away my work for the rest of the weekend to be with my family.
7) What’s your favorite part about being a mom blogger?
The writing! I went to school for Journalism and Public Relations, yet I never held a job that allowed me to do either. Now I can write whatever I want whenever I want and teach other moms about it too.
8) Looking back, what main lessons did you learn through building your own mom blog?
You are your own blog. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by how much there is out there. I’m a mom blogger, but I am terrible at crafts.
At one point I thought I MUST create tons of crafts to be a successful mom blog. Guess what? You don’t. And right now I have a total 2 crafts on my site.
I do love having crafts from guest contributors though. It points my readers who do love to make crafts to other amazing websites with that content.
9) What advice would you give to someone who’s not sure whether or not they should start their own mom blog?
Blogging takes A LOT of work. It’s basically a part-time or full-time job. I love to help people, but teaching someone how to blog can take 20 hours before you even know how to set up a website.
If you’re serious about blogging, do your research. Look through different sites on how to start one and make sure you have that time commitment to put 100% effort in.
You also need to think about the “why” behind your blog. What are you blogging for? Are you blogging for fun, for income, etc? If that why is enough to keep you going through failures, which you will have, you can succeed in this business.
10) What’s the #1 quality an aspiring mom blogger should bring to the table?
Their own personality and determination. Set your mind to it and you can do anything. Just don’t change yourself for your blog. Be yourself and if you work extra hard, it will all fall into place.
Huge thanks to Samantha for answering all those questions! Let me know what other questions you have and I can add them to the next interviews.
I absolutely agree on finding your big “why” before you start! You need a mission and vision to make it through the inevitable dip…
If you’re not clear what your mission and vision look like, check out the corresponding section in my Business Plan Bundle and get clear on what it is that will keep your fire burning! 🙂
In the meantime – if you have any more questions, come join my free FB group and get them answered! We also have daily threads and weekly mini-trainings on blogging topics you can choose – seriously, you don’t wanna miss out on this! 🙂
See you there!
Happy experimenting!
Yours,
