How to start a mum blog

Pregnancy, birth and par­ent­hood come with lots of questions and a wealth of answers. A mum blog is a great resource for sharing your ex­per­i­ences and knowledge. The good news is that you don’t need any technical knowledge to start a mum blog. In this article, we’ll go over different options for starting a mummy blog.

When you’re an expectant mother, your life can feel like it’s been turned upside down. There is a lot to learn when welcoming a child to the family. In your new-born’s first months, your daily life will revolve around clothing, nutrition, baby-friendly activ­it­ies, parenting methods and more. As we know, mothers spend a lot of time caring for their child and planning for the days ahead. Many mothers find them­selves looking for in­form­a­tion and are eager to swap tips with others.

A mum blog is an ideal way to share this beautiful, but also sometimes ex­haust­ing time of life with others. You can choose to document your pregnancy journey, your baby’s first months or another specific aspect in your moth­er­hood journey. Starting a mummy blog is also a great way to keep a diary of your ex­per­i­ences and the different phases of your child’s life.

You don’t need any pro­gram­ming skills or knowledge about blog design to start a mum blog. Blogging sites like Tumblr or website builders make it easy for beginners to start a blog.

There are two options if you want to create a blog. The main dif­fer­ence between the options is the level of cus­tom­isa­tion. A cus­tom­is­able blog will require more effort when it comes to creation and main­ten­ance.

The easiest ways to start a blog are:

• On a blogging platform. This is the fastest way to start a mum blog. Platforms like Tumblr have pre-set designs, so all you have to worry about as a newbie blogger is creating the content.
• With a website builder. If you decide to use a builder, you’ll have better design options. A builder gives you access to a large selection of different designs and modules, which you can insert directly into blog posts using drag and drop.

The major dif­fer­ence between the two options mentioned above is the range of design cus­tom­isa­tion options. Modular solutions offer a far more extensive selection, which include image galleries, text boxes and video embedding.

You can create a blog quickly and for free with blogging platforms such as WordPress or Tumblr. The downside of these platforms is that it will not be as cus­tom­is­able.

The pros: Creating a blog on one of these platforms is usually free. You can access the platform with a Google account or a social media account. They come with standard design layouts. The com­munit­ies on the platforms usually help to spread the word about new blogs to other readers.

Website builders offer a huge amount of cus­tom­isa­tion options which allow you to create a website that is truly unique. Website builders fa­cil­it­ate different types of blogs, such as image-based blogs which resemble photo albums, or text-based blogs which mainly contain stories and re­flec­tions.

The pros: Website builders provide several different layouts. Users without prior knowledge can create and customise their dream website quickly. Most website builders follow a step-by-step process, where users choose the design and add their images, texts and videos. Many website builders give their users access to large image databases which support visual design. You can also choose the domain for your website.

The cons: While search engine op­tim­isa­tion is included in most website builders, you do not have access to a blogging platform community. Blog operators are re­spons­ible for their content’s dis­tri­bu­tion.

You will need a good idea, a laptop or a smart­phone, and a hosting service provider to maintain a mum blog with in­ter­est­ing content. A hosting provider ensures that your blog (text, photos and all) can be accessed online via a domain.

Planning and regularly pub­lish­ing content is important to attract a following. This is also a quality feature for search engines, which classify websites with con­sist­ently new content as more relevant.

Follow these steps to start your own blog.

The blog’s theme should be reflected in its content. Is the blog about nutrition for babies and toddlers? Or is the focus on DIY changing pads or furniture for new-borns?

The name of the blog should also be as short as possible so readers can remember it. The blog’s URL is usually the name and possibly another relevant keyword related to the blog. This ensures that the blog is easy to find and gives people an idea about what the blog is about.

It’s important to use a domain check to see if your desired URL is still available. You can also find out if there are similar domains already out there.

Choose a web hosting service and install a suitable content man­age­ment system (CMS). This allows you to create and manage the blog’s content. IONOS provides combined hosting and CMS to make your blog’s setup as easy as possible.

The most popular content man­age­ment system is WordPress. Blogs can easily be created with the blog themes from WordPress. Basic layout decisions such as the ar­range­ment of images, headings and texts are already preselec­ted.

A blog can set itself apart with its design. A well-designed blog will captivate readers and con­tinu­ously inspire them. This is why choosing the right design should be a top priority.

Modular systems offer a variety of designs with different styles, such as playful, tidy, image-centric or the option of multiple subpages. Choosing the right design, font and module cus­tom­isa­tion at the beginning sim­pli­fies the content creation process down the line.

Many of the website builders also offer ready-made designs for different topics such as shopping, cooking or beauty. This also makes it easy to create a travel blog, where the preselec­ted layout can be adjusted as you wish.

Once you have chosen a suitable design and cus­tom­ised it according to your vision, it’s time to start creating content.

Texts, images, videos or detailed reports can be created with website builders re­l­at­ively quickly. It is important for new blogs to upload regularly to keep readers coming back for more. New content keeps the blog fresh and en­cour­ages readers to stay on the page. A longer stay also gradually increases the blog’s relevance in search engines. This will lead to your blog achieving a better position in the search results.

Potential readers may not find your content auto­mat­ic­ally. Op­tim­ising posted content in line with SEO criteria is often part of the modular systems, for example, by main­tain­ing the metadata, which gives search engines in­form­a­tion about the posted content. You can find helpful tips on SEO for blogs in our Digital Guide.

Aside from SEO, you can post on social media and in forums and com­munit­ies that cover similar topics. This ensures a con­tinu­ous stream of new readers who may become long-term fans of your mum blog.