I love reading, writing, and sharing new ideas, so for me blogging is intensely fulfilling and is quickly becoming an integral part of my life. You know something is a perfect fit when you find yourself wondering where it’s been all your life. That’s how I feel about blogging.
For those of you interested in starting a blog I wanted to share the resources I found most helpful. As a writer, I found these really helped me to get up and running and quickly able to focus on the writing and not get bogged down by the technical aspects.
I want to preface this list with one thing: ‘Know your Why’. Why do you want to blog? To write, to share your message, find accountability, connect with others, make money from home?
Blogging is great for all of these things. And there are also other ways to do each of these things that might be a better fit for you. So my first resource is one I highly recommend starting with.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Learn more here
Money-Making Mom: How Every Woman Can Earn More and Make a Difference, by Crystal Paine
If you love writing or you have content you want to share, such as recipes or crafts, then blogging may be a great fit for you. If you’re not sure, I highly recommend Money Making Mom, by Crystal Paine. She does an amazing job of covering a variety of options and coaching you through the process of determining which one might fit your strengths, personality and situation best.
The Knowtbook
For blogging specifically my favorite resource by far is Amy Lynn Andrews. The only thing I love more than her blog is her Knowtbook. She covers all the basic technical steps on her blog. The Knowtbook is easier to read through than the blog and she updates it regularly. She also sends out a weekly Useletter that I recommend subscribing to regardless of whether you start a blog or pursue some of the many other options of side work for moms. She watches for trends and resources and highlights the best ones.
How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul, by Ruth Soukup
This is a great read that will help you prioritize your time and structure your efforts. Her advice and reasoning was so compelling that I found myself putting down the book to work on the step outlined in each chapter before moving on.
StudioPress
I use StudioPress themes for WordPress and couldn’t be happier with them. For my WordPress site I use the Genesis Framework and their child themes and highly recommend it. A quality theme saves you a lot of time. Let me know if you want input picking which child theme to go with, I’d be happy to help you. If you are going to make some money setting up sites for clients, you should consider getting the Pro Plus All Theme package, which is what I did. I’m currently using the Divine child theme for the Genesis Framework, by Restored316Designs.com. I love it and she has some really helpful videos about the different ways that you can set it up.
CreativeMarket.com
This is a website that provides a platform for thousands of independent designers to sell their products to people like you and I who can’t afford a designer and just need a boost with some nice elements we can easily add to our blog template or theme.
I use 1&1 for hosting, which has WordPress functionality built in as an option for you to build on any domain.
I’m not going to go into further detail because there is so much good info online already. But since you can easily get information overload wading through it I’m excited to point you toward the ones I really found helpful. I also want to mention a book I love that is just about writing:
The Writer’s Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft
If you love writing, or have content such as crafts or recipes that you’d like to share, I would recommend giving blogging a try. A blog requires a lot of writing regardless so here is my current favorite resource for writing. I frequently pick it up and read a few pages in it and it always inspires me.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
I loved this course by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner at makingsenseofcents.com. In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing I learned all of the strategies she used on her successful blog. I decided to take this course after reading around and seeing multiple different bloggers say that this was the best course on the topic, and after assessing the various options and determining affiliate marketing was a strategy I should try, and that it was worth investing in the course. I highly recommend it, and I would love to help you work through ideas to implement if you take the course.
Alicia Eichmann