Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles
To work or not to work if you’re a mother. The LDS Church encourages women to stay at home and raise their children. Some moms are fortunate enough to be able to work from home, and a few have found success as bloggers. Here are LDS mothers blogging about their passions, interests, or talents.
“I think a lot of (Mormon) women seek out blogging because we have talents and passions of our own and it’s a way to express those, but still be able to stay true to those core values and stay home with our kids” Meredith Ethington said, creator of Perfection Pending.
Here are the five ways to earn money from blogging:
1. Create an Unique Voice
It’s never too late to start a blog now. If someone plans to create a blog, they should write about their passions and interests and create an unique voice. It is important for bloggers to have an authentic voice to distinguish their blog from the competition.
In 2011, Jill Nystul created One Good Thing By Jillee to help people through the clutter of life. She shares one good thing every day with her readers. Jill has a unique voice because she applies the different types of leads she learned in her Journalism 101 class at BYU.
Lara created Overstuffed because she loves to write. She consistently wrote in her journal until one day realized that blogging would be easier. Now, she shares parenting and homemaking tips on her blog.
2. Create a Niche
There’s a niche called lifestyle blogging in the blogging world. Most bloggers consider themselves lifestyle bloggers. However, there are also other niches—parenting tips, fashion, food, travel, sports, etc. If bloggers want to stand out, they’ll need to find an unique perspective on a common interest.
People asked Lara, “what’s your niche as a blogger? Are you a food blogger? Are you a parenting blogger?”
Lara thinks her niche is “nobody else lives my particular life and that’s where I get my unique perspective.” Her blog posts are inspired by her feelings of life events.
In Forbes Magazine, it says, “one of the best ways to stand out from the masses and monetize a blog is to write about something people are interested in, but that other media outlets generally ignore.”
3. Gain Followers
Once a blog is established, gaining followers is the next step. Bloggers can get loyal followers by consistently posting on social media.
Jennifer, the creator of My Daylights, stated that she receives the majority of her followers through Instagram. Jennifer was able to cultivate her brand and her audience by sharing her personal life on Instagram. Another social media outlet she uses to promote her blog is Twitter.
Other popular social media outlets are Snapchat, Facebook, and Pinterest. Pinterest is one of social media’s popular outlets that can create a lot of traffic for blogs.
Lastly, bloggers get loyal followers from their email subscribers’ list. According to Jill, building an email subscriber list is just as important as posting on social media, if not more. Bloggers engage with their email subscribers. They respond to each email and comment individually. Followers appreciate the bloggers’ replies and start to view them as a friend.
4. Advertisements
Once a blogger gets followers and creates traffic, they start adding advertisements to make money from blogging. Companies will offer bloggers money to advertise their products on their blogs.
But first, most bloggers start with Google Adsense. Google Adsense is free and simple for all website publishers to earn money by displaying targeted Google ads on their websites.
When Jill started her blog, she noticed that other bloggers had advertisements. She was curious if she could add advertisements and looked into Google Adsense.
Hilary Erickson established her own blog Pulling Curls to give helpful pregnancy and parenting tips. She also started with Google Adsense as her first advertisement. Hilary now makes the majority of her family’s income from blogging. She decided to share her monthly income reports on her blog to show that it’s possible to earn money from blogging.
5. Get Connected with Other Bloggers
Many bloggers connect together, such as Hilary and Lara.
Connecting with other bloggers helps people receive insight on their own work. Bloggers often find new content on a regular basis when communicating with other bloggers. Bloggers will comment on other bloggers’ posts. However, they never try to promote their own blog when commenting on a post. Instead, they often give feedback, advice or compliments.
In the blogging community, bloggers support one another. They will mention other bloggers on their blogs and vice versa. It’s all about helping others and getting themselves free publicity.
Remember, it’s not easy. It can potentially take time building and promoting a blog before making money. Bloggers have to be willing to put in their time and effort to grow their blog.
Worried about designing your blog? Most of the work has been done for you. The following companies have made it to where you just have to fill in the blanks: Blogger, WordPress (the WooCommerce featured enables you to sell from your website), Wix, Weebly, or Sqaurespace.
