When I first started “Business for Mums”, I knew nothing about blogging. I just knew I wanted to share Mum’s business stories and a blog seemed the best way to do it. Because I knew nothing, I made lots of mistakes. That’s fine, it’s how we learn, the only trouble is that it wastes a lot of time. As parents, we don’t tend to have much time so wasting it is a problem. Recently, I have started a second blog (because I wanted to write about a bigger variety of topics). This time round I was determined not to waste any time on mistakes. When I was offered the opportunity to review The “Parent Blogging Secrets” course, it seemed a great way to make sure I was getting things right first time.
Parent Blogging Secrets is an online course developed by Jenny from the Blog Midwife and Life. As the title of her blog suggests, she’s a former midwife turned successful parent blogger, so perfectly placed to create a course for parents who want to earn money from blogging. You can read her full story at the start of the course.
Who is the Parent bloGging secrets course for?
Jenny starts with the basics of setting up a blog so the course is perfect for a brand new blogger. Even with the experience I have of blogging I learnt lots. I kept finding myself coming out of the course to go and change things on my blog based on Jenny’s tips.
The earlier you are in your blogging career, the more you’ll get from the course. Having said that it still has lots to offer the more experienced blogger. The course would be of huge benefit if you’ve been blogging for a while and are now ready to monetise your blog. It would also be great if you’re struggling with one of the aspects covered such as social media, getting traffic to your blog or staying on top of things.
Getting Started
The early part of the Parent Blogging Secrets covers what I would call “The Fun Bit”. Jenny goes through choosing a name for your blog (harder than you first imagine!), deciding on colour schemes and finding your niche.
The technical side of blogging is also well covered. This is a real benefit of the course because getting the technical stuff right in the first place will save you sooo much time later. Don’t worry if you find the tech side a bit scary, everything is carefully explained and easy to follow. The course also provides recommendations for the features you need on a website. This is really helpful because there are so many out there that it’s great to have a starting point.
Making the Best use of your time
The course also covers ways to work effectively and efficiently. This is so important for parent bloggers who are usually squeezing blogging in to nap times and evenings. Jenny offers ideas on how to create great content and how to repurpose it in order to get the most from it. She also shares the tools she uses to work efficiently. These include social media schedulers and plugins (pieces of software that you add to a WordPress website).
The Parent Blogging Secrets includes an editorial calendar to help you plan and write topical posts. It includes things like national days/weeks/months and annual holidays. Also included is a weekly schedule to help you make sure that you’re using your time wisely.
Driving traffic to your blog
One of the biggest challenges is getting people to your blog and Jenny has loads of tips on how to do it. She also includes checklist to use each time you post, making sure that you are promoting properly. The course explains how to get your blog posts to rank highly in search engine results through search engine optimisation (SEO). This is hugely important because once a post ranks well it will keep bringing new traffic to your blog indefinitely.
Social media is of course hugely important to bloggers as it’s the other major source of traffic. The course has a section on each of the main social media platforms. Each section includes tips on how to gain followers and what to post. I’m quite new to Instagram and the course has helped me to understand how stories work and how to make the best use of hashtags. The course even includes a comprehensive ebook on Pinterest which is useful for more than just craft bloggers. Jenny also provides a great explanation of how to run a giveaway which can help to increase you social following.
How do bloggers make money?
The other main area the course cover is how to make money from your blog. There are some guidelines you need to be aware of before monetising your blog. Jenny explains the Advertising Standards Authority’s guidelines for influences early on in the course. She also provides a clear explanation of follow and no follow links and why they matter.
The two main monetisation areas Jenny covers are, working with Brands, PRs and SEO agencies and affiliate marketing. She explains the difference between working with Brands/PRs and SEO agencies. She discusses what each one is looking for when selecting bloggers to work with. Domain authority is also explained (basically a measure of how well your blog ranks in search engines) along with how to increase it. This is important as a higher DA will get you more work. In the freebies section there is a swipe file of email templates for contacting companies you are interested in working with. The course includes a great video, explaining affiliate marketing. It also provides links to some of the main affiliate marketing programs.
Benefits of the Parent Blogging Secrets course
I really enjoyed Parent Blogging Secrets, and found it easy to follow. It’s great to have all of the information you need in one place rather than having to remember where you read something whenever you want to check it. If you’re looking at blogging as a way to make money then this is a good place to start. A blog won’t make you money over night but the course will definitely help help you to generate an income from your blog sooner than you otherwise would.
Blogging is hard work but can be an amazing career if you love writing and have something you’re passionate about sharing. Blogging is also totally flexible. Weather you have school children and need the holidays off or just have nap times to work, it can fit in. If you’d like to get started on a blogging career, you can find out more about the course on the website. If you’d like to read about a real blogger who is making money from blogging, check out Katy’s story.
This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click the link then go on the buy, I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anymore.
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