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Quick Introduction
This post is about my first month blogging on Mom Wife and Everyday Life. This was my first blog ever with only a few months of research before launching.
I launched https://www.momwifeandeverydaylife.com in January of 2021.
This blog came from nothing. No Experience. No followers. Nothing.
It started with a dream and a lot of hard work.
Early Preparation
The key to success is strong preparation. It is too early to tell if I will be a successful blogger, but I can say I got it launched and consider my first month to be a success in my book. Things I did to prepare include prewriting blog posts, creating a Canva account and starting to create pins based on the titles on my prewritten content, and warming up a business Pinterest account.
Everything I did during my prep phase was free. I could quit at any time if I was not enjoying it. I was also saving money by getting ahead before spending a penny.
My other motivation for prewriting content was that it motivated me to actually launch my blog and to push through the setup phase. I figured if I took the time to write 30 articles I was going to publish them!
You can check out my other article for a full breakdown of the Steps to Take Before Launching Your Blog to Guarantee Success.
January Goals
January 1-5
- Purchase Hosting & Domain
- Purchase Theme
January 5-10
- About Me Page
- Contact Page
- Disclaimers
- 5 Blog Posts Ready to Publish
January 10
- Go Live
January 10-15
- Create Pinterest Pins
- Set up Google Analytics
- Link Related Articles
January 15-31
- Start Pinning
As you can see some of my goals were very specific such as “Go Live on January 10th”. I did not want time to get away from me without launching. I also wanted to make sure the setup kept moving along and did not drag out.
A goal that was looser was when I would start publishing pins on Pinterest. I wanted to do so as soon as I could manage it. First, the posts needed to be on my website and be live. Then I needed to figure out how to publish a pin! So my goal was to start pinning any time during the second half of the month. The first pin I ever published was on January 20th.
I would say in general I was spending about 20 hours a week working on my blog.
Real Timeline
Here are some real things I accomplished during January of 2021.
- Created a code for tracking my pin on an Excel Sheet
- Wrote and edited posts
- Created pins to go with posts
- Created More Pinterest Boards
- 1/5/21 purchased domain, hosting, theme. Started to figure out the WordPress dashboard and settings
- 1/6/21 Played with the theme-have no idea what I am doing-starting to get overwhelmed
- Created a Gmail for Website
- Cleaned up Pages
- Wrote Disclaimers for posts
- Downloaded Upsplash photos-renames and organized into folders for use on pins
- 1/10/21 practiced linking articles, published posts 3,4, and 5, went live, changed Pinterest account from personal to a business account
- Fixed issue with http:// versus https:// bluehost helped with this
- Signed up for Convertkit
- Set up Google Analytics
- Resizing Images before putting them into posts
- Publishing Posts
- Preparing Pinterest Boards with better descriptions
- Created more Pinterest boards
- Started making quick pin templates to make publishing quicker
- Reached out to another blogger
- Grabbed social media handles for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
If you notice this first month was primarily about set up, publishing posts, and getting Pinterest going. I did not monetize my blog this first month. In my mind, there was no need. There were way too many other tasks to work on.
I ended the month with 15 published posts.
Mistakes
This launch was not without issue.
My first mistake was wasting time setting too many goals. I tried to break down exactly how much money I would make each month and the total I would have by the end of the year. Why did I waste time on this? Goals you should set are those you can control such as the number of blog posts you will publish in a month. Don’t set goals for page views or income until you know what you are doing.
Update: After now a year of blogging you can check out my Year 2 Business Plan. I did include goals for traffic and income, but my focus is on actionable goals such as producing content and create email opt-ins.
I had a technical issue with my site starting as http:// instead of https://. I contacted bluehost and they were awesome at helping me fix this issue.
I strongly recommend Bluehost. They were incredibly helpful. If you want to support my content purchase your Bluehost hosting through my link here.
When I set up Google Analytics it was a complete mess at first. I can’t even explain what I did wrong. It had to do with setting up the old version versus the 4.0 version. Anyways do your research before you try to set up anything.
I purchased a theme for $49. This theme was a complete mess. I had no idea how to change anything on it. This was the day after launch so I was for sure extremely overwhelmed. I thought I needed to have a paid theme because it would look so much better than a free theme. I regret making this purchase. I now use the free astra theme and am very happy with it so far.
I’m sure there were other mistakes and I am sure there will be many more. I just want you to know it is ok to make mistakes. Just keep learning along the way.
How I am Feeling
I am very excited and proud of my first month. I really did it!
I feel like I accomplished a lot of work this month, but I am not sure exactly if I was doing the right work. I like to think so.
One thing that I am very unsure of is my Pinterest strategy. I don’t exactly have one yet. Many pins and articles are talking about pinning strategies, but the person often doesn’t say what they actually do. I guess you have to pay for courses to learn about that.
I am finding it very difficult not to check my Google Analytics. I am wasting so much time logging on to see my number of users.
12 Users is pretty low, but I am looking at the positive that I have time to better figure things out before people are looking at my site.
Conclusion
Launch your site!
I am so happy I made it happen.
Set goals for your launch, but do not make them to tight or overwhelming. You just don’t know exactly how the process will go for you.
Check Out My Articles
Take These Steps to Create the Best Blog Post Title Every Time
Steps to Take Before Launching Your Blog to Guarantee Success
Comprehensive Business Plan and Strategy to Grow My Blog During Year 2