There are 4 million mom bloggers in North America alone, but you know what? Most mom bloggers fail.

And you’re probably one of them.

Not because I’m picking on you, but because statistically, the majority of moms who blog make little to no income from their blogs month after month.

When you consider the fact that many moms start blogging with the purpose of bringing in more money to their household, that paints a pretty unfortunate picture.

If you’re a new mom blogger that’s struggling to grow your blog or turn a profit, I’ve got news for you: There’s a reason for it. Or more accurately, there are 11 reasons.

These 11 blog-killing mistakes are why most mom bloggers fail, and they surface again and again with the moms I work with who are trying to grow their blog.

Let’s call the out, one-by-one:

1. You Waste Time on Things That Don’t Matter

We’ve all done it. You sit down at your computer with the intention of getting productive work done, but instead, spend countless hours posting on social media (without a plan) and tweaking your blog design to make it “perfect”.

You’re doing things that you think you should do, or that other people have said you should do… but you know what you’re not doing?

One single thing to help your blog grow or make money. You need to make a blog plan and WORK THE PLAN every time you sit down to blog.

Pro Mom Blogger Insight: “Time is the most valuable resource we have. The key is to intentionally set time on your calendar, and dedicate this time specifically to your blog growth.”
– Ruth Soukup, EliteBlogAcademy.com

2. You Don’t Have a Real Work Schedule

There’s a notion among many moms that’s actually working against you: blogging “during naptime”.

After all, we’re busy moms with no extra time to dedicate to our blog, right? Let’s cram some work in while the kids are napping, or playing, or watching TV, or fill-in-the-blank. But that’s a slippery slope.

If you have a one or two babies who are on the same nap schedule and no other kids, then I can see how this might work. Heck, it used to work for me for a season after my first son was born.

But you know how frustrating it is when baby wakes up early from her nap and the boys come wailing to you to settle a fight and you haven’t even gotten a load of laundry in yet. You get frustrated with them for “interrupting” you and you get frustrated with yourself for getting frustrated with them. Frustration all around. And you didn’t even finish your blog post.

It’s crucial to set real working hours when you know you’ll be able to focus on blog tasks.

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]If your blog time isn’t on your schedule, it doesn’t exist (+10 more newbie mistakes) #blogtalk http://bit.ly/2fKeDWt[/Tweet]

3. You Don’t Have a Blog Growth and Profit Plan

The ol’ Field of Dreams mantra, “If you build it, they will come”, is romantic and all, but it doesn’t work for blogging.

You can write epic post after epic post, but if you don’t have a solid plan to drive traffic to your blog, get email subscribers, and earn money, then your blog is going to be a ghost town with no readers, no comments and no profits.

You need to develop a detailed growth and profit plan from the start, even if you don’t have an audience yet.

Pro Mom Blogger Insight: “As much as I wish I could say I don’t need money from my blog, I do. In order for me to be able to provide free, quality content, the blog needs to be thriving; it’s got to make money.”
– Jordan Page, FunCheapOrFree.com

4. Ads Are Your Only Monetization Strategy

I get it. You don’t want to come off as pushy or slimy or “salesy”. Neither do I.

But throwing Google ads up in your sidebar with a hope and a prayer isn’t going to cut it. Without a solid strategy for creating profitable content that helps your audience, your blog won’t be making life-changing income anytime soon.

You don’t have to be a salesperson to run a profitable blog; in fact, most popular blogs don’t feel “salesy” at all. Think about it: do your favorite blogs feel like they’re always trying to sell you something? Probably not.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to monetize your blog in the beginning, and there’s no slime factor involved (if you do it right!).

5. You Don’t Know Who You Want to Serve

You started your blog because you had something to say. A message to share. Knowledge to bestow.

But who are you blogging for? Who, specifically, does your content serve? Who do you want to be a hero to?

Without identifying your target audience, you’re trying to be all things to all people. And that means your content is going to feel impersonal and generic. Not helpful, not inspiring, and not profitable.

Pro Mom Blogger Insight: “Mommy bloggers cover a variety of topics from parenting to saving money to political issues. In order to establish a blog others want to read (readership is one of the goals of a blog), one must first decide the voice that will be used.”
– Holly Homer, KidsActivitiesBlog.com

6. You Don’t Know How to Create Powerful, Shareable Content

If you write a blog post without thinking about how it might help someone solve a problem or reach a goal, you’ve just created content that no one really cares about and that no one is going to share.

When you blog about you without framing it to benefit them (your audience), you’re missing the mark.

In addition, if you’re writing blog posts like you wrote your high school and college essays, you’re doing it wrong. You need to write for the internet, and that requires a whole different set of rules.

7. You’re Trying to Do It All (At Once)

You’re trying to master Pinterest, and Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram and the million other things that pull you in competing directions.

But in the wise words of Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that”.

And I get it. You hear about how great “x” thing is for driving traffic or getting email sign ups so you go after it. Your intentions are in the right place, but spreading yourself too thin is going to give you mediocre (or worse) results at a lot of things.

You need to get focused. Remember: WORK THE PLAN (see #1 and #3).

8. You Haven’t Set Specific Goals

We’ve all heard advice about the power of goal-setting, so I won’t beat this point into the ground. But I will ask you this:

Is your blog getting as much traffic or making as much money as you set out for 1 year ago?

If you can’t answer with a definitive “yes” or “no”, that means you haven’t set specific goals for your blog. And that’s the surest way for it to fail.

Pro Mom Blogger Insight: “I’m a fanatic about setting goals. Why? Without them, you have nothing that you’re aiming for. Goals give you passion, purpose, motivation, and drive. You wake up each day with intention: you have a plan and you have direction.”
– Crystal Paine, MoneySavingMom.com

 

9. You Haven’t Defined Your Deep “Why”

Why are you blogging? If you said, “To make money”, or “To chronicle my journey” or something similarly generic, then you haven’t delved deep enough into your specific motivation for why you started blogging in the first place.

And this is vitally important to the life of your blog. When things get hard, when you feel like giving up, when you doubt yourself, it’s your WHY that will keep you going. Without it, you’ll give up.

Is it so you can stay home with your kids without stressing about money? Is it so you can have fun family vacations and adventures? Is it so you can quit your 9-5 that you hate and work on something you love? Is it so you stop feeling financial stress and pressure every time the car breaks down, guests come to town, or the kids need new clothes?

When things get hard, when you feel like giving up, when you doubt yourself, it’s your WHY that will keep you going. Without it, you’ll give up.

Take a few minutes to write out your “why” and post it up somewhere near your workstation so you can look at it every day. I’m serious. Make a pretty printable of it in Canva or simply write it out on a piece of paper. But do it.

Pro Mom Blogger Insight: “Blogging has literally changed my life. It has allowed me to stay home with my daughter, make thousands from the comfort of my own home, and work according to my own schedule.” – Gretchen Lindow, RetiredBy40Blog.com

10. You Refuse To Invest In Yourself and Your Business

Yep, I just called your blog a “business”. Scary? That’s okay… do it anyway!

A common mistake newbie bloggers make is that they refuse to spend any money on their blog until it starts making money. And I completely understand and empathize with that – I’ve been there. If you’re on a tight budget, investing in your blog can seem like a big leap of faith.

But the sooner you start to see your blog as a business, you can start investing strategically in things that will save you time and help you progress much faster.

I love this article by Mariah Coz of Femtrepreneur where she talks about that shift in mindset:

“When I first started blogging I was afraid of making monetary investments, such as using a paid blog, because I was anxious I wouldn’t be able to make any money and wouldn’t be able to cover those expenses. Over time I’ve come to realize how even tiny little micro-investments in your business can add up to a big return (in profit, sanity, and time saved). Making micro-investments in yourself and your business can be a major factor in success.“

11. You Take In Too Much Random Advice (and Don’t Take Strategic Action)

This one is perhaps the biggest and most detrimental mistake of them all.

The information available online for free today is staggering. Thanks to the internet, you can learn how to do, create, or become pretty much anything in the world you want to like never before in human history.

But that abundance of information has one very unfortunate side-effect: it can paralyze your progress if you stay in consumption mode and never take action.

Just as Mariah mentioned how micro-investments can catapult your blog to new levels, so can micro-actions. Commit to yourself that for every new worthwhile thing you learn, you will immediately take action on it before taking in any new information.

You should block out time in your blog work schedule specifically dedicated to learning/training (at least 1-2 hours a week) so it doesn’t infect your productivity time (like writing posts or working on money-making projects).

Then, follow this rhythm: Learn, implement, learn, implement, learn, implement. Make that pattern a habit. Just make sure you follow a strategic growth and profit plan when you blog, instead of acting on every random unrelated piece of advice out there.

The best comprehensive blogging plan I’ve seen is Elite Blog Academy, but it’s only open once a year so if you’re serious about taking your blog to legit business status then you should jump on the free waiting list now so you don’t miss the enrollment period.

Your Turn: Take Action

If you haven’t already started your blog, today’s your day! Now that you know the big newbie mistakes to avoid as you pursue your profitable blogging journey, you can start down the path to real growth and success. Then, be sure to follow a strategic blog growth and profit plan every.single.time you sit down to blog!

Have you made any of these newbie blogging mistakes? Are you still struggling with some? Let me know in the comments (hey, we’ve all been there)!