How To Start A Mom Blog For Beginners

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase.

One of the most common questions I get via email or in my Facebook group is how to start a blog. So in this post, I’m going to walk you through what you should do before you start a blog + how to start a blog with SiteGround. 

I feel like every mom out there should start a mom blog. It is so fulfilling and you can create so many lasting relationships through blogging. Plus, it is also a fabulous way to make money from home!

By my third month blogging I was making over $1000 a month, and now I make enough to provide for my family and put my husband through his Master’s degree!

Starting a mom blog is one of the best choices I’ve ever made, so I wanted to create a step-by-step tutorial (this works even for blogging beginners!) to show you how you can start a blog too.

Even if you aren’t tech savvy, I’ll walk you through it all and show you how you can start a blog on SiteGround today!

1. Pick Your Niche

Your niche is essentially the topic that you want to blog about, it could be parenting, recipes, DIY projects, entrepreneurship or really anything that you love!

To find your niche consider asking yourself these questions. 

1. What do I enjoy talking about? Think of something that excites you. What types of articles are you up late reading about on Pinterest? That is what you need to write!

2. What do I have experience in? Maybe you have worked in a certain industry or maybe you have had a child with a particular disease. If you have experience, you are qualified to write about it!

3. Is this a topic that I can monetize? If you are going to commit all of the time to write great content for your blog most likely you are going to need to monetize it to justify your time. Almost every niche has income potential, but start brainstorming how you can make money from it.

Once you have a topic or two in mind, start brainstorming your blog name. You want it to be something that your readers will be able to relate with. Think of terms relevant to your topic and to your targeted reader.

So, for example, when I was coming up with the name of my blog I knew that I was targeting other moms and I wanted to talk about money, specifically how moms can make money. “Moms” in Moms Make Cents is pretty straight forward, but “Make Cents” is a little play on words.

Once you have a couple ideas check to see if your domain is available.

2. Choose A Blogging Platform

I recommend starting with WordPress.org. You will have more opportunities to customize your site and it opens up all of your options when you want to monetize your site.

With WordPress.org you will need to have “hosting.” This is access to the server that will run your blog. Think of it like this, your blog is your apartment, your domain name is your address and the hosting is your landlord. Fortunately, hosting is super inexpensive.

There are other alternatives, like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and more – but I’ve either personally had blogs on those platforms or managed client accounts on those sites and trust me, WordPress is where you want to be.

These other sites have less opportunity for customization and generally are much more expensive (more like $200+ per year).

3. Set Up Your Blog

I have worked in the blogging industry for over six years and the best host I have found by far is SiteGround. In this tutorial, I am going to walk you through how to set up your mom blog, so you can start sharing with the world!

Why Start A Blog With SiteGround?

1. Their Uptime Is Incredible.

One of the worst things that can happen as a blogger is to have your blog go down. Other hosting companies have frequent outages, but SiteGround has 99.9%  uptime, which is pretty dang incredible.

2. Their Customer Service Is Fabulous

No more waiting to chat with a representative for an hour. “Ain’t nobody got time for that!” SiteGround’s tech support is lightning quick and super helpful. They can help you setup your hosting for WordPress in under 10 minutes.

Their service is available 24/7 and you can talk with tech support via phone or in an online chat (I always opt for the chat so I don’t have to worry about my little boy being loud in the background 😊 ).

Why Should You Start A Mom Blog?

Absolutely anyone can start a blog nowadays! As long as you have the passion and the drive for something and you want to share it with the world, then blogging is for you.

Your blog can be a hobby or you can turn it into a profitable business. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.  It requires a lot of patience, constant learning, and honest decisions for yourself and for your brand. But it can be incredibly rewarding and not to mention very profitable.

Are you ready to get started? Follow these simple steps and you can have your blog setup today!

Let’s begin!

First, click here to visit SiteGround.com so you can follow along with the tutorial! This will take you to their landing page and already you can see how simple it is to navigate. We will explore some of the other pages later, but for now, click on the “Get Started” button to get started.

Step 1: Choose A SiteGround Plan

The first and most basic plan is the StartUp Plan. As the name suggests, this is what you should start with when you are just starting out.

STARTUP PLAN

The StartUp plan costs only $3.95 a month! That is a steal for starting your own business! This includes,

• One Website

• 10GB Web Space

• 10,000 Visits Monthly

• Plus, all of the essential features.

GROW BIG PLAN

This package costs $5.95 a month, which is still a great deal since you get the basic features plus premium.

This plan will give you even faster customer service response times and priority service which is so helpful when you are starting a new blog. The Grow Big plan includes,

• All of the features of the StartUp Plan

• Hosting for Multiple Sites

• 20GB Web Space

• Best for up to 25,000 Monthly Visits

• Extra Fast Response Times

• Premium Support

• The Super Cacher – This helps your site run faster which can improve your SEO ranking with Google and helps keep your readers on your site.

GO GEEK PLAN

Ready to take the blogging world by storm? The biggest SiteGround plan is the GoGeek plan, which costs $11.95 a month. This includes the basic features, premium features, and the geeky advanced features. In addition to the features of the GrowBig plan you get,

• 30GB Web Space

• 100,000 Visits Monthly

This is a great option if you already have a lot of traffic to your blog each month and want to switch from another host or if you anticipate a high amount of traffic to your blog when you launch.

Choose which plan best meets your needs then click “Get Plan.” 

Step 2: Choose Your Domain

A domain name is important since it defines your brand. As a standard rule, domain names should be simple. You can’t make it complicated or else people won’t be able to find you or remember your domain name.

Bonus tip:

Keep your domain name to 2-3 words. More than that and people are prone to typos.

You can use your own personal name as the title of your blog, or even use a catchy phrase just as long as it is related to your blog and what you are talking about. Just remember to keep everything simple and straight to the point.

Here you can enter your existing domain name, or register one upon sign up. Type it in and the website checks if that domain name is still available. You can also pick your domain extension such as .com, .org, etc (however, if possible I recommend going with .com). Once you have one that’s still free to use, then you’re good to go.

If you have already purchased a domain click on I already have a domain and enter in your domain name.

Step 3: Review and complete your information

Account Information and Client Information

Payment Information and Purchase Information

Extra services: here you can choose to select or unselect the extra features that you might need or might not need on your blog. For the most part, the basic features are fine. To remove the extra services just uncheck the boxes. 

Check the box that says you agree to the terms and conditions then click “Pay Now.”

Congratulations!

You can now have hosting for your blog! All you need to do is to install WordPress and get creative. It is pretty simple to set up, but if you are technophobic, guess what? The tech team at SiteGround will set it up for you!

All you have to do is go here and click on “Live Chat.” One of the ultra-friendly SiteGround representatives will say, “hello.” and you just need to ask them to set up your WordPress site and send you your login details.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. This process will take a max of fifteen minutes and then you can access your beautiful new site!

Once they send you your login details go to www.yournewsite.com/wp-admin and log in.

How To Install WordPress

If you would rather install WordPress on your own follow the steps below.

Click on “WordPress” in the Autoinstaller section.

Then click the blue “Install” button.

On the next screen fill out the following: 

Choose Protocol: most likely it is https://

Choose Domain: The domain for the site you are setting up

In Directory: Leave this section blank

Site Name: Anything to help you remember which site this is. Note: you can update this later.

Site Description: A brief description of your site. Note: you can update this later.

Admin Username: You will need to remember this! Write it down and keep it in a safe place.

Admin Password: You will need to remember this! Write it down and keep it in a safe place.

Admin Email: Your email address.

Language: Your preferred language.

Choose a Theme to Install: You can install a theme here or on the backend of your WordPress site. You can start with a free theme and upgrade to a paid theme as your blog grows!

Now using the username and password you just created go to http://www.yournewblog.com/wp-admin (your domain) and log in!

See that wasn’t as hard as you thought! You now have your very own blog!

Step 4: Grab Your Blogging Freebies

I’ve put together a blogging mini-course to help you get started. All you have to do to get the mini-course is purchase a hosting plan through SiteGround via one of my affiliate links in this blog post. Easy peasy, right?

Once you receive your receipt from SiteGround, just forward it over to me – or a screenshot to mckinzie@momsmakecents.com and I’ll give you access to the course! Booyah!

What’s included?

In the course, there are five lessons with over an hour of video training that will cover the key topics you need to know to start your blog the right way.

Watch over my shoulder as I show you how to,

1. How To Install Your Theme (+ My Favorite Free & Paid Theme)

2. The 9 Best Free Plugins

3. How To Effectively Write Powerful Blog Posts

4. How To Promote Your Brand New Blog Post

5. What Is An Email List + How To Start One

Are you ready?! Let’s do this!

Once you’ve set up your hosting check out these posts for more help! 

• 10 Things To Do Before You Launch Your Blog

• The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest For Beginners

• The 2019 Guide: What Works Now For New Bloggers

• Five Ways You Can Make Money Blogging

• Join my FB group with 20,000 other bloggers + get bonus freebies!