Tips for Starting a Pregnancy Blog

So maybe you just found out that you are pregnant or maybe you just happen to be a pregnancy expert and now you would like to start a pregnancy blog. I want to share some tips with you on starting your own pregnancy blog from where to host it to using your blog to make a profit. Without further ado, here are my suggestions for making your pregnancy blog a success.

Audience
First thing is first, consider who you want your audience to be. Maybe you are only trying to share your journey with your family or maybe you are trying to create a blog that will also offer advice to other pregnant women. Personally I feel like creating the blog to be informative for other pregnant women will help increase your confidence in your knowledge about your pregnancy and it will help draw in visitors to your site which may lead to make a profit off of it (which I will address a little later).

Hosting
Once you have decided who will be reading your blog, it is time to figure out hosting and domain name. Blogger.com is what I personally use to host both of my blogs because it is free, simple, and there is no software to download. I have heard from people who blog professionally that this isn't the idea site because it can't handle all of their content, but I haven't experienced any problems with them yet. Another free blogging service that is available is Wordpress.com which I have heard wonderful things about, but have no personal experience with. You may decide that you want to have your own domain name so it will be easy for visitors to find your site. Many people swear by GoDaddy.com to find an available domain name.

Getting the Word Out
If you are blogging simply to share with your family, I would just send everyone an e-mail and with the link. If you are trying to reach a wider audience, look around other baby advice blogs and leave comments. Make friends with other bloggers. Many of my favorite blogs were found by clicking links of people who left comments on another blog that I was already following. Always respond to comments that people leave on your blog. If your readers think that you don't care about them, they will not return to your site.

Content
If your target audience is going to be your family, then your content will probably be mostly how you are feeling and what kind of things you are doing to prepare for the arrival of the baby. If you are writing for a broader audience, you will probably be writing a lot of advice such as must have items for baby registries or picking a baby name and after you have the baby you could write advice about how to lose the baby weight. "How to" articles account for most of the content from blogs that I personally print and keep around for future reference. Listen to your audience, they will probably send you requests for advice about certain things, so help them out! That is one less topic you had to think of for yourself.

Photos
Visual stimulus is what always gets me hooked on blogs. If a blog has great photos and a hearty helping of photos, then I will probably bookmark that site. You can include photos of yourself, sonograms, products, babies, maybe even try one of those sites where it will show what your child would look like from a picture of the parents. I like to use Polyvore.com on my blog because you can create great collages (mostly from products)... It always makes me feel like I am creating my own page of a magazine. Flickr.com is a great resource for photos if you don't have your own, but you need to be careful which photos you use because most are copyrighted. This is an incredible guide to using Flickr images for your blog.

The Most Important Link
If you aren't registered with an online website for your baby yet, hurry up and get to it. Make sure you place a link to your gift registry (or registries) in the main part of the blog so it does not get archived as you produce new content on your blog. I would register with Target.com and maybe even more places. Your readers and your family might like to send you a little gift for your child so make it easy for them to do so!

Attitude
I know that you may be hormonal and not always in the best of moods, but try to keep a positive attitude. Nobody likes a "Negative Nancy" or a "Debbie Downer". It is one thing to complain about little things now and then, but try not to make it a habit or you will lose readers (even if they are family).

Making Money
Even though making money may not be the objective of your blog, would you really turn it down if you could turn a profit? One way that you might make money through your blog could be to put a PayPal donation button on your page. Don't expect a lot from a donation button, but you never know, someone might send you some money especially if they don't find something that they would like to purchase for you from your gift registry. Another way to make money through your blog would be with ads. My personal favorite is the Amazon Affiliate Program because you can choose which products will show up and you can make them relevant to your blog. I have a photography blog so my Amazon ad there features my favorite cameras. You could feature a certain brand of baby items, or just baby items in general and you would make a percentage of whatever someone spent in return.

The Future of Your Blog
Another thing that is important to keep in mind is what the future of your blog will be once your baby has been born. Will you keep up the blog to show family and friends how your child has grown? Will you continue to write advice for other parents as your child grows older?

I hope that I have given you some ideas on how to get your very own pregnancy blog started. Whether you want your family to read your blog or offering advice with other pregnant women, it is important to be sure to include some photographs and write interesting entries to keep them coming back from more. Maybe you'll even be able to score additional baby gifts or get a college fund started just by starting a blog.