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frequently asked questions
Below are the questions that I receive in my inbox daily. I compiled this resource to help you on your blogging journey. If your question is not in this list, leave it as a comment at the bottom of the page. *This post may contain affiliate links.
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If you’re stuck or forgot how to access your courses, just go here and follow the instructions. This works 99% of the time!
I'm completely new to blogging, where do I start?
I’ve managed to build my blog from $0 to over $10K while raising two under two, and you can do it too. I’ll share with you everything I know.
If you are brand new to blogging, here is a great post outlining the different ways you can make money with a blog. It features moms just like yourself who have built successful blogs on different topics, from fashion, to home decor to finance. It always inspires me!
Once you’re inspired and you know you want to do this, then head on over to my Blog by Number course. It’s a step by step course with printables, lessons and video tutorials to guide you in building a professional blog. At the end of the course you’ll have a blog ready to share and be able to make money from home.
If you’re ‘newish’, you know a bit about blogging and you may already have a blog up, but you need a better plan. Then you are welcome to download my 12 Month Plan that helped me grow my blog to over $9,000 per month. Get the 12 Month Blog Plan here.
How long does it take before making money with a blog?
How much time does blogging take?
Now that my blog is established I spend about 2 hours a day on my blog, and most of that time is answering emails. In the beginning you won’t have many emails to respond to, so you can focus on creating content and building a network.
Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. It is extremely flexible and you can work early in the morning (like I do), over nap time, or super late at night when the kids go to bed.
Most bloggers get overwhelmed in the beginning and stop. But once you get into a good rhythm, it is not difficult to maintain a successful blog while raising little kids.
Here are my favorite time-saving tips:
How much does it cost to blog?
Click here to start your blog today! You can do this, I’ll be with you every step of the way.
When I started blogging the only things it cost me was the $5 for my self-hosted blog and lots and lots of coffee. 🙂 It wasn’t until my blog was 4 months old that I bought an upgraded theme, signed up for an email marketing service and started using services to sell my products (Blog by Number – the course just for moms). Now my blog makes over $10,000 per month and it costs me under $500 to run it. Most of that money goes to my email marketing service and the course platform I use to host my products.
Compared to any other work from home job a mom can do, blogging is one of the LEAST expensive with a HUGE potential for amazing income!
Is it possible to make money with a blog?
There are five main ways to make money with a blog:
- Affiliate Marketing – promoting a product with a special link unique to you. When someone makes a purchase through that link, you get a commission.
- Sponsored Posts – being paid for writing a blog post promoting a product.
- Products – creating your own products such as ebooks or online courses.
- Services – offering virtual assistant services writing content, managing email or offering online consulting.
- Advertisements – placing ads on your blog that generates money based on traffic and clicks.
For more detail, read how to make money with a small, medium or large blog and how to start a profitable blog.
How do I find a profitable blog niche?
- Your Passions: What do you love to do? What can’t you stop talking about?
- Your Strengths: What are you really good at? What do people compliment you on?
- Your Growth: What do you want to learn? Where do you want to improve in your life?
- Is it Profitable? And most importantly, what problem are you solving? People are willing to pay to fix a problem 🙂 So if you want to monetize, you need to provide a solution. What niche are you going after and how do you want to help them?
Read more about how to find your blog niche. When you are stuck on deciding a blog name, this post will help too!
What should my first blog post be about?
So before you advertise your blog, I would advise having 3-5 pillar posts published. These are in depth, 2,000+ word articles that each address a certain main problem of your niche. They will lay the foundation for your blog and share very well on social media. People will see them as ultimate guides or resource tutorials.
Take your time crafting these and share all of your best advice. You want people to come to your blog and be blown away by your posts, even if there are just four.
For example, if you blog about breastfeeding, here are a few examples of great pillar posts:
- The Ultimate Guide to Breastfeeding a Newborn – 6 Month Old
- The 100 Benefits of Breastfeeding
- The Pros and Cons of Breastfeeding vs Bottle Feeding
- Everything You Need to Know about Breastfeeding and Bottle feeding
- The Essential Products You Need If You Decide to Breastfeed
Below are the pillar posts I had on my site before I started pushing traffic to it. It took me about a month to complete them all and be ready to launch. It may be quicker or slower for you. But ultimately you want your readers to find a few really good posts on our blog when they stumble upon it.
- How to get Traffic to a New Blog without using Social Media
- How to Make Money With a Mom Blog from Small, Medium and Large Mom Bloggers
- 25 Awesome Post Ideas For Your Blog
Lastly, before you launch here are a few other things that should be completed.
- A clear blog menu
- A good profile picture
- An About Me page
- A Disclosure Page – if you are using affiliate marketing
- A way to contact you (you can add this to your About Me page)
- Links to your social media pages
In Blog by Number, the beginning blogging course just for moms, I show you step by step how to do all of the above steps.
I have a blog but need a step by step plan.
I want to share with you the 12 Month Plan I used to grow my blog from $0 to over $9,000 per month in less than a year. Of course, results aren’t typical, but if you put in the time and effort, I am positive you’ll be able to make a few thousand after 12 months of following this plan. Yes, it takes time, but so does anything worthwhile.
Over 5,000 people have downloaded and loved this plan. The secret is not in the plan, it’s in the implementation. Get it below and follow it to great success!
Download the 12 Month Blog Plan
I don't have time to blog, help!
- The Super Simple Weekly Schedule that uses Post It Notes
- Knowing what to say Yes and No to.
- How to Prioritize Your Life with a Simple Method
- 8 Practical Tips to Maintain Balance as a Work from Home Mom
- Get a Bullet Journal – I love how much time this saves me!
Can’t find an answer? Search my blog below – there are over 100 articles!
START YOUR BLOG HERE
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Or if you just have a question you’d like me to answer, leave a comment 🙂
I win! First comment! 🙂 I’m curious, would you like me to host a special challenge to those students that start their blogs through Blog by Number each month? Limited to only the students that bought BBN that month of the challenge 🙂 All other students can join the regular challenges.
Hello,
what type of post should i write as pillar post? One for traffic, one for…
Hello, I’m currently doing your blogging by number course and I’m trying to create my logos. I downloaded PicMonkey but it doesn’t have nearly all the options yours has and i cant figure any of it out. Help please. Haha.
Hi Suzi, I am not a Florida residents. I do not want to purchase any books from you. You said in your web that you wil give free coaching. i replied. U r asking money for books.
I do not think i can proceed.
Thanks
I would be okay with that. I have it, all of your courses except the course course and the affiliate course. I would be in!!!
Whoo hoo, you’re a rock star Kelly!!
I would be OK with that as well. I have a ton of your courses. Its up to you. I like the challenges!
Yes, so happy to hear that Shana! And I’ll double check your email next time 😉
I think that would be helpful!
Thank you Tina!
I finished Blog by Number and List by Number. I have most of your other courses and will be working my way through them. Always up for a challenge! Thanks for all you do for your readers!
Thank you so much Patti – I’m happy to help!
That’s a great idea! BBN helped me improve my blog. All your courses are practical and informative!
Thank you so much Andrea!!
This sounds like a great idea. I like how you teach. The steps are clear and easy to follow.
Thank you Naa!! <3 Your comment made my day!
I would love that! I have purchased several of your courses as well! I don’t even look at any other “how to” blogs. I am only sticking with what Suzi says!
Anna, you are the best! Thank you so much!
Hi Suzi,
I looove how you designed your Homepage! It looks lovely – love the little pics! And how awesome is an “Ask-page”!?!
So, I do have 2 questions:
1. How did you create the little pics like the ones on this page or your home site?
2. Might be a weird question, but I have 118 K views per month at Pinterest and a few of my Pins have 60K views per Month. So what is a “good” view count per Pin? I know thats hard to say but are there some ranges or other KPIs that tell you you are doing good or there is a lot of potential left?! I did a quick research and could not find anything. But when do I know that a Pin has a really good count and when is it average?
xoxo
Maisie
Maisie, hehe, which little images? I have lots! 🙂 And for pinterest, that’s a perfect question for my good friend Jen Ledbetter at potpiegirl.com!
xx
Question: DIVI or Elementor? I watched some of John’s videos but I don’t see too much of a difference except that Elementor has a free version.
Oh, they are both fantastic builders – I use both. Elementor has a free version, but it’s a yearly fee. Divi does not have a free version, but you pay once and you’re done 🙂
This is probably ODD. It was suggested I begin a blog bc I do prison ministry. My people write w Bible questions, tell their story w/o judgement and just want to be heard in confidence. I ALWAYS answer and keep confidential. Can a blog work in this?
OH! AFDITIONALLY this is branching out to general public wanting a confidential safe place to tell their story and get answers not judgement. NO I’m not a “counselor” per see but a licensed minister.
You’d probably need to get permission from the person sharing their story if you’re allowed to reshare it on the internet. If they’re open to it, it could be a great blog to help others and minister.
Hello! I have several of your courses and did the February challenge. I would love to do the March challenge but I am having another issue that is consuming all of my time. I have changed themes a could of times and have used the classic WP editor and the block editor to build posts. Apparently, this causes a lot of issues when going back to edit posts. I even tried going to Divi for the last couple of days but that has felt overwhelming. At this point, I feel like I need to re-do all of my posts but even if I did, none of the themes or editing tools I have tried seem very user-friendly. Any suggests would be greatly appreciated.
Keep it simple. Don’t upgrade to Divi yet – use Gutenberg to write your blog posts and use a simple theme. You can get very far with simple tools.
I love all of your stuff! Ann and I have been with you from the beginning! One thing I would love on this page is links to some of your “how-to’s”. For instance, how to set up the shopping page for your own blog on Amazon. I did it once with your video and want to do more! But, I cannot remember how. Maybe just links to different things that you teach that aren’t necessarily in your courses.
Got it! I’m thinking of adding a FAQ to this page – thank you Melanie!
Thank you for having such organized and easy to process info Suzi! I want to know, how can I “market test” my blog names & product ideas to get a feel for which of my niches would have the most interest/paying customers before I actually invest the hard work creating everything? All I could think of was to make Instagram accounts with the same usernames as the domains I liked to see what got the most followers & engagement (which ended up being about the same, lol).
Can you ask in large Facebook groups? Friends and family? A survey on your Facebook page? You can also look at each of these niches on Amazon – are people making purchases in these niches? Are they spending money on it? Additionally, look at the search trends on Google Trends to help you too!
Would you say the education you provide to bloggers to increase their reach and income, can be crossed over to podcasters, given that podcasting is an auditory medium?
In some cases yes, podcasting is just another method of getting traffic to your blog/sales pages/email landing pages.
HELP: I’m trying to buy the Blog by Number but it’s not accepting the MARCHBLOG coupon. It says invalid coupon.
Oh, it probably expired 🙁
Hi Suzi! My blog is now 8 years old. Some of my best and most foundational blog posts were between 2012-2014. I often will respond to question, but sending them to an older blog post that is still valuable. BUT I dislike having old dates on the blog posts as they seem stale. What are your thoughts on removing all blog post dates to keep the content evergreen? A good idea or do readers want a timeline of your work? Thank you! Liz Fulcher AromaticWisdomInstitute.com
Liz, it’s good practice to go back to your old, but popular, content and update it. You can update the date too on the blog post to “refresh” it.
Suzi, I have started seeing more and more bloggers calling that portion of their website “articles” instead of “blog posts”. Any idea why this trend is rising? And what are your thoughts on word choice of calling them articles vs posts? Thank you, Liz Fulcher
Hmmm, maybe articles sound a bit more sophisticated 🙂
I did it! I bought the bundle this morning! Can NOT wait to get started with ebooks and ecourses! When I started my blog, I just choose one of the free themes in wordpress. So…
1) How can I tell if my theme is compatable for selling courses? Or are they all?
2) If I want to switch themes, say to Divi, are there problems that I need to look out for, or does it just switch over without much help from me?
Thank you for all your help!
Beth Trujillo
DecreaseYourRisk.com
Hi Beth! Thank you for the comment! Most themes are compatible for selling courses, if you use a third party solution, like Teachable, you can use any theme on your blog. Whenever you switch to a new theme, give yourself a few days to get it all formatted again. 🙂
Suzi,I love your branding color palette and how you infuse your colors in everything you create. Can you do a tutorial on website colors sometime? I have a purple and green that I use in my branding but would like to add 2-3 more for accents. I have no clue what would be cohesive with my current colors. Thank you! Liz Fulcher
Liz, this is a great tool to use! – https://coolors.co/
Suzi, Thank you so much for all of the great information you have shared. I was wondering about my featured graphics on my blog. I use Divi and I love it. I am wondering if my graphics are too large. They seem big to me and I wonder if this contributes to a slow page load. I notice you don’t seem to use large featured graphics on your blog posts. It is best practice not to use featured images and just use hidden pins or images within the posts to help speed the load time. I will check to see what the load time is but I think I may not be following a general best practice.
If I should use featured images, is there a way to make the images smaller. Thanks again. Rosemerry Blash
Rosemerry, use the ShortPixel plugin to help make your already existing images smaller! 🙂
Hey Suzi!
I am over a year and half on my blog and I think I am ready to change my theme… but I am so nervous! I don’t know what I need to do in order to go about changing it. I know where to go to change it on WordPress BUT do I need to do something before I change it?
Lena, that all depends. You can change to another Free theme, by going to your WP dashboard > Appearance > Themes and looking around for another one. Or, I would highly suggest either going with Astra + Elementor pagebuilder or Divi + Divi pagebuilder. I’ve used both combos and they’re great! Here is why I love Divi – https://www.startamomblog.com/divi-blog-theme-examples-review/ and https://www.startamomblog.com/divi-layouts-mom-bloggers/
Hello Suzi! I am working through your blog by number course and I love it! On Module 7 and your teaching process is incredibly helpful. I have a question about using “no follow” code in affiliate links- is that necessary? Thanks!
Yes 🙂 You could use a plugin for it, or do it manually. Here is an example of how you do it with HTML – https://www.startamomblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/nofollow-link.png
Wonderful! Thank you so much Suzi!!
Hi Suzi!
The purpose of a mom blog… is to help other moms raise healthy children and lead amazing lives! Kids are the future, and we have the responsibility of showing them the path to joy and righteousness.
As a Dentist, I’d like to provide your students with a tool to help their followers raise successful children. I want to invite them to either become an affiliate of smileanatomy.com/kids OR to simply let me pay them for advertising my teachable course to their followers =] They already want to monetize their blogs and give parents great tools for raising kids, and I can help!
Please let me know if we can work together!
Hi Suzi! I’m going to sign up for Amazon Affiliates but I had a quick question. I have a personal Amazon account that I use do I turn that into my affiliate account? Or do I create a separate Amazon account for my blog and link to that one?
Thanks for all your help!
Kylee
Hi Suzi! I’m trying to start my blog with Divi and using your video about keeping it simple with the text module. How do you insert images though? I couldn’t catch how you did it in your video. Maybe a whole module on how images work with Divi could me a helpful addition to the course?
Your courses have been so helpful so far, thank you!!!
I have a question 🙂
I’m still working on launching my blog and creating my social media accounts.
I have had a “public figure” fb page created for the past few years,
can I convert that / edit that to my blog page name? Since I have followers already
Or would you recommend starting over with a new page?
So over a year ago I followed your basic start a mom blog e-book and started a blog. However, last March or April my domain name expired and I really want to get it back. I still can log in to word press and edit it and make more blog posts but I can’t find it on site ground. I need help.. I’m so bad at this kind of stuff
Hi Suzi! I am in the process of starting a blog, but I still don’t know what category my blog will fall under. I am a full-time student in college and mother to a two-year-old boy. I really want to make my blog about college life as a full-time student while also being a full-time mom. Incorporating fashion, recipes, travel, beauty, and all that good stuff!
Suzi, thank you so much. All your information is great! I really want to write a blog about the Autumn Years – not getting old. I want to cover all women as I have young daughters and grandkids. I want to cover what to do after retirement. How to prepare. Health and fitness as we age. I’m not finding through keywords that this would have a huge following but I want cover issues women go through. I also don’t see what I can offer as an optin or printables. Thanks for your help and listening.
I love it all Janelle!!! Go get it girl 🙂
Hi and thank you for such great information on starting a blog. I’m in the naming process and have a question about a URL. Do you know if using a hyphen between two words will limit my SEO? I’ve typed in the URL I want to use and it’s not coming up…but when I type it in the generator on BlueHost is says it’s not available :/
Any suggestions??
Having a hyphen won’t hurt your SEO, but if you ever want to TALK about your blog (like podcasts, videos, etc) – it can be a little annoying having to say the dash when telling people where to go 🙂
If you’re not 100% set on the domain, I would look for an option without a ‘dash’ – but ultimately, your success won’t be determined by your name 🙂
Hope this helps!
Hi Suzi,
I am in the process of learning how to build traffic to my blog. I would love to learn how to build a quiz like your Blog Strategy Seeker and embed it to look the way you have it on a landing page and the header of your website! 🙂
Hehe, that’s one of my techie husband’s tricks 🙂 I’ll have to ask him to share his knowledge one day 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Suzi,
I’m working through the Blog By Number and Post By Number eBooks and have a question about keywords in different countries that I’m hoping you can answer.
I’m based in the UK and my blog is about all things ethical/eco/natural pregnancy, birth and baby-raising. I’m focusing on a UK audience because, when I was pregnant, most of the websites/blogs I found about how to do things like have a natural home birth etc were based in the US and spoke about things like the US healthcare system that weren’t relevant to me. I couldn’t find anything speaking to a UK audience so I thought I’d start one.
Anyway, sometimes we use different words for things in Britain than you do in the States and I’m wondering how I should handle that from an SEO/keyword perspective? For example, we call diapers nappies so as a Brit I would Google something like “How do you wash cloth nappies?”. I’m currently writing an essential guide to cloth nappies as my first pillar post and, when I’m looking for questions in the People Also Ask section, I of course find things like “How do cloth *diapers* work?” So my question is, given that I’m targeting a UK audience, should I ignore any questions using the word diaper? Or use the question but replace diaper with nappy? Or should I use the question as it is even though it’s not my language so to speak, just so that I can get the Google rankings?
Hope that makes sense and many thanks if you manage to make it through my long-winded question!
Great question Gudrun!
There are two things to consider when it comes to targeting your audience on SEO…
Keyword Popularity (and difficulty) and Searcher Intent.
It seems like you’ve identified that words like “diapers” and things unique to the USA version of the words have greater keyword search volume, which implies you might get more volume by targeting those keywords.
HOWEVER you are correct in being influenced by the language that your audience uses – Nappies. This is all about search intent.
When you or another UK based mom searches google, do you use Nappies or Diapers in google? You want to use the language that your ideal audience is searching for. Are your moms searching for Diapers or Nappies?
And even though you are TARGETING a UK audience, will the information still be relevant to US based moms if they stumble across your blog?
A lot of things to consider, but in the beginning I would lean towards targeting keywords that get enough volume but has a low level of difficulty so you have a great chance of ranking. Hope this helps!
xo
Suzi
I just wanted to let you know how amazing and well organized your blog is. Thanks for all the information… I was feeling lost and your blog was the perfect find to give me some clarity.
Thanks so much Chantel! It’s a big world of information out there, I try to keep my corner of it neat and tidy!
I just signed up for your course, and under the “SITEGROUND – How to start a blog” section there is an asian man talking about some other topic in the video. I just thought I would alert you. I assume you uploaded the wrong video?
Hi E!
Thanks so much for reporting this, Teachable has confirmed that there is something going on in several schools and has their entire engineering team on the problem to fix it. They should have it worked out in an hour or two, please be patient while they correct the issue 🙂
I’ll send this report in to their team as well to help them correct it even faster! I really appreciate you for letting me know about this issue and I truly apologize for it! It’ll be fixed as soon as possible!
Thanks for understanding, and for being an awesome student!
Sincerely,
John from Start A Mom Blog
Hi Suzi (or John-!)
I am considering switching to Divi theme and looking at theme by number. I am wondering, though, if you know how it integrates with a learning management system since I want to host my courses/membership on my site?
Thanks!
-Kaylene
Divi works well with both LearnDash and Tutor LMS 🙂
Hello Suzi, I’m a guy in his late 40s, I’m tired of my 9-5 job and would like to pursue blogging since I have a background in computer engineering as a niche. Now is your blog training only for moms and not for the daddy’s out there? Plz, let me know that if I can succeed more than the moms visiting your site are benefitting from your course. Yes, I’m very confused with so much content out there, where to start?
Hehe, I’ll let my husband answer this one directly (He’s in all my courses too!)
Check out this Video Message from John Whitford https://incomemesh.dubb.com/v/DGdTiI
I have just loaded my free Mini course into Teachable. I have downloaded my regular courses on there also. Teachable is telling me to do a one time launch for my courses. I want to keep a button on my website where they can get to my courses whenever they need to purchase one. If I do a one time launch to drive more traffic and a sense of urgency, then how do I explain why the courses are always available on my blog?
Hi Kim!
There are definitely different strategies on how to launch a product. Where is Teachable recommending doing one time launches?
I teach my preferred method of setting up a proper Evergreen sales funnel WITH real scarcity in Course by Number 🙂
Do you have an affiliate program for your courses? They have been incredibly helpful in establishing my blog, and I would like to share them with others.
Hey there Suzi,
I’ve bought a couple of your courses and I love them! I’m not actually starting a “mom blog” but a different type. I find that the way you lay everything out is well organized and has great instruction. I’ve gone through so many different ideas and I’ve landed on a “jourey blog”. I’ve been trying to research this online to get a good start and have a lot of different ideas of how other people have documented learning something new, but every time I search “journey blog” or “blog about learning someting new” it always comes up with either travel blogging or learning how to blog. Do you know of any different terms that this type of blog is called? Thanks so much!
Hey there Suzi,
Thanks for the great instruction! I have a couple of your courses and I think they are well laid out and have great instruction. I’m not actually starting a “mom blog” but a different type. After going through a ton of different ideas, I have finally decided on a “journey blog”. My only problem is that when I try to do research online about this type of blog (searching along the lines of journey blog, blogging about learning something new, etc.) it either comes up with how to travel blog about a journey, the blogging journey, or how to start a blog. Can you think of another name for this type of blog or do you have any other tips on how to find info about this type online? I like to do extensive research on things and even though I know what i want to blog about, I can’t really research it! Thanks so much!
Hi Suzi,
I’ve used your courses to start and get my blog going. Thanks for making all the technical stuff super easy to understand and implement!
I want to start another blog on a completely different topic – but it’s in the natural health/mental health niche, and I keep hearing that it’s basically pointless to try and blog in that niche since the google update in June. What are your thoughts on that?
Hello would you mind letting me know which webhost you’re working with?
I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and
I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you suggest a
good hosting provider at a reasonable price? Thank you, I appreciate it!