Millennial Mom Blog Update

If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog for a good bit of time, even as little as a year, you’ve noticed some major recent changes on the blog, but especially since December 2020. It’s a full-fledged millennial mom blog and lifestyle blog now. Why? Because I’ve finally given myself the rear kick needed to invest in my blog. Both as a labour of love and as a business. 

But let’s pretend you haven’t noticed, hmm? Last December, I took on the Blogmas challenge as something fun to try. The one where you do twelve posts for the month to represent the twelve days of Christmas. I was really sceptical since let’s face it, my hands are full at home, but with lockdowns in full effect at the time, we weren’t going anywhere unnecessarily. So, I wanted to try it.

The results made me sit up and take notice, especially since I had tried a bit more range in topics and tone and reeally dug my heels in to come up with quality content to fill those twelve spaces over thirty-one days (I hate filler content).

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A New Direction

That was my marker point. I was posting more but wasn’t even practising any SEO (search engine optimisation). The only investment I was putting in was time and a little marketing by sharing my posts on my socials. Yet, the difference in traffic was too glaring to ignore.

The Numbers

That month (December 2020) accounted for almost 20% of my blog’s views for 2020, even though I know I wasn’t posting as often as I would have liked throughout the year. So in January, I upgraded my website plan. I started running Google Ads, started updating my posts with SEO and aimed to publish approximately the same number of posts (twelve) on a monthly basis.

I added my media kit and started receiving offers from brands almost immediately, though I’ve been super picky.

By the end of January 2021, I’d exceeded my total views for all of 2020 by more than 50% in a single month with some effort. Search engines (organic search) moved into third place of referral visitors to my site, second to Facebook and WordPress Reader. 

As of now, I have a number of posts ranking on the first page on Google for my keywords. I’ve gone back and updated a number of posts that were ranking even without being optimised.

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But Why?

In simple terms, I have the traffic and the influence and it’s begun to feel like a waste of the opportunity (well, not really waste but you know what I mean) not to use them. As a millennial woman from humble beginnings figuring life out, leaving money on the table is just not an option.

The Traffic

I’m not ready to share all my actual numbers just yet, but this year was the first time I broke that I had multiple notices per month on hourly views numbers rising.

By the end of February 2021, referrals moved into first place, followed by WordPress Reader and Facebook. Six months in, with most posts updated and optimised for SEO, organic search is my number one source of traffic, more than double the second-highest source, Facebook and WordPress reader.

The Influence

For the last five years, I’ve shared products and my family purely out of love and an interest in sharing through writing (blogging). It’s what I enjoy blogging about and sharing on my social media pages for as long as I’ve been active on social platforms. When I do share the products I am in love with, I get lots of DMs from my audience with questions on my personal thoughts about the products and where they can be found, as well as feedback after they’ve tried products I recommend.

This is another reason why I’ve explicitly transitioned from a personal blog to a motherhood and lifestyle blog.

Ergo, the decision to monetise my platform. I’m doing it anyway, why not get paid? So I’m putting it out there that I am actively pursuing being an influencer. The content will look the same (or better), and it’s important to me that this is done with integrity and I’m transparent with you about everything I share. So even if it’s sponsored, you will know I love it to even consider recommending it.

Determining my Niche as a Millennial Mom Blog

This niche was a sort of automatic transition from being a personal blog. It’s my life and experiences as it plays out, but with tips and recommendations now! I’m fully aware that mom blogs are a dime a dozen, but I hope that the community I build here will understand the authenticity of the is space, and fall in love with it as I have.

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Nonetheless, a millennial mom blog isn’t very popular in the Caribbean blogger spheres. In fact, for the last six months since positioning the blog distinctly as a Millennial Mom Blog, the demographic of the blog and my Instagram has shifted considerably. Top reach(‘000s) each months are countries are now Jamaica (my own country), USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.

I suppose this makes sense. These areas have a higher market for this niche. I do believe though, that that is changing, with millennial and Gen Z parents making a conscious effort to parent differently than our parents.

More mothers are finding solidarity in sharing, and in knowing they are not alone. more women are planning to be mothers and therefore more intentional with their parenting styles.

All that to say, whether I realised it or not, I already have a millennial mom blog. Just not a very well optimized one.

To Wrap Up

I recognise that this isn’t an overnight undertaking, but it’s worth it to me to give this a good strong go. I’m already six months in. My blog is still a baby being nurtured, just in a different growth phase. There’s lots more to come, and as usual, I’m going to taking you along behind the scenes as well.

How do you feel about millennial mom blog’s communities? Do you fins them helpful? Are you parenting differently than your parents? Let’s talk in the comments!

Xo, Shandean

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