There are 4 things Mom bloggers wish they had done from the beginning when they started to blog, and here is how you can learn from them.

On Mom Bloggers Club there was recently a discussion about what mom bloggers would do if they could start all over again and here are the most important things most of them wished they had done before;

• Getting a domain name. When you start blogging for fun it can take some time to understand the value if having your own domain name. Not only will this bring you more credibility but also make your site more memorable than if it says blahablog.blahasubdomain.com if you want to make money with your blog it is even more important. A domain name costs from $1.99-$10/year so it is no big cost.
• Getting hosting. This goes hand in hand with the domain name issue and this is really the biggest issue and the most important one. When you use a free service your blog is not yours really. Anything can happen to your blog, there are several horror stories about how blogs have disappeared. Not that I want to scare you but it is the truth (I once had no access to my blogs because they went under the “spam” blog detection. A horrible thing really). You can find good reliable hosting for just a few dollars a month. I have been with Bluehost for a year and I am very happy with them and have never had any problem. Their support system is very good. I highly recommend them.
• Investing in a professional blog design. Because this is the area where I work and I see lots of blogs all day I cannot tell you enough how important this is. Your blog design makes the first impression and it is only natural that if your blog is nicely designed your readers will enjoy coming back. Once again; if you plan to make money with your blog this is just as important as the domain name and the hosting.
• Being more focused. Who are you blogging for? instead of blogging for the whole wide world, try and narrow it down a little bit and think through what you want with your blog. Who is going to read your blog and what topics will your write about? This can be a difficult question but it is worth thinking about.

If you have recently started to blog the above mentioned things will help you a long way. If you have started out on a free host such as B*logger then  moving to wordpress and your own hosting is still the best you can do. Wordpress is a wonderful blogging tool and can also be used for your business if you have one.

If you have any questions or would like to know more, leave a comment, email me or sign up for my personal mailing list where I will share even more tips with you!