Why I Delayed the Launch of my Mom Blog
Mama’s Many Loves is a concept that has been floating around in my head for months. I purchased my domain name, hosting plan and WordPress theme in January. I was so excited and ready to launch my Mom Blog! But here I am with a post titled 5 Reasons I Delayed the Launch of My Mom Blog, so what went wrong?!
I started researching EVERYTHING…How to write a great post, how to optimize for SEO, how to grow your blog, how to have the perfect Pinterest profile, Insta profile, etc. I panicked and realized that my blog and its first posts, while filled with passion, may not be perfect by everyone else’s standards.
So I waited, and waited, and researched, and waited, and listened to podcasts about blogging, and waited. And these 5 negative thoughts kept running through my head, and preventing me from hitting publish…
1. No one is going to read my blog
Umm, I hate to state the obvious, but no one can read it until it’s published! And even then, who cares if no one reads it?! I know that as a busy mom I am writing about things that other busy moms and women will be interested in, and hopefully want to read and share. By not putting myself out there and giving people the opportunity to decide for themselves if they want to read my Mom Blog, I am excluding all of my potential readers!
2. I want to wait until I am able to publish twice weekly, every single week
In an ideal world, my initial goal was to publish twice weekly. This seemed like a doable frequency for me, in theory. But I am a Mom of two little ones working full time outside the home. I treasure my weekends with my family. Reality is that twice a week is not always going to be doable for me, but posting once a week is more than reasonable!
But
3. I want to wait until I have the perfect images for my blog post, Pinterest, Insta…
Oh my goodness the number of hours I have spent researching images is insane. What is the ideal number of images per post? Ideal image size for the post? Ideal size for Pinterest? How about Insta? I now realize that I do not have to have the perfect images for every platform initially.
I can add photos after I publish or if I come up with a new idea. I can also have multiple images, some for Pinterest, some for Instagram. And so what if they aren’t the perfect size, I can fix that! And again, in the meantime, no images are being pinned, or posted to Insta, or included in my nonexistent blog posts.
4. My Mom Blog isn’t different enough from the many others out there
I have two thoughts on this. The first is, of course, it is different! My blog is based on my life experiences and my thoughts. My Mom Blog is bound to be different because it is based on my unique journey.
Second, even if it isn’t totally different, that doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with people and hopefully help some Moms out along with way. I literally have read at least 25 articles called “How to Start a Blog.” Yet, I still read every single one in hopes that each would have a little tidbit that another didn’t, and they did!
5. I want to wait until each post covers everything I want to say
Well, I am covering nothing in my non-existent, non-published blog posts. And it’s a blog! The beauty of a blog is that each post is a page in my story, not the complete book. I can add more posts as I learn about a topic, or (gasp!) change my mind or opinion.
While it is wonderful that posts can be edited, editing is another turtle shell for me to hide under. I have written and rewritten my first post probably 25 times. I keep changing the entire message, which probably could have been turned into multiple different posts covering the different topics.
Why I Wish I Hadn’t Delayed Publishing My Mom Blog
Finally, I realized that I needed to stop, take a deep breath and remember why I started my Mom Blog in the first place. I want to be a resource for moms like me, who have kids, and not a lot of time to themselves. Moms who would love somewhere to read about things that interest them, because Moms can, do and should have interests outside of our kids and families!
In hindsight, I was scared and that fear is what was actually preventing me from publishing my first post. These 5 things are just excuses because I am afraid to fail. But if I never give myself the change to succeed, I am bound to fail! An unpublished Mom Blog is certainly not a successful Mom Blog.
What fears did you have before launching your blog or other big adventure in your life? I would love to hear how successful you were when you finally went for it!
Congratulations on starting you new blog. I had many of the same thoughts when I got started. I published my first post last March. I didn’t research much in the beginning other than to find a host as I wanted to monetize. I had blogs in the past as well, but things were different years ago. There weren’t so many social media platforms and not much information on seo. It can be totally overwhelming. I barely started using Pinterest and don’t use Instagram and will never take the perfect photos, but I do my best to post quality content and write from the heart. I look forward to reading more from you.
Thank you Darcey! It’s crazy how much there is to get lost doing, in addition to writing posts. I feel like it’s easy for me wander down the rabbit holes of the extra stuff like Pinterest and Instagram. I keep reminding myself to focus on my content, which is my favorite part of blogging!! I really enjoyed your Brick by Brick post and thank you for taking the time to comment.
What a great post topic! I know many new mom bloggers will resonate with this. “Going live” is a huge thing. You want to be successful, but in all honestly, I feel that time is best for learning how to blog. Your audience will come once you promote it right? I’m happy you DID publish your blog! You are already looking like a pro blogger 🙂
Thank you so much Elna! Such a huge compliment coming from you! I wrote this post because I knew I couldn’t be the only one who felt this way but it sure seemed it as I was researching. Hopefully it helps others to feel they aren’t alone 🙂