Family blogs are quite popular and a great niche for you if you are interested in starting a family blog of your own. There is so much to share from your own experience that so many others can relate to.
Besides that, your hard work can pay off as you can generate income from your blog. I’ve been making affiliate commissions from niche blogs for quite some time.
I will share my tips below so that you can get up and running with your family blog and develop it into a fun and income producing website.
Starting a Family Blog Tips
- Use a self-hosted WordPress website
- Choose your blog’s categories
- Create content people are searching for
- Write blog posts on a regular basis
- Sign up to affiliate programs
- Consider starting a YouTube channel
Ready to make money blogging? Learn how I went from zero to a consistent monthly income with a blog. Click here to learn how I did it.
1. Use a Self-Hosted WordPress Website
Does the term “self-hosted WordPress website” sound really technical to you? It really isn’t, so don’t worry! All that it means is that you will not be using free blogging services.
You may be tempted to start your family blog on a service like Blogger, Tumblr, Wix, and so on. However, I highly recommend registering your own domain name, getting a web hosting account, and using one-click WordPress installation.
A self-hosted WordPress website means you retain 100% ownership of you website and content. Free blogging services have the authority to close accounts and they often limit you on how you can make money with your blog.
In some cases, the free blogging service may even place their own ads on your blog. Not cool. Therefore, start your family blog off right by getting your own web hosting.
Any web hosting provider will get the job done. I use WPX Hosting for my blog. They specialize in managed WordPress hosting, have superior customer support, and their hosting is fast!
You can find cheaper web hosting but I’ve dealt with my fair share of cheap hosting and it has only led to frustration with slow service and lousy customer support.
WPX Hosting can register your domain name, set up your hosting account, and you can install WordPress on your domain in one click:
If all of the above is still a bit over your head, then I suggest following the same step-by-step training I used when I started. This training will teach you from start to finish how to build your niche blog.
Following that training and implementing what I learned is what helped me go from zero to a consistent monthly income online with my blog.
Regardless of which route that you choose, getting your own self-hosted WordPress website is easy and low-cost to do.
2. Choose Your Blog’s Categories
A family blog can go all over the place quick so you can help yourself stay organized by figuring out what topics you plan on writing about most.
These are your blog categories. Most families deal with the same issues on a regular basis. Your categories can be based on your own family’s experiences.
For example, some common categories that you could include are:
- Family budget
- Grocery shopping
- Easy recipes
- Homeschooling
- Recreation
- Organizing
Your categories keep your content organized which makes it easy for your readers to find what they’re looking for.
A web visitor may land on one of your posts related to homeschooling and then want to find more of your posts.
If you have a link to your homeschooling category readily available, let’s say in your top navigation, then your reader will remain on your blog much longer which increases your page views.
When your blog has high page views, it means that your visitors are staying on your website longer. They are clicking around and reading your posts.
That also means that your blog has a higher chance of making money as visitors may then click on your affiliate links or display ads.
3. Create Content People are Searching For
I don’t create blog posts without doing keyword research first. Keyword research simply means that you are figuring out what people are searching for within your niche.
You don’t need any fancy keyword tools for this. Open up Google search and begin typing in keyword phrases and use the autocomplete feature.
I typed in “grocery list for a family” and Google’s autofill displays what web searchers are looking for.
You can get excellent blog post ideas by doing this. As you can see from the arrows in the image above, two great topics include a cheap grocery list for a family of 4 and a healthy grocery list for a family of 4.
These are also referred to as long-tail keyword phrases. Rather than write a blog post about “cheap groceries”, you specialize your post by talking about a cheap grocery list for a family of 4.
Chances are you have experience with grocery shopping on a budget. Share your tips in your post and over time, your post will be indexed and ranked in Google.
This goes for every blog post that you write when you target long-tail keyword phrases by searching for them before you create content.
While keyword research is important, also have fun with your blog. If you feel like writing a random post about something cool your family experienced, go for it!
Note: Also read my post on mom blog niche ideas.
4. Write Blog Posts On a Regular Basis
A blog is not a blog without content. Your blog will not grow if you don’t write blog posts on a regular basis.
The last thing you want to do is write a few posts and step away from writing for weeks or even worse, months at a time.
I recommend writing at least 1 to 2 new blog posts per week at a minimum. That is doable even with a busy schedule. I grew my first niche blog to profitability while I had a full-time job.
If you can do more, even better. Do your best not to slack off on your blog. With consistent posting, you can expect to get web traffic within 3 to 6 months of starting your blog.
It won’t be a ton of visitors, but at least you know that your content writing is working to include your keyword research.
Don’t give up on your blog, especially in the beginning. Many bloggers get frustrated within the first three months of blogging.
There will be times when you’ll experience frustration but stick with it. If I gave up within the first six months of starting my niche blog I wouldn’t be where I am today.
5. Sign Up to Affiliate Programs
Let’s talk about generating income with your blog. One of the best ways to make money with a niche blog is with affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the promotion of another company’s products and/or services in exchange for a commission when a sale is made.
There are all types of affiliate products that you can recommend on a family blog. Products that you use every day may have affiliate programs.
Let’s say that your family loves pancakes and you make them for them all the time on your favorite griddle. The griddle that you use is a Le Creuset brand griddle.
Le Creuset has an affiliate program that offers 10% commissions on every sale. That means when you sign up for their affiliate program, you can place your affiliate links within your blog content when you recommend the griddle.
Each time one of your readers clicks on your affiliate links and buys from Le Creuset, you make a commission.
This is how it works for any affiliate program and that is how many bloggers make a consistent income online.
There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs that you can apply to so whatever you want to recommend on your blog, chances are there is an affiliate program for it.
Affiliate programs are free to join and your earning potential is unlimited.
6. Consider Starting a YouTube Channel
Finally, to wrap up my starting a family blog tips, I want to talk about starting a YouTube channel. Many people in the family niche are making a nice income with their YouTube channels.
For example, Holden It Down is a YouTube channel with over 100K subscribers. It is a channel that focuses on fun and family with the Holden family.
Creating a YouTube channel is a great supplement in terms of income for your blog. You can link back to your blog posts from your YouTube channel descriptions which can also increase traffic to your website.
You do not necessarily need to place yourself or your family in the videos. If you simply want to share helpful tips, you can do so without being on camera.
However, if you are comfortable with being on camera, you can share footage of your daily life such as grocery shopping, organizing your home, etc.
My Closing Thoughts On Starting a Family Blog
Are you excited about starting your family blog? I hope the tips above have provided some clarification on how to start and grow a successful niche blog.
Niche websites are an excellent way to generate an income online. It isn’t difficult to learn but learning what you need to know is so much easier when following a step-by-step training program.
By following the same training program, I was able to go from zero to a making a consistent monthly income online with a blog.
Now I use the same training platform to help others one-on-one with creating their own niche websites.