2018 has become a very lucrative year so far for this blog of mine for me and my family. It also gave me a few things to think about. When I started this little blog I really wanted it to be a shopping/deal blog.

Why The Change?

Over time I realized I didn’t have hours per day just to scour the web for deals. Then spend time on promotion etc. So I decided to do the next best thing. Use my blog for lifestyle/motherhood tips on the daily life for me and my family.

Why Rebrand

Over the last year, Thrifty Haute Mom just didn’t seem like the best name for my blog and wanted to create a brand geared towards motherhood with fashion, food and anything life throws at us when living a simple life. I wanted to be considered more than just a mom.

Plus I didn’t want to feel obligated to have to push out 3+ posts per week. If you haven’t noticed I am only now doing 1-2 posts per week. This is so I have time to create great content for ya’ll and still able to push it out. That’s why I decided to rebrand this blog into Jalisaharris.com. A more family friendly lifestyle blog curated for the modern mom. I also wanted to dive deeper into how myself and my family enjoy our daily lives the simple way. Don’t get me wrong I still will be blogging and posting on social media about mom things but I’m more than a mom blogger so I will be adding more than toddler clippings.

I’ve noticed I receive so much more engagement from you all from my food and style posts so I decided to touch more on those but also still include motherhood tidbits.

How To Start A Blog

I’ve been getting alot of question on how to start a blog.

Self-Hosted is the way to go. When I first decided to start a blog during interning for Crock Pot Moms I tried using the free wordpress blog and it was a mess. You end up getting an ugly. wordpress.com. Yes you can pay for the yearly package or just buy a .com domain and redirect it but they only give you so much storage. Plus they end up owning your content. They can even shut you down at any time. You can’t purchase your own theme either.

When it was time to signup for a self-hosted account it was so confusing. That’s when I decided to start fresh. I heard so many great things about Siteground. Plus at the time they were offering a free month to try it out. I loved it so much that I decided to stay. You do have to pay yearly but you can actually claim the cost on your taxes as an expense.

The most important thing to me was the customer support which, they have been fantastic. Whenever my site goes down or I just have a question their chat is open 24/7.

The first step after deciding to self-host is to choose your hosting plan. 

I decided to start with the Start-Up Account since I had less than the 10k views per month.

Next you will want to choose your domain. For the most part you will have a .com unless you opt for .net or .org addresses. It will also tell you if something is not available either. Like I said earlier you do have to pay yearly but it is so worth it. Next, create content. One thing you should know is you can’t take any picture from the internet. You can chance, becoming sued. You can either create your images with original photography. That’s what brands are always looking for. Your unique voice or use stock images when all else fails.

A Little Inside On Ways To Earn An Income

When you have six months in or great traffic you can start applying to influencer networks. This is how I make most of my income. I never accept a job/sponsored post from a brand or network that I don’t feel this blog will not benefit from. There’s a list of them which I’m planning on creating another post for. You can also use affiliates on social media and link within your blog posts. You would never believe the odds of someone clicking on that link and purchasing from it. Amazon Affiliates is a big one since almost everyone purchases from Amazon.

Social Media

Social Media is a big way on how you will get traffic to your blog and have more followers. Plus you need social networks when working through an Influencer Network or a direct pitch. RIght now Instagram is my highest and as of now in 2018 it is king. A lot of direct pitches I have sent are only requesting to work via Instagram soley or blog + Instagram.

PICK YOUR NICHE: I.E TRAVEL

Blog/write about things that you enjoy but also make sure you are solving a problem. Your readers are an important aspect of this blog and basically, you need something to benefit them. In the beginning, if you don’t treat your blog like a job, in the long run, it won’t be running. It’s not make money right away scheme. It takes time to build a following and readership. It took me about 1.5 years to start earning money consistently. Just don’t give up.

I hope this is great info for you. Keep a lookout on my next post on how and what networks I exactly get paid work through.

I have various of topics we talk about here on Jalisaharris.com. A few are Self-Love, Parenting, Food and Travel. 

One example of being a blogger and picking a niche is for I.E. wanting to blog about the travel niche. We always take family vacations so it’s important to create content on family and kid-friendly vacations like Disney. If you choose to solely blog about one topic you can create a niche site on family-friendly content based around Disney World. Moms are always looking for ways to find Disney vacation packages so it’s such a lucrative niche to introduce to just about anyone. 

Comment below if you have incorporated these tips?