While other moms are busy cleaning their house, catching the latest show on Netflix or exercising while their child naps, you're sitting in your makeshift office (a.k.a. your closet) trying to type fast and write that blog post that's supposed to have been published weeks ago.
Yes, you're a mom blogger.
And I bet your friend is one too. According to a survey by BabyCenter, one in five moms have started a blog with a substantial following.
Growing your blog while taking care of your little one eats up a lot of your time. I should know.
I recently started my own mom blog, and I'm already time-starved.
Finding time to write my posts, promote them, create graphics, set up my editorial calendar, network, reach out to influencers, and keep up with my social media profiles, almost leaves me no time to...just be a mom.
Almost. I have twins that are three-and-a-half, a business and a blog to work on while my twins nap.
Am I super woman? Nah... I'm a mompreneur.
The trick is to make time to grow your blog.
I've learned how to do that. How? By automating my posts and delegating tasks.
I use Tailwind, IFTTT, Grum and Buffer to schedule all my social media posts. Instead of spending hours every week promoting my posts, I just spend minutes.
Since I only work around four hours a day, I delegate out nonessential tasks like editing and research, which frees up hours in my day.
I'm not the only one who's figured out how to be a mom boss. Here's how ten inspiring mompreneurs find the time to invest in their blog and grow their business with a child on their lap.
1. Suzi Whitford - Start a Mom Blog
There are a few things I rely on when saving time to grow my blog.
Number 1: I use IFTTT to automate my posts to Twitter. I have created a recipe that loops through my Google calendar and posts my articles to Twitter once a month. It took me a few hours to set up, but now my content is being looped indefinitely, or until I stop the event.
Number 2: I focus on 1-2 things each day. Growing a blog and raising two little ones can quickly become hectic. So instead of trying to do everything, I set limits on how I spend my energy. Each day I have only two goals. This prevents me from feeling overwhelmed and forces me to focus on the two most important and impactful tasks.
Number 3: I ask for help when I need it. Weekly, my toddler has a 3-hour play date with grandma. That is when I invest in "me time" to recharge and think of ideas how to grow my blog.
2. McKinzie Bean - Moms Make Cents
Here are a few of my time-saving strategies:
I recently began documenting my processes and creating workflows for my recurring activities. These systems help me increase my productivity as there is no guesswork as what needs to be done next. Also, if I choose to outsource these tasks in the future the transition will be much easier because the processes will be laid out.
Another of my favorite time savers is using BoardBooster for Pinterest. I set up looping on a few of my popular boards which automates a large percentage of the pinning process. Pinterest has consistently been the largest traffic driver to my blog and BoardBooster plays a key role in that.
My goal is to have one guest post on my blog per month. This allows me to spend those hours focusing on my blog growth strategies instead of writing. It also exposes my blog to new followers as the guest poster shares and promotes the post.
I know you feel absolutely maxed out, but if you take a few hours to implement systems in your business you will make up that investment 100x! Efficiency is necessary to thrive as a mompreneur.
Overall I live by this motto: "It's not the quantity of time you blog, it's how effective you are during that time."
3. Laura Williams - The Badass Business Mum
My biggest time saver when growing my blog was mastering Pinterest!
It didn't always feel like it because curating and pinning quality content on a regular and consistent basis takes oh so much time in the beginning!
The benefit of Pinterest over other social channels is the length of time a pin lasts for. With a half-life of 3.5 months compared to only 90 minutes for a Facebook post, Pinterest is a platform that brings long lasting results. And, of course, your pins link directly to your blog.
I have automated some of my pinning with Boardbooster, so I have content of my own and other bloggers' being pinned every day around the clock.
With a combination of strategic account setup and automated pinning I now have a Pinterest account that is growing all the time and bringing me consistent, regular traffic and subscriber growth every day.
4. Marissa Lawton - Riss Lawton
The biggest time saver when it comes to growing your blog is knowing your audience.
Sometimes you have to "spend time to make time," (just like money).
Plan to spend time researching before you even launch your blog and you will ensure targeted growth. Knowing what resonates with the readers you want to reach and tailoring your blog content to meet their needs is the best way to create a popular blog that gets appreciated and shared!
Sometimes you have to spend time to make time.
5. Olivia Derby - OliviaDerby.com
My biggest time saver:
I was really surprised to find that having a baby taught me a lot about productivity. Somehow, knowing that I had only a very limited time every day to sit down in front of my computer and be productive forced me to cut out distractions, prioritize my to-do list, and make better choices about the commitments I was subscribing to.
The biggest time saver for me, though, was creating a set of routines for myself. Every Sunday night I take an hour and plan my week, prioritizing my to-dos. Every day from 11 to 1 I know exactly what must be accomplished that day, and follow one of 2 routines to do it. By creating routines I've learned to be creative on a schedule and I spend very little time "preparing" to work. It's an automatic process that you get better at everyday.
6. Cath Oneissy - This Mama Learns
Most mom's I know do chores when their baby naps.
I blog.
As a mom of a one-year-old, my time is strictly limited during the day. I don't want my little guy to feel like he's my second priority. Though, the temptation to "just check one thing" on my phone or laptop is always there. And, as you probably know, "just one thing" can easily turn into half an hour.
Paradoxically, the best way I've found to make time for my blog is by spending quality time with my boy - playing, swimming and going for walks to play at the park. He has fun and then sleeps really well. Napping has always been a struggle for us, so this is win, win!
Another way I make time for my blog is by simplifying what I do around the home. Meal planning has never been my strong point - it takes forever, and I'm always one missing ingredient away from total disaster. These days we get the ingredients for three meals a week delivered in a box. It's been a huge time and sanity saver!
7. Monica Froese - Redefining Mom
The biggest time saver when it comes to growing my blog is outsourcing.
Outsourcing can encompass so many different tasks for both home and work. I have found two specific areas that are cost effective and have saved me a ton of hours and reduced stress.
The first is hiring a cleaner to come twice a month. I put a message on Facebook asking for recommendations for cleaners and ended up hiring a college student that was recommended by a childhood friend.
The second area was outsourcing content creation for my blog. I couldn't keep up with everything that had to get done to run my business, outsourcing specific content enabled me to focus on the tasks that grew my revenue and my traffic.
8. Michelle Augimeri - MichelleAugimeri.com
The biggest time saver for growing my blog and online presence would be automation.
I love using tools and apps like IFTTT, Buffer, and BoardBooster to help me save time and get my blog stuff done.
Specifically, I use IFTTT mostly for Twitter. I have "recipes" as they are called, set up to auto-tweet certain promotional tweets like a blog post that offers content upgrades for email sign ups. I also use IFTTT to auto-follow people back who follow me and another recipe set up to give a shout out to my new followers. This works great for engagement.
I love Buffer and the way I can simply add items to my "Buffer" and it will auto tweet on the predetermined schedule I set up ahead of time. Buffer is a major time saver.
I also use BoardBooster for Pinterest automation to automatically pin certain pins to group boards, which helps drive loads of traffic to my site. All of these tools and apps are so helpful in saving time on my blog journey.
9. Candis Hidalgo - Smart Mom Blogger
The biggest time saver (by a long shot) for growing my blog isn't a tool or service... it's a habit.
When I found myself wasting a bunch of time on social media and tasks that didn't contribute directly to the growth of my blog, I stopped and took the time to outline a detailed blog growth plan.
I set one BIG goal for the year, one for each month, and one for each week. Everything I do, no matter how small the task, has to feed one of those goals. If it doesn't, then I slice it out of the schedule.
This helps keep me from dawdling on social media, email or reading/learning (which is, of course, important but can easily steal productive time away!). This habit hasn't really freed up any "extra" time, but it has made my existing work time extremely more productive, which looks and feels like extra time when I see how it's impacted my blog growth.
10. Jen Snyder - Women Winning Online
My biggest time saver when it comes to growing my blog is investing in social media scheduling tools and batching my work.
I use tools like Buffer to schedule my Facebook group posts for Women Winning Online. I also use Buffer to schedule my social media posts on Twitter.
I use Tailwind to pin my content on several Pinterest group boards. That has been a huge time saver for me and my traffic from Pinterest has grown by 45% using the Tailwind tool.
The other thing that really helps me is batching my time. Mondays are content days. I write new blog posts, emails, and content for my Facebook group for the week.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my marketing days and Wednesday mornings I write my weekly email newsletters. I have about 2-3 hours to work each day, so I try to focus on the most important tasks that need to be done in those two hours.
By staying focused on those tasks, I have been able to grow my blog faster instead of jumping around trying all these new ideas.
Elna is a writer and blogger who helps moms become mompreneurs. Make sure to download her blog growth checklist and get your blog noticed today.