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How To Set Up Your Own Pregnancy Blog

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I receive many requests from pregnant moms who would like to publish their story on the web. Although most of them are experienced Facebook and Snapchat users, few know how to make their story more impactful. You may be one of those moms. Each day, about 172,800 blogs are created. That’s two blogs every second. With so many blogs springing up daily, you may wonder, “Should I start a blog?” My answer is that you should certainly blog! I will tell you why and how.

Why moms should blog

There are many good reasons why you should blog. Following are some of them:

  1. It will help you learn new things

Blogging is about sharing your story. It’s about teaching or sharing with other moms what you know and what you are learning about your pregnancy. When you start a blog, you’ll often find yourself learning new things that you can share. And, then, you will become a better prepared mom.

  1. It will build your confidence

Blogging helps you learn to voice your opinions. If you want to be inspirational to other moms, you will need to do your research first and then add your personal experience. The combination of knowledge and experience will help you build strength. It is perfectly fine to also admit that you made mistakes and are working on improving on your weaknesses. With conversations happening on your blog, you learn to hear flattery without being carried away and take criticisms without losing your cool.

  1. It lets you help other people

Do you want to share your knowledge with other pregnant moms? Start a blog. Do you want to pass on cool tips? Start a blog. Do you wish people would make better choices and you want to help them achieve that? Start a blog.

The feeling of having inspired, helped or saved someone will give you great joy.

There are a many mommy blogs online. Moms everywhere are choosing themselves to do extraordinary things in other people’s lives via a blog. You can do it too, and now’s the best time ever to start!

  1. It allows you to document your pregnancy

With a blog, you can tell the story of your pregnancy in the form of an online diary. And, if you don’t tell your story now, you may never do it. Act now while your memory is fresh! Many mommy bloggers also continue publishing online after birth.

  1. It helps you stay in touch with distant friends and family

If you want to share your pregnancy story with distant family and friends, Facebook or Snapchat will not do it. Having a blog where you document your life adventures, ideas and struggles (and maybe even receive comments) is a great way to stay connected with family and friends who might be thousands of miles away.

  1. It is free (or affordable)

As explained below, anyone can start a blog for free. And if you want more freedom with your blog, you can self-host, which is affordable for almost anyone.

How to blog

Setting up your blog is quite easy and takes about 30 minutes. Follow these steps and it will be ready for your first article.

  1. Pick a domain name

This will be your blog’s web address, also known as the URL. For example, the domain name for Pregistry is www.pregistry.com and the one for Facebook is www.facebook.com. If you type that domain name into an internet browser anywhere in the world you will be sent to this site.

You may choose whatever domain name you want. It can be a name or a description. Many mommy bloggers choose cute pregnancy names. Bear in mind that you may decide to continue blogging for a long time after you have your baby and that you may have more children later on. Therefore, it is practice to use a domain name that works for all situations.

Following are a few domain tips to get you started:

  1. Choose brandable over generic. A brandable domain name is unique and stands out from the competition, while a generic domain name is usually stuffed with keywords and unmemorable. (For example, LisasRocks.com is more brandable than RockCollectingBlog.com.)
  2. Keep it concise. According to research from com, a magazine for entrepreneurs, the top-100 websites have approximately 6 characters in their domain name.
  3. Easy to type and pronounce. Your domain name should roll off the tips of your fingers and the tips of your tongue without any problem.

Be aware that most “.com” domains are already taken. You can try adding simple words like “the”, “a”, or “my” to the beginning of the name, or you can try adding dashes between words. If you want to use a domain name that is already in use, I suggest you try “.net” and “.org”. Once you chose your available domain name, buy a one year subscription. It may be as low as $10 per year (or even less).

Please, note that if you choose the free version of a platform (see step # 3 below), you will not be able to use the domain of your choice. It will be something like yourblog.wordpress.com or yourblog.blogspot.com (if you use the WordPress or Blogger platform, respectively).

  1. Choose a web host

A web host is a company that will store all your articles and deliver them to the readers when they type in your domain name. You must have a web host in order to have a blog.

We initially hosted The Pulse in BlueHost. It is quite inexpensive and they have a very good customer service. For a mommy blog, BlueHost’s basic plan is sufficient. At the time of writing this article (January 2017), the basic plan costs $2.75 per month. During the installation process, BlueHost will ask you your domain name. Another popular web host is iPage.

  1. Choose a platform where your blog will be published

The blogging platform is where your blog is published and where people from all over the world can read you posts. The most popular platforms for blogging are WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr.

I suggest you begin with the paid version of WordPress for the following reasons:

  1. It is really easy to set-up and relatively cheap (about $100 per year).
  2. It has many free themes and layouts, so you have plenty of design options to choose from.
  3. There’s a massive support forum in case you get stuck.
  4. There are 5k+ free and paid WordPress themes available to make your design look top-quality. net also has many great paid themes. Their paid designs are around $40 and they look great both on a PC and mobile.
  5. People can interact with you easily. Your content can be shared, commented on, and so on.

Blogger is free and owned by Google. It is the next best thing to WordPress.

Tumblr is half social network, half blog. It is very simple to use.

If you choose WordPress, BlueHost or iPage will automatically set it up for you. After a couple of steps, you will be ready to publish your first post.

Bear in mind that, if you choose the free version of one of these platforms, the web address of your blog (the domain) will not be the one you chose on step #1. Rather, it will be yourblog.wordpress.com or yourblog.blogspot.com (if you use the WordPress or Blogger platform, respectively).

Final tips

  • Use images, video clips, and music to make your blog posts more interesting! Make sure the media you use is royalty-free (Pixabay has free high quality images) or your own material. Alternatively, you can purchase media for a fee from websites such as Adobe Stock.
  • Do not plagiarize.
  • Quote or reference the source of the material you use. This will give your posts more legitimacy.

Good luck. I look forward to reading your blog soon!

Diego Wyszynski
Dr. Diego Wyszynski is the Founder and CEO of Pregistry. He is an expert on the effects of medications and vaccines in pregnancy and lactation and an accomplished writer, having published 3 books with Oxford University Press and more than 70 articles in medical journals. In 2017, he was selected a TEDMED Research Scholar. Diego attended the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

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