Maintain a Successful Pregnancy Blog

Pregnancy is an important and exciting time in any woman’s life. Some women start writing during pregnancy to either reflect on the experience for their own benefit or to provide information to others going through the same thing. Pregnancy Write a Blog are very popular and widely read by a large audience. Having your own pregnancy blog may help you to channel your excitement, anxiety, and planning into a creative outlet, and also be a way to share your experiences with family and friends. No matter your target audience, there are several important steps every pregnancy blogger should follow to make their endeavor successful.

Steps

  1. Decide whether the blog is for personal or general viewing. This will determine whether you make the blog public and searchable by engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
    • If you choose to keep the blog for friends and family only, you may decide to password protect it. This way, you can post more personal information or private details without the whole world having access to it.
  2. Browse other pregnancy blogs and take note of the features you like best. Take the time to look at other pregnancy blogs and write down what most appeals to you. These are the things you may want to incorporate into your own blog.
    • Look at the writing style, the length and content of posts, the use of images and videos, the links to other websites and blogs.
    • Consider the type of work that attracts followers and comments, if that is something you’re interested in incorporating into your blog.
    • Pay attention to the various Make a Blog Layout (templates) that pregnancy blogs you like have used. This includes noting the colors, layouts, fonts, and any added features called widgets.
    • Note the use of titles and tags. Titles are very useful messages for readers, clarifying what each post will be about. Choosing appealing or attention-grabbing titles for your posts could increase your traffic and make you more visible in search results. Tags, on the other hand, are not always visible (that is something you can choose as you design your blog) but they can help searchers find topics that address the information they’re looking for. All of this will give you a good feel for what you like and don’t like, what you do or do not want to emulate, and what appears to be popular with readers.
  3. Choose a Choose a Blog Host or platform.
    • Sites like Wordpress.com, LiveJournal.com, and Blogger.com offer free blogging platforms to registered account holders. Because they're free, they are also limited in the styles and flexibility of the page set-up, but there are still many options and designs to choose from.
    • For most bloggers who will mainly be using their blog to keep friends and family up to date on the pregnancy and birth, a free site may be a more manageable option.
    • If you decide to pay for extra features and flexibility, be sure you know how to create content by applying at least the basics in web design.
  4. Take time to learn how to use the blog management tools well. When you first launch your blog, you don’t want to spend an hour on each post trying to figure out how to insert a hyperlink, appropriately use tags, get a widget added, or add a picture.
    • Reading the set-up instructions and how-to guides posted by most blog servers can save a lot of time and frustration. Knowing these skills upfront will also help your blog look polished and modern from day one.
  5. Make a personal commitment regarding the number and type of posts you plan to publish each week.
    • Avoid overly ambitious goals of posting every day until you gain some experience blogging.
    • Most active blogs average a few posts a week. For pregnancy bloggers, this number of posts will typically allow for you to share the highlights of your best and worst moments of each week. Other excellent blogs have just one post per week.
    • If your pregnancy blog is geared toward a larger audience, try mixing up the style of posts so that each week has a personal reflection piece, a link to a newsworthy story or event, a picture or video related post, and other variations in the content to keep readers coming to the site as well as to bring in new traffic.
    • If your blog is for a more personal purpose, one solid post per week may be enough to keep your viewers satisfied. Variation is also a good tip for personal pregnancy blogs so that readers don’t feel like each week is more of the same, however.
  6. Let family and friends know about the blog. Publicize and advertise your efforts so that the people you care about or your target audience are aware of your efforts and know how to access your blog.
    • If you have a presence on Facebook, MySpace, or a profile on another social networking site, post an announcement of your new blog and send out reminders or updates occasionally to let them know about new posts or topics.
    • Also spread the word via email, quick notes, texts, or phone calls to just let people know what you are trying to do and how they can support your efforts or stay informed about your pregnancy.
  7. Use photos, links, videos, and other multimedia. It is hard to overemphasize how important graphics and linked material are to the success of a pregnancy blog.
    • Not only can photos and videos add visual interest to your blog, they can also help attract new readers, generate conversation, and get your blog noticed.
    • Try posting monthly pictures of your growing belly to track your tummy size. Put up the Get an Ultrasound for Pregnancy to share your baby’s development.
    • Upload YouTube videos that talk about pregnancy issues (in concise and entertaining ways, of course!), and take advantage of free digital photos and artwork that detail the growth of a baby by trimester or the importance of a healthy diet (just be sure to cite the credit for the free photos).
  8. Avoid long narratives, cuss words, and messy details. Blogs with long, in-depth narratives can deter casual readers or make even friends and family feel that the blog is too time consuming to follow. Keep posts relatively brief except in special circumstances, and break long paragraphs into short groups of one to three sentences. Large blocks of text are unappealing to many readers, and are visually more daunting than short, manageable bits.
    • Avoid cuss words and vulgar language as a general rule. On some blog venues, lewd or adult language can be flagged and removed by the site provider, and other users can file complaints lobbying to have your blog shut down until the language is changed or removed. Furthermore, sites with inappropriate language can turn off many casual readers and keep your blog from being nominated for higher visibility on sites like Wordpress.com. It's fine to be funny about your pregnancy; just try to do this without being offensive.
    • Messy details are a fact of pregnancy. Just be sure that your funny story about peeing a bit when you sneeze doesn’t cross the line to detailed descriptions of the messy and often unattractive side of pregnancy unless you have a very targeted audience that will empathize with your stories. If your blog’s audience includes your male coworkers or neighborhood acquaintances, be sure you’ll be comfortable seeing them in person after publishing personal content on your pregnancy blog.
  9. Follow other pregnancy blogs and let them know about your blog. If you are blogging for the general public in addition to your family and friends, be sure to get involved in the pregnancy blog community.
    • Read other pregnancy blogs and make thoughtful comments, link to them in your stories and blogroll, talk with the other bloggers about their blogs and your new blog, and politely and casually spread the word about your blog to them. Becoming a member of the network of pregnancy bloggers can help generate interest in your blog and can bring you new traffic. However, be sure not to push your blog without also contributing to theirs, as this is how blogging works––you give as much as you get.
    • Keeping tabs on what others are writing can also help alert you to relevant topics to include on your own blog. Reading other writers’ work can keep you inspired and offer variety and further information for your most avid readers.

Tips

  • Post polls, quizzes, questions, jokes, and other interactive or entertaining content on the blog – your readers may enjoy the opportunity to interact.

Warnings

  • As with most online profiles and publication venues, avoid posting personal information that would allow readers to find out your phone number, address, workplace, or identifying information. This will keep you and your family members safer.
  • Don’t worry if the blog becomes too much to handle, especially late in your pregnancy. Things get more hectic and busy as the due date approaches, so if need be, just take a rest. You can always start up again after the baby is born by posting some newborn pictures.

Things You'll Need

  • Blog host
  • Internet access
  • Digital camera

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Sources and Citations

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