Mommylicious — Starting a Blog

I had been abandoning my blog for the past 2 years. Ever since my youngest one was born, there were just not enough time in a day to blog. Now that he’s getting bigger, I feel like it’s time for me to follow my true passion and blog again. However, I realized I need to do something with my blog and make it more functional for me.

Right before I put my blogging in the back burner, I had a list of tweaking that I need to do for this blog:

1. Upgrade WordPress

My WordPress version was so old it wasn’t compatible with my smartphone; I couldn’t post with my phone. I had 2.6.2 and needed to upgraded to the latest version of 3.5.2. Initially I hired someone from Etsy.com to do the upgrade. During the process the web designer realized the upgrade such a big jump that she didn’t feel comfortable in completing the job. So she graciously backed out and refunded my money. I ended up hired someone from Elance at reasonable price and very happy with the result. Now I can blog easily using my phone, add pictures, share a post on Facebook Page and Twitter using my smartphone, it’s awesome!!

2. Purchased Genesis Framework and a Child Theme from Studio Press to optimize SEO

Genesis Framework is used by many professional bloggers to make sure their blogs are fully search engine optimized without doing tons of coding. I’m pretty much the most non-techy person ever, so playing around with html code is definitely not my forte. With Genesis Framework and its Child Theme, everything is built in. I purchased the framework and the theme last year and now it’s finally installed after the upgrade. I also replaced the original header of the theme that I purchased with mine. I haven’t fully learned all the nooks and crannies of all the features, but I’ll get there. :)

3. Install Social Media

I don’t want to overcrowd my blog with gazillions social media buttons. RSS Feed, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Email Subscribe are all I need for the sidebar. I also installed a Plugin to show social media buttons on each post.

4. Sponsors / Affiliates

Because I pretty much have to start all over again with my blog, I don’t have any sponsors nor do I want to look for any at this point. I need to gain enough readers in order to sell an ad button on my blog. I had always been with Amazon for affiliate program and earned quite a bit in the past. I decided to join Shareasale to expand my affiliate program with several businesses. I did a product feature last week and plan on continue doing so at least once a week.

5. Blog, blog and blog

Needless to say, that’s all I’m planning to do in my spare time. Currently I’m working on 31 days of Build Better Blog by problogger Darren Rowse. I’m at day 2 right now. We’ll see how I can keep up with the challenge.

The undecided part of this blog tweaking right now is the header design. I don’t have any problem with the overall design, but clearly I need one more child on the header. The cost to add an image of a little boy is the same as getting a brand new header design. So if my fellow readers can fill out this poll below, I would greatly appreciated!