We are living in a time when anyone can become an entrepreneur and make money on the web. Blogging is one of many ways to do this and is one of the easiest ways to bring in some mad money. I get asked all the time, “What is a blog and how do I start one?” The next question is, “how can I make money just writing about my life on a website?”

The most important question is, “what will I talk or write about?” For single moms the topics are endless. You can talk about your struggles and triumphs. You can discuss your finances like Single Ma does over at Fabulous Financials. If you have a pet project or pets you can blog about them. If you have goals that you are trying to reach blog, about it. If it’s about your quest to buy a house, a car, or start or finish college, write about that. If you are recovering from an abusive relationship, blog about your journey or, if you just got engaged blog about the wedding plans.

Its best that your topic stays pretty focused so that your readers know what to expect and so that potential sponsors can target it’s advertising on your site. Focusing the content of your site also helps you in creating new posts and makes you something of an expert in your subject matter. Planning your content around a focal point gives you a lot of ideas to work with and expand on. It also cuts down on confusion and writer’s block.

Adding different elements to your blog to make it interactive is essential for getting people to come back. So is updating your blog regularly. I am participating in the post to your blog daily program and I’ve seen a rise in visitors and feed subscribers.

After you have written a few entries in your blog you may decide you want the world to know about it. There are several ways to accomplish this goal. Submit your blog to blog directories, more specifically directories that fall within your topic range. Join a blog carnival, a list of people who are blogging about similar topics. Add meta data to your blog template (it’s not hard) so that the search engines can find it. Speaking of search engines, be sure to add tags to your post each time and use keywords within your post that people normally search.

There is a lot more to blogging but with these basics you can have one up and running in no time. I recommend using Blogger to start because I think it’s the most user-friendly and it can easily be monetized. Go to Blogger.com and set up an account (less than 5 minutes) then start writing. I’ll write future posts about ways to customize your blog in future posts so stay tuned.

Did I cover the basics well enough? What could I have included to make this post better?

Samantha Gregory

Samantha A. Gregory is an author, consultant, and speaker. She’s a single-mom lifestyle, money, and parenting expert featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Essence Magazine, HuffPost, ABC News, and Mint.com.

Samantha founded the award-winning RichSingleMomma.com™, the first online magazine featuring personal finance, parenting, and personal development content and courses for single moms.

She aims to inspire women who are ready to thrive and not just survive in their single motherhood journey. Connect with her on Instagram @richsinglemomma.