Tips to follow to be a successful parenting influencer

Author: Rithika Kankaria
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Updated Date : February 21, 2022

After having spent a decade in corporate communications, my life was going in the desired direction and then pregnancy happened. The Champa Tree (aka TCT) was conceived in the month of May 2014. Around the same time as my son’s birth. In the initial years, both the blog and my son required my utmost attention. Now I am just watching them both grow tremendously.

The Champa Tree is about motherhood, parenting, baby and child care. But above everything else, The Champa Tree is a safe place where all mothers and fathers can find answers to the questions they think are too “silly” to ask out loud.

After 2 years of non-stop blogging, designing content plans and 1000 sleepless nights, we heard back from our blogging platform. They called to inform us that our blog was now being monetized! In 5 years of having survived the surge of digitization and constantly changing algos, it would be safe to say that TCT has come a long way. It has seen the growing demand for YouTube videos, slow death of Facebook, an ad hoc entry and exit of GooglePlus, not to forget the birth of Instagram which brought with it an array of filters, IG Live and created a new world – made of influencers, selfies and what not!

Today, The Champa Tree ranks under 20,000 in India, enjoys over 50K monthly views, has close to 20K ‘organic/real’ loyal followers and witnesses 1.9million monthly views on Pinterest (alone)!

So, if you are planning to up your game in parenting and motherhood blogging, here is what I’d LOVE to suggest!

Brands today are more than turning to credible and hardworking mom bloggers for a soft-and-subtle launch of new products because they feel they stand a better chance by reaching out to ‘real’ and organic audiences. Brands are also focusing on mom bloggers because they feel moms connect better with a larger part of the audience than a celebrity. Mommy bloggers are active on social media most of the time. The best part of being a mom blogger is that you connect with both the audience and the brand. As a reader one will never feel like she is in the mommyhood journey all by herself.

For a parenting blog to be successful, some of the pointers to focus on:

Be unique: A zillion new parenting blogs are created every day. When I started blogging I knew that my story was unique and worth telling.
Real and organic followers: If you see the fan base and follower count of most mom bloggers, there are high chances that they are 90 percent organic and real. There’s credibility, honesty and authenticity attached to the organic nature. Maintain and stick to that!
Why a blog? (Be ready with the answer to thrive better): My first reason for blogging was to share information with millennial parents who are often not too keen to acknowledge their grannies’ way of handling kids. Once you know the exact cause for this initiative, you’d be in a better position to infuse time and energy on blogging!
Content is the king: Make your content as useful and helpful as possible. As a parenting blogger, I have managed to tap into the psyche of my reader group. Most moms are looking for problem-solving. How to cure loose motions, home remedies for cold and cough, etc. I try and resolve their issues by sharing experience from my day-to-day life, or I consult our in-house pediatrician/lactation consultant, nutritionist. Writing about yourself is okay on occasion but it is not what people are searching for. Write about topics that will genuinely help people, e.g our Real Moms Series is a way to connect with mums out there who have had to deal with a lot. Their real struggles and yet they hold their heads high. Learning about them can be inspiring and motivational. Also, it’s good to think like a mum/dad/caregiver when selecting the topics one plans to write on, e.g. Coronavirus, Swine Flu- symptoms- these topics are topical but people are searching for them on google.
Create noise! Amplify/ Showcase yourself: Most of the mommy bloggers aspire to showcase their written content or A/V talent, have quit their proper jobs to spend more time with their little ones, etc. they are very much approachable for questions from the general public for which the brand directly might not be available. To be successful in getting more and more promotional deals from brands means to be able to be successful in creating enough buzz about your own platform. This can typically happen on your social media platform through your own network.
Prepare monthly content calendars and follow them to a tee: You should keep a blogging calendar handy and always try to create one at least 2 weeks in advance. Here is a brief overview of my blogging and social media calendar.

Monday: Product review
Tuesday: Problem solving (Tuesday Mom Tip)
Wednesday: Guest post + backlinking
Thursday: Real Moms Series – interview of a real mom
Friday: Listicle
Saturday and Sunday are only Social Media promotions and NO blog goes live because these are family days. Lean traffic.

Use Social Media every day: without fail: Social media outlets (such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. ) work as the amplification or support system for your blog. They can drive heavy traffic to your site if utilised properly. You have to carve out time to post on social media every day. As you can see in my blogging calendar I use social media every day. Pick the channels that you want to focus on and consistently post on them.
SEO is the key: Utilizing keywords in your content, creating meaningful and SEO-friendly categories and tagging each blog properly helps. Besides, getting backlinks via guest posting is one other way to ensure a better Google ranking.

These are a few tips I have been religiously following for years. They have been working well for me. Here’s wishing you luck on your blogging journey. Do let me know if you found this piece relevant. Leave a comment to show your love.

This article was contributed by The Champa Tree.

The Champa Tree is a leading blog on motherhood, parenting, baby and child care. It ranks under 20,000 in India and is covered by some of the reputed media outlets. You can tickle your funny bone with some parenting humour or read emotional pieces which most of us (at some point) would relate to. But above everything else, The Champa Tree is a safe place where all mothers and fathers can find answers to the questions they think are too “silly” to ask out loud. In case you don’t find the answer to a question that has been bothering you, feel free to reach out as this is a place free of all judgment.