Can Blogging Be A Business…Just Ask the Moms!

Posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2011.

Not only are Trish Bogdanchik and Angie Cleland great moms, they are savvy business women too! Since launching Birmingham Mommy as a blog dedicated to informational and entertaining content to local moms, they have created a business model out of their highly visible brand.

Trish & Angie were nice enough to share their secret sauce…well some of it anyway!

Who came up with the idea of Birmingham Mommy?

It was an idea born out of necessity!  We were new moms who were looking for information and ways to connect with our community.  There were no other sites giving us what we wanted so we decided to create our own. We wanted honesty and sincerity instead of boring parenting articles.

What thought process led to this idea, and what initial challenges did you have to face?

Our thought process was based on staying true to moms and realizing their power. Moms hold the majority of purchasing power and they should be respected. We saw something that those valuable moms would need and appreciate and we based our revenue model on genuine ways to help and not constantly sell. Our initial challenge is the same as our continuing challenge…balance. We have small children and we’re trying to build a business while being a mom. It’s hard to not feel like something is being neglected but we make it work. Another challenge we find is that mom websites aren’t always taken as seriously as they should be. The market is just now beginning to embrace the value of moms.

What advice do you have for women who are thinking of starting up their own business?

Do your research first. Not everything will make a successful business, and you don’t want to invest your time and heart into it if it is doomed.

How do you find material to put on to your website?

We live it! Our website material literally comes from our lives. Part of the magic of it is we are going through it with our readers. We write about potty training when we are knee deep in wet laundry. We write about summer car travel tips when we’re taking or returning from a road trip. It’s all inspired by our lives and from talking with other moms.

Explain your growth as a business since starting Birmingham Mommy

We started with a plan for slow growth and it exploded within months of our launch.  This is a great thing but our families weren’t quite prepared for us to go full time so quickly!

How were you able to build a business around blogging?

We had to do more than blog we had to build up a reputation for our content. We don’t post things just to post, but have meaningful articles. We wanted to brand ourselves as BirminghamMommy, so we started appearing on several television stations as parenting experts. We assisted in a nationally syndicated moms talk show and have done everything possible to make it known that BirminghamMommy is more than just a website- it’s something much more.

What was the initial feedback regarding Birmingham Mommy in the community?

The feedback has brought us to tears. Moms will tell us how crucial our website is for them and that makes us so happy. It was our goal and it has happened.

How do you find balance between working and parenting?

We don’t!  We struggle with this daily but we’ve found that working from home means you’re always at work and that just doesn’t cut it with the kids. We have to set no-work times, we have to do a lot of work at night after the kids have gone to bed. It’s hard to see a pile of dishes after a long day and know that once the kids are asleep you’ll be conquering those AND doing your day’s work.  We miss tv!

Where do you see your company in 5 years? 10 years?

We’ll never tell our secrets…

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