I have been blogging since March of 2008 and love every minute of it! I have met so many wonderful bloggers that have become great online friends! One blogger in particular, that I want to introduce you to, is Wisconsin Mommy blogger and social media influencer, Maureen Fitzgerald.
I decided to interview her, so you can get to know her too! You may even already know her. She has been around for a while too! Read below, to get to know her better, and don’t forget to visit her blog, and follow her on her social media pages!
Introducing Wisconsin Mommy Blogger And Social Media Influencer
Here we go!
Who Are You?
I’m Maureen Fitzgerald. I’m a digital content creator, blogger, former teacher, mom, wife, transplanted East Coaster, coffee addict, and a rescue dog owner.
Why Did You Start Your Blog?
I was a new mom sitting at home and Googling every question I had about motherhood – and I had a LOT. Mom blogging was just becoming a thing and I had a number of blogs popping up in my search results.
I started reading those blogs and leaving comments on them. They would reply to my comments and those women became my online support system and friends.
They encouraged me to start my own blog and I figured it couldn’t hurt since no one beside them would ever read it. (That still makes me laugh when I type it. Last month I had over 100K people read what I’ve written!)
What Is Your Blog Called?
My blog is Wisconsin Mommy.
How did you come up with your blog name?
I desperately wanted to come up with a clever name. All the blogs I was reading had cute names that referenced coffee or played off of their own names.
I was so bleary-eyed and exhausted that Wisconsin Mommy was the only name I could come up with. It actually wound up being a blessing because, before everyone learned about search engine optimization when you typed in “Wisconsin Mommy Bloggers” guess who came up first in results? Me!!
What do you blog about?
Back when I started over a decade ago, it was a lot of narrative around my adventures as a first-time mom. Now that I have a teenager, it has evolved into more of a lifestyle site. I do a lot of recipes, travel, and reviews of products that I find helpful and think my audience would like to hear about as well.
The best part of blogging?
Back when I started, the blogging community made life as a stay at home mom so much better for this first time mom who felt very overwhelmed. I had postpartum depression and my online community shared their experiences and made me feel much less alone.
These days, I love the opportunities that blogging gives me to have experiences I never would otherwise. Our trips with Disney have been once in a lifetime experiences.
Getting to experience the parks while they were “closed” to everyone else, getting to meet some of the people who make the magic happen behind the scenes, and taking my son on a Disney cruise on a ship that was fresh off of an amazing makeover are definitely some highlights.
Last summer, we partnered with a major hotel chain and they flew us out to Boston, put us up in a massive suite, and provided some pretty cool experiences in the city. I love being able to treat my family to those types of fun trips!
I also coach women who want to start a blog themselves and I love connecting with ladies who are where I was a decade ago and helping to make their journey a little smoother!
Your greatest achievement from blogging?
Being able to replace my fulltime teaching income with a business that I can do from home on my own terms is been my biggest achievement! It didn’t happen overnight and it took a lot of work, but it felt really good when I hit that goal.
How do you juggle being a parent and working from home?
I’m not going to lie – it was a bit challenging when my son was younger. When he was a toddler, I did most of my work when he was napping or after he went to bed. Once he started school, those were my work hours and I was pretty strict with myself about using them for getting things done.
Now that he is in high school, he is pretty self-sufficient, but I do love having the freedom to go to his sports events and other activities without having to ask someone for time off.
Any advice for other people wanting to start a blog?
I have SO much advice for people wanting to start a blog but I’ll distill it down into just a few points:
*Don’t start a blog for the sole purpose of getting rich quick. It can absolutely happen, but it takes a lot of work and dedication that don’t often show when you look at other people’s sites.
*Ninety percent of the hard stuff happens behind the scenes and blogging is so much more than just writing a post and publishing it.
*Don’t be afraid to ask for help or hire someone to do the things you can’t do. I stink at design and hired that out within a few months of starting my blog.
What is your blog link and social media links? (feel free to follow me!)
Blog: WisconsinMommy.com
Instagram: Instagram.com/wisconsinmommy
Facebook: Facebook.com/WisconsinMommy
Twitter: Twitter.com/WisconsinMommy
YouTube: YouTube.com/WisconsinMommy