Have you Considered Becoming a Fibromyalgia Blogger? How To Do It.

Last Updated on September 9, 2023 by melissanreynolds

I didn’t set out to become a fibromyalgia blogger. Did you know that my blog got started as simply as me posting diary-like updates while I was pregnant with my first baby and feeling miserably sore and alone?

Once I completed the pregnancy, I began formulating what I had learnt into tips. By my second pregnancy I had hit my stride and utilised my own tips and began gathering the resources that now find their home in the free resources pages.

I wonder if you have considered sharing your unique perspective about fighting Fibromyalgia (or chronic pain, fatigue, xx symptom)? I thought I would share this post about what I did and some resources that might help you if you had though about it but didn’t know where to begin.

Please note that some of my links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my link, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It all supports me running this blog.  

The Tech Stuff

I started my blog on WordPress.com the free version. After a while, reading a lot of advice that we need to be self-hosted, I chose a hosting company and transferred to WordPress.org. Well, I ended up hacked, lost my information and having to fight with the company for automatically charging my credit card three times the amount they had charged for the first year.

Initially, I went back to WordPress.com and paid a small annual fee.

Then I settled with GreenGeeks hosting and moved to wordpress.org. It’s so much better – I have plugins and much more control over the blog.

Should you become a fibromyalgia blogger?

I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Blogging takes a lot of work and I’ve had to learn A LOT over the years. But I love it.

Ask yourself, what is your goal? Is there an easier way to achieve it? Is YouTube and video better for you? Perhaps a Facebook group would enable your goal?

Ask the hard questions before you expend energy. Because it takes a lot.

How to Start a Blog

If you want a free course on how to start a blog from the bottom up, see this free one by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. Do also browse through her archives, she has a lot of good content.

You will want to create a to do list, it will be long. But you will focus on the next step.

1. You want to be sure that a blog is the best way to achieve your goal (what is it?)
2. Be intentional from the outset (that’s what I teach in the guide below)
3. Just start. Put one foot in front of the other. Don’t be daunted by the enormity of what you COULD do and focus on what you WILL do

I created The Paced Guide to Starting a Blog to help you do that. This is how to get going in a paced manner. Not the A-Z because that would be a very long and complicated document – but I provide helpful links for every part and guide you in the chronic illness friendly way.

Blogging for Those with Chronic Illness

I have done everything bit by bit over 10 years, as my health has allowed. Don’t be afraid to start small. Or to do it a little at a time.

Here’s my blog post process:

1. Idea into Google Keep
2. Flesh it out when I have the time and energy
3. Load it into WordPress
4. Format and edit
5. Create several images for it
6. Set it to post
7. Share it on social media
8. Share it to my newsletter lsit

Please don’t think that because you can’t sit at the computer for hours and hours that your story shouldn’t be heard. I’d like to hear your story.

Make a micro task list – break it right down.

It was only as the Low Dose Naltrexone started helping that I was able to start making my images myself (on Canva), put my book together, create templates and open my store.

Even now it is a constant cost vs benefit analysis as to where to expend my energy: content creation, learning about marketing ideas and utilising Pinterest properly, posting on Pinterest, coordinating my Facebook group, etc. etc. I just put one foot in front of the other and do what I can when I can.

My Fibromyalgia Blogger Timeline

Below are the resources I have created, in the order that I created them.

My blog posts (over 300 now) – started when I was pregnant with my first and was really struggling and there was no information available anywhere. Even the doctors didn’t know what to do for me.

Pregnancy and Fibromyalgia Resource Page – this finally looks how I envisioned it, but I really had to do one step at a time.

Pregnancy and Fibromyalgia book – published first in November 2017 (when I had two small children) and updated 2021 (after my fourth baby).

Melissa vs Fibromyalgia: My Journey Fighting Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue and Insomnia – written slowly over five years!

Somewhere in here I trained to be a yoga and meditation teacher and started sharing yoga programmes especially designed for us. You can find them in the below worksheet store below.

Worksheet store – this has a variety of free and paid worksheets and downloads to help you in your journey

Fibromyalgia Won’t Win book completed in 2022

The below guide is an example of what’s available in my store. I created this to walk you through the process of creating a blog in a paced manner.

I continue to create resources to this day. It’s become a mission of mine to share anything I learn in case it helps you in your journey. I don’t want you to spend so long without help as I did. I create new blog posts, YouTube videos and resources regularly.

Would I Start a Blog Again?

If I’d known how much work it would be and how much I needed to learn. And how many hours I would end up putting into it. I probably wouldn’t have got started. But I got to do everything slowly, as if with blinkers on.

First I learnt to write the posts. Then create images. Then share them. Figure out email newsletters. Social media. Creating worksheets, books and courses. All of these skills have helped me to go further in my paid career than I could have imagined.

But I would want to be intentional. Not waste time with going back and forward to self hosted to hosted. I designed the Paced Guide to Starting a Blog to save your energy. To give you the lessons I wished I had. In a paced manner. But the tips in this blog post should help you too!

Please do let me know in the comments if you start a blog, or if you already have one – I’d love to come visit and say hi!

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