Looking for a bit of inspiration to help you through your every day mom life? I’ve got you covered with this collection of South African mom blogs who share the joys and struggles of it all. Plus you can learn just how to get writing yourself to document your child’s journey and impact others at the same time.
What Makes South African Mom Blogs Stand Out?
Is it our resiliance? Is it our local flavour? Or is it our ability to “maak ‘n plan?” Perhaps local creators are used to finding economic solutions to problems (as my SnapnSave grocery post shows) although they also like to find products that make their lives easier (like the Yoto player).
Telling your unique story is what brings people back, time and time again, and each of these bloggers do that really well.
Another important point is how well they have adapted to social media and leverage both blog and other online communities to create an audience of fans.
Top South African Mom Blogs That Inspire Me
- You Baby and I – Shaney Vijendranath
If you watched the summit, where I interviewed various experts on this topic, Shaney shares how at the height of the blogging era, she made over R1m just from her blog. She has shared many a heartfelt post on that blog. One memorable one that really drew me to her was this post, published on the Huffington Post. I think that sharing how hard breastfeeding was, was really comforting to me at a time when it was so difficult for me as well.
These days Shan is a rock star entrepreneur at MomSays and she also works in influencing. Her ability to grow her Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is just amazing and I really admire her for that as well. She shares useful content and she has an excellent ability to work both in content creating and in creating successful influencer campaigns.
2. Just a Mama – Mari-Louise Candiotes
The winner of the 2022 Parenting Blog Awards, Mari-Louise embodies that helpful mom with lots of tips to share. I interviewed her on Instagram soon after, and she shared that the blog started when she was working in markets and she found that moms asked her the same questions over and over again. The idea was to put her answers on a website so that she could share those tips in an easily accessible way.
The post she actually won for was about “Secondary Infertility Support: When there’s no rainbow at the end of the storm.” At the time of writing, she was battling but had accepted it was the end of her journey. Such joy, then, to hear about her new little one! They are now a family of four kids and you can also follow her on Instagram where she describes herself as “Retired” influencer – still blogging.” (I love it!)
3. In these Stilettos – Rebecca Badrodin
Something I really appreciate about Rebecca is her crafting skills – I mean just check out all the different slime posts on her blog! She is also really good with home and interior skills (see this gorgeous Easter table) and she does a lot of recipes as well. She’s also someone who curates lovely Instagram images and reels and you can follow here there.
4. Cupcakes and Couscous – Teresa Ulyate
This amazing woman puts together delicious recipes and takes the most amazing pictures. I interviewed her for the 2024 summit and she gave lots of tips for food photography. She really knows her stuff and has also published a cookbook.
5. Wisdom and Wrinkles and Harassed Mom – Laura le Roux
Laura is no longer such a harassed mom and is embracing the wisdoms of growing older. I’ve learnt a lot about blogging from her as well, she wrote many posts on this blog, and she was the starting force behind the community #JoziMeetups that we used to have.
Laura has recently embarked on a quest to bring blogging back and is having weekly Linky parties on her blog! Share your latest blog posts and connect with other bloggers.
6. Fun Mamma SA – Judy MacGregor
Judy is a prolific, consistent blogger. She shares a lot of press releases about relevant kids activities both in Cape Town and nationally, so she’s a good one to follow for this kind of news. She’s also a homeschooler and does a lot of educational and all sorts of other activities as well. She also does a lot of social media posts as well.
7. What WayD Says – Waheeda Joosab
Waheeda writes throughtful posts on faith, marriage, parenting and education. She is also a published author and I really enjoyed her book “Kismet.” She’s a teacher and also very organised and if you subscribe to her you’ll get a monthly calendar background for your computer or phone.
8. In Africa and Beyond – Sara Essop
If you want to sit and look at stunning travel visuals, Sara has the blog for you. She’s also a consistent blogger and you’ll find lots of amazing places and photographs to get swept away by.
9. Cape Town Mommy – Jaclyn Goliath
Jaclyn covers different topics on her blog and also tells the story of her premature baby journey. She’s also very active on social media. She’s always letting us know about the latest useful products and I also appreciate the clear captions on her IG posts (as I’m always playing this stuff while Nicky is sleeping and I don’t want to wake him up!)
10. Black Mom Chronicles – Karabo Mokoena
I interviewed Karabo and she is just one of those very wise people with lots of amazing things to say. Something that stayed with me is how us bloggers and content creators create that community as a support structure for our own mental health. She was also quick to give shout outs to others that have inspired her (Mommy and Baby Approved, Modern Zulu Mom and Aisha and Life -Check these ladies out, they are excellent!!). She writes amazing things like “Parenting through curiosity, not control” and I think she’s an excellent person to follow for conscious parenting.
11. Baby Yum Yum – Amanda Rogaly
Amanda has my absolutely admiration for turning her blog into a business. She has many contributors writing for her but is also a big believer in collaboration and has also helped this blog with awards sponsorship and given me momentum inspiration when it comes to a social media schedule. So I’m super grateful to have worked with this amazing woman and her team. You can find a lot of parenting information and tools on this website and they always seem to have events and interesting things going on. It’s really a great resource as a parent as well.
12. Smallberg Party of Four – Nadine Smallberg
Nadine is someone who leverages both her blog and social media to share her message. She is also good at mentoring up and coming influencers so we appreciate her experience and content creation skills. She also believes that we must “just start” – don’t overthink it, just get going, and you can do it. She is a very encouraging person to have around.
13. Creating Xtra – Mariska van Rensburg
This blog has lots of tips about side hustles and useful printables for saving money and getting out of debt. I think we can learn a lot about money tips from her!
14 It’s a Sher Thing – Tamryn Geldenhuys
Tamryn’s blog is beautifully laid out with stylish, pink accentuated branding. Her topics vary from beauty to travel to parenting. She is also a gifted writer as well. As a marketing consultant, she knows how to put things together in a beautiful way. Her Instagram is also beautifully curated – love her highlight covers all made with pink sweets!
15. Inspiring Mompreneurs – Lauren Kinghorn
I think we can learn a lot from Lauren, not only about business, but how she leverages her blog for this purpose. (Read her story here) She also does a lot of interviews where we can learn from other successful moms, as well as supporting and encouraging mom entrepreneurs.
16. Kaycee Digital Design – Kaycee
Kaycee lives in KZN and is a mom to two adult children with disabilities. She’s also a life coach. She makes digital products. She’s very good with Canva. I suggest you check out her site for some awesome templates. She’s also good with technical stuff like mail sending help with DMARC stuff, so she’s good to contact for that.
What You Can Learn from Top South African Mom Blogs
- Write with honesty and heart. Share your own heartfelt stories: this is what will really touch people.
- Choose topics that help other moms. Find a topic that interests you and share this with the world!
- Build loyal readers. As you can see, these bloggers have learned to adapt and use social media as well to build a community. This is what really helps with getting feedback and creating posts that people want to read.
Starting your own Blog
It might be old school, but people are still doing it and cashing in on it. They are also using a blog to supplement their overall influencer / content creation strategy for brands. You can offer an optimised post that will bring in traffic and awareness for a brand, as well as creating engaging reels and carousels.
I’ve written a lot about starting your own blog before, but it’s as simple as
- Finding your why and unique voice – what are you going to blog about?
- Choosing a name and a platform (I recommend WordPress)
- Get a domain and hosting
- Plan your content
- Keep it real and relatable
- Grow, using social media and SEO
That’s the short version.
Still confused? Want step by step videos?
You can get all the detail of the above steps in my video course which takes you through all of the above – with screensharing. It’s five hours of videos, lots of detail, lots of real life stories and real problems and how I solved them.
Check it out here
You can also watch a video of a webinar I did about blogging in this post (scroll down to the YouTube video).
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