Just starting on your blogging journey and looking for a guide to creating your first blog strategy? In this post, I’ll give you 13 steps to help you set up a successful strategy for blogging.
There is no right way, wrong way, or one way to creating a blog strategy.
Your blog strategy is designed for you and your blog.
It’s knowing what you’re doing before and during the starting phase to get to your end goal.
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What is a Blog Strategy?
A blog strategy is a plan of action.
It’s the process of planning out your approach in blogging to achieve your goals; a desired result in the end.
It’s knowing what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it step by step.
And I want to make sure that you understand that this is a BLOG STRATEGY, the main blueprint of all your planning.
Because you will come across posts that will talk about blog strategies and it’s for content and they use the same term and this is not that.
There are probably about 4-6 different strategies, if not more, that bloggers create.
There’s a content strategy, a content planning strategy, a content blogging strategy, a blog strategy for marketing, a strategy for keyword research, a keyword planning strategy, an SEO strategy, and a few more (and most of them mean the same thing).
So, we take one major category which is blogging and break it down into pieces and they become strategies (plans of action).
Now, if you want to know what are the strategies of becoming a successful blogger, you need to start with a an overall blog strategy and this is it.
Difference between a Blog Strategy and a Blog Content Strategy?
First off, adding the word “Blog” into everything is confusing enough, then tacking on “Strategy” at the end doesn’t help.
When I say blog, I’m talking about the blog, the entire thing.
When I say blog CONTENT, it’s content on your blog.
Your content is what you create to meet the purpose of your audience, to solve their pain point.
So, this is where confusion might come in.
You see, a lot of bloggers define these two strategies as the same thing and they are not.
You need an overall strategy to come before all the other strategies.
And that’s where a blog strategy comes in to play.
And the very beginning of creating a successful strategy is the planning your bog strategy out.
Why is a Blogging Strategy Important?
So, why do you need a blogging strategy?
To have a clear focus.
And because there is an order.
Yes, it’s true, an order.
I mean you need to know what keywords your using before you write and you should know what you’re writing about before you just start and you should know what your competition is doing, to do it better and you definitely should know who you’re talking to.
And there’s more, a lot more that we’ll get into.
And then, if you’re very new to blogging, then you probably haven’t gotten overwhelmed, frustrated, lost or confused yet.
And a blogging strategy is probably still not going to keep you from experiencing those things, BUT you will always have something to come back to, to get you back on the right track.
So, in the planning of this course of action, I’m going to take you through your blogging journey.
How to Create a Blog Strategy?
By building your plan of action from the ground up.
Planning out your blog strategy means you’re going to be doing a lot of research.
But How Do You Create a Successful Blogging Strategy?
By strategically planning and creating specific strategies that you follow.
One hundred people can tell you how to create a successful blogging strategy but it means nothing if you don’t follow through with it.
And then, just because 100 people tell you it’s a successful blogging strategy, doesn’t mean it’s going to be successful to you.
You see, once you read an article and put that pen to paper, it’s all on you and that will determine if that blog strategy that you made specifically for you will be successful or not.
So, let’s go for successful and get started.
Steps to Creating a Blog Strategy
- Outlining Your Strategy
To stay on track, you need to document everything that you learn.
Every note, every site, every “I’m going to come back to it later”.
Because the more you start researching and the further you get into blogging, the more things that are going to start coming at you, and you’ll go into information overload.
We all want our blogs to be successful and we all strive to be on page one of the search engine results page, but there’s not room for all of us.
You can get there and that needs to be labeled as your goal, but there has to be a plan, and you need to know what you’re doing.
Having blogging knowledge of steps to create, manage and maintain your blog, is setting you up for success.
So, grab your notebook and start outlining your strategy to blogging.
2. Figure Out Exactly What You’re Blogging About
So, I’m sure you we’re probably reading about how some blogger you came across makes so much money and that’s when you decided you were going to also.
So, after realizing you wanted to become a blogger, the next step is figuring out what you’re going to blog about.
There has to be a topic of conversation, this is known as a niche.
Because without a niche you won’t know who you’re writing your blogging content for, what your purpose is for creating it, what content to write around or what products to create.
If you’re trying to start a blog to make money, you cannot blog about anything and everything under the moon right now.
Decide on one topic.
And later after you’ve started achieving what you’ve set out to do then you can either add other stuff or start a new separate site.
But for right now, 1 niche.
This niche needs to be very specific.
Is it for beginners, advanced, kids, moms, dads, pet owners, who?
3. Setting YOUR Goals
While the idea of starting a blog and finding your topic was running through your head, you were probably thinking about the money.
Why?
- You want to pay for vacations.
- You want to take a month off a year.
- You want to go to Vegas (that one’s me!)
- You want to make $25,000 a month
- You want to afford a bigger house
Write down your reasons, however many you have, write all of them down.
And then number them from 1 to whatever, with 1 being the smallest goal and end with that one big finale.
The end goal you want to achieve from blogging.
If you’re going to blog, you need to know why.
If it’s a hobby blog, you can just do whatever, no one cares and there’s no need to put all that work into it, because you have no reason to do it, it’s just for fun and there’s no end result.
So, if your taking this seriously and going as far as creating strategies, and goals and calendars and everything else.
Then know YOUR why.
4. Know your Why for your Audience
You know your why and you’ve set your goals and we’re done talking about you.
This is your why for your audience.
The people you will be creating content for, the audience that will visit your site, read your posts, click your affiliate links, and buy your digital products.
The ones that are going to get you to your end goal but the truth is, no one cares what your end goal is.
The only thing your audience cares about, is what they can get out of it, how does it benefit them to visit your site and keep coming back?
Because if you don’t give your audience what they need, they’ll go somewhere else and get it.
If you don’t know the reason for blogging for your audience, the main pain point; then your site will not get very far at all.
You need to know why you’re blogging for other people and what is it that you want them to know?
Knowing the reason why you’re creating your blog for other people, will help you to know how to use your content with a purpose and help you to meet their needs.
Why are they going to visit your site?
Write it down and if it’s a paragraph then write that paragraph, if it’s a page then write the page.
Just know your audience’s why.
5. Know Who Your Audience Is
When you know what you’re blogging about, why you’re blogging about it, why you’re blogging about it for other people, you’ll figure out exactly who you want to talk to.
And this is your target audience.
Is it for beginners who have never used a sewing machine before who need the very beginning basics of what is what to start sewing.
Is it for advanced who can benefit more about something that they thought they already knew that you can give them.
Is it for pet owners who are starting out with a puppy or have a senior dog?
Who is that exact target audience?
You need to pin point it down and be very specific about who it is you’re talking to.
6. Figure Out Your Thing
In a world full of millions of bloggers and billions of blogs, what is going to make you different?
Why should someone choose your site to visit over all the others?
What is going to be unique about what you’re doing?
What is going to sell you above everyone else?
7. Keep a Record of Your Resources
As a beginner blogger, you’re going to come across a lot of things you’re going to want to go back to later, you’re also going to come across a lot of different sites because you’re researching and you should be researching a lot.
Researching is very important in blogging, some think you just start and that be that.
No, you need to keep a list of your most valuable resources, the best of the best authoritative sites.
You see, everybody blogs about it all, but when you need a specific thing, you should have a list of that specific authoritative site.
And if you’re reading a site not related to what you need, then that site should be giving you the best of the best referrals.
There’s going to be a lot of noise out there in your blogging journey and you don’t need all that.
Learn who your best resources are and use them.
These authoritative resources will help you to get to the next point in your blogging game plan.
8. Research your Competition
The point of this, is that these are the sites that blog in the same niche you do, that you need to be better than.
These are the sites that are on page 1 of the SERP’s that you want to either be above or take their place.
You are not the first blogger in your niche and you don’t have to figure out everything on your own.
Many before you have been there and done that.
Research them.
After you’ve decided on your niche and your audience, check out who’s at the top of your niche.
It’s perfectly okay to research someone else’s site, just never steal their content.
Look at the posts they’ve written, the products they’ve created, and so on, use the top bloggers as your inspiration.
Learn from the best.
9. Start with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is search engine optimization and it’s making your site better for search engines.
You see, everything on your site needs to be understandable to search engines, so that search engines know who to serve your content to; the users, your target audience.
SEO includes a lot of different categories like On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, and Technical SEO along with a few more types.
Knowing your SEO doesn’t mean you’re going to be on page one automatically, because there’s a lot more involved than just SEO to get you there, but it’s all about helping you have a better site and content for search engines, so you have a better chance of getting there.
And this is where you’re SEO strategy starts.
10. Know about Keyword Research
Keyword research falls under the category of On-page SEO.
Keywords are the words and phrases that will help you to rank on search engines and get you served to readers.
Learn about Keyword Research.
Knowing about keyword research before even starting to write your posts will help you to be ahead of the game.
If you read somewhere or you’ve been told, “just put up what you have” and you did, that’s fine, but you’re going to need to go back and optimize your content for search engines.
And this is where you’ll start creating your keyword research strategies.
To learn about keyword research, you need to know what it is, so start here with Yoast, then head over to MOZ, and from there you can follow the links to learn how to do keyword research.
So, let me just be clear about this, we write and create for our audience.
We use words, phrases and SEO for our audience.
So, yes, you should learn about this stuff but learn it for your audience and apply it for your audience and not search engines.
11. Create a Content Calendar
Your blogging strategy definitely needs a content calendar and this is part of your content marketing strategy after you’ve created a content strategy.
This is a normal looking calendar that shows: what you’re going to write, when you’re going to write it and when it’s going to be published, plain and simple.
Remember when I mentioned creating a successful blogging strategy? That it was something that you have to follow through with, this is following through.
Your content calendar or editorial calendar (same thing) is part of your blogging strategy.
And maybe you know where we’re headed next, into building a blogging content strategy.
12. Set Aside Your Time to Create
A hundred times a day, okay exaggerating here, but it’s a lot, I see the same thing asked, “how do you find time to blog or does someone have a schedule I can follow?”.
Someone’s answer is not your answer; we all have different things going on in our lives.
Some work full-time or part-time, some work 2nd shift, 3rd shift or stay at home.
This is your life and you need to figure out when you can work on your blog.
Find your most productive time and if you can’t do it during your most productive time, make a time your most productive and stick to it.
Set the time that is available for you to work, and use it to work!
No tv, no music, no cell.
Focus!
Figure out your time, because it’s your time, not the blogger that can blog 6 hours a day or the blogger that can blog 3 hours a day, or the blogger that can blog 7 days a week.
This is you and your business, and it’s only going to go as far as you take it.
Make it happen.
But never ever take family time from anyone, your kids and spouse still need lovin’ and your blog is not going anyway.
13. Promote Your Business
This will fall under your blog marketing strategy.
You’re going to have to put it out there. You can’t have a business if no one can see it.
Now, after you release your content, that’s left in the hands of the search engines but you can promote your blog in other ways.
You are going to need to figure out what is the best way to promote it and roll with it.
How can you start letting everyone know you have a blog?
Now, I’m going to tell you that just because you do all these things doesn’t mean you’re going to get traffic.
Chances are, in the beginning, you’ll get nothing, but you still need to promote to get your name out there and keep promoting.
You are going to have to put in the work and figure out what works for you and where you get the best engagement: naturally.
Because you want actual engagement from viewers on your posts that need your stuff and promoting your content in a group for a comment because you gave a comment, is not true engagement or organic traffic and search engines are smart enough to know this.
Yes, telling your blogging group you wrote a new post is great and getting one comment is great, but you want people who actually need your content and will continue to come back.
So, your best bet is to write optimized posts and bring them in off of search engines.
Focus on your content.
Now, I’ve heard bloggers say, “I don’t want my family and friends to know about it yet”, and that’s fine they don’t have to, but there is a world full of strangers that don’t know you and you can promote to them in your blogging group, in forums, or on social media.
And I just want to add this in here, your family and friends might not even care, may never even look at it or there’s also a possibility they’ll just take a five second glance and you’re worried for nothing.
More Reading for Your Enjoyment
Blogging in a Niche You Know Nothing About
Summary for Creating a Blog Strategy
- Document and research
- Know what you’re blogging about
- Know your exact purpose
- Figure out your audience
- Find your thing
- Keep a record of your resources
- Research your Competition
- Create your Keyword Research Strategy
- Know your SEO and create an SEO strategy
- Create a Content Strategy and/or Calendar
- Set aside time to create
- Promote your Blog
So, you have 13 steps to help you start planning out a successful blog strategy.
Now start going through other posts and see what other bloggers have to say and start creating your blog strategy template.
After you have created your blog strategy head on over to “how to start a blog” in 21 steps.
Any questions or comments, let me know below.