Above Header

Make your roadmap to successful blogging

Make Your Roadmap To Successful BloggingTo make your roadmap to successful blogging, you need to know where you’re heading.

Just think if you jumped in your car to start a road trip.

If you didn’t have any idea where to head, then you could end up just about anywhere.

Everything would be left up to chance.

The same thing with blogging.

If you have no idea where you’re going, then you have no idea what your results will be.

And you’d be surprised how many bloggers I’ve worked with who do exactly that.

But if you want to get on the road to successful blogging, then you do need to make a road map to follow.

You have to know what your destination is.

Start from where you are 

Any road trip always begins with where you are.

If you jump in your car then you probably know where you are.

But not so with blogging.

Special: Join Donna’s Free VIP Blogging Club – Free Now… Free Forever

If you’re new to blogging, you probably have hardly any idea what you want to do.

You don’t know what your niche, who your audience will be or how to get your message out to them.

Even if you have been blogging for a long time, you may still not be getting the results you want.

So you need to get your blogging on a more successful path.

To do that you have to know where you are.

What’s working with your blog as it is?

And what is failing?

Define your goals for the next year

Once you figured out where you are at now, then you’re going to want to know where you are heading.

So start with a specified period of time.

Maybe 3 months or 6 months.

I always recommend working a year out.

No matter where you’re at today, where would you like to take your blog over the next year?

Write those goals down.

Be sure they are crystal clear and not vague or murky. 

Say you have a friend in Dallas, Texas, for instance.

You want to go visit her, so you want the exact street address, right?

You don’t just want to say “I’m heading to Texas.”

Or even that “I’m heading to Dallas, Texas.”

You want to have the exact street address, and even right down to the apartment number.

That will give you the best chance of ending up where you want to be.

Develop a clear blogging format

Whether you are just starting a new blog, or you have an existing one… take some time to make sure that your whole blogging approach is very clear.

In other words, it must be perfectly clear to people visiting your blog what your blog is all about.

Categories

Develop categories according to the topics you will be blogging about.

When people see the categories on your blog, they will know what to expect.

They will know what major topics you’ll be developing content for.

That will tip them off as to whether or not they’re interested in following your blog.

Having clear categories will also help you in developing content that it is highly relevant to your audience.

Calls To Action

Make sure your blog is giving people clear calls to action.

Incentivize them to subscribe to your email list.

Tell them if you want them to join your business.

Give them links and banners to things that you want them to purchase.

Let them know exactly how to hire you for your services.

Calls to action will further define your blogging mission.

It will help people know why you blog and what kind of audience you blog for.

In that way, it becomes a key part of your roadmap to successful blogging.

Content

Develop your actual blog content according to the categories that you have defined, and the calls to action that you want your visitors to take. 

So for instance if you have a category on graphic design, and you want people to hire you to do their graphic design, then you will want to develop a substantial amount of blog content on the topic of graphic design.

Special: Join Donna’s Free VIP Blogging Club – Free Now… Free Forever

The more different ways you develop content showing people how to use graphic design in their business, the wider and larger your audience will become. 

Have a compelling email strategy

No roadmap to successful blogging should be without a compelling email strategy.

An email list is key to a successful blog.

It helps you attract the right audience.

And it gives you a means of connecting with those people on a continual basis.

You can let them know when you write a new blog post.

Or when you have a product or service to pitch to them.

But if they don’t get on your email list to begin with, how can you inform them as to what new content you are writing?

Or what calls to action you want them to take?

When someone visits your blog one time to read an interesting article that you’ve written, they probably will never return again. 

Unless you have captured them onto your email list, that is.

Then the chances of them continuing to follow you on a regular basis is much, much higher. 

Opt-in offer

Your roadmap should include a great opt-in offer.

What free ebook, cheat sheet, or resources file will make people want to join your email list?

How to write an ebook fast while working at home

 

When you’re plotting your roadmap to blogging success, this needs to be a serious consideration.

Then… get down to the business of creating that offer.

Landing page

You need to have a landing page to pitch your opt-in offer.

This is usually just a simple, single web page.

It has a headline that gets people’s attention.

Something like “How to make great Facebook images.”

Then it tells them how they can get your ebook or cheat sheet showing them exactly how to make great Facebook images, for free.

All they have to do is subscribe to your email list.

There should be a place for them to sign up right on your landing page.

That’s all a landing page is.

But without it, you can’t build your email list.

Follow up series

Strangely enough, many bloggers work really hard to build their email list, only to totally mismanage it.

There are many ways to make sure your email list is truly an asset to your roadmap to successful blogging.

But this article is not really about email marketing, so I won’t get sidetracked with all that.

Suffice it to say, you need to have a good follow up series for people who subscribe to your email list.

Build a good sequence of at least 20 to 30 emails that people will get over a period of time.

In addition, start writing a new email at least twice a week.

This way, your email list really will help you build a successful blogging business.

Make your roadmap to successful blogging

These are the key, essential ingredients to successful blogging.

There are many other things you can and should do to build your business.

Top Tier Coaching

Leave me a comment below.

Let me know if you have other suggestions.

Or if you’ve done the things I’ve recommended here.

How would you rate this brief roadmap to successful blogging?

-Donna

PS: Please share this article on your favorite social sites 🙂

Donna Merrill
Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.

, ,

13 Responses to Make your roadmap to successful blogging

  1. Anna Abram October 21, 2020 at 6:53 am #

    Thanks, Donna! This really sums up most of the things about blogging. I remember that when my colleague first started blogging, she had no plans or management ethics whatsoever. She used to create content and post it whenever she wished. That means, she was not consistent, her content was lacking the basic formatting and she was not even trying to engage her audience at all. Over the years, she worked on all of that, including some of the points you talked about in the article. Your content should make sense to you and your audience so much so that they are able to connect with it.

  2. Pedro
    Twitter:
    September 17, 2020 at 4:18 pm #

    Hi Donna,

    Hope you’re well and continuing to stay safe.

    What a timely reminder with everything that’s going around the world that we as bloggers must keep those dreams in view. We must continue to map out our path to blogging success.

    I love what you say about goals. Somebody once said that only 3% of adults make goals and everyone else works for them!

    Thanks for inspiring us at a time when there’s so much negative and depressing news everywhere.

    The goal is blogging success and by following your timely advice, we will get there.

    Best,

    Pedro

    Pedro Okoro recently posted.. The Actionable On-Page SEO Guide on How to Rank in Google

    • Donna Merrill
      Twitter:
      September 18, 2020 at 4:46 pm #

      Hi Pedro

      Thanks so much for your comment.

      It really is a difficult time, but we can only be true to ourselves and our mission in life.

      Try to help each person you encounter, and strive to develop top quality content each day.

      That’s all you can do… but it’s enough if you stay consistent and committed.

      -Donna
      Donna Merrill recently posted..Simple sales funnels for bloggersMy Profile

  3. Gaurav Kumar
    Twitter:
    September 12, 2020 at 5:04 am #

    Hi Donna,

    The successful blogging roadmap is the need of every blogger. this will make the blogger stay on the path and avoid distractions. Thanks!
    Gaurav Kumar recently posted..How to Choose the Right Kind of Refinance for YouMy Profile

    • Donna Merrill
      Twitter:
      September 18, 2020 at 4:44 pm #

      Hi Gaurav

      It’s so important to “stay on the path” isn’t it?

      Distractions are everywhere.

      It’s always easy trying out something new, than to stay deeply embedded on what you’re working on.

      The blogging roadmap requires deep development of your business, not surface exploration.

      -Donna
      Donna Merrill recently posted..How to make money giving away a free offerMy Profile

  4. Emenike Emmanuel
    Twitter:
    September 9, 2020 at 8:02 am #

    Hello Donna,

    That aspect of setting a goal for your blog seems to be the most amazing part for us.

    I have noticed that any month we are careful to follow through our goal for the period, we always come out with a better result.

    The drive to create more content will be there. The desire to drive more traffic will be there and our eyes will always be on the figures.

    Thanks for this quick reminder. I got value.

    – Emenike

    Emenike Emmanuel recently posted.. How Humble Leadership Really Works

  5. Ryan Biddulph
    Twitter:
    September 4, 2020 at 1:02 am #

    Solid advice here Donna. Planning a road map makes the journey flow more easily because when you have a plan, you think clearly. Otherwise, you will be all over the place as fear manifest as greed and/or desperation pulls you in 100 different directions. I suffered from this mental malady during my early days but eventually learned to build a basic plan to ground myself and to think things though effectively.

    Ryan
    Ryan Biddulph recently posted..How Do You Influence Your Readers to Trust You?My Profile

  6. Harry Smith September 4, 2020 at 12:22 am #

    Thanks for sharing these wonderful informations. It has really helped me alot in my work as well. I will definitley utilize the resources you have shared. Besides, I appreciate your hardwork. Keep it up and keep on postiing.

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
error: Content is protected !!