We’ve spent the last 29 days getting all the way from a domain name to a completely customized professional blog, and now that we have completed every last item from our checklist it is important to spend our last day making a gameplan to ensure our success well into the future. One of the most important reasons that other people are better bloggers than you is that they have a routine. That’s right. One of the defining characteristics of a good blogger is that they set themselves up for success by devising a structured attack plan to execute every day.

Today, we are going to work on setting up our gameplan so that you know exactly how to optimize your half-hour of blogging every day to form a wildly popular blog on the internet in as little time as possible. I’ve been in this industry for years, so I have a very good idea of what works and what doesn’t work. Let’s complete our Build A Blog Workshop and start on our way to blogging success!

Understanding When to Work and When to Market

Many people will tell you that the success of any website is due to the 70/30 rule — 70% marketing, 30% content. With this in mind, it’s tempting to shun content altogether and pour all of your time into marketing… but what most people don’t realize is that this rule only works when you are in a certain stage of growth. It is important during the first weeks of having a blog that you are putting out consistent content and marketing the heck out of it. From there, you should tailor your gameplan going forward based on the kind of growth that you’ve seen.

The basics of blogging gameplans:
What gets growth? Marketing.
What maintains growth? Content.

I’ve devised what I think is a great system for maximizing your 30-minutes of blogging every day during your first month of operations. After the first month passes, it is important to re-evaluate and decide for yourself which route is most effective on a day-by-day basis:

As you can see, there is going to be a big decision to be made of when you need to write new content (“BLOG“) and when you need to go around and market your website (“MARKET“). The advice given above for your first month of blogging focuses on delivering maximized marketing efforts. You can see that it is always smart to start out with content (writing new stuff 4/7 days in week 1)… but by the time we reach the end of week four we are really getting all we can out of the content we have put up already.

What Do I Do On a Blogging/Marketing Day?

I’m glad you asked! The difference between a success and a flop in the blogosphere is how efficiently you blog and market… it’s all about time management. There are a few different activities you can do on each side of the coin, focused on either writing content or marketing that content, but it is ultimately your call on what is best worth your effort.

BLOG: On a blogging day, you should be writing new content (duh!). I find that 30 minutes of writing is really all that you need if you are staying honest with yourself and working throughout the thirty minutes of your allotted time. If you have a great idea for a post, write it down… there’s a reason that the “Draft” section in your admin panel exists. If you are running out of things to blog about, check out my post that contains some things to write about when you run out of ideas.

MARKET: Content marketing is a lot more up in the air than blogging, and there are literally hundreds of techniques for things to do to boost your traffic and search engine placements. Remember the list we made on day 25 for blog commenting? Now is a great time to pry through that and drop comments on blogs in your niche with recent posts. Another technique along that line would be to comment in forums with a link to your site in the signature. The second way to drive direct traffic to your blog would be to start ramping up your social media efforts, creating Facebook pages, boosting your followers on Twitter and even building a network on StumbleUpon or Digg. Indirect marketing efforts such as article marketing or writing guest posts can be just as effective in the long-run… so be sure to balance your time between short term traffic and long-term search engine results.

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Content is expensive, and to develop your 30-day gameplan you will want to consider how much you can really “dig” out of each article you post on your blog. The name of the game is to write less and still get more traffic. By following my attack plan for the first month and then shifting gears depending on what is working (and what you ultimately want to do), you will be a much more successful blogger than by trying to do it all at once.

That’s it for Jimvesting.com’s Build-A-Blog Workshop! I hope that you have enjoyed this series… and please continue to check back at Jimvesting.com for more great free tips to make money online every day. We will be posting a complete .pdf version of this series on our newsletter for your reference in the near future, so stay tuned for that release and stay bullish on the net!

-Jimvesting dot com

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