BLOGGING BUSINESS ROADMAP
This is a simple blogging roadmap that guides you through the fundamental steps needed to create a successful blogging business.
Before getting started with creating a business, it’s always a good idea to have a high-level overview to help you gain clarity and a better understanding of where you currently are in the process and where you are going.
To avoid overwhelming anyone, this roadmap is meant to only cover the bare essentials. As you move through each stage of the blogging process, you will then dive deeper into the material until you learn what it takes to successfully get to the next stage.
Whether you have a finance blog or a craft-making blog, online businesses essentially have the same business model:
- Start your Blog
- Create Content
- Drive Traffic
- Build an Email List
- Monetize
- Grow and Scale
That’s about as simple as it gets. I really hope that after reading you’ll see that this is not as complicated as it first might seem. Blogging can be really exciting and rewarding when you put in the time and effort.
First Stage: Start your Blog
The first stage of creating a successful and profitable online business is to get your blog up and running and optimizing your blog for success.
- Choose a Niche
- Define Your Audience
- Pick a Domain Name
- Get Hosting
- Install WordPress
- Select a Theme
- Optimize your Blog
Second Stage: Create Content
The second stage is creating great SEO-focused content that serves your target audience.
If you want to have a successful blog, you need to be able to provide solutions for your audience’s problems.
Whether you’re writing to inform or to entertain, always keep your audience in mind.
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential audience and and ask yourself:
- What problems do my target audience have that I can provide solutions to?
- What is their motivation?
- What goals do they have in mind when searching for content in my niche?
- What kind of results would perfectly satisfy them?
By doing so, you’ll turn readers into:
- Fans that convert into customers
- Fans that want to share your content
Third Stage: Drive Traffic
The third stage will be to drive traffic and build an audience by focusing on one or two methods:
- SEO
- Social Media
- Paid Traffic
There are many more which I will get into later, but this is just to give you an idea for now.
Fourth Stage: Build an Email List
The fourth stage of the blogging business roadmap is building an email list.
In the previous stage, you promoted your content to start driving traffic back to your blog.
Now it’s time to convert your readers into email subscribers by creating enticing opt-ins.
During this stage:
- Set up an account with an Email Marketing service provider
- Create opt-ins
- Write a Welcome message
- Write an email sequence
Fifth Stage: Monetize Your Blog
The fifth stage is what actually turns your blog into a business. This is when you monetize it and start making money. This can be accomplished by a number of ways;
- Affiliate Commissions
- eBook
- Course
- Book
- Printables
- Consulting
There are many more, but once again, these are some of the popular methods. And as you start developing your business, creating content, and building an audience, your readers will naturally let you know what kind of products or services they would like you to create.
Sixth Stage: Grow and Scale
Lastly, the sixth stage is when you analyze the business cycle and determine which areas you can improve upon; how to generate more traffic, how to better engage your readers, how to get more shares, how to fine-tune your existing products, what products to create next…..you get the idea.
Naturally, you will learn what is working and what is not and whether you need to double down in some areas or pump the breaks in others.
As time goes by, you will see that there is a correlation between your effort and your blogging success.