Now That You Have a New Blog, What Are the Next Steps?

Congratulations! You've installed your new blog, you have a theme that makes your site attractive and easy to use. You've created pages that capture the heart and soul of your business. They describe who you are, what you do and how to contact you.  You've even and installed plug-ins to enhance and protect your blog.  Guess what?... You are officially a new blogger! This step moves you closer to having a thriving online business and a home for all the great content you'll be creating.

What to Do With Your New Blog

Take a look at our free eBook download and ten areas of focus to get your new blog headed in the right direction, especially if you plan to monetize it to earn income. Take a look at our recommended WordPress plug-ins below to extend the functionality of your your blog.

To help you  jump start your blog, we've provided a link to The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post.  This free eBook (described in the video above) walks you through everything you'll need to get your blog off to a good start.

Here are some additional areas of focus.  These are not in any particular order so take a moment to read through the list and prioritize them based on your needs:

1. Spend time planning before you write one word.  Think about your personal and business goals, and write them down.  What would you like to accomplish with your blog? Are you interested in selling products? will you promote and what business model will you choose for your business? How will your products or services help your prospects? What problems do they solve?
   
   Use the business building tips found in this free eBook, The Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post to get the most from your blog, learning how to properly optimize and monetize your blog, create an email list and generate lead magnets to encourage more opt-ins. 
   
2. Start an editorial calendar.  Plan a week's worth of editorial content for your blog and then sit down and type out your blog posts. You can also hire someone to write for you or dictate using a dictation product like Dragon Naturally Speaking to create at least a week's worth of great content (articles, videos, images and graphics) to stay ahead of your workload.  Ideas for your first posts can include introducing your products and services to your new audience.
   
   Create content that educates your online friends and followers about your products. If applicable, throw in a little humor, irony and entertainment into your posts. Make sure your content supports your personal and business goals. Have a day that you plan your posts, then create them on another day.  Post an article a day.
   
3. Generate traffic. Create a strategy and research SEO tools that will help you generate more traffic. Determine which social networks will be the best fit for your business. Are the people that hang out on these social networks at good fit for your products or services? Will they be interested in hearing your marketing message? What problem will you help the people on this social network solve? Why would they want to buy your products and services. There's also the option of paid traffic.
   
   Sign up for our newsletter and get the free Traffic Generation Master Class offered by the experts at Elite Marketing Pro. This webinar will show you how to drive targeted traffic to your website. They will also show you how to build a list of ready to buy leads. You can also sign up for the 10 Minute Traffic Machine for the complete training package that will teach you to generate a never ending stream of traffic for your business.
   
4. Choose your marketing strategy.  Choose one primary marketing strategy to begin with. For example, blogging gives you a home base where all your content can reside. You can advertise and generate leads using videos, podcasts, blog posts, and social media posts, 
   
   If you do all the strategies I've mentioned you're going to be pretty busy.  It will be hard to keep up with all that posting and creating.  You can outsource the work, but that could be expensive.  It may be best to focus on one method, master that, then move on to others. If you try to use all of the strategies, you will spread yourself too thin. It can become overwhelming and if that happens you may stop working on your business.
5. Create systems and procedures to capture and follow up with leads. Lead generation and follow up is key to success with your online business.  Create a system that will enable you to qualify and capture leads on auto-pilot. Then you also need to follow up with them once they opt in, so you'll need a system and procedures to handle that.  For help with creating compelling lead magnets, take a look at our 7 Step Lead Magnet Creation Guide.
   
   Remember it's easier and less costly to retain an existing customer than it is to go out and find new customers. So once someone has visited your site, purchased from you, or opts into your list, do your best to maintain that relationship so that they will feel comfortable buying from you on a regular basis.
6. Find products and services to promote. If you've found a product to promote, you will have the ability to earn money once you establish a readership. Take time to learn as much as possible about both the products and/or services as well as your customers so that you can speak to their needs. Once you tap into what your customers are really looking for, you'll be able to make your offers more attractive and sell more products.
   
   If you're still unsure about the products you want to promote, you can start out writing about your hobbies, interests, causes and tell your story. You can do an inventory of the different business models available and continue to look for the products and services that best suit your needs. ​
7. Determine who your ideal customers are and how your products will help them solve their problems.  One you've determined the products you will sell, figure out the best or ideal customers for that product. What do they like, what are their challenges, do they have children, do they like taking vacations? What keeps them up at night? How can your product fix their problems.
   
   Learn as much as possible about them. Knowing your customers is half the battle in your online business. Don't make the mistake of thinking your products will appeal to everyone, because they won't. Don't waste your time trying to sell to everyone. Find a small subsection of people who are ready to buy and interested in your products. Attracting the right people to your blog is critical, so that you can sell more products.
8. Invest in personal development and training​. This is important, because I see people every day who spend years training and educating themselves to be the best in their area of expertise. Yet when they start a new business venture, they think their area of expertise be enough to help them launch a new business. While that might be true for some, most people need additional training on subjects like social media and internet marketing and how to put it all together to have a successful online venture. Don't cheat yourself by ignoring this step. Your business could depend on it.
9. Monitor and track your success (or lack of it) with each blog post.​ Use analytics and SEO tools to track the success of your online business. You'll want to know how many people are visiting your blog, how long they stay, what they are looking at and the paths they take when they purchase products and services. You'll want to optimize each post to be search engine friendly so that your pages will rank, making it easier to be found online. You'll also want to find ways to test content to see what your readers like best.
   
10. Have fun! Whether you decide to earn from your blog, or use it to pursue your interests, make it an enjoyable experience. 
    

The articles we've linked to in this article will also give you ideas on next steps you can take.  The actual path you take will depend on your business model and what you want to accomplish. 

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