What should you focus on as a new blogger whose goal is to make money ASAP?
There are sooooo many paths you could take, and the options can be extremely overwhelming.
From social media to email marketing to making sure your blog itself is getting enough content, it can all feel like an impossible balancing act- and is doing it all worth it?
Is posting daily on Instagram and filming Youtube videos and having an email list and etc etc etc going to be worth all of the work you’re doing and time you’re sacrificing?
In this blog post, I want to answer a big question that most beginner bloggers have- what should I focus on so that I can be successful? And I’m even going to go a little deeper and not only tell you WHAT you should focus on, but also HOW you should be focusing on each of those things.
So… let’s get into it and make your blogging dreams come true.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products that I personally would use or do currently use. Please read full disclosure for more information.
When I started blogging, I tried to do it all…. Like every single thing I could do. I thought in order to get traffic and comments and an audience of my own, I had to be out there on every platform, baring all to the world.
And I felt so overwhelmed and honestly almost quit this whole thing.
But I quickly learned something- giving my energy to 1,000 different things meant that each thing I was giving energy to only had a tiny portion of me. And as for my web traffic?
……..Crickets……..
So here I was, absolutely burnt out with nothing to show for all my hard work.
I had to take a step back and readjust my strategy, because showing up everywhere was just not working and it wasn’t worth it at all. And the strategy I started using is the one I still use today, which has helped my blog grow exponentially in a short period of time and I will swear by 100% of the time.
So what’s the strategy, you ask?
It’s simple. Instead of focusing on all the things, you’re only going to focus on three things.
That’s it.
- Consistently posting blog posts
- Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog
- Building your email list
If you think these three things sound like pretty big things, don’t worry! We are going to go in depth in a bit and I promise you, these three steps are not as scary as they seem.
If you want to know how I spend less than 10 hours/week on my blog, but my website traffic has still increased by 1,000% in the past 4 months, then keep reading!
1. Consistently posting blog posts
Your blog is the foundation of your blogging business (obvi). And while you may (and should) have other aspects of your business such as digital products, services, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, etc., the blogging portion needs to be a priority because you have to provide value to your audience if you want them to trust you.
Your blog posts are where you give your readers some insight into what you know and how you can help them. This is CRUCIAL if you want to sell them anything in the future.
For example, if you have a blog that is all about gardening, you might have the idea to one day sell an ebook that walks someone through planting an entire vegetable garden. Before you ever sell that ebook, you want to make sure that people know that you know what you’re talking about.
Writing consistent blog posts is going to get someone to see you, learn from you, begin to trust you, and hopefully become a die-hard fan of yours.
PLUS- posting consistently is going to majorly help you with web traffic down the road- Google values consistency. It’s great for SEO. Search engines are picky about what content they push in front of other people. And if your posts are completely randomly timed and not consistent, then the likelihood of Google giving you a boost is pretty low.
So here’s how to take action on this step:
Figure out how often you can consistently post & stick to that schedule, whether that is once/week, twice/month, or however often you can manage. I personally aim for once/week but there have definitely been busier periods of my life where I did well to do twice/month. So find what is going to be manageable for you to maintain, make a plan, and stick to it!
Focus on providing value for your readers.
Providing free value and solutions to their problems now is going to make them much more likely to trust you and want to buy from you in the future. If you have a less niched blog (lifestyle, for example), I recommend making at least half of your blog posts/month focused on the subject that you want to one day make paid content about.
If you’re a lifestyle blogger, but you want to make a course to sell in the future about home organization, then make sure half of your blog posts each month have something to do with home organization (examples: tips for organizing your kitchen, # things to declutter, spring cleaning tips, etc.)
2. Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog
If you aren’t very familiar with Pinterest, this one might terrify you. But trust me- Pinterest is about to become your best friend.
Ask any blogger what their main source of web traffic is- 9.99 times out of 10, they are going to say that it’s Pinterest.
Pinterest isn’t social media. It’s a search engine. And gone are the days of it being only for arts and crafts and recipes. You can find pretty much anything on there now- no matter the topic.
And Pinterst is the perfect place to post those blog posts you write. Because even if you are doing Step 1 and consistently posting blog posts, none of it will matter if those posts aren’t getting seen.
Growing on Pinterest takes some strategy- but don’t worry, we’re going to get into that a little.
Here’s how to take action on this step:
Make about 21-35 pins for the week (3-5 for each day of the week) using Canva or a similar program.. I like to do a combination of pins for my new blog post, and some pins for a random older blog post.
Schedule your pins for the whole week, and link them back to the blog posts.. You can do this super easily in Pinterest. It usually takes me about an hour or less per week to do this.
Fill your pins with keywords and make them easy to read. Keep the pins simple. Overly busy graphics won’t perform well- trust me.
Pinterest growth isn’t an overnight thing, it might take a bit.
But don’t worry- Pinterest is one of those things where you can see no growth for weeks or a couple of months and then all of a sudden, one of your pins starts doing crazy good and your growth skyrockets.
It happened to me, and it has happened to so many other bloggers.
So if you are focusing on Pinterest for a few weeks and aren’t seeing results, don’t get discouraged.
I PROMISE you, if you keep showing up and push through even when you feel like it isn’t working, you will soon hit gold.
Focus on consistency with Pinterest. Just like with your website, consistency is how you’re going to convince Pinterest to keep pushing your content out for people to see.
Pinterest is a crucial part of having a successful blogging business. If you would like more guidance and want a super in-depth step by step guide through the exact Pinterest strategy I’ve used to make money with my blog, then you might like the Pinterest for Bloggers course I’m coming out with!
This course will teach you everything from how to set up and optimize your Pinterest account, how to make Pinterest pins, how to schedule your pins, how to find keywords, how and when to post, and how to drive traffic to your blog using Pinterest.
If you want to be notified when the course comes out, add your name to the email list and you’ll be the first to know ↓
3. Building your email list
Building an email list might be the scariest thing on this list to you. I know when I started blogging, the idea of an email list felt so daunting and unfamiliar.
And if you’re new, and don’t really have much web traffic, then why does an email list matter?
Well, it matters because at this point in your business, it’s about setting your future self up for success.
Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you decide to skip the whole email list for now and plan to just get to it later.
Then 6 months from now, you have web traffic and you are ready to launch some digital products. You get everything ready to go but you realize that you don’t really have any potential customers. You have the people who read your blog posts, but how do you even know if they’re interested in a course? So now, on top of all the other work you have put in to create your course, you have to work on marketing and capturing leads just so you can sell the course that you’ve created.
Now, let’s think of the alternative to that. Imagine that as soon as you start your blog, you have email forms out there within your posts and on your home page that can catch the emails of your audience members who are truly interested in your content. Maybe you have ideas for future products you want to create, and you can have email forms embedded within your blog for people to sign up to be notified when the product is launched (like I did in Step 2 with my future Pinterest for Bloggers course.)
If you do this method, then as your web traffic increases, your email list will grow too. If one day one of your blog posts goes viral, then you have the forms there, waiting to collect emails. Then when you launch your course or e-book or whatever it is, you have a whole collection of potential customers- people who have already expressed their interest in you or in your product by signing up for your email list.
And trust me- these are the people that are going to buy from you.
Warm leads (people who have already expressed interest) are WAY better than cold leads (people you have to pitch to and convince them to give you a shot).
If you’re saying ‘I don’t have time for an email list right now, I already have too much on my plate’, then I want you to take a deep breath as I give you some good news. Having an email list doesn’t mean you have to send out emails regularly.
If you don’t have the time to keep up a newsletter, that is fine. What matters the most right now is setting up a foundation email list that can do wonders for your business in the future. If all you do is collect emails for now- that’s okay.
Then as you have more time, you can start developing a routine of email newsletters. This can be as simple as sending out your newest blog post once/week or twice/month or whatever consistency you decide on.
So, let’s break down how to take action on this step:
Set up an email list. I recommend using either ConvertKit or MailerLite. Both are great, affordable options that are easy to use and look great integrated into your site.
Create some email sign-up forms and embed them into your site & blog posts regularly. This can usually be done by downloading a plug-in for your email platform (ConvertKit, Mailer Lite) and dragging & dropping it into your blog posts.
When you’re ready, begin providing value to your email list members by sharing blog posts or giving them exclusive content or freebies. Take this slow and know that you don’t have to go crazy with emails- that actually might be the opposite of what you need to do. Share value and don’t email just say you did it.
BONUS TIP: A great way to get people to sign up for your email list is to give them something in return. Create a free guide or template or short e-book that they can get in return for signing up for your email list. This is especially beneficial if the product is somewhat related to a digital product you plan to create and sell in the future.
For example, if you want to create a course about becoming a leather worker, a great freebie might be a checklist of all of the leatherworking tools a beginner might need to get started. If someone signs up to get this list, then you can bet they’ll likely be interested in a course about becoming a leather worker in the future.
So let’s recap the three things you should focus on as a new blogger:
- Creating blog content regularly & providing value for your audience.
- Using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog.
- Using that traffic to build an email list full of people that are interested in you & your content.
If you dedicate yourself to giving your all to these three things, I can almost guarantee you will see results.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the things you could be focusing on, you can let that worry go!
Try this strategy our for a few months, see how it goes, and enjoy the results 🙂
If you liked this post, I really think you’ll like last week’s post about 5 things that DON’T matter when starting a new blog. You can read that below ↓
5 Things that Actually Don’t Matter when Starting a Blog
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