In this post I going to talk a little bit about your overall plan for you blog and making money.  So the question is do you have a blog strategy and if so what is it and what does it include.  Now isn’t that an interesting question.  Here are a couple more you should ask yourself. 

Do you a blog strategy?
Do you follow it?
Do you review it?
Do you like to here about other  peoples strategies?
Do you like to experiment with new ones?

I started written this and it got a little long so I going to break it up in at least 2 parts.  So far this is what I plan to cover but I might think of other things to add as there really is just so much to think about.

Part One

  • Posting
  • Commenting
  • Affiliate Marketing

Part Two

  • Learning/Reading
  • SEO and Keyword Research
  • Entering and Running Contest
  • Connecting with people
  • Helping Outs

Since the earlier in the year I been trying and figure out a 10 hour work week.  I figure most part time bloggers would only have about that much time so I want to figure out a plan of action for myself that I could share about managing a blog business on 10 hours a week.

Right now I will say I am well over that amount of time but I enjoy doing what I am doing.  As for as my blog strategy mine is try everything that I see others doing that seems to work as long as it fits my style and personality.  When I try something that has positive results I repeat that action.  Lets explain how that works.  So I read a lot of blogs and listen to others that share there success stories.  If I see something that I am not doing and it seems interesting and looks like it would with help with getting me to reach or accomplish a goal then I am up to give it a try.  Right now here are a few things that I do and I plan to keep doing that seem to having positive affects on my blog.

This is what makes up my blog strategy

 

Posting: I have a goal to post at least 3 times a week.  I would like to do more but I must do 3.  If you are not posting regularly then you need to end of story.  In addition to posting to my blog.  When I do post I also include the following activities as part of my posting routine this ensure my post is broadcasted outside of my blog to help drive more traffic.  I Tweet my post with su.pr link so I can track it and also su.pr which is also part of stumbleupon.   I also then submit to blog engage and stumble  I recently have seen a nice jump in traffic from doing this.

In addition to the extra 2 steps about I have my blog feeding friendfeed which also feeds facebook.  The day I post I usually have a nice amount of traffic from the fresh content and these activities.  I then on the days I don’t post make sure to do commenting or some bookmarking and tweets to some of my older content or more popular content to help keep the traffic flowing.

Commenting: I make it a habit to commenting  on other sites.  I have a list in my RSS that I make sure to cover at least once a week.  Again I would love to do this more then once a week and generally do but I am sure to plan an hour or two of focus time toward this each week. 

I also make sure to comment right away on any new commenter I see day one not sure how long I will be able to keep this up as my comments are really growing fast but I will try to do my best.  Here is how this works.  So if someone comments on my blog and the name is new I am sure to check out there link and see if I can leave a message or some comments somewhere as a way of saying thanks.  Plus this helps me identify and understand the type of people that are coming to and reading my site.  I made some really good connections doing this.  I am really believe that this process really helps with repeat comment from people.  It starts the relationship.  I addition to all this I pretty much find myself commenting whenever I have free time or just a few minutes.  Leaving meaningful comments has a lot of power!

In addition to posting on other blogs you need to make sure to reply to comments on my own blog.  I make it a point to at least reply once or twice on each post.  I not the best about this and could probably do a better job but I think it also can really get a conversation going in the comments that will encourage other comments.  Plus it looks good when the owner is in the mix.

Affiliate Marketing: One of the easiest things to do on line if find affiliate products and market and promote them.  In minutes you can be doing this on click bank or any other product that has an affiliate program.  I also recommend if your not using gocodes yet try it on wordpress as you can change the affiliate url to something more friendly.  You can also track clicks on the links.  Now you might not make any money but affiliate marketing is a key part of your business.  You need to understand it so you can be sure to be including just the right about of mix of marketing and blogging.  You can try different banners of products that you like or think fit your site.  I have found that one of the more clicked ads or the text link ones that you put within a post.  I think people trust links more than ads.  My approach here is keep add it and keep trying till I find something that works.  I make sure to throw an affiliate post in every 5 post.  I will end this section with a quote David Risley which really makes sense. 

”SOLID BLOGGING + COMPETENT MARKETING = LOTSA MONEY” David Risley from 6 Figure Blogger Blue Print.

In conclusion you can see that fitting all this in to 10 hours might be a challenge and this is only part 1.  I am up for it and I would love to here your thoughts and suggestions.  I know I am missing things but writing this down and sharing should only help get all this out of my head and reviewed by others for feedback.

My goal is to get to a 10 hour work week until I can do this full time.  Can you fit all this in to 10 hours a week?

I let you know when I figure that one out.

I am also missing product development, e-mail marketing and a bunch of other stuff.  I need to work more on those but don’t have the time right now but they are all part of the plan.

Related posts:

  1. What’s Your Blog Strategy Part 2
  2. How Important are Blog Comments?
  3. Blog Monetization Strategy Month 4
  4. Reader Pulse – Share Your Blog Advice
  5. Month 5 Internet Marketing Blog Business Recap and Review

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