Too many bloggers lack a clear blogging strategy. They just jump from one task to another, trying out the latest ideas they’ve heard about… and never get far.
If that sounds like you, don’t feel bad. Even among professional business-to-business marketers, only 65% (just over a third) actually have a documented blogging strategy.
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Maybe you’ve tried getting strategic with your blog in the past but it all seemed overwhelming: getting your head around monetization and traffic and everything else that goes into starting a blog and eventually making money from it.
Or maybe you tried to clarify a content strategy, but your plans fell apart as soon as you got busy and failed to find time to write.
Today, I’m going to explain how to create a blog strategy. We’ll take everything step by step so you can build your strategy without getting stuck or overwhelmed. Let’s begin by getting clear about what we’re aiming to do and why.
What is a Blogging Strategy?
A blog strategy isn’t as formal as a business plan. It’s also not usually focused on the tiny details (like how exactly you’ll close each blog post). Instead, your blog strategy is a road map of how you will reach your blogging goals.
Your blog strategy might involve many different areas, such as when you’ll create products, which type of affiliate programs you’ll promote, the blogging tools you’ll employ, and more.
In this step-by-step guide, I’m going to focus on one essential part of your blog strategy—your blog content strategy. This is all about the posts (and/or other content) you publish on your blog. Your content links with all other areas of your blog strategy, making it a great place to begin.
How to Create a Blogging Strategy in 6 Steps (& Why You Need One) in 2024
- What is a Blogging Strategy?
- Why You Need a Content Strategy for Your Blog
- Six Steps for Creating Your Blog Content Strategy
- Step 1: Define Your Goals
- Step 2: Pick Your Niche
- Step 3: Identify Your Target Market
- Step 4: Conduct Keyword Research
- Step 5: Create a Content Calendar
- Step 6: Plan Your Monetization Strategy
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Now, for those of you who like to watch & learn—here’s my video walkthrough of how to create a blog strategy today:
Why You Need a Clear Blog Content Strategy in 2024
Imagine two bloggers. Let’s call them Andy and Bella. They’re both blogging in the same niche for the same audience.
Andy doesn’t have a strategy. He intends to publish a new post every Monday but often gets busy and doesn’t publish anything.
He’s often unsure what to write about, so he picks whatever topic is on his mind or in the news. He keeps meaning to get started with affiliate marketing but never gets around to writing the reviews he has in mind.
Bella, by contrast, has a blog strategy. She publishes a new post every Monday without fail, sends a newsletter every Wednesday, and queues up a week’s worth of social media updates every Friday.
Through keyword research (and using the right free keyword tool), she knows exactly what articles are likely to help her target audience and bring traffic to her blog. She has a “Recommended Resource” section in each newsletter, sharing an affiliate resource she loves.
After a year, which blogger is likely to succeed? Clearly, it’s Bella … yet most bloggers behave more like Andy.
Now, Andy’s blog isn’t necessarily going to fail. He might get lucky with a post and get a flood of traffic. He’ll eventually get around to writing some affiliate reviews and bring in some money.
But his blog is definitely more of a hobby than a business, and there’s no real momentum toward Andy’s goals.
If you’re more like Andy than Bella, don’t worry. We’re going to discuss exactly what you need to do to create your blog content strategy.
How to Create a Blogging Strategy in 6 Easy Steps
Let’s get your strategy underway. If your blog is already up and running, you may well have already completed the first three steps—but I strongly recommend at least reading through them in case there’s anything you need to tweak.
Step 1: Define Your Blogging Goals
Before you do anything else, you need to figure out what you want to get from blogging. These blogging goals will inform the whole of your strategy.
It’s impossible to figure out how to create a successful blog if you don’t even know what “successful” means for you.
- Do you want to build a reputation for yourself in your industry?
- Do you want to bring in some money on the side?
- Do you want to raise money for a charity or cause?
- Do you want to earn a full-time living? Take a look at how much bloggers can make & how long it takes to make money blogging, if so.
- Do you want to enjoy writing for fun simply?
All of those are valid goals. You can choose one or develop a different goal that resonates with you.
Once you’ve determined your broad goal, start to think about specifics. For instance, your goal is to earn a full-time living blogging. What does that look like for you?
Maybe you want to make $35,000/year (the median US salary) working only during school hours, for instance. Or maybe you want to make at least $100,000/year, but you’re happy to work a 50-hour week.
Task: Write down your main goal for your blog, using target numbers or figures if necessary. You may also want to set a target date.
Step 2: Pick Your Niche
Once you’re clear about your goal, it’s time to pick your niche. If you’ve already got a blog niche, consider whether your niche fully fits your goal.
If your goal is to make money (particularly a full-time living), you want to opt for a niche that’s easy to monetize. Check out my list of profitable niches to blog about.
However, it’s important not only to pick a niche because you think it’ll make money. Unless you’re strongly motivated by money alone, you’ll likely want to choose a niche you can enjoy writing about for years. For example, I decided to start working on a vegan food blog this year because I’m drawn to the importance of those topics.
If you need some help at this stage of blog planning, check out my in-depth guide on picking a blog niche.
Task: Write down your niche. If you’re not sure, write a list of possible niches and rank them based on (a) what you enjoy most and (b) whether they’d likely help you reach your goals.
Step 3: Identify Your Target Market
Who is your blog aimed at? Sometimes, your niche will indicate your target market (aka target audience), but most niches have several possible audiences.
Let’s say your niche is “fitness for beginners.” Your target market is clearly “beginners”—but you’ll want to go further than that. Ask yourself:
- Are you writing primarily for men or women?
- What age are your readers?
- What country do they live in?
- What are their political views?
- How much education do they have?
All these factors will affect the topics you cover, the products/services you recommend, the advice you give, and even the way you word things.
They’ll also affect things beyond your content, like the color scheme, branding, and the social networks you use to promote your blog.
For instance, one fitness blog for beginners might be aimed at “women in their 40s and 50s in Europe, left-leaning, college-educated or higher.”
Another might be aimed at “men in their 20s in America, right-wing, high school diploma only.” These blogs will likely look very different.
Note: You can—and will—have readers who don’t fit your target market. That’s perfectly fine. What matters is that you have a core target market in mind. Other people are welcome to come to your blog, too … but you’re not explicitly tailoring your content to them.
Task: Write down your target market, incorporating at least some of the above factors.
Step 4: Conduct Keyword Research
The next step is to figure out what keywords related to your blog’s niche people in your target market are likely to use.
“Keywords” aren’t complicated. They’re simply words or (more often) short phrases people type into Google.
Use My Free Keyword Research Tool
Try my free AI-Powered Keyword Tool to get dozens of research-backed ideas for keywords & topics to write about on your blog today.
Get Keyword Ideas
You can probably think of a whole bunch of keywords off the top of your head. For instance, if you blog about knitting patterns, some keywords would be:
- Knitting
- Knitting patterns
- Free knitting patterns
- Dress knitting patterns
- Sweater knitting patterns
- How to knit a Christmas sweater
… and so on.
Keyword research is the process of finding keywords and figuring out which keywords you should base content on.
Essentially, you want to find keywords that (a) have plenty of people searching for them but (b) aren’t so popular that you’ll never have a chance of getting your content to the top of Google.
There are loads of techniques and tools you can use to help, and I have a detailed article here with everything you need to know about keyword research and an in-depth guide about how to rank higher on Google, too.
Task: Go through my keyword research guide, then list ten or more keywords you can use to create content.
Step 5: Create a Content Calendar
A content calendar is simply a list of upcoming dates and the content you plan to publish. With your calendar in hand, you can come up with lots of blog post ideas at once, carry out keyword research, and even plan a whole batch of posts.
There are lots of different options for creating your content calendar. Start by using my blog headline generator to come up with a catchy headline & get inspiration on an angle to take your article. From here, many bloggers use a simple spreadsheet for content calendar management. Others use a task management system like Asana.
You could even use a sheet of paper. The key is to plan your posts in advance and know when you’ll be publishing them.
Your content calendar can include more than just blog posts. You might want to include email newsletters, guest posts, and any other content you’d like to create on a regular basis.
You could even plan to create more in-depth free resources, perhaps once a month, or once a quarter.
It’s also a great idea to include content promotion on your calendar, as this forms part of your blog marketing strategy.
It could be as simple as planning a few social media posts to share your content, or a list of who to email about specific pieces of content.
To make your content planning faster, you might want to choose a particular theme or type of post for different days or weeks.
For instance, you might have a “beginners” post every Monday and a “top tips” post every Friday, or you could always have an “expert roundup” post the last week of each month. Then, when you’re ready to dig into the writing process, be sure to use my blog title generator and free paragraph rewriter tools.
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Task: Plan your upcoming blog posts for the next month, using the keywords you researched in step 4. If you can, go further and plan the emails you’ll send to your list.
Step 6: Plan Your Blog Monetization Strategy
If you’re hoping to earn a living as a blogger, you’ll have thought a bit about monetization when choosing your niche. But now’s the time to think how best to integrate monetization into your blogging strategy as a whole.
These are some of the key ways that people make money blogging:
- Using affiliate marketing: promoting other people’s products/services and receiving commission on sales
- Running advertising: often paid per view or per click—only works well if you have a lot of traffic
- Publishing sponsored content: posts written by (or on behalf of) an advertiser, which you get paid to run on your blog
- Creating and selling their own products: often virtual products (like ebooks or software), but physical products are also an option
- Offering services: freelancing, coaching, and consulting are common ones
- Running online courses: often through a platform like Teachable or Udemy
Many bloggers use a combination of methods, though some blogs monetize solely through one method.
It’s important to think about how you plan to monetize your blog, so you can work this into your content plan.
For instance, if you’re promoting affiliate products, you could write review posts—but you could also look for opportunities to mention these products in other posts.
Task: Choose one monetization method (that you’re already using or want to use). Look for at least 3 pieces on your content calendar where you could add a section or link that would help bring in more money through that method.
Execute on Your Blogging Strategy with My Free Planner Template
Set aside time this week to form your blogging strategy. Don’t worry about making it perfect—your strategy isn’t set in stone. You can revisit and modify it based on your real-world results.
Start by getting clear about your goals, niche, and target market. Then, do enough keyword research to plan your next month of content. Make sure you work in some monetization opportunities, as well. You can do all of this with my free blog planner bundle.
Finally, set aside time each week to produce the content you’ve planned. (Aim to complete it ahead of your planned publication date, just in case you get sidetracked.) You’ll be amazed by how much you can achieve in just one month.
And don’t worry your blog isn’t yet up and running or if you need some help with setting it up properly. Just head on over to my complete guide on how to start a blog and make money.
Want My Free Blogging Strategy Planner?
Grab my free blog planner bundle (in Google Doc format) today.
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