5 Easy Steps to Become A Smart Blogger and Get Results

You’re not alone if you want to know the secret to be a smart blogger so you can do the things that actually work without working your ass off. Almost everyone who starts a blog wants to make money from it. I mean who doesn’t want to take their own financial destiny into their own hands and earn money from home?

I started this blog because I wanted to create a full-time income from home and walk away from my WordPress freelancing business. You’re probably thinking, you already work from home.

Well, yes that’s true. But the downside is that I only get paid if I have a client that I do work for. Plus there are only so many clients that I can take on before I exhaust myself and just can’t do any more work for.

That’s why I am moving away from freelancing and venturing into turning your blog into a full-time business.

If you’re a brand new blogger, then chances are you are hoping to turn your blog into either a part-time or full-time business.

Well, the good news is that it’s possible. However, don’t be fooled into believing all those articles online that tell you that you can make money in just one month.

While it’s true that some bloggers have managed to earn money from their blogs in a very quick time frame. The truth is that’s NOT the norm for most bloggers.

It takes time to learn how to blog and get into a consistent routine that eventually pays off. I know what you’re thinking, what should I be doing as a blogger on a daily basis to grow my blog?

Related: My Weekly Blogging Duties What I’m Doing to Grow My Blog

Well, there are really only 5 simple steps that you should be using to help you grow your blog over time. If you being serious about blogging full-time, these things will help you create smart passive income streams over time.

5 Easy Steps to Become A Smart Blogger and Get Results

You might have heard so many people say that blogging is easy. Well, starting a blog is the easy part. If you still haven’t started your blog, head on over here to follow my step-by-step tutorial on installing WordPress with SiteGround.

Once you get your blog started, you’re going to realize that blogging is hard. It’s not as easy as everyone says it is. It takes time to grow a blog and just because some other people have been able to grow there blog quickly, doesn’t mean that you will see quick growth.

Everyone’s blogging journey is different. That’s one of the reasons you should never compare yourself to other bloggers.

Okay so now let’s get into the 5 simple steps you need to learn how to blog smarter.

#1 Plan and Prepare In Advance

One of the main reasons that so many new bloggers struggle with their blogs is because they don’t plan their content ahead of time. This means that a lot of them are writing their content the day or night before their content should be published.

If this is you, then you need to start taking the time to plan your content ahead of time. Just by doing this, you will realize how much easier it is to publish on a regular basis.

Chances are you’ve heard it a thousand times. If you want to build a profitable blog, you need to work on being consistent with your blog. This means that every day, you need to be doing something to grow your blog.

Most bloggers will set up a blogging schedule to help them stay consistent with their blog. It doesn’t matter whether you publish one post a week or three times per week as I do. (I’ve recently been on a serious blogging spree and been publishing one daily)

As long as you are consistent that’s all that matters. Plus that is what is going to help you build your audience. If you need help planning your content, CoSchedule has an awesome article that will help you out, you can check it out here.

Using the same layout for your blog posts will make the process of publishing new content on a regular basis so much easier.

#2 Content Creation Based On Audience

Before you sit down to write your awesome content, you need to know who you want to attract. Most new bloggers have no clue who their blogs are for.

It’s so easy to think that our blog can help everyone. But the truth is that your blog isn’t for everyone. You can’t help everyone and you definitely shouldn’t try to.

If you try to bend backward and help everyone then you’re going to get frustrated and chances are you’ll end up quitting.

I know that a lot of people don’t like to constantly hear “who are you writing for?” But the truth is that you can’t help your audience if you don’t know who you want to attract.

A lot of people tend to make this harder than it should be. It’s so easy to see why, after all, we’re told that we need to know what your target audience:

• Likes to read
• Loves to eat
• Where they shop
• What type of clothes they wear
• And so and so

This strategy might work for you and if it does, then you can check out this site as it will walk you through on finding your customer avatar with a downloadable worksheet.

What Works for Me

I am the type of person who likes to make things as easy as possible so I can blog instead of spending hours thinking about things.

All I did to figure out who my perfect audience was is…

I took a look at myself.

This makes it so simple and it definitely works.

For instance, think about why you started your blog? Chances are you already have experience in your niche. But 2-3 years ago before starting your blog, you might not have had the expertise that you do now.

Chances are you had a lot of questions and did a lot of research to learn about your niche. If you sit down and write the questions and concerns you had regarding your niche when you started your blog.

Then you can write your blog articles and tailor them to the person that you were 2-3 years ago when you first started blogging. If you had these types of questions and concerns in your niche, then so do other people.

Of course, if you don’t feel comfortable writing to the past you. Then you can use these 2 methods to help you find your avatar.

1. Facebook Groups: Join relevant Facebook groups in your niche and start browsing them. They are filled with a wealth of information of questions that people are asking for help for. You can use these questions to help you come up with content for your blog.
2. Blog Comments: Your own blog comments will help you get an understanding of what people need help with. Grab a pen and paper or open up a new text document and jot down all the questions or suggestions that people are asking for help on your blog.

If you still don’t have comments of your own, check out other bloggers in your niche. Find out what their audience needs help with and answer those questions on your blog.

#3 Make Sure You’re Optimizing Your Content for SEO

Most of us dream about the days that we start getting organic traffic to our blogs. After all, without organic traffic, you bust your butt creating pins for Pinterest, spend a lot of time networking in Facebook groups, answering questions on Quora and etc.

It’s like an endless cycle that never ends. However, some of those tasks are vital at the beginning stages of your blog, until you start to get some love from Google.

Once you start getting search engine traffic, you can relax a bit because you’ve created a passive income blog that works for you day and night. Of course, your blog will NEVER be 100% passive.

You’ll have to continue to do something for it if you want to see it grow or maintain your rankings. But you can breathe a little bit easier when Google starts sending you some traffic.

You also won’t have to always be chasing blog traffic, which is nice. When you’re just starting, it seems like it takes forever to start seeing visitors on your blog.

Are You Optimizing Your Content?

Most of us who start a blog have no clue what SEO or (search engine optimization) means. In fact, most of has have never heard that term and if we have, then we usually ignore it until months down the road when we realize that we’re not getting any traffic from Google.

Maybe we are familiar with it, but we’re gunshy with optimizing our blog posts because we’ve been penalized in the past. Whichever one you fall into, you need to realize that you need to learn about SEO if you want to increase your traffic.

You don’t have to be scared to start optimizing your blog posts. What I’ve been doing is writing in-depth blog posts that cover everything about the topic I am writing about.

I make sure to add the keyword at least once in the body. After that, I focus on creating helpful content that helps my readers.

Using this technique has helped me boost blog traffic from the search engines. Plus I continually get emails from people who tell me that they linked to my content.

Basically, it’s a win-win because I am gaining links to my blog without doing a lot of guest blogging. Although, I do some of that as well to help me get my name out there and hopefully increase my rankings.

#4 Promote Your Content to Your Audience

If you’re writing amazing helpful content for your target audience, that’s awesome.

But no one is going to see it if you don’t get out there and promote your content. One of the biggest mistakes that most new bloggers make is not spending enough time to grow their blogs.

When I started this blog, I waited 6 months before I actually started working on promotion. Today, I spend a lot more time promoting content than I do writing content.

What’s the Best Way to Promote My Content?

This is a million dollar question and I wish I had the perfect answer for you. It really boils down to your niche and where your audience hangs out.

For me, I personally love and am focusing on Pinterest to help me grow my blog. Unlike SEO you can learn how to use Pinterest to get traffic to your blog quicker.

Now I am not saying that you can get traffic overnight from Pinterest. What I am saying is that once you have a pinning strategy that works for you, the results will be a lot faster than waiting for organic traffic from Google.

Related Articles for Pinterest Blog Promotion:

• How to Use Pinterest for Business Trying A New Strategy
• How to Use Keywords on Pinterest to Explode Your Traffic

How Long Does It Take to Get Traffic?

I don’t know how many times I have seen this question asked in Facebook Groups, Forums, and any other place online. Every blogger wants to start their blog and get flooded with traffic on a daily basis.

Related: How Much Traffic Do You Need to Make Money

Who doesn’t want a boatload of targetted traffic that signs up for their email list and buys their products and services?

If only I could tell you that it will take you 8 months and you’ll start to see a huge increase in traffic. But the truth is that I have no clue how long it will take you to see traffic to your blog.

It all boils down to using the right traffic source and experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.

We all go through that testing stage on what works for driving traffic.

If you’re using Pinterest, then you need to focus on creating multiple images for your blog posts. You want to test different pins against each other to see which ones get the most engagement.

It takes time to learn how to use Pinterest. If you are completely new to using it for your blog, then I recommend this course which is perfect for beginners.

It’s the same course that I took when I set up my first ever Pinterest account.

#5 Rinse and Repeat

Once you’ve finished the first 3 steps, it’s time to keep repeating the process. As a blogger, you’re going to realize that it’s a never-ending process of writing and promotion.

This is one of the reasons that so many new bloggers get frustrated. They feel as though they are on a hamster wheel of content creation and not getting the results they want.

Unfortunately, this is the life of a blogger. During the growth stage, you just need to put your blinders on and create amazing content for your readers.

Once you’re doing creating your content you need to focus on promotion. Don’t forget about promoting your old posts as well as your new posts.

This can be so confusing I mean how do you promote all your blog posts without going crazy?

Well, this is where automation comes in to help you promote your blog posts. This is the reason that I have invested in some of the best blogging tools that help me stay sane while growing my blog.

Find which tools work for you and help you keep getting your content out there without having to spend hours and hours doing everything yourself.

Follow successful bloggers like Pat Flynn, blogger Jon Morrow, Darren Rowse and several others that will teach you the right way to build a profitable blog.

It Takes Persistence

If I can get you to understand one thing, is that it takes time to build a successful blog online. Don’t listen to people who tell you that you should be further along than you are.

We are all on our own journey and as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you’ll eventually see the success you want.

You might never have a Jon Morrow networth, or be as popular as Copy Blogger. That’s okay, as long as you can create a successful blog that provides the lifestyle you want, what more can you ask for?

Final Take Away

If you want to turn your blog into a successful business, it’s important to learn how to blog smarter. You don’t want to spend hours and hours working on your blog and not getting results.

This is one of the reasons that so many people quit before they achieve the results they want.

Growing a blog is an overnight journey. It takes consistent and persistent action to see results. As long as you keep blogging and don’t stop, I have no doubt that you’ll reach your blogging goals.

Hand Picked Articles for You

• First Blog Post Ideas That Will Actually Help You Get Traffic
• How to Get Your Blog Out There When You Just Started
• How to Get Your Blog Noticed When No One Knows You

It’s so easy to make blogging way harder than it is. Do you feel like these 5 steps are the way to smarter blogging? If you feel like I left something out, let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts.