When you’re trying to grow your blogging business and get some momentum happening in order to make money blogging, the last thing you need is a strategy here, a tactic there…

You need a step-by-step action plan.

Everyone has a to-do list a mile long, right? And in order to get the growth you want, you need to spend your precious time and energy on the right steps, and in the right order too.

This is something my 1:1 blog coaching clients love about our coaching calls. I mean, the “Make Money Blogging Action Plan” is the main important thing I focus on when we work together. 

I give you step-by-step make money blogging action plans based on where you’re at, where you want to go and the type of blogging business that you have. 

This makes it so easy for you to just bypass all that horrible overwhelm and to know what to do now and what to do next.

So! [DRUMROLL]

Today I’m going to give you your first make money blogging action plan for IF you don’t have email list subscribers OR an offer that you are currently selling….

---

---

Your first step: Your website

Ok! So because we know our list is our number one priority at this stage, but before we go into some strategies for list-building, we’re going to need a few things in place first…

Starting with…

…Your website.

Make sure you have a professional looking website that CONVERTS. You need to have good branding colors, visuals, and copywriting that works!

The key to a homepage that converts is making it completely clear what you do and who you work with as soon as someone lands on your homepage. You want your website visitors to know quickly whether you are someone that can help them. 

For example, on my homepage I have:

“BLOG COACHING AND WEBSITE DESIGN FOR THE PASSIONATE  FEMALE BLOGGERS!

Helping you start, grow, and monetize your blog by simplifying the process, strategizing with intention, and creating a plan for profits.”

I then have a short sentence where I tell my visitors my mission statement. This helps them to easily understand exactly what I do. 

Next, you want your website visitors to take action which is why I recommend a call to action button above the fold. As you will see in the screenshot above, I have a call to action button that leads to my services page.

Other example calls to actions might be DOWNLOAD NOW where you link to your freebie or BOOK A CALL so they can jump on a discovery call with you.

You also want to make sure that your call to actions are clear and tell them exactly what you want them to do. This is not the time to be creative with your website copy. Be clear and to the point.

Just like most things in business, you should have clear goals that you want your website to achieve. These might be sign-up to your newsletter, book a discovery call or purchase a product. 

Before working on a new website design or when making changes to an existing one, always think about what you want your website to do for you and how those goals meet your overall business goals.

If you’re creating a website without any goals in mind then it’s likely that you are going to confuse your audience. You need to take your website visitors on a journey. 

Think about how will you get them from A to B. What are the steps in between that they need to take and how can you use your website design to guide them there?

Having a blog on your website massively increases your bounce rate, especially if you are getting a lot of traffic from Google and Pinterest (which I hope you are!).

When you’re spending time creating blog posts, you don’t want those visitors to read and run. A good way to ensure you are not losing visitors is by providing a content upgrade in your blog posts. 

A content upgrade is a call to action that encourages visitors to sign-up for a freebie that relates to your blog post. 

You can either embed your email sign-up form straight in the blog post or create a graphic or button that links to an opt-in landing page. 

The blog posts that relate to all things blogging include a call to action to my free masterclass: 6 Figure Blogging Secrets which you can see below. 

Your website copy is key to creating a website that converts.

Ideally, if budget allows, I would recommend working with a copywriter who specialises in website copy but if not then it’s totally possible to do this yourself. 

When writing your website copy, ensure you have your ideal clients and customers in mind and speak directly to them. If you have done your ideal client research correctly, then you should know the pain points, challenges and fears that your clients and customers have as well as the transformation that they want to achieve. Write your website copy in a way that addresses these things and then present the transformation. 

Always ensure you break up your text with clear headlines and call to actions. No one wants to read an essay when they land on your website. Keep it to the point.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO JUST HAVE A PRETTY WEBSITE…

As you can see it’s not enough to have a pretty website design. There’s so much more that goes into creating a website that converts your website visitors and I really hope that these tips have been helpful. 

---

RELATED POST: WordPress.com VS WordPress.org- Don’t Make This Silly Blogging Mistake!

---

Your second step: Very valuable opt-in

AKA: opt-in bribe, freebie etc.

This needs to be something you create that can be delivered digitally (and without costing you anything to send it to them.) For example: an audio file, template, or a PDF

And it needs to be SO valuable, that actually people should be paying for it. But they’re not. Not at this stage.

You can create your opt in on Canva. Or you can simply join the Blogging Ladies Membership where we have TONS of freebie templates designed for you each month.

I will be the first to admit, creating an opt-in freebie can be hard. Thinking of the perfect opt-in freebie idea can be stressful and cause you to second guess whether or not what you have to share matters to your audience. You have to consider what the freebie is about, what kind of format it should be in, how to deliver it, etc.

I’m here to tell you your opt-in freebie doesn’t need to be perfect.

Creating it doesn’t have to feel akin to pulling your teeth one by one. In fact, there are some pretty easy steps to figure out what kind of freebie your audience needs and wants. Here’s how. 👇🏼

Solve a Problem

The purpose of an opt-in freebie is to solve a problem or make something easier for your audience. But how do you know what that is? There are three different methods that will help you figure it out.

First, think back to when you first started out. What did you have trouble with as a newbie? Was there information you couldn’t find by hitting up Google?

For example, let’s say you noticed there’s a lack of information on how to create a freelance writing resume. You could help to fill that gap by creating a checklist or template for your audience.

The next method is to survey your audience. This is super easy! Send an email to your existing list (even if it’s small) to see what they’re struggling with. You can do this either by sending an email asking for their reply, or you can create a survey for them to complete. 

I like to create my surveys using Typeform or Google Forms. 

Once you’ve gotten responses, you can build your opt-in freebie around the struggles of your existing audience because if they’re struggling with it, others probably are too.

Finally, if you’ve joined Facebook groups related to blogging, freelancing, or entrepreneurship you can use them to look for patterns in the questions people ask. Just browse through the posts in the group to see if there is a common theme in the questions.

If you’re having trouble finding anything, ask the group what they’ve been struggling with. Once you’ve identified a few pain points, you can brainstorm how to convert them into an opt-in freebie.

You can also use the second and third methods to gauge the interest in your current opt-in freebie idea. Simply send an email to your list or create a post or poll in your Facebook groups asking if they’d find the information helpful.

---

Your third step: Your foundation

Buckle up, because you’re in this one forever. It’s not going away any time soon and we’re talking of course about the ‘C’ word…

…Content.

You need to show up consistently for your audience, to build the know, like and trust factor and to get your name out there more. (Think organic traffic.)

Which means you need a content plan.

** And it needs to suit you and be one that you can stick to.

Your plan:

• A weekly email (1-2 emails a week minimum.) There’s no point getting people onto your list if you’re just going to ignore them once they’re there, right?
• ONE social platform (to start with) with regular posts
• A cornerstone piece of content each week. (Eg: a podcast episode, a video, or a blog post.) If you can’t do it weekly, do it fortnightly, but no longer between each piece of cornerstone content.
• One extra social post each week, such as a behind the scenes glimpse.

Again, this is something that we help people with inside The Blogging Ladies Membership. We have checklists and more resources to guide you step by step. Including 25+ Clickup templates….Because I know how crucial having a plan is, (and I know how much people resist it!)

---

Next? Let the list-building games begin!

Now you are going to go HARD on list building, while simultaneously preparing an offer you will be able to sell in a quick and dirty launch in a few months time…

This is a tough time – but it’s not forever.

And yes, the list-building situation can be slow and frustrating… (I’m big on being honest!) …but it’s unavoidable.

Pinterest ds can help you reach the goal faster. But it’s not needed if you don’t have $5/day to spend.

When you’ve got an email list – you have a list of raving fans who read to your emails, send replies, click to your posts and share their problems.

Wouldn’t that be the best option to focus on when you’re trying to build an audience and grow your blog?

I shamelessly admit to not have an email list from the beginning, but I soon realized ‘where are my people?’ Are they hanging out on Facebook? Do I have to tweet every day or what should I exactly do to have a talk with them?

You know what happened,

I built an email list and I proudly say that it’s the best thing I did. This is one of the ways I make money blogging!

Here’s one more thing…

Do not ever stress over numbers! I did not and I’m not going to stress over growing your email list to 17,000 subscribers. You should only put the effort into growing your email list to 20,000 subscribers if you know they will open your emails and are looking forward to reading them every week.

What’s the purpose of growing your email list to 20k subscribers when only 200 read your emails?

What you should do?

Celebrate having with those 300 subscribers who actually read your emails, respond and engage. Agreed, right?

By now, you get the idea of what an email list is and how important it is to actually build your email list. Again, don’t worry about the numbers! You can easily grow your email list if you follow the best email list-building strategies.

To just help you set an easy peasy goal, we start with 500 subscribers.

What you need to do, and how you will do it?

I’ve explained everything below.

So, you’ve got a freebie, some content upgrades, and few well-written posts.

Now what?

Get more traffic!

There’s no purpose of having those pretty forms, and valuable freebies if people are not coming to your site.

I definitely suggest using Facebook, Pinterest & SEO to drive traffic to your website. Start with participating in Facebook groups.

Pinterest is the top traffic referrer for my own website. You can literally use Pinterest for everything possible but it’s not that easy. If you’re new then you will have to invest some time on Pinterest.

Most importantly, organic traffic is one of the best traffic sources. It’s coming directly from Google. The searchers are actually looking for a solution that means they convert well. And, you will not need to schedule your content just how we do for social media. But, you need to put some effort into growing that traffic which is possible.

---

RELATED POST: How to Start an Email List and Grow it To Thousands

---

The Beta launch

Now, in the background, as you’ve been connecting with your audience and learning about them… you would have probably come up with an idea or two for the kind of offer you can create for them.

However! Do NOT build it first. Please. We don’t know if it’s going to work yet. Even if people have said they’ll buy it, when it comes to actually paying for it? It’s a different story.

That’s why take people through the entire beta launch process inside of The Blogging Ladies Mastermind because it’s still a test run. And we help them sell the program first, before it’s created. (It’ll be a drip program/offer, created each week as it’s running.)

REPEAT AFTER ME: 

“I will ALWAYS test before I invest.”

This is one of our mottos. We’re thinking of getting t-shirts done. (Yay or nay?) 

And what this means in this scenario here, is that whatever you’re creating for your signature offer (mastermind, membership site, online coaching program, etc) that BEFORE you spend weeks/months creating it… 

You need to know it’s going to pay you back for all your resources and time you’re going to invest in creating it. 

So, you need to pre-sell your offer, before you actually create it. 

What does that look like? Well, you guessed it, I walk you through more of the nitty-gritty in the membership.

But basically you would only need to set up the welcome content and then you would drip feed the content week by week. 

And then you just need a way to sell the offer!

It’s just going to give you better bang for your buck to focus on the launch plan here, rather than creating the product itself. 

And of course, this is something we take our Blogging Ladies Mastermind students through every step of the way. Including how to set up a quick + dirty sales page, a simple launch plan and more. We’ve broken it all down with calendars, swipe files, basically anything you could think of that could make the whole process easier? We’ve got it for you inside the membership. (Plus, you get our feedback at every step!) 

A launch plan is just not easy as it looks, and especially for a brand new offer you need to make sure it hits with a bang. 

Kaboom. 

---

If you’ve loved this make money blogging action plan and you’d love to get more help with this, because there’s a lot to go through and you just want some support, that’s exactly what The Blogging Ladies Mastermind is for.

There’s nothing else out there like this membership. The amount of incredible baked-in, step-by-step support is something I’m so, so proud of.

We help personally review your blog, brainstorm headlines and ideas and strategies, we give you email swipe files, content ideas, trainings, templates and so much more…

---

WHAT TO READ NEXT:

• Best Tips for Selling Anything on Your Blog
• PODCAST – Why Most Bloggers Haven’t Even Made a $1
• Why Showit is the Best for New Bloggers
• PODCAST – Why You’re Not Making Money Blogging (5 Reasons)
• PODCAST – I Would Have Made Money Blogging a Lot Faster if I Just Did THIS

---

---