What I Do Everyday to Grow My 6-Figure Online Business and Blog

As an entrepreneur using a blog to build my online business, I know first hand how easy it is to simply go through the motions when it comes to maintaining your blog.

You know that you need to write content every week, share that content with the world, respond to community comments, and of course, schedule your posts to social media to make sure you’re getting noticed online.

But, building a successful blog is more than just posting content each week hoping enough people will drop in and decide to buy what you’re selling. A successful blog is a culmination of a million and one properly planned and prepared income-producing activities you complete, day in and day out, that come together to create a business that drives income and makes an impact.

A successful blog is not just a collection of pages with a bunch of content on it. It’s a well-oiled machine that is strategically designed to connect your content with the traffic it attracts, capture those readers as subscribers and then convert those subscribers into sales

The more traffic…The more readers…

The more readers…The more subscribers…

The more subscribers…The more sales…

The more sales…the more money…

The more money…the better your life gets!

Got it?

When done right, your blog is the vehicle that can help you turn your dreams into reality!

Now I struggled with this big time when I first started my blog.

After months of creating multiple blog posts every single week, I was spending almost all of my time creating content and trying to get more social media followers.

But since I wasn’t focused on developing the marketing and sales skills I needed to make money, I wasn’t seeing any real growth.

I was working hard as hell and still not making any money from all my hard work!

I literally had a broke blog and because broke blogs suck, I knew that if I was going to get anywhere close to building the freedom-based business I wanted, I was going to have to spend my time working on all the unsexy things that would allow that growth to happen.

So today, I want to break down what I do on a weekly basis to manage, grow, and of course, make money with my blog (and online business).

Let’s do this…

So before we get too deep into this lesson, I want you to truly understand what blogging for business means. Blogging for business is not casual blogging, blogging when you feel like it, or blogging because it’s the cool thing to do.

Blogging for business is a full-time job (even if you’re doing it part-time). It’s a job that requires you to learn how to create, market, and of course, sell! I make my money by selling paid products, selling affiliate programs, and selling my expertise in a way that allows me to put a price tag on myself as a coach and consultant.

RELATED: How to Start a Blog and Make Money Blogging in 2020

If you are not ready to make money blogging and want to keep it casual then this post may not be the right post for you. But if you are truly committed to turning your blog into a profitable and purposeful online business, I want to give you intimidate insight into what I do every week to grow and maintain my 6-figure blog.

Content isn’t just King…It’s the KINGDOM!

Everything I do to grow my brand, build my products and promote my business revolves around content.

I create content that gets shared on a number of different platforms including:

• My Blog
• My Email list
• Pinterest
• Facebook Page
• Facebook group
• Instagram
• YouTube

Not only is there a ton of content to create you have to know the nuances of each platform you are sharing your content to, so you can maximize your reach.

Now a lot of content creators will tell you that they spend 80 – 90% of their time creating content, but I believe that no matter how much content you create, it won’t do much for you if you don’t find a way to get it in front of the right people. You should be spending just as much time marketing your content as you do creating it! #rememberthat

When it comes to filling up my content calendar for the week, here are the tasks I typically add:

• Write a blog post (typically I write 1 a week)
• Create pinnable images for new blog post (5-10 per post)
• Publish, schedule, and cross-promote blog post to FB (posts to my page and groups), Pinterest (pins), IG (video or image)
• Write email broadcasts to my subscribers (typically send out 2 a week)
• Write a weekly newsletter to my WomanpreneuHER University members (send out 1 a week)
• Write tutorial and training content for the WU membership site
• Record video content for online courses or membership site lessons
• Edit and upload videos to Vimeo
• Publish videos to membership site (I post new content every month, sometimes every week)
• Create customizable Canva templates for WU membership site
• Create and post Instagram images (I typically batch these and do 100 at a time though I post at least 1 image daily)
• Create and post an IG video (1 week)
• Repurpose content to IGTV or YouTube

Now, this is my personal content creation task list, but if you are more IGTV or YouTube focused then you may be creating 2-3 videos a week instead of one! So, not all of these strategies will apply to you, but do what will bring you the greatest return on your efforts.

When it comes to streamlining your content creation tasks, you want to create a system that will allow you to batch your efforts each week and automate your marketing strategy so you can execute it without having to think about it daily.

A scheduling tool allows you to schedule your content on sites like Instagram and Pinterest to be published at a later day and time of your choosing. You could even schedule an entire month’s worth of content all in one sitting. This can save you hours of time as you implement new marketing strategies.

For example, Pinterest is my primary platform for driving traffic and sales to my business. I create upwards of 10 pins per post. But imagine if I had to manually pin each of these pins to multiple boards for multiple blog posts. It would take forever! And I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do, so this is why I rely so heavily on automation because it frees me up to do the things I actually love doing without sacrificing results.

I used to do a lot of automation on FB and Twitter but nowadays most of my automation is focused on Pinterest. I automate Instagram to post to Pinterest but when it comes to posting to IG, I tend to post manually.

My go-to scheduler is Tailwind but you do have other options…

I am not going to go into detail on each one (because there are many and I recommend Tailwind) but I do want to make you aware of what’s out there.

As you make your decision on which scheduler you will want to use, just know that the most important part of making your choice is making sure that the scheduler you use is legit and an official partner of whichever platform you are scheduling to.

The most popular official partners for social media automation are:

• Tailwind*
• Buffer
• SmarterQueue
• Hootsuite
• Later

The most popular automation tools for email are:

• ConvertKit*
• ActiveCampaign
• Aweber
• Mailchimp

I am a ConvertKit girl so this is my email marketing tool of choice and when it comes to pinning, I spend like 5-10 minutes a week adding new pins to my queue inside of Tailwind, and from there, Tailwind does the bulk of the work. That’s like 30 minutes on average per month.

If you are a service-based blogger or business, you will have some additional income-producing activities that you’ll need to add to your weekly list. Depending on your client load and the service packages you provide, your tasks can vary greatly from week to week.

There was a time when I created online courses for other 6-and 7-figure clients who didn’t have the time or desire to build out a course themselves. In addition to the content I had to create for my own business, I also had to carve out time to create the following:

• Course content
• Scripts
• Marketing materials for each client
• Sales pages and copy
• Sales funnels
• Website content and copy
• Testimonial gathering
• etc…

And in addition to that, I also had to draft proposals, contracts, and more!

The most boring part of building a brand is admin work. Many bloggers and online business owners are solopreneurs. Meaning they are the end-all-be-all of the business operations.  This includes responding to blog comments, emails, DMs, social media posts, and analyzing analytics and stats.

So throughout the week (and typically each day), I set aside a block of time just for admin to-dos. This includes:

• Reading and replying to business-related emails from students, customers, etc.  (2x a day)
• Reading and responding to comments in my WomanpreneuHER and WomanpreneuHER University FB groups. (2x day or when I get a question alert)
• Reading and responding to blog comments. (every other day)
• Reading and responding to social media comments on IG, YT, and Pinterest. (1 a day)
• Checking my analytics on Google, Tailwind, and Pinterest. (2x a month)
• Checking income stats for affiliates (2x a month)
• Fixing any broken or outdated links that are found on my website or in old content
• Checking income stats for online courses and products I sell (MemberPress, WooCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Teachable)

There will be random tasks that pop up from time to time that I’ll have to throw into the pile, but this will give you a pretty good of what I go through during any given week.

When it comes to managing your blog in a productive and profitable way, there is no one size fits all strategy. Every business, every brand, every blog is different and it’s going to be up to you to figure out what you need to do each day to get the best results. If you are newer blogger, you may have more tasks that take longer to complete versus a more seasoned blogger that has developed a system or has a team to help out with the implementation of it all.

If you want a super detailed breakdown of every single thing you can do to build a successful blog, I created a few resources that I know you’d love. The WomanpreneuHER’s Blueprint, The 365 Day Blog Plan, and The Epic Biz + Blog Planner will help you figure out all the things that you should be spending your time on. You can grab all three of these resources for FREE inside of the WomanpreneuHER’s Resource Library.

Like I said before, each week is going to be totally different from the next and that is what I love about being an online entrepreneur. You get to set your own rules and build your business on your own terms!

Some weeks are more content-focused, while other weeks are more marketing focused. If I’m working on launching a new product, then my focus turns to developing content that supports that launch.

If I don’t have a new product launching, my focus turns to optimizing my marketing strategies or testing out new ones. A huge part of building a successful business is understanding what’s working and what’s not so you can do more of the good stuff! So for example, if I’m looking at my current pinning strategy, I’ll evaluate what pins are performing the best and then create more of those pins. Or on Instagram, I’ll see what content is getting the most engagement, and I’ll create more for those types of posts.

So by now, you have an idea of what it takes to run a successful blog. Not only is there a lot to do on a weekly basis, but there is also a lot of planning and strategic preparation that must take place. There’s a never-ending list of things to do on any given day and it can be downright overwhelming. From email lists to social media updates, content creation to guest posting, taking pics to uploading products, and all the itty-bitty details in between, staying focused on the activities that produce the most profitable results can be a challenge.

That’s why it is important to know why you are doing what you’re doing and have a clear understanding of what you are working toward. Everything you do in your business should be done with the intent and purpose to reach a desired outcome. But, if you don’t know the outcome you desire, how can you plan to achieve the goal?

Before anything else, you should be 100% clear on the big goals you want to achieve with your blog. This is what I call YOUR BLOG VISION!

A blog without a vision will perish ya’ll. So, the first step to growing a profitable blog is to get clear on that vision. We’re talking about the what, why, who, and how! 

Knowing who you serve, what they want, and how you can help them will be the driving force behind every single task that is on that weekly to-do list of yours.

Your to-do list is where your blog vision meets your action plan. When you know where you want your blog to go and what you want it to be, you can break it down into bite-sized steps that will get you there.

For example, if you know you want to create a 6-figure blog that serves fitness professionals who want to build their brands leveraging YouTube, then you can break down your daily tasks based on achieving that big goal. So you essentially can work backwards…

1. To create a 6-figure fitness blog you need to sell enough products to reach that goal
2. To sell products you need to find a platform that makes it easy for you to sell online courses
3. To sell an online course you need to create content and record videos
4. To record the right content for your videos you need to validate an idea, create an outline, and write out your training scripts.
5. Before you can write out a script you have to come up with and validate an idea that helps fitness professionals achieve their goals.

…and this is just a broad picture overview of what needs to be done. There are dozens of additional steps you’ll need to implement along the way to turn your idea into a 6-figure blog business.

RELATED: What Digial Product Should You Create? Settling On an Idea That Sells!

So, once you have all the tasks that you think you need to accomplish your immediate goal, the next step is to map out a game plan.

What tasks do you need to complete each week (and how quickly do you need to complete them) in order to launch that online course of yours within your desired timeline?  Figure out what needs to be done, then plan it out, then knock it out!

So hopefully this post helps you wrap your head around all of the tasks that need to be done to maintain and grow your blog. Make sure your download the freebies to get a full list of possible tasks you may or may not need to plan for based on your individual marketing strategies and monetization methods! Good luck!

WHAT ARE YOUR BIG BLOG GOALS?

Share your vision with the WomanpreneuHER community and let us know the #1 goal you want to achieve with your blog!