I spend so much time creating images for social media and my blog. It’s a big deal to me that my images reflect my brand and are uniquely ME, and at the same time appealing in a way that makes people want to click.

I admit, sometimes I’m better at this than others! When it’s crunch time and I really need to hit that publish button, there are times when my images fall flat. I know it, and boy does it hurt…

I also know that half of your image has ev’rything to do with the blog title (more on titles here). We can create the most beautiful images the sun has ever seen, and if our titles miss the mark our post is going dark on us. That’s the way it goes, right? Sometimes we hit and sometimes we miss…

But I digress, because today it’s graphics tutorial time! I thought it might be fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at how I use Photoshop to create my blog and social media image templates. Woop woop!

Having social media image templates is one of those things that makes your day-to-day so much more productive. No more worrying about what to share on Instagram at the last minute, k?

Here’s what I’m covering in this graphics tutorial:

• Template sizes and editing tools
• Design tips to help your images stand out
• The Photoshop workspace, tools, and palettes
• Using Photoshop to create an image template

Now, you’re probably wondering about images sizes and editing tools, so let’s kick it off right there.

1) IMAGE SIZES AND EDITING TOOLS

What size templates do you need?

Great question! This one really got me too at first. Here’s what I’ve come up with that works well for me, and it may work for you too:

• Twitter + Facebook: 1000 x 500 (I use this image as the Featured Image on my blog post)
• Instagram: 1080 square
• Pinterest: 800 x 1200 (this is the first image on my blog) and a second, longer pin

Here’s an example of the image size templates I use:

I know you’re probably thinking Do I really need 3 or 4 different image templates? I don’t even have time to create one!

Really, you don’t need all of these, but there are a few reasons these work for me. First off, these are the social media platforms I’ve decided to build a following on.  Second, I like changing up my Twitter and Facebook images 🙂 And last, I’ve made it a habit to create 2 pins for every post, so that’s why that extra pin is in there. If you’re curious about that, this post explains why.

So that’s what works for me. What you create is really a matter of preference. You may decide to create templates only for Instagram and Pinterest, then use the same square image for Facebook and Twitter (keep in mind that part of your image will be cut off in the feeds if you do this).

Or, maybe you’ll want to be laser-focused on Pinterest at first. That’s perfectly okay. Actually, better than okay… Pinterest is the bomb for traffic so starting here makes sense, you savvy blogger, you!

Related: Social Media Image Sizes [Profile Pics, Cover Photos & Shared Images]

Do you have to use Photoshop?

Absolutely not! Photoshop is just my preference. I’ve read that you can do amazing things with Canva, especially the paid version. I think Canva will even resize the templates for you. Done, done and done!

The reason I prefer Photoshop is that I’m a graphic designer and have used it for 20 years.  Let’s just say Photoshop and me are BFFs 🙂

If you’re unsure whether to use Canva or Photoshop, I recommend looking into Canva first. Even their free version is jam-packed with design features and starter templates that will make you look like a design pro even if you don’t feel like one yet!

If you’re still curious about Photoshop, here are a few reasons why I love it:

• Working in layers makes it very easy to tweak any element of your image
• Endless creativity with images, textures, overlays, and fonts
• Advanced controls over font spacing and image alignment
• There are times (like most!) when my image is almost perfect but not quite. I can easily retouch the photo to make it work better
• Designing is fun, easy, and rewarding!
• I could go on and on…

Ok, speaking of design, this is just one of those things that we can’t overlook, because it will have a huge impact on your traffic and subscribers. The more successful your content is visually = the more your business will grow. Make sense?

I’ve picked up quite a few design tips through years of trial and error, and I’m going to save you all of that time right now!

2) A FEW QUICK DESIGN TIPS

Color

Bright colors like oranges and reds get more shares, saves and repins. Think light, bright, poppy and you’ll be good. What this means is that any background images you use are open and airy. Whatever you do, don’t go dark! That’s where I started and darker images just don’t grab people’s attention the way that the brighter colors do.

Here’s an example of a dark image:

Now I was right on track with the orange color in there, but the dark background pushes it back and makes it hard to notice in feeds. We want the exact opposite effect, so stick with lighter/brighter backgrounds and orange/red accents if you can.

A big bonus here is that people click on red the most, so your images will get more saves, repins and click-throughs.

Related: How to Choose Colors That Will Make Your Brand Stand Out

Balance + Hierarchy

The other thing to pay attention to is the overall balance between elements. This is especially true with background images. Make sure things aren’t bumping into each other and distracting people.

Your overall goal is to make people focus on something and that, friends, is your blog title – not some fancy pants image in the background. Think of it like your text is the star of the show and graphics/images are just supporting actors and actresses.

Now, I get that design can be a delicate balancing act. It seems so much easier than it is, right? For instance, in the pin example above, my text gobbles up the entire pin! Talk about stars and their egos!

What happens when you make your fonts too big like that is that the image gets crowded and noisy. People won’t know what to focus on. Instead, leave some “white space”. What you’re really looking for is that fine line where your text stands out enough to grab people’s attention, but not so much that it ruins the show and clutters up your pin. Make sense?

Aahhh, this is so much better:

You see how this is more open and airy? Now we’re talkin’!

Fonts

It’s just too tempting to see beautiful fonts like these and want to use every single one of them in your image. Let’s resist, friend! This is definitely one of those things where less is more. Of course, you’re going to want to play with fonts, and you should. At some point, though, make sure you narrow down your choices to just 2 or 3.

Everything we’ve just covered here is part of creating a kickin’ brand. You want that when people see your images on different platforms, they instantly recognize them (and you!) because your brand is harmonious and cohesive everywhere.

Related: How to Create a Branding System for Your Blog and Business

Still with me? Great, let’s do this!

3) Photoshop Tools and Palettes

Before you create an image template, you need to understand the Photoshop workspace a bit, specifically the tools palette and layers palette.

First up, the tools palette

These are some of the tools you’ll use most frequently:

Now, you’re probably wondering what each of these tools does, so let’s get that out of the way right now:

The Move Tool – Pretty obvious, right? This is the tool you can use to move things around on your canvas. So if you’re on a layer and you want to move it but can’t, that’s why!

Marquee – When you want to tweak something on one of your layers, use this tool…

…or, use this one:

Lasso – Works the same as the marquee tool, but you can actually draw your selection area with the lasso. This is great when you want to get very specific and just change a piece of an image, for instance.

Eyedropper – Such an awesome tool! See a color in an image or graphic you want to use? You’re gonna love this. Just drop the eyedropper tool on it and that color will become active.

Eraser – To erase things!

Text – Add text to your canvas. Tip: before you start typing, drag the text tool to create a text box first. This will make resizing text so much easier. Pinky swear.

Shape – Create rectangles, rounded corners, circles and more with this tool. To see the other shapes, just hover over that little triangle in the bottom right corner.

Now that we have our tools covered, let’s start creating!

Over to the layers palette…

The layers palette looks a bit like the image below. I’m using a verrrry old version of Photoshop, so your workspace probably looks different than mine, but everything’s still in the same place, so we’re all good.

To build your template, you’re going to have 3 different groups of layers. Say whaaa? Stay with me here, I’ll going to clear it all up for you right now. Time to build a template!

4) Finally! Let’s create an image template

For this tutorial, we’re creating a Pinterest template that is 800 x 1200px. The reason I’m focusing on Pinterest is that this is where the bulk of your traffic will come from, so it makes sense to nail that platform first.

Before we dive in, be sure to download this template so you can tweak it with your own amazing design: Photoshop Pin Template.

First, create a new document

Our first step is to create a new document. Make sure you’re working in pixels, at 72 pixel/inch, and the color mode is RGB color. I like to append my file names with the word “template”, like this:

Now I know that a blank canvas can look intimidating, so let’s fill this bad boy up with some creative genius, k? You’re probably thinking where do I even start? How do I start filling up this *$#@! screen with pieces I can use over and over?

This is where the layers palette comes in. That’s where all the components of your image will live, and each one is “layered” on top of the others. So any element layer #1, for instance, will appear behind layer #2, layer #3, and so on. Think of it like building blocks!

For our template, we need 3 groups of layers. We’re going to have a background (layer group #1), some text (layer group #2), and our logo/branding elements (layer group #3).

Uh, why am I calling them layer groups? Great question! Each element is going to have its own layer, and then those layers will be grouped according to function. You will probably be working with more than one text box, more than one image, and more than one graphic. Groups are a simple way to organize our layers into something that makes sense:

• Logo/branding
• Text
• Background

Before we even create a layer group, though, we need to create our first layer. Let’s start by creating a background.

Next, create a background layer + group

To fill your entire background with a color, select the shape tool, fill it with a color and drag across the canvas. This will automatically create a new layer (if you want to change the color, just double click on the layer, like this:

Next, select the shape layer from the layers palette. From the top right corner of the layer’s palette, you’ll see a tiny triangle shape. Select that, and then select “New Group from Layers”, like this:

Woop woop! See how we’re starting to create our layer groups? I recommend naming the new layer group “bg” or “background”. Now anything we want to add to the background, say an image for example, would go on its own layer inside the background group. This layer group will always be at the bottom of the layers palette. Text, branding and other graphic elements will go on top.

Next up, add text

You can use any text you like, but for the purpose of this post and because we’re talking about blogging here, let’s assume that the text will be your blog title image, cool?

Select the text tool, and drag it across the center of the canvas to create a text box, then start typing. Whatever you do, don’t leave the text tool without adding text to it! You will have a crazy hard time finding that text box if you do 🙂

Now the fun starts! It’s so much fun to play with different fonts and get creative. You may want to break your text apart into separate text boxes so that you can have more control over spacing, sizing, fonts, etc. That’s totally fine! I do it all the time.

Just remember to create a separate group layer for all text layers, like we did with the background group layer.

I’m going to say this again because it’s a biggie. You really want to find a style where you use 2-3 fonts (I use Gotham, Thirsty Script, and Angelface) and no more than 2 graphic elements. Then you want to use those same fonts and elements on every image you create! I know it’s so tempting to change fonts on every image, but the problem here is that your brand is going to start to look a bit all over the place, and you want to look consistent and cohesive. If you need some font inspiration, this post is a good read.

Related: How to Create a Style Guide for Your Blog

I think I want to add another shape behind the text so that it really pops. Something like this…

See how our blank canvas is starting to turn into a masterpiece! So exciting!! But it’s still missing that wow factor, no? Let’s see how we can perk it up.

I’m going to add a background image and make the peach box behind the text slightly transparent, which will completely transform the image.

Phew! We’re almost there. Once you have your template styled the way you want, the only thing left to do is to add your logo and branding.

Add your logo and branding

This is so that people start to recognize your images and brand.

If your logo was created in Illustrator, this part is super easy! Keep both Photoshop and Illustrator open, select your logo and drag it over to Photoshop. It will automatically import as a vector smart object, which means that when you click on the logo layer in Photoshop, your logo will open up in Illustrator to edit it there.

I highly recommend adding your URL next to the logo, like this:

That’s all there is to it. I hope this graphics tutorial has made you fall in love with Photoshop! There is so much you can do once you become familiar with it. You know when you see something in your mind and just wish you could create it? You can with Photoshop! Anything you can imagine, you can find a way to do it. Now you might think the learning curve is too much, and I hear ya! It does take a little more time to master than Canva, but there’s also sooo much more you can do with it!

Have I convinced you yet? Grab the Photoshop template we created here and start tweaking it with your amazing design (free download, no email required!): Photoshop Pin Template

Let’s recap!

• Create image templates for Pinterest and Instagram first. If you like you can add a third size for Facebook and Twitter, or use the square Instagram image.
• Canva and PicMonkey are 2 other photo editors you can use as alternatives to Photoshop. I know Canva comes with preset templates to get you started, but as you’ve seen in this tutorial, turning a blank canvas into a template isn’t as daunting as it seems at first!
• As you create the image templates, remember that you’re building your brand at the same time. Be intentional with your use of color, fonts, and other design elements. And of course, the star of the show is your blog title or text…
• The tools and layers palettes are where the magic happens in Photoshop. Layers can be a bit confusing at first. If you hang in there with it, you’ll be on your way to creating masterpieces in no time. Promise. Just think of layers like a stack of bricks, where one is on top of the other. The bricks that are on the top will cover up the other bricks, so you can’t see them as well as the one on top. The same is true with layers. The top-most layer is going to cover that portion of the image beneath it.
• Work in layer groups with your background as the bottom layer group, text in the middle, and branding on the top. This way your background will always be at the bottom and not covering up another part of the image (if it does, you know that your layers got rearranged somehow!)
• Always add your logo and any branding elements or submarks to your images so that people will recognize your brand.

As you create your image templates, you may find these posts helpful:

• Free Fonts and Font Pairings for Web, Social Media and Blog Images
• How to Choose Colors That Will Make Your Brand Stand Out
• How to Create a Brand Style Guide for Your Blog
• 6 Sources of Free Images for Bloggers

I’m so excited for you guys! I love Photoshop and know you will too. Here’s the link to the template again so you can get started: Photoshop Pin Template.

Are you having fun with it? Let me know if/where you get stumped and I’ll try my best to help!

This is part 1 of a 2-part series called the Blog Profit Plan that is designed to help you propel your business forward. I’m hoping it will be a jumping off point to get from zero to profit as quickly as possible so you can start making a living with your blog.

The way I see it, there are two parts to building a successful business (hence the 2-part series):

Part 1: creating a business plan
Part 2: executing on the plan

In today’s post, I’m going to cover how to create a blog business plan.

This is the perfect starting point, because having a plan for your blog business will give you a platform to make it profitable. Without it, you may find yourself stumbling around with what topics to cover, the value you provide, what your peeps really need, and many other things. Or you may spend too much time in one phase of your biz and forget to set a foundation for the next phase…simply because you’re not aware that said phase exists.

A blog business plan only gets us halfway to the finish line, though, which is why I’m making this a 2-part series.

You don’t really act upon them, which means they’re likely to sit in your laptop, inside Evernote, and that’s it. It’s easy to forget that you even have a business plan in the day to day of running your biz.

What we really need is a blog action plan to help us execute on our business plans.

Suh-weet, now we’re talkin’. B-plan + A-plan = Jackpot!

An action plan is where the money is anyway, no? That’s what’s going to whip our butts into shape and keep us accountable for turning our big dreams into a reality. An action plan is about getting under the hood and getting it done – really, a blueprint for executing on our business plans.

If we pair these two bad boys together, I think we’ll have a winning formula for success.

More on blog action plans in my next post… Today, let’s jump in to creating a blogging business plan.

To help you with this part of the series, I created the Blog Business Plan Workbook so you can get the most benefit from the steps we’re covering today.  Each section is full of prompts that will help you create a road map for your blog biz, identify goals you want to achieve, how you will market your business, and how much money you want to make. Click the image below to grab it.

HOW TO CREATE AN EPIC BLOG BUSINESS PLAN

SECTION 1: BUSINESS SUMMARY

This section is a snapshot of your business, kind of like your business “at-a-glance”. You may want to complete the other sections first, and come back to this after you have everything else together. Here’s what you’ll want to cover in your business summary:

1. Mission Statement

This is your  “Why”. Briefly explain why you created your business, what it is about, and the purpose it serves.

2. Business Goals

Based on where you’re at now, where do you plan to take your business in the future? Don’t be afraid to dream big here! If you can see it, you can do it! Think about the next year and even further down the road, say five years from now. You can mention things like money you’d like to earn from your blog, to new products you’re thinking of, to how often you will blog and the size of your mailing list.

3. Products and Services

What products and services do you have, or will you have? Briefly describe here how you are or will be monetizing your blog.

4. Your Current + Future Growth

This part is inspiring! You may already have a blog or you may be brand new to blogging. Mention any growth you’ve already experienced…anything from number of page views, to social media followers, list size, money you’ve earned, and so on. From here, how will you take your business to the next level?  List specific steps you can take to reach your goals.

Related: 100+ Ways to Market Your Business on a Small Budget

5. Your Financial Goals

Being crystal clear about how much money you want your blog to make will force you to you hold yourself accountable to it. Plus it will help you prioritize what to do each day so you can nail it! List how much money you want to make in the short-term and longer-term.

6.  Your Expenses

Your blog is your business, so even if you’re just starting out, you have expenses. Some of them, like web hosting, will be fixed and recur every month, and others are more flexible, like hiring a VA. Describe the expenses you have today and will have tomorrow.

7. What tasks can (or do) you outsource?

Every business has 3 primary phases: startup, momentum + growth. The way to build your blog through each phase is to spend your time on the things that only you can do and build a team to help you with everything else. Upwork is a great place to start to build your team. List the tasks that you outsource right now and those that you don’t outsource, but should.

8. Business Structure

If you are currently running a blog and accepting money as a blogger, then you obviously need to file taxes on that income. If you are the only employee of your business and choose to keep things simple, you can file as a “sole proprietor”. As you work with more clients and continue to grow you may want to create an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) or incorporate your biz to protect your income and your business from things like lawsuits.

SECTION 2: BRAND SUMMARY

This section is about setting a tone that inspires and attracts readers to your blog and positions you as the go-to authority. You are building a blog, and at the same time, you’re building a brand. It makes sense to look at how you see yourself so that you can teach people how to see you too, and ultimately build consistency and clarity around your blog, because after all, you are your brand, right?

1. What makes you unique?

What sets you apart from others? Remember, your skills are only half of the picture here. We’re really talking about everything that makes you YOU. Include your personal history and experiences, plus any professional skills and knowledge that would make people want to read your blog over others.

2. What’s your one thing?

I know there are so many things that you’re great at, but you don’t want to try to be all things to all people. It’s going to be much easier to build your blog if you occupy one space in people’s minds. So let’s get very specific! What’s the one word you want your brand to stand for? What’s the “one thing” you want readers to seek you out as the go-to authority on?

3. Who’s your person?

We’re going to just keep narrowing things down. Here’s where you look at the target audience for your blog. You may have more than “one person” you want to reach, but let’s make things simple for now and just include your primary customer or reader. Get as specific as you can about things like their age, income, personal and professional situation, and overall goals. If you need help with this, check out the Niche Research section.

4. What’s your brand promise?

This part is about creating your big promise. Most people call this your core message or value proposition. How do you help your one person solve their biggest problem and what does that look like? (P.S. This is what you want front and center on your homepage. Let people see it right away so they know they’re in the right place.)

5. Brand tone and mood

Developing a true personality for your blog will help you stay consistent and harmonious with all of your brand elements. It’s okay to try on different hats at first, but when you find your sweet spot you want to stick with it. The most successful blogs have a unique and distinctive personality.

SECTION 3: BRAND IDENTITY

A huge part of building a business is branding, that’s why we dig into this so much. Your brand summary is not only about your brand identity, it’s how you attract your readers to your blog and deliver your brand promise. This will help you clarify your true purpose and stay on track with your brand mission. You may switch your brand positioning over time, but your overall brand summary should stay the same.  For more on creating your brand identity, check out this post.

1. Fonts and colors

Which fonts and colors describe your blog’s personality? List 1-2 fonts and 2-4 colors you will use for your brand. It’s okay to use the same font family in different weights for headings and body text, and then use a stylized font as a contrast for featured or emphasized text.

Need some font inspiration? Check out these font pairings.

If you want, you can download this printable Color Scheme Kit to help choose your brand colors. Click on the image below to download.

2. Types of images

What images and textures will you use for your blog? Dark and edgy? Vibrant and bright? Open and airy?

3. Logo

Your current logo may be perfect already, and then again, it may need work. How well does it communicate your blog’s personality? How can you improve the font to make it better? Will you use other words in your logo, like a tagline? What about an icon?

SECTION 4: COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

As you launch your blog business, it’s important to take a look at what other blogs and brands in your space are doing. This will help you get ideas for how you want to grow and position your business.

1. Who are your competitors?

List 3 competitors you like and 3 competitors you don’t like. Who is in your niche, doing something similar to what you are or will be doing?

2. Analyze their strategy

For the 3 competitors you like, find the common themes or strategies that you can use to frame your own strategy. Do your competitors have products they sell? If so, what types of products and at what prices?  Where do they have a following on social media? How frequently do they post and what types of things do they share?

3. What sets them apart from others?

Take a look at what really makes your favorite brands stand out. What do they excel at? How do they structure their blog, business, and offers? What can you learn from them and integrate into your own strategy?

SECTION 5: NICHE RESEARCH

The more targeted you are with your blog’s niche, the more you’ll be able to attract and connect with your ideal readers. The trick here is to define a niche that’s small enough to be very specific and large enough to make money over the long term. What we’re looking for is that sweet spot – where the combination of your skills and knowledge intersects with what your audience needs, in a way that is unique enough for you to stand out.

Related: How to Choose the Perfect Niche for Your Blog

SECTION 6: SERVICES + PRODUCTS

You should have a good idea from your niche research about products that will help your target audience. Think about different price points you can offer so that people can experience working with you at the level they’re comfortable with. Think about low-cost, high-cost, and even VIP packages. What about discovery or strategy calls, will you offer them?

1. How are your products different from your competitors?

Go back to your competitors and take another look at what they’re promoting. How is your offering different? What can you add to make it extremely valuable for your peeps?

2. How do they help your audience?

Go back to your niche research and think about how your monetization method will impact the lives of your peeps. What will they be able to achieve/do/have/save/grow/build through your products and services?

SECTION 7: BUILDING YOUR AUDIENCE

A huge part of building a blog business is building a community with your readers. Otherwise, you will be developing your products in a vacuum and not get the same results. You can use social media to get your work found by people. From there, your website and mailing list will help you build relationships with your peeps.

1. Your website and mailing list

Your website is the Swiss army knife of your business. If you set it up it right, you can actually have a system that converts complete strangers into subscribers and customers!  Look at areas you can and should improve on your website so you can do that. If you don’t have a site just yet, make a note of the things you will need.

2. Social media

One of the best ways to build your audience is by leveraging the power of social media. Social media is an amazing way to get traffic to your blog, especially when you’re new to all the ins and outs of search engine optimization. As you’re building your following, you’re basically building your own traffic source. Pinterest is a phenomenal way to get traffic, but don’t stop there. There’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter too. And even others like StumbleUpon and Reddit will help you get traffic. If you want a peak at how I drive traffic to my blog, this post is for you!

Related: 14 Ways to Get Massive Traffic from Pinterest

SECTION 8: YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

You’re doing so good! You have a strong brand foundation and you’re building your audience. The next step is to dig into the strategy for your blog’s content. You want all of your content to be part of a cohesive system. We’re drilling down on more than just blog posts. Everything you create – articles, cheat sheets, challenges, videos, webinars, courses, and more – should form a system that turns complete strangers into loyal readers and ultimately, excited customers.

1. Specify your high-level goals

Goals can look really impressive on paper, but if you’re too ambitious they can actually work against you! The flip side is that you need to have a specific end game in mind if you really want to skyrocket your blog’s growth (which of course, you do!). Given the time you have each week to work on your blog, what specific milestones do you want to achieve?

2. What strategies will you use to achieve them?

List three things you will do right now to change the future growth of your blog and to achieve your goals.

3. How frequently will you create content?

Specify the frequency (for instance, 2x per month) that you will create these types of content. Only fill in the ones you’ll create in the next 6 months and leave the others blank.

4. Time and resources

Turning your blog into a business takes time, especially when you’re juggling a full-time job or clients on the side. it’s important that you devote enough time to your blog. How many hours each week will you spend writing? It could be blog posts, freebies, workbooks, etc.

5. How will you create content that converts and sells?

Time to take a look at your content as part of a system. Looking at your content from a high-level will help you stay focused when you sit down to write and create products. I suggest working from the end first, meaning that you have (or will have) an Ecourse or service offering. What posts, freebies, free courses, and challenges can you create to build a content funnel for it?

SECTION 9: MARKETING + GROWTH

You made it this far! Who knew planning a business could be so much work? But really, you are putting in the effort right now and I am so excited for you. Finally (finally!) we’re going to talk about your marketing system, because once you create your products you need a system to promote them. The same way that you need to build your audience, you need a way to connect with them and deepen your relationship. A solid marketing system will let you do both, and most of it on autopilot. Let’s dive in.

1. How will you market your business?

Write down the methods you will use to market your products, services, and blog. Think about things like Facebook ads, committing to a full-core Pinterest strategy, and leveraging Facebook (or LinkedIn) groups.

If you’re looking for new ways to market your blog, check out this blog post where I share over 100 ways to market your business on a small budget.

2. What marketing tools will you use?

There are things you need to do after you publish a new blog post so that your work gets found by more people. It can take sooo much time to do these things manually, but alas, you still have to do them! That’s where marketing tools like these come in. They let you automate most of those things you find yourself doing over and over again. Decide which tools you feel comfortable using (or learning).

3. What tasks can (or do) you outsource?

We all have to delegate if we want to grow. There are certain tasks that other people can help you with and then there are things that only you can do (like creating courses!). What tasks that you do over and over again can you outsource to a virtual assistant, blogger, or designer? Think about the things you do every day that if you were freed up, would allow you to focus your time better.

4. How will you promote your blog posts?

Decide which marketing and promotion strategies you feel comfortable with. Will you SEO your posts? What about email sequences and freebies, will you create them? Where and how will you post your updates on social media?

5. How will you grow your blog?

What techniques will you use to continue to grow your brand? Once you’ve been at it for a while (and maybe that’s now!) what marketing and promotion strategies will you use to scale your blog even more? Think about things like monthly webinars, daily posting in Facebook groups, guest posts, creating new products every quarter. What can you add to your offerings to keep your business flourishing?

That’s about everything! Make sure you document your blog business plan somewhere handy, so you can reach for it and reference it as you need. Keep in mind that as your blog starts to take shape, you will need to revise, edit, tweak and modify your plan. I recommend revisiting it every 6 months to make sure you’re on track. The business plan for your blog should always reflect your vision, which is likely to evolve as your blog biz grows and you want to document each shift.

If you want help putting all of these steps into action so you can turn your blog into a biz even faster, the Blog Business Plan Workbook is for you! Each section is full of prompts to help you get clear on specific goals, like how much money you want to make with your blog, PLUS action steps so you know exactly what to focus on right now to turn your dream into a profitable business. Click the image below to learn more.

That’s about it for part 1 of the Blog Profit Plan series. Now you have a blog business plan and a rockin’ success path. Next up, let’s turn this into a heavyweight action plan:

Part 2: The 12-Month Profit Plan to Make Money With Your Blog

I confess! I had no idea what the best WordPress plugins were when I created my first site. I only knew I needed them.

WordPress plugins are software “snippets” that add additional functionality and features to your website. You need them too! They will make your blogging life so much easier and help you build an audience quickly.

Here are some of the features you can add with plugins:

• Contact forms
• Search optimization
• Social media share links
• List-building pop-ups
• and tons more…

There are literally tons and tons of blogger plugins from which to choose. So, how do you know which ones you need?

Today I’m sharing some of the plugins I use on my blog. Some I use for SEO, some for social media, some are more administrative, and others are for email list building. These are grouped in order of priority (what to install first, what to install next). I’m hoping that a few of these will be useful for your blog too.

INSTALL THESE TOP WORDPRESS PLUGINS FIRST:

WP-SpamShack

USE TO: BLOCK COMMENT SPAM

You get so excited when you see 25 comments on your dashboard, but then find that 95% of those are spam. Bleh, who has time for that? You don’t! Time to shut-down spam comments before they happen.

Spam is such a huge issue for WordPress sites that each install comes with a spam filter plugin called Akismet. I’ve never used it because the set-up seems like too much work. Plus, I’ve heard the filtering can be aggressive. It can block valid comments as spam and you won’t have a chance to see real, true reader comments.

WP-SpamShack is very effective and easy to use. Just activate it and you’re good to go. What can be easier than that?

Update: It looks like WP-SpamShack is no longer being updated. I am switching my recommendation to a plugin I’ve recently installed, Akismet (yep, I’m going against what I just said). The set-up is not the huge mountain I once feared. Since installing it, I’ve received zero spam comments. My inbox, and I, are in a much happier place. 🙂

This brings up an important point about plugins:

As I mention at the end of this post, outdated plugins can break your site. They also create an easy target for hackers. Before installing any plugin, make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress. While you’re at it, take a look at the number of active updates (the more, the better). The best WordPress plugins are updated at least once a month. Many of the ones below are updated weekly, which is why they top my list of must-have WordPress plugins.

Psst…You should always be using the latest version of WordPress. Just sayin’.

Yoast SEO

USE TO: HELP SEARCH ENGINES FIND YOUR CONTENT

WordPress is by default a search-engine-friendly platform. But, you’ll need the help of Yoast SEO to optimize your site even more for search engines. I use it on each of my posts. If you want to make it easy for people to find your work on Google, you need to use it too!  Yoast is hands-down one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress.

Yoast SEO will analyze your posts and give you a list of prompts for headings, content, post title, descriptions, images, and even URLs to make sure everything on your page is optimized for your target keyword. It does a whole bunch of other things too, like Facebook OpenGraph data and XML sitemap generator.

I recommend installing the Yoast plugin and playing around with it a bit. There’s a lot of functionality in there.

#WORDOFCAUTION Following Yoast’s prompts does not guarantee that your post will rank according to Google’s algorithms. For instance, simply entering “blog post checklist” as the Yoast target keyword doesn’t mean Google will see it the same way. I know this is true. It’s happened to me.

There’s a lot that goes in to SEO. Most of it starts with thorough keyword research. From there, it’s a matter of how you integrate your target keyword (and related keywords) into the post. What Yoast will do is give you an SEO checklist you can use before, and even after, you hit publish.

Related: 7 Things Every Blogger Should Do After Your Post Goes Live

Related: SEO for Bloggers and Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Gravity Forms

USE TO: CREATE CONTACT FORMS

Do you even need contact forms anymore? Not many people use them, but I like knowing my audience can easily reach me. Anything that gives readers a channel to get in touch with you is a good thing, so why not include one?

I prefer Contact Form 7 to Gravity Forms because it’s prettier on the back-end and easier to use, but alas, CF7 doesn’t integrate with my email marketing platform. I had to switch to Gravity Forms simply because it has integrations with more email marketing platforms. Contact Form 7 does integrate with most of the email marketing tools out there, but not Infusionsoft (which is what I use). If you use MailChimp, Aweber, MadMimi or Constant Contact, CF7 is a good choice.

Google Analytics

USE TO: TRACK YOUR BLOG’S PERFORMANCE

This one is one of those great “optional” WordPress plugins, and I’ll explain why.

You know you need Google Analytics to monitor your site’s traffic and performance. But, sometimes Google Analytics can be tricky to install. Now, most WordPress themes include a dedicated section for GA tracking codes. With others, it’s not as straightforward. For instance, I put my tracking code for ConversionMinded.com in the wrong section. I only realized this when I popped into Analytics to find a blank screen–nothing to report. This happened to me on other sites too.

If you feel a bit flustered about how to add the code to your theme, I highly recommend installing the Google Analytics plugin. Just enter your tracking code ID and let the plugin take care of the rest. What could be easier?

INSTALL THESE ESSENTIAL WORDPRESS PLUGINS NEXT:

Click to Tweet

USE TO: ENCOURAGE SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING

I keep telling myself to use this more because it’s such a killer plugin.

Click to Tweet gives you a pretty box with a tweet quote that readers can share with their followers. It’s very easy to use and a great way to encourage sharing.

Here’s an example:

[clickToTweet tweet=”Check out this post on 12 Blogger Plugins that will skyrocket your blog” quote=”Check out this post on 12 Blogger Plugins that will skyrocket your blog”]

What you should know: When you create a Click-to-Tweet, keep the “username” box checked once you enter your tweet text.

Shareaholic

USE TO: ENCOURAGE SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING

See the share buttons at the bottom of this post? That’s Shareaholic in action. Shareaholic is a social media plugin that makes it easy for readers to share your amazing posts. They’re also a form of social proof.  The more shares you have on your post, the more new readers will want to share it too.

Here’s what it will look like at the bottom of your posts:

Just install it and you’re done. It will sync with the API of your social media platforms to track the share counts. You can also use the Shareaholic (or SumoMe) plugin to add share buttons to your post images, which is yet another way to encourage sharing. See this post for how to create share buttons.

What you should know: Before you install this plugin, head over to Google Webmaster Tools. Create an account, verify your website, and then choose your preferred domain. This is just a techy way of saying Tell Google if you want your site to appear in browser windows as the “www” version or the “non-www” version.

Mine was originally “www” and I recently changed it to the “non-www”. No big deal, except Pinterest and Google+ recognize them as completely different sites. With this change, I lost my share counts and had to start again from zero. I don’t want this to happen to you, so be sure you set your preferred domain beforehand!

Update: Time to add Social Warfare to our Best WordPress Plugins list! It’s become my new fav for adding social share buttons…no worries about lost share counts due to a change in your permalink.

Thrive Leads

USE TO: BUILD AN EMAIL LIST

I’ve written extensively about Thrive Leads in this post and in this post, partly because I love it so much, and mostly because it does so much. For me, this plugin blows away SumoMe and other list-building plugins. It’s not free, but it’s also not expensive (about $65 for a license) vs SumoMe’s ListBuilder Pro, which costs $20 a month.

Here’s what it can do:

• Standard pop-ups, slide-ins, top or bottom forms
• Full-page opt-ins: Fill the entire screen with your form when someone lands on your site
• In-content pop-ups: Triggered from a link, button, or image in your post
• Menu-triggered pop-ups: Great for creating a Resource Library tab on your site
• Different pop-up states:Readers who have already subscribed will see another opt-in or nothing at all.

What you should know: The features in this plugin are fierce, but it’s not the easiest to use. If you’re a new blogger, you may prefer to start with a form plugin like Popup Ally. As your blog builds up a bit and you need more functionality, I highly recommend checking out Thrive Leads. No doubt, it will become your go-to WordPress blog plugin for list-building.

Contextual-Related Posts

USE TO: ENCOURAGE READERS TO STAY ON YOUR SITE

Related posts are a great way to keep readers on your site longer which is always a good thing. Plus, as I covered in this post, internal linking is like a popularity vote for your site which will help you rank higher in Google.

With a plugin like Contextual-Related Posts, a list of related posts will appear at the bottom of your article, which you can either show with thumbnails or links.

What you should know: If your site is hosted on a managed WordPress hosting company like WPEngine or Flywheel, Contextual-Related Posts will be blocked. The reason is that plugins like this can potentially slow down your site. In that case, try Jetpack, Related Posts for WordPress, or even Shareaholic. If you decide to go with Jetpack, make sure you disable their other features, as this plugin can seriously slow down your site’s speed.

Duplicate Post

USE TO: CLONE A PAGE DESIGN

Definitely one the best WordPress plugins around. I used to pull my hair out designing pages manually, one by one, until I discovered Duplicate Post.

Duplicate Post does just what it says, only I use it for pages instead of posts. And I use it aallll the time…

Here’s why it’s so great: Say you’ve spent hours tweaking the design of your About page and want to use it as a template for your Services page. With Duplicate Post, you don’t have to start from scratch or spend hours copying CSS styles. Simply clone the page and you’ve got a custom design template ready to go.

What you should know: You want to duplicate the design of the page and not the actual content. Make sure you change the title, content, keywords, images, buttons and anything else on the page so that Google will see it as an entirely new page, rather than duplicate content, which will hurt your SEO.

Redirection

USE TO: REDUCE “PAGE NOT FOUND” ERRORS

Another essential WordPress plugin for SEO…

Let’s say you’re playing around in the Google Keyword Planner and stumble upon the perfect keyword for one of your published posts. It looks like you have a great chance to rank for it and you want to replace your old keyword with this new one. No biggie, right? Just change the keyword and follow the Yoast SEO checklist to update it on your page.

But, hold on, friend! You already published the post with the old URL, which means that Google is looking for the old one, and not the new one you just created. By updating the keyword in your URL (which you will have to do), you’ve created a new path for your post and confused Google.

That’s where the Redirection plugin comes in. Anytime you update the actual URL of a page or post on your site, use this plugin to redirect Google from the old URL to the new one. This way you won’t wind up with 404 errors on your site.

Pretty Link Lite

USE TO: CREATE BRANDED LINKS

Pretty Link Lite is a plugin for creating shortened links, similar to Bitly, but better. They’re like “vanity” links that include your domain and help to solidify your brand so that people recognize it.

Pretty Link Lite is great for affiliate links, which are generally long and not so “pretty”. People are more inclined to click on simple, short links than they are long ones that are hard to read.

This plugin will also track and analyze how your links are performing, much like Bitly.

WordPress Editorial Calendar

USE TO: PLAN + ORGANIZE YOUR POSTS

I haven’t used this yet, but I have it installed, and it’s next on my list!

This plugin is designed to help you organize and plan your posts in advance, which you can mark as Drafts or Scheduled. Sounds like a much better system than what I’m currently using (an outdated Google spreadsheet). From the little I’ve experimented with the Editorial Calendar plugin, it looks like you can specify your calendar view (1 week, 2 weeks, etc.). Then, enter post titles on the days you plan to publish. You can then use the calendar to write/edit your post directly from the plugin.

I’ve heard this is one of the best WordPress plugins for planning the content you want to share.  I can’t wait to give it a try, and I think you should too!

Before you install any plugins:

• Don’t install more plugins than you will use. Plugins tend to bloat your site and can seriously affect your page’s load-speed.
• Start out with plugins 1-4, and then gradually add the others as needed.
• Take a look at the number of active installs (anything over 50K is good) and make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress.
• If you find what seems to be an awesome plugin, but the last update was 1-2 years back, this means the developer hasn’t continued updating the plugin and there’s a good chance it’ll cause conflicts with WordPress. You’re better off looking for another similar plugin that is compatible.
• Check your site after you install a plugin to make sure everything looks/functions okay (good page load-speed, no white screen, everything intact, an so on).

What plugins do you rely on to grow your blog? I’d love to add them to the list!

Choosing your blog’s niche and focus is one of the easiest ways to grow your audience and sometimes the hardest thing to figure out.

If it’s super early in your blog-as-a-biz journey, you may be struggling with this right now. I know I did! I felt incredibly flustered and my mind was spinning with all of my interests and big ideas for my blog.

I’d spend hours on Google hunting for an answer to point me in the right direction. Expert #1 would say to look at the money first and Expert #2 would say to blog about something I loved.

I had a huge list with “Pros” and “Cons” for each of my ideas. I even walked away from my ideas thinking that would bring me clarity, but alas, I was stumped!

I finally picked one (or two, actually – fashion design and music production). And after about 10-15 posts on each, I was completely out of ideas! I thought How could that be? My two biggest passions and I’m fresh out of ideas already!?!! 

It made me realize that some of the ideas I had for my blog weren’t blog niche ideas at all, they were ideas I had about myself. Ideas about the person I thought I was supposed to be. Ideas about what I was supposed to excel at. And secretly I was hunting for a winner…some jackpot idea that would guarantee success (I drove myself crazy tracking monthly search volumes and competition for my ideas). If I could pick a “winner”, then I would be a winner too.

It wasn’t until I let go of those ideas that I was able to discover my true passion and blog’s niche. I’m sharing this because I think we all have internal voices we battle around shining our light for the world to see. It’s a scary thing to do, I know.

In this post, let me hold your hand and share some tips to help you discover what truly inspires you in life (and in business) and to celebrate your blog’s niche.

I’ve also created a Blog Niche Workbook which I’m hoping will help you find the sweet spot for your blog too.Click the image below to download it.

Let’s dig in!

First, start with what you love

This should be a no-brainer, right? You have to really love what you’re writing about in order to keep doing it after six months or a year. You should wake up dreaming about it, spend every minute thinking about it, and have at least five post ideas you can’t wait to write. When you have this kind of energy on your topic, it’s a win-win! You will love writing your posts, and the readers you most want to connect with will pick up on your enthusiasm and love seeing your posts. Writing about something that interests you will also make you write longer content, which tends to rank higher and get more social shares than short posts.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I wake up dreaming about?
• What do I most think about during the day?
• What are my innate talents or skills? Which areas would I like to grow?
• What ideas make me feel like I can really be myself and express myself?
• What topics can I think of a least 10 post ideas for right now?

Think of your blog as a business

Even when you’re just starting out, dream out loud and dream big. Think of your blog as a business right from day one.

Every business, including your blog, is on a hunt for the sweet spot – where what you love to do intersects perfectly with your ability to earn a great income from it.

To find that sweet spot, I recommend starting with the place where you belong. Don’t start by choosing a topic solely for the money-making potential. The thing that encourages you to be all of yourself is where you’re really going to express yourself and grow. Monetizing your blog is important, just know that it’s not your starting point. That will evolve as you grow your blog and start seeing some traffic.

To make it extra easy for you to approach your blog as a biz, I’ve created a Blog Business Plan Workbook to help you create a bangin’ success road map. Just click the button below to grab it.

Connect similar topics

If you’re like me, you have multiple things you want to blog about. Maybe you want to write a travel blog, but you also want to write a cooking blog and a music blog. If this happens to you, think about how much you really love each topic. Is it really a passion or could it be “shiny object syndrome”? I went through a whole lot of oh, yeah, I could blog about fashion design… what about songwriting… wait a minute, I forgot about graphic design…

Related: How to Find the Perfect Name for Your Blog or Business

You owe it to yourself (and to your readers) to pick one topic as your primary focus. You can always find ways to connect some of your topics and weave them into your blog. For my fashion design blog example above, I could have easily included graphic design and music as sub-topics: there’s textile design, fashion branding, songs from the runways, the whole music-fashion connection. You get the gist. First and foremost though, your readers need to know where to place you. You should always be thinking to occupy just one space in people’s minds because that’s all they have room for.

Can you write about it every day?

This question is the one that most helped me focus. By now you should have narrowed your blog niche ideas down to one or two topics, maybe even three. Picture yourself writing about each one for the next six months or a year. Can you see yourself doing it? Do you enjoy it enough to keep coming up with new posts? Your topic has to be broad enough and you have to love it enough to write about it for a long, long time. If you can’t, friend, it’s time to cross it off your list.

How can you help?

Now you’re down to just one or two ideas. It’s time to run them through the “target audience” filter.

Your blog should solve a specific problem for a specific reader and clearly communicate how and who you help. When you write about too many different blog topics, you’ll start to feel a bit all over the place and kind of fuzzy about who you’re speaking to. Next thing that happens is the readers you most want to connect with start feeling fuzzy about your brand too. They simply won’t get that you’re writing for them. Remember, real community is born when people connect with your brand so it’s up to you to help them make that connection.

Ask yourself these questions about your niche ideas:

• Who is your blog for?
• How can you inspire or help your readers? What can you teach them?
• Which topics solve a specific problem for readers? (If you can’t identify this, you may want to choose another topic)
• Which of your current posts received the most shares, likes, repins or retweets? (knowing which posts are most popular is a powerful way to understand what your audience needs)

For a deep dive on how to identify your ideal customer and create a killer value proposition, check out this post and this post.

Money-making potential

I wasted soooo much time thinking about monetization when I first started. Now I realize that it was my own fear and lack of confidence with blogging that made me obsess so much about it. Don’t stress the money just yet. There are many ways to make money from your blog – freelancing, coaching, selling courses, books, affiliate programs. The money will come over time. Don’t worry, you got this!

Having said that, you may want to do a little research, even if all it does is get you thinking about it now. After all, every blogger needs to make money, right? Is there an eBook or mini-course that pops in your head right away? If so, your blog niche idea is probably right on target. What about competition, do you have any?

Ask yourself these questions as well:

• Can you find products that you can promote on your website or even something you can personally sell?
• Can you create a course around this topic and truly provide value to your audience?
• Are there other blogs or brands that are successful with your blog topic? (When other brands are making money from your topics, there’s a good chance you will too)

Choosing your blog focus and niche can really get your head spinning, but it doesn’t have to! Think about the intersection where the posts you love to write are meaningful and useful to your one specific audience. This will give you confidence that you’re writing both for yourself and your readers, plus give you clarity on what topics to cover in your future posts.

What is your blog’s niche? Have you narrowed it down yet? Let’s hear it!