Whether you’re starting a new blog or want to boost traffic and sales to an existing site you need a killer marketing strategy for your blog.

It doesn’t have to be complicated but it needs to be a written plan, that you commit to 100%, and work on consistently. That means plugging away, day in day out until you get enough momentum for traffic to keep building up organically. Think of it as a rocket taking off. 80% of the energy and work goes into getting the rocket out of the earth’s orbit, then it only takes 20% to propel the rocket through outer space.

The Ultimate 5-Point Marketing Action Plan

Here is the ultimate 5-point Marketing Strategy that you can start today, regardless of your experience, niche or industry. Then keep going until you get the results you want. Don’t expect results overnight, this could take months or even years, but the hard work will pay off (really). Use this list as a daily checklist and you will be surprised at the traffic you build up for your personal brand.

1. Use Google to find 2 or 3 active forums in your niche. Try to pick forums that are not massive and not tiny, but mid-range to start with, that is, they will have a few to tens of thousands of members. Make 5 decent posts to each. Post useful, insightful, valuable and thought-provoking comments.
2. Build up a list of popular bloggers in your niche (use Google or Technorati to search for relevant blogs). Visit their sites, read their content and leave insightful comments. Never spam or overtly promote your site (most comment sections allow you to post your website so your link is being promoted every time you comment anyway).
3. Write an original post for your blog. Or write a number of posts but set them to post automatically 2-3 days apart for consistency. The search engines rank fresh quality content and consistency above even page rank these days.
4. Join RSS feeds for other blogs and sites to stay abreast of trends and the latest news in your niche. A great tip is to write about hot news stories and trends in your blog.
5. Publish an original article (not just a respun article, and definitely not PLR – Private Label Rights) every week on ezinearticles.com, articlealley and other major article sites, and consider mashables, tumblr, stumbleupon if the subject matter is relevant. I also like web 2.0 sites such as Hubpages.com, wordpress.com

Rinse and repeat

Pin this checklist up above your desk and take action towards your goals every day.