Starting a blog is one of the best decisions I made in my life. If I haven’t started a blog, I would have been spending my precious time on sites like Fiverr or DigitalForums to earn a few bucks.
The benefit of having a blog is limitless.
Last week, I launched BlogPreneurs and the site has already received tens of hundreds of visitors. This wasn’t any miracle. Instead I took the time to setup everything before the actual launch.
Here is a list of basic things that you need to do before launching a blog.
1. Goals & USP
There is a new blog starting in every 7 seconds, the competition is fierce for each and every blogger. This means you will be getting a very strong competition, no matter what niche you choose.
If you’re serious about blogging than make goals for your business and what you really want to achieve. One of my goals for this blog is have at least 10k subscribers by the end of this year and I will be doing that with the help of Guest Posting & blog commenting.
What’s your USP? What will you do differently than other blogs are doing in your niche.
With this blog, my main aim was to create a blog that I would love to read. A blog about everything related to social media & entrepreneurship that doesn’t sucks.
2. Platform
Many new bloggers like to go with free blogging platform like Blogger or WordPress.com. Those free platforms are more of a personal solution.
If you’re a serious blogger than I’d definitely suggest you to go with self-hosted WordPress which will allow you to work on your own customization. With self hosted version you can add any functionality you want to have own your blog.
3. Design
There have been bloggers who has been successful with their basic design or themes that come by default with WordPress. People tend to use a free theme for the blog and once they’re successful they tend to go with Premium design. If you think design isn’t an important element, than you’re totally wrong. Having a professional design makes your content easy to read for your audience.
Having a premium design is as important as writing quality content on your blog. If content is king then design is queen.
Design the key and that’s the reason why I spent dollars on getting a premium theme for BlogPreneurs.
For those who don’t know, BlogPreneurs is running on Genesis Theme Framework.
4. Create an About us page
I don’t how many times I visited a blog and couldn’t able find a about page.
Do you know about page is one of the most visited and converting pages on every blog? Don’t ignore the power of About page and what it can do to improve your business.
This is your chance to let the readers know about your business and yourself.
5. Arrange for a Giveaway
Who doesn’t love a giveaway, I do and I know many people do too.
The best way to launch a new blog with a bang is by creating a contest or giveaway. Sean did it the right way, by giving away a PRWeb acc. ($199) to one of the lucky readers of ‘The Digital Writer’ blog.
You know the bigger the contest, the bigger the exposure you’ll get.
Here at BlogPreneurs, we’re working on launching a guest blogging contest where we would giveaway hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash prizes.
6. Install the Essential Plugins
WordPress is one of the most used blogging platform in the world and as a result there are tons of free WordPress plugins available online to make tweaks and customize the site.
Check out my list of essential plugins that you need to install on your blog.
7. Build a email list
Email list is something that no blogger should miss.
Back in 2010, when I was running a popular multi-authors blog, I was getting like 500-1000 visitors every day but I made a mistake of not converting them into email subscribers.
If I would have converted those into real subscribers, I’d have been making more money.
It’s your chance to stand up and start building relationship with your subscribers. Email list are the powerful weapon which can be used for creating a long term Income.
Here are few important reason why you should build a email list:
- This gives you a chance to build a good relationship with your subscribers / audience and to show them that you will only provide them with quality products that can really help them.
- Make it easy for you to sale the affiliate products & ebooks.
- List building helps in making passive income.
8. Set up your Social Media profiles
When I started building BlogPreneurs blog, I secured the @BlogPreneurs Twitter handle (now, banned but that’s another post). Though, I was still using @devesh for everything related to this blog.
The lesson here is to secure the social media profiles as soon as you purchase the domain name.
9. Comment on various blogs in your niche
Make it to the top of your to-do-list to make five comments every day. Back in 2010 when I had to promote my blogging tips blog, I only focused on one method to promote the site and that was blog commenting.
Take the time to leave a useful comment often enough, don’t just write “great post” or “you rock”.
Don’t self-promote or spam when leaving blog comments.
10. Write few guest posts
Those guest posts should be as unbelievably awesome as you know you can write. I didn’t write many guest posts on the launch, but did 2 guest posts on semi-popular blogs in my niche.
The results were good enough to motive me to write more guest posts. I will be doing more guest posts in the coming weeks.
Wrap Up
Back in 2009, when I launched my first blog I made more mistakes than you can even think of. I didn’t followed any of the above strategies and wasted first few months to learn how these things work.
Today after 3 years when I had to launch this blog – BlogPreneurs, I took the time and spent a month working on building a email list, creating a perfect design and setting up the social media profiles.
What things would you do before launching a blog? I would love to hear them in the comments below…!
I don’t consider it as competition, every blog and every blogger are unique. In my opinion the more number of blogs evolve the more is the blog visits, as every blogger will see what other bloggers doing. Nice post Devesh
Sreekanth recently posted..Want to Write an E-Book – You Must Read This
Glad you liked the post, Sreekanth. Thanks for the comment.
-Dev
Hey Dev,
Great Post!
In a way, it is good to have competition (it encourages us to blog more and in a better manner to get good results and it also helps the new bloggers to learn what blogging is about and stuff). I also took some time learning all this stuff (I guess it is alright, adds to my experience). But, I still wish I had all this information when I started out.
Anyways, I am going to spend some more time with commenting for upcoming weeks, now that I am done with my first year (I was planning to do guest posting, but I think commenting is better, time wise).
Thanks for the post
I hope it helps all new bloggers out there!
Hi Jacob,
Glad you liked the post, bud.
Blog commenting and guest posting, both are very effective strategies to drive traffic and build relationship with other bloggers. I’ve been using them for quiet some time and that’s how I’m going to promote Blogpreneurs.
I will be doing both, blog commenting & guest posting for upcoming weeks (or may be months!)
.
Thanks for stopping by, mate. Keep up the good work.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Building Influence: Comments and Commenting Challenge
Great list, I have just missed a couple of them and they seems to be important, its time to add “About” page now…
Bharat Chowdary recently posted..How to Remove or Change Post Meta in Genesis Theme Framework
Hey Bharat,
Great. I’m looking forward to your about page.
Thanks for stopping by.
Devesh recently posted..Building Influence: Comments and Commenting Challenge
I have missed out a few things like the Give away when i started my first blog .I will
keep these in mind while launching my next site.
Thanks.
Hey Gowtham,
I never did anything like that when I was just getting started in blogging But later I relaunched the site with a big giveaway.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you had a great day.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Building Loyalty: Comments, Social Media and Guest Posts
if you ask me, I ll prefer to set a solid goal before starting the blog and have a good design, setting social media presence and setting up the platform by fixing the bugs…
Raj recently posted..Samsung Galaxy S III Release Date & Price
Exactly. Those are most important elements that one need to consider before launching a blog.
Thanks for stopping by, Raj.
Hi Devesh
Sounds to me as though you were well prepared for your launch and you have worked hard for those visitors.
The first thing that struck me about your blog is what a great community spirit you’ve built up.
Some great comments and you always reply.
Takes time to reply to blog comments, but it’s an essential part of building that community.
“I secured the @BlogPreneurs Twitter handle (now, banned but that’s another post).”
I’m looking forward to that one!
Keith Davis recently posted..Decor 1.0 – Genesis child theme for WordPress
Hey Keith,
So glad to see you here (again) and thanks so much for the nice words, Keith.
It couldn’t be possible without you, bud. I appreciate your great support.
I will write about that, next week.
Have a great Wednesday and keep up the rocking work on WM Web Design
.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Building Influence: Comments and Commenting Challenge
Great points here – I haven’t done the give-away yet on my inspire blog, something I have thought about but not acted on. I was thinking of when it turns 1 year old to do it. Unless I do an eBook prior. I still don’t have an account on Twitter with the blog name, I have so many now with other sites I do for retail. Wasn’t sure I could handle on more account there. But I do have FB page for it. You got me thinking again.
Lisa recently posted..You Can Win That Blog Contest Too – But You Have To Enter!
Hey Lisa,
Glad you liked the post. I’d love to see a giveaway on your inspire blog, because I know it would be as awesome as your blog posts.
I’m not saying you have to use it like you use your other accounts. What I’m saying here is secure your twitter account before anyone else claim (& use) it.
Thanks for the nice comment, Lisa. Have a great time.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Define Your Blog: Niche, Purpose, Audience and Plan
Great article about launching a blog. Worth reading completely.
Suraj @Smartfatblogger recently posted..HOW TO: Perform On Page SEO Optimization for Blogger Blog
Glad you liked the article, Suraj. Thanks for stopping by.
Great article packed with information, Devesh
.
But I think it would be better if you explain what “USP” stands for (or link to a post about it) because this article is for new blogger and I am sure that many of them haven’t heard about this term
You can link to this post by ThinkTraffic http://thinktraffic.net/unique-selling-proposition. Not only help your readers but also build up the relationship with Corbet Barr (maybe)
ahh silly me
. How could I forget to link that article. Thanks for pointing that out, Tung. I really appreciate your great support.
I hope you’re doing well with your studies (& entrance exam).
-Dev
You are welcome buddy
. I have only 54 days left 
. Will come back soon.
Woo that’s cool..
Good luck with your exams, mate.
Hey Dev,
Looks like you have the blog launch formula pretty much sorted out already.
I never used any of this planning apart from deciding what the main topic would be and just started tweaking on the go.
If I had to start a new blog today I would definitely use a lot more planning and thoughts into it.
Thanks for sharing your approach, I liked the bits about the guest posting and the giveaways. (the things I have never tried myself yet lol)
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..Ways To Make Money With WordPress Consulting $1500 USD Income Proof Inside
Hey Sergio,
I’ve been doing the same thing with all my previous projects, but with BlogPreneurs I spent a month working on promoting and building audience before the actual launch.
Would love to see you trying guest posting. It’s a powerful way to get more exposure and build relationship with other bloggers in your niche.
Your always welcome, my friend and thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.
Devesh recently posted..Building Influence: Comments and Commenting Challenge
I couldn’t agree more. But i found content and social media to be of the greatest importance in the blog creation process. That’s because a successful blog is the one that has lots of readers and traffic. So, unique and valuable content will ensure that the readers will like and follow your blog, while social media will keep bringing you more and more traffic.
Anne recently posted..Website translation – From English to French
Well said, Anne.
Both content and social media plays a great role in success of a blog. Social media sites are great, I got 100+ email subscribers through the it before even launching this blog.
Thanks for coming over hear and leaving a comment.
-Dev
Hey Dev, reading this post reminds me of that saying “If I knew then what I know now..” because when I started I just went off the cuff. I had no plan, no call to action…but that was then. In the meantime I have learned so much I am way behind in applying it. Looking at this page makes me realize that I have work to do. There are so many things like guest posting, prizes, etc, that you have mentioned that really encourage people to take action.
Awesome job!
Donna
Donna Merrill recently posted..5 WAYS TO ENGAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Hey Donna,
Glad to see you here and thanks for taking time to leave the thoughtful comment.
Have a great weekend
.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Commenting Experiment: Finding and Picking Blogs To Comment
I don’t think comment on other blog is great before we are going to launch a new blog, we should do it when it already launch.
Trung Nguyen recently posted..5 Aspects on Webinars for Continued Engagement With Customers
Hi Trung,
Commenting on other blogs is great, because it helps to get more subscribers, followers & fans, before even launching the site.
Thanks for stopping by, Trung.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Commenting Experiment: Results, Lessons Learned and Mistakes
Can you explain me more, why?
Trung Nguyen recently posted..How to Start a Blog: 7 Steps to Start a Blog for Yourself
Devesh,
Great list of todo’s for starting a blog.
I like your list of plugins also. I am not use a couple of them and they look interesting. I will have to check them out even though I am trying to keep my plugins to a minimum.
I agree with your statements on the About Page. I go to blogs all of the time and can not find anything out about the Author. Sometimes I can not even find the authors name. I really hate that. I like to know something about the person who is writing the blog if I am going to comment on the post. I at least want to know a name so I can address the person by name and not admin or something like that.
Great post and best of luck with your new blog.
Dee Ann Rice
Dee Ann Rice recently posted..Google PageRank – How To Rank!
Hey Dee,
I’m so glad you liked the list. Those plugins will only going to help you in making your blog better. Just hit me up if you need any help regarding WordPress or plugins. I’d happy to help you anyway I can.
About page is something that every blogger needs to have, because it helps to build trust with your readers.
Thanks for the insightful comment, Ann. Have a great day and keep up the good work on your blog.
-Dev
Devesh recently posted..Commenting Experiment: Results, Lessons Learned and Mistakes
Thank you for the information you share with us. I am totally new to blogging so having difficulties figuring out how to do this in a more profitable way.
Great share , really an informative post
thanks for sharing these things with us