Starting Off Big?
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It’s not starting it that’s difficult, it’s keeping that new blog afloat. You need a plan in order to succeed. The launch is one thing, but it is important to have content, and get rid of the bugs, but that is common sense anyway. What can you do or use to make your new blog a big success right from the start? Meaning there’s already many articles published, it receives good traffic, and rss numbers are increasing steadily. You know, when you feel like a blog has always been there? That’s what I’m aiming for.
Defining The Goals
Ok, let’s start by finding out what the goals are. That changes depending on the blog, the niche, and the blogger. Those are my personal goals with this new blog (and I’m sure people contributing on that blog will be happy), I will do my best to make it happen within the first month.
What Can Be Done
Now what can you do to reach those goals? What services or techniques can help get that new blog to that level in such a short period of time.
Press Releases and Interviews
Social Networks
And hundreds of other social networking/bookmarking and community sites :)
Personal Invitations
Start Monetizing Early
Some won’t agree with that, and will say it’s better to wait until a blog is established, and is getting decent traffic. But I think quite the opposite, I think you should start monetizing a blog right from the start. Readers and visitors are used to seeing advertisement on blogs, and there is absolutely nothing wrong in monetizing a blog even in the early stages.
What Else?
Of course, in order to have a successful launch, you have to make sure the bugs are fixed, and everything is working fine. A broken layout will make people go away, and probably they won’t come back. When starting that new blog, make sure you have enough content on there so that people will actually want to subscribe to the RSS feed, or bookmark, 5 or 6 posts won’t do.
To create buzz around that new blog, holding a contest is also a really good idea, gotta make sure the prizes are worth it, cause a $10 prize won’t appeal to people, on the other hand if the prize is in the $200-$400 range it’ll most likely make people want to bookmark and subscribe to the feed.
Another important point: linkbaiting. I would stay away from linkbaiting schemes, “you link me, I link you” and stuff like that. It will lower the credibility of the blog, and of course you don’t want that. Same goes for sponsored posts and PPP.
Your Turn To Talk
So, what would you add to the list? I left out some important stuff on purpose, so please share your thoughts and experiences. What makes a successful blog launch? :)
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8 Responses to “Starting Off Big?”
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Great Tips. Blog Carnivals are something we need to do. Thanks for the link love.
Hi David, you’re welcome for the link, I will most probably get in contact with you guyz when we’ll be close to the launch.
How did you promote your blog after you launched it? Seems you’re everywhere hehe :) Could always use some tips.
How hard is it to start a blog carnival, i read two different blog carnivals one for real estate and for mobiles. Couldn’t you use a community like bumpzee or mybloglog to start a carnival
Hi Jason, welcome to SWR :)
Well a blog carnival is simply a collection of articles on the same topic, blogcarnival.com makes it easy for bloggers to join or start a new blog carnival. But you’re right you could also use community sites to promote the carnival and ask people to join. Only thing is that on community sites it’s not really targeted, as opposed to blogcarnival.com where you can join a carnival and search by topics, so it’s a nice place to start.
Hope it helps! Feel free to ask away if you have questions :)
Jonathan,
I can always count of you for great info and helpful tips. I am a “new” blogger and I find your information easy to understand and you can tell you have a genuine concern for helping people succeed! Thx :)
Hi Robin, thanx so much for the kind words, deeply appreciated! :)
Blog carnivals
I understand that these are collections of information specific to your topic, but won’t these lead people in different directions than what your trying to promote upon your blog?
I’m new at all this, so I could be way wrong.
Hi Guy, good point you bring. Well participating in a blog carnival, depending which one, if it gets traffic you get traffic, not a lot, but still worth trying. I like the idea of blog carnivals more for the numbers of incoming links it can get you, and to connect with other people that are discussing similar topics, it’s win-win. :)