So you’re thinking of launching your blog?
Launching a successful blog takes a lot of work and effort. Anyone who has ever tried blogging can tell you that much. It takes a lot of time and effort but it’s totally worth it. Being a successful blogger does not happen overnight however there are a few things you can do before you launch your blog successfully:
What’s your niche?
Narrow down your blog to one niche. You can’t write everything and if you do write everything you will confuse your readers. This will even make it harder to be indexed on search engines like google and even Pinterest and you don’t want that. Decide on the categories you want to have on your site and try not to branch from your categories. That Girl every day is a website that focuses on the modern woman lifestyle, that’s the niche. You can get extremely specific with your niche but just remember it might be harder to get views on your site.
Research
Now that you’ve decided on a niche you should research on successful blogs within your niche and what has worked for them. Chances are high that what has worked for them will probably work for you too. Research is vital before launching your blog.
Set your goals
This is very important because it’s going to determine the direction of the entire blog. Are you starting a blog as a hobby? Do you want it to make you money eventually? Before you even start a blog you need to know your why. When you decide on your goals you should now have an idea of what your blog should be about. Aim to always have a plan around content, traffic, marketing, and monetization.
Create a brand guide
It’s important to know how you want your brand to appear. Choose a simple elegant logo that will be easy to identify your brand. It’s very important to create a specific style for your brand from the very beginning. Decide on a color palette that you will use so as to help your users recognize your brand from a mile away. You can even decide on specific fonts that you will use on all your social media posters just to show you have brand consistency.
Get a self-hosted blog
Getting a self hosted blog is very key because of the level of control that you have especially when it comes to owning content. With a self hosted blog you own everything that you create. From domain name to setting up your custom email addresses and installing your plug-ins. You can use the free blogs but if you’re looking for a more professional look it’s better to get a self hosted blog. That Girl Everyday uses Bluehost. They have the best customer service, it’s very easy to set up and even wordpress recommends bluehost. Plus it’s only $3.99 a month.
Set up your accounts
Before launching your blog it’s very important to set up your social media accounts and invite your friends to support you. This will help you reach more people. If you feel too stretched out to handle all social media platforms you can start with a few but always make sure you have pinterest and facebook. Set up a custom email address with your domain name. Set up an email management platform for contacting your readers then create a welcome email for your users.
Search Engine Optimization
Install a search engine optimization engine. Most bloggers use Yoast SEO or Rank math and they’re both free. You should optimize every single one if your posts for SEO and yoast will help you massively when it comes to optimizing your blog for search engines. Make sure you have researched on the importance of SEO before launching your blog
Have a content plan and calendar
Before launching your blog make sure you have at least 30 blog articles. Focus on timeless content, this is content that can be read even 2,3 years from now and it will still be relevant. An example of this is a recipe. Even if you wrote a lasagna recipe in 2004 it will still be relevant to date. You can just add a few tweaks and it’ll be as good as new.
If you’re starting a blog part-time you should probably have more than 30 articles just as a backup for those days where you’re unable to write content. Based on the goals you’ve set, make sure you have content for the first couple of months before launching your blog.
Have a marketing plan
Before you launch your blog make sure you have a marketing plan. It’s one thing to write content but another for that content to be found. You can use a marketing tool like Later. This will help you schedule your facebook, twitter and instagram seamlessly and the best part is that it’s absolutely free.
Canva
If you’re just starting out a blog and you’re not tech savvy and you want stunning images and posters Canva should be your ultimate go to tool. It’s easy to create any poster size and you can customize your poster based on your brand color palettes and fonts. You can even use canva to create your freebies. The options are endless with canva.
Have an opt-in email incentive
Growing your email list goes a long way especially when it comes to email marketing. Offer freebies on your site after sign up. This will help in growing your audience and you can even send them a newsletter once or twice a month.
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