6 Things You Must Do Before You Launch Your Blog
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Woohoo! It’s getting exciting now as launch day is nearing!
You’ve been hard at work setting up your blog THE RIGHT WAY so it can be monetized you have installed the perfect theme, and you are busy creating awesome content, and finally, now it’s time to go live…
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Hold it! There are some very important details that you won’t want to overlook.
6 Things You Must Do Before You Launch Your Blog
Make sure you do these 6 things before you launch your blog.
1. Create An Editorial Calendar
When starting a new blog, it’s wise to plan posts months in advance.
Have an idea of where you intend to take your blog, write out some ideas for headlines, and create a timeline for when you want to write them.
It may be helpful to pick a deadline as to when your posts should go live and stick to it.
Editorial Calendar is a free WordPress plugin to manage your post schedule.
CoSchedule is a paid app that is a more advanced option. Check out my handy free blog planner as well.
2. Write An Awesome ‘About Me’ Page
Your readers will be curious about who you are! If you want your blog to be memorable, you also have to be memorable yourself.
Have an ‘About Me’ or ‘Start Here‘ page that is easy to find on your website and filled with information about who you are, along with a rundown of what your blog is about.
You should make it very clear why you are an expert at whatever it is you do, without sounding too stuffy.
You want to sound professional but relatable and human at the same time.
Including some odd facts about yourself that are purely personal and unrelated to your business will help!
Don’t be shy to include an image of yourself too.
People want to follow and engage with a person, not a faceless business.
When you have your about me page ready, copy a blurb from it and paste it into the bio on all of your social media. Consistency is your friend.
Read this for a comprehensive guide to creating an About Me Page!
3. Spell Check
You have been putting hours, days, weeks into creating your amazing new blog, and you are almost ready to go live.
Make sure that you put a few hours into carefully re-reading your work and looking for errors.
Nothing worse than going live and not realizing that your masterpiece is flawed with spelling mistakes!
You may not notice them, but believe me – your readers will! The best tool for spell checking is Grammarly – It is a spelling and grammar app that checks your writing as you write.
Bloggers, writers, entrepreneurs and anyone who ever types on a screen can benefit from this.
You may fancy yourself a spelling and grammar pro but I think you will be surprised at what this app catches! See my review of Grammarly here >
4. Post Lots of Content
You may have the best, most amazing blog post ever written, sure to attract thousands of visitors.
But if you only have one post on the entire website, those visitors are going to take one look around, assume the blog is abandoned, and they will leave and not come back.
Make sure you have at least 10 posts of content up when you go live. It gives your readers lots of value, and a reason to come back for more.
Related: Don’t Make These Common New Blogger Mistakes
5. Have A Social Media Game-Plan
If you want an audience for your blog, you are going to have to put in the work to get them there.
You can’t just post an article and expect the magic of the Internet to automatically send readers to you (although that would be sweet).
That’s why you need to treat your blog like the business that it is, and become your own social media manager, one whose main job is to promote the heck out of every blog post.
Related: Creating Your Social Media Game-Plan
You need to be engaging with people and other bloggers in your niche, you need to be constantly sharing your work and the work of others, you need be posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest ect everyday, multiple times a day.
You may be thinking ‘Woah! That sounds like too much of a time-eater! When will I have time to actually blog?’
Fear not! Thankfully there are tools that can automate the process of social media management for you.
I use Tailwind to schedule all of my pins – I couldn’t grow my blog as fast without it.
Tailwind makes it possible to schedule hundreds of pins to go out to my boards and my group boards on auto-pilot.
And the amount of traffic I get from this is astronomical! Check out my guide on how to use Tailwind to skyrocket your traffic HERE.
I use SmarterQueue to auto-post to Facebook and Twitter.
This app has so many awesome features – but my favorite is that you can set your evergreen content to continue to post forever. Read my review of SmarterQueque HERE.
Both SmarterQueue and Tailwind allow you to create Instagram posts with captions and hashtags, schedule it and set a reminder to post it.
6. Set Up Your Opt-In For Subscribers
See that button above for my Profitable Blog Toolkit? That is an opt-in, aka a lead magnet, aka a freebie that I give readers of my blog as an incentive to join my mailing list.
Does it work? Heck yes, it does!
On average, I get many new subscribers each day with that baby right there.
Once a subscriber joins, they automatically get an email with a link and password to access the toolkit, which is packed with tons of amazing and helpful resources for running a profitable blog and business.
I can’t stress the importance of building an email list enough! It is much more important than building social media followers.
Your mail list is your best way to interact with your readers, and the best way to convert them into customers, should they be interested in what you have on offer.
You need to make it as simple as possible for your readers to subscribe, so place opt-in forms throughout your website.
You should offer your readers an awesome opt-in incentive, such as a free ebook, printable, or discount for a product or service that you offer on your site, something so good they can’t resist opting-in.
And then once they are on your list, VALUE each and every one of them. Take the time to send thoughtful emails, provide them with thoughtful, interesting, informative content.
- Be sure to never spam them, and never push too many products or be too ‘salesy.’ This free Guide to Email Marketing will help you!
- To manage your mail list, newsletter and subscribers there are many free and premium options available. I use Convertkit to manage my subscribers, and I highly recommend you use it too. Convertkit makes it easy to set up opt-in forms, collect email addresses, and send out newsletters. Plus the automation features are the best I’ve found with any other mail service.
You can try Convertkit for free with my link, and if you decide to use it after the trial it is $29 per month.
I know that that is a bit of a pricey investment, especially when you are just starting out, but the service is WELL WORTH IT!
The best free alternative to Convertkit is MailerLite.
With MailerLite you can create beautiful landing pages and opt-in forms to collect subscribers and easily send and track campaigns (newsletters).
The automation feature is top notch. You can use their free plan up to 1,000 subscribers, then plans start at $10. My link gives you a $20 credit for when you upgrade.
Bonus: Take An Online Course To Learn The Business Of Blogging
There is so much to learn when it comes to starting a blog, especially starting a profitable blog. There are many great online courses you can enroll in that will teach you various blogging skills.
I teach a course that covers everything you need, all in one place. It is called Be Your Own Blog Boss, and it covers blog creation, content creation, SEO, social media marketing, writing, design & branding, business plans, affiliate marketing, list building, sales and more!
You will learn how to make an income blogging from the start, even if your following is small, or nil! You won’t find this much information and value all in one place for such an affordable price.
Enroll in a class today. Seriously, you will be glad you did!
JOIN MY POSSE OF ENTREPRENEURS AND GET THE PROFITABLE BLOG TOOLKIT: JOIN HERE
Read this next: What NOT to do when starting a blog
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