I had a client ask me the other day what all he needs to have before he launches his blog. I see this question asked all the time over at the ProBlogger.com forums as well. It’s a great question because all of the details can be kind of overwhelming when you’re planning a blog launch (trust me, I know, I’m in the middle of it right now and I’m barely scraping by with my sanity).
The short answer to this question is…it depends. It depends on what your goals are. It depends on what your market is. It depends on what you’re trying to do.
With that said, here is a list of things that most likely apply to almost everyone.
By the way, this list is geared towards launching a blog for business purposes (not hobby blogs). And also, I’m assuming that you’ve done the “thinking” already (market research, studied other bloggers, thought about how you’re going to monetize, etc). We’re going to get right into the “doing”.
- A domain name and hosting account. I go through BlueHost for both, but I have experience with HostGator and GoDaddy as well. All are good options.
- A blogging platform. Obviously, I recommend WordPress.
- A nice-looking, customized theme. “Nice-looking” and “customized” are the key here. I honestly don’t think it matters if you use a free theme or a premium theme, as long as it looks good, functions well, and is customized to look unique.
- Some essential plugins. I recommend using what’s on my resources page.
- A mailing list solution and an ethical bribe to get people to sign up. I think you should go with AWeber, but you can use one of the other ones too. Don’t wait to start a mailing list! Create a short PDF report to give away as an incentive to get people to sign up for your list.
- Some way to track stats. I’d recommend Google Analytics as a good place to start.
- About two weeks worth of pillar content. Don’t launch an empty blog. That’s just dumb. Make sure you introduce yourself with some really awesome content so they’ll keep coming back.
- A stockpile of a week or so of content. This takes the pressure off while you’re ironing out any bugs that come up after you launch.
- Blog outposts out the wazoo. Set up your social media profiles, get your blog RSS feed out there, etc.
Really, I think that’s all you need to successfully get started.
Am I forgetting anything?
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