When Launching a Successful Blog, Well Begun is Half Done
There are many thousands of up-and-coming bloggers that are eagerly seeking a place to share their thoughts and ideas online.
Many of these have all the seeds of great success and are all set to make it big, but then someone forgets a minor point like perseverance and what could have been a major success becomes another statistic.
Let’s take a moment to ruminate on these minor pitfalls that stumble so many on their race to the top of “Blog Hill”.
The first and biggest reason that bloggers ultimately fail is an unrealistic picture of what blogging really is. You may come across a blog that rocks your world, puts in words your very thoughts and has you all fired up thinking “Yes! I can do this…”
The important thing to remember about a genius blogger who can capture your thoughts in better words, provide you with insights you keep coming back to and commands a huge following of loyal readers is this: that kind of success does not come from nowhere.
Every blogger will go through the many months and even years of slogging through arduous labor, self denial and uninspiring results before the really hard work begins. Abandon all illusions of grandeur that tell you you will be success by next month; your success and readership will only come after a lot of hard work and disappointment, but then it will come.
Knowing what the major pitfalls of the successful blogger will help you pack all the essentials you will need to launch and maintain a successful blog. If you know what will be required of you and prepare accordingly, you will find that this is not such a difficult task.
Following are some strategies that a successful blogger will keep in mind from the beginning and will practice every step of the way:
- Choose to Blog about your Passion
It is essential that you will choose a topic that you are passionate about if you hope it will become a success. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a slew of ghost writers writing for you, this project is going to take a major toll out of your personal life, hanging out with friends and going to the movies.
The only way to properly compensate for this loss of relaxing activities is to be investing in a passion, this makes the tediousness of staring into a computer display and thinking of captivating content a thing of joy, hardly a “task” at all.
This concept could be tied into blogging for immuneration, if you are hoping to monetize your blog your enthusiasm will flicker out quickly and your readers will notice that.
- Never Lose Sight of Your Long Term Goals — Start to Finish
Although your goals of monetizing your blog will not do much to fuel your efforts they will keep them targeted; you can’t lose sight of this long term goal.
Often times, a blogger will receive the flash of revelation and glimpse the perfect topic, then they will jump up and buy a domain name, set up their blog and start churning out high quality articles.
Yet without a firm strategy of where this “good idea” is going it may find itself lost in the process; being patient is key. It would do the blogger good to invest in some research before he launches. Bloggers should ask themselves these questions to get an idea of where they are in relation to their competition.
Who are my Competitors?
What is my biggest competitor doing to make money? And the Runner Up?
What will I have to do to make money off this blog?
How long will that take? (Realistically)
How does my blog Stand Out?
What will be my biggest challenges both personally and with the Blog Campaign?
- Selecting an Impacting Domain name
This maybe the single most tedious task that a blogger will be faced with. So put on some coffee and start coming up with some good ideas, as a rule of thumb the “Dot Com” domain is the best option but you may be writing for an audience that would appreciate another domain, look into that.
Panabee and Wordoid are two generators that can help you come up with great ideas. Before you decide on any one in particular you will have to check its availability against the listings on sites like BrandChecker or Knowem.
finally, you can register your name, (Which you will want to do fast, if they know you want a name, someone will buy it). Register your name on sites like GoDaddy, Hover or Namecheap.
- Choose a Reputable Blog Host
Choosing a blog post is something you will want to do slowly and carefully. A rushed decision here or one made on financial reasons could be a serious mistake. you will want to choose a hosting company that is reliable and has a history of rapid response.
Of course, you can’t start dishing out top dollar to sign on with the really pricey hosting companies, there are many that offer very good services and charge as little as $5 a month. This is OK, for starting off with. Once you start attracting traffic you may want to upgrade to a better hosting option.
It is a good idea to shop around and look at the options out there before making any decisions.
- Professional Design is Essential
Your visitors will make a decision on your blog and the content therein within those few short moments when your blog is loading and this is why presentation is everything. Take some time to put together a display of what your blog is all about.
There are many ways that an amateur can put together a possible blog design and resources online that can allow this to happen. Be sure to add all the details that make navigating and interfacing with your site a pleasure, including search, recent posts lists this will improve your standing with your readers considerably.
Try to avoid filling up your screen with a bunch of advertisements and banners on your blog page that will detract from the central message of your page.
In Conclusion
Launching your blog will only be successful as the foresight and planning you put into it. If you take the time to consider all the factors that go into a successful blog, you will be rewarded with a successful blog and many engaged readers.
Related articles
- The Everyman Guide to Blogger Outreach And Its Impacts