Are you thinking about starting a new blog?
This is the only guide you need to create a pre-launch strategy for you new blog and make it thrive. It includes a list of actionable steps you can implement on your new website or blog.
Also, it'll guide you towards making an effective launch and increasing your online presence even before you start.
2. "The more you sweat in peace, the
less you bleed in war." - Norman
Schwarzkopf
‘Why my blog sucks.’
I feel odd to admit it but it’s the name of a list I had
made which contained reasons that kept my earlier
blog from growing.
This list was the first thing I showed to Mayur, who
is a co-founder at our new website, CodeBlot,
before we even started doing anything for it.
Why?
It had been more than a year and six months since
I was unsuccessfully running my self–help blog and
had failed to give it the growth it deserved.
I had implemented everything I learned to make
my ideas work, and had even turned myself from a
novice into someone whose works finally appear on
the first page of Google.
Yet, it wasn’t growing.
3. The thousands of words I wrote weren’t getting the
attention they deserved. The frustration
propagated with each failed attempt, and even
more when working harder didn’t pay-off.
I assured myself that I was probably doing
something wrong and felt a severe need to rethink
over the way the way I was working.
Nevertheless, there’s always a reason why a blog
doesn’t get enough traffic, why its readers don’t
comment, and its Alexa rank remains frozen.
To be truthful, maybe it simply sucks. And mine
sucked too!
The Problem?
What I did wrong in the beginning severely affected
my blog and almost doubled my work. I had to go
back to my posts from the past to make them better
and SEO perfect.
I removed all the images whose sources weren’t
mentioned, corrected the careless grammar
mistakes, and sweated over formatting the old
posts and hundred other things which I had done
wrong.
4. But still things didn’t improve as there were several
reasons to this failure. My being a beginner in the
arena of blogging was one of them – I was never a
fine writer.
For months, I kept blogging on the free Blogger
platform for a whole year, never started a
newsletter or paid heed to making an about page,
didn’t even knew what the abbreviation SEO stood
for (let alone its implementation), wrote tiny posts,
didn’t include links to other posts, and did other
frustrating things which later turned into regrets.
I was constantly shooting myself in the foot since
the day one and was wondering why things weren’t
working for me.
I critically thought over everything that held my
blog back and found out that I was stuck. I had to
pass it through a complete rebranding process as
there remained no other way out.
That was when I created a frank ‘Why my blog
sucks’ kind of list to remind myself to never repeat
those mistakes again.
Those regrets forced us to design a pre-launch
strategy for CodeBlot because working hard and
5. then watching the work die wasn’t an option we
could choose.
We made a detailed pattern of steps for us to follow
which would serve as a guideline to us, and
planned our actions in accordance with them.
While we went through all this - studying various
blogs, observing the practices of pioneers in the
blogging industry, and creating a precise pre-
launch strategy for our blog, we realized that we
had found a universal method which can work like
a charm for most of the new blogs.
If you’re a beginner in the world of blogging, then a
pre-launch strategy can benefit you. Because if you
ruin the start then you create a lot of problems for
later.
That’s why we created a pre-launch strategy (the
one which works) in order to assure the success of
new blogs to some extent.
Ready to design an unshakable plan for your new
blog before you begin?
Prior to that, you need to understand why you
really need to have a pre-launch strategy.
6. The exact reason why you need a
pre-launch strategy
"A pre-launch strategy is much like
your blueprint of success."
You make a detailed plan, take into consideration
what’s necessary to make your website succeed,
and then start working on it even before launching.
Making a website live without having any prior
plans for it is one of the biggest blunders you can
make. Sooner or later you realize this and find
yourself stuck, or maybe just find out that your
situation could’ve been better.
Although you cannot ensure the success of your
website by simply designing a pre-launch strategy,
you can cut-off every obstacle that might prevent
your website’s growth in future.
Also, you’ll have a working plan to follow, which is
better than praying for some random visitors.
In short, with a pre-launch strategy, your chances
of getting the expected results are greater than
some unpleasant surprises.
7. One thing you must know before
designing a pre-launch strategy
Most people are keener on starting as soon as they
can, and lack a clear picture of its future.
They push their website into the sea of a million
other websites, completely ignoring why they’re
doing so.
Gradually, their plans change and they get
confused as their blog doesn’t fit into any niche and
lacks a well-defined purpose.
You must know what kind of future you want for
your website and understand what the purpose
behind creating it is.
"Start with an end in mind and define what
success means to you."
Do you wish to earn money with your site? Do you
want to create an online platform for your
business? Or do you wish to use your blog for
sharing your words with the world?
Whatever be your reason, make it clear and
definite, else the chances are that your blog will
fail.
8. Set some milestones for your blog, have a vision for
it, and imagine every possible way you can expand
it beyond the horizons.
"Remember that a blog doesn’t always
remain a blog. It becomes what you make
it."
There are people running local businesses using
their blog, selling their products online, using
advertising to earn some bucks while pursuing
their passion and creating an influence while doing
what they love.
What would you like to do using your blog? Decide
and do.
A stepwise approach to
designing a pre-launch strategy
for your new blog
If you start working on a plan sequentially, you'll
get more things done without jumbling them.
Make a list of activities and arrange them in a
pattern based upon their priorities.
Don’t know how to do it? I’ll tell you further.
9. Before that, learn the philosophy that governs the
launch-strategies of most dominating websites on
the internet.
It’s harsh, it can extend the launch time of your
blog beyond your patience, and even require a
great deal of perfection.
But it’s worth the aim you are working for.
1. Follow a no mistakes policy
Make a blunder and then wonder – That’s what
most beginners do.
I did the same and regret it. It’s alright to relax
about your imperfection while you’ve just begun,
but don’t make it a habit.
People are used to reading flawless content, they
have a consent that wishes for the best, and they
have no time to read your grammatical errors. They
spare almost nothing.
The way you’ll do things will decide the way you’ll
be treated.
People don’t care why your site design isn’t
responsive and they close the browser tab.
10. Ask them to enter a captcha and they will barely
comment.
Don’t use social media and maybe they’ll never see
you again.
And guess what? It’s not their fault. That’s where
you might miss the mark.
Ask any of the big guys and they’ll tell you that
they’re smarter because of their mistakes. Mistakes
are inevitable and must be made for learning.
However, there’s a proper way of making mistakes
too.
The successful bloggers and the rest make mistakes
differently. Confusing? Maybe a bit.
The professional bloggers make mistakes
knowingly to check their ideas to find out what
might work for them.
If the ideas don’t work, they’re dropped. They
make mistakes intentionally and know what they’re
doing whereas other bloggers make mistakes due to
their ignorance.
11. The oddest part about making mistakes is that you
may not even recognize when you make them.
Then how can you avoid making mistakes?
There’s not best way, but a good approach is to
plan, be sure of almost every action you take, and
correct your mistakes the moment you realize
them.
2. Pay attention to all that
concerns you
Your dissatisfaction points at what needs to be
changed.
When you start a new blog, you feel discontent with
a bunch of things like site design, comment form,
contact page, etc.
It’s actually your gut feeling signaling you to
change what might cause problems, and it’s also a
slight hunger for perfection.
These things keep poking you through the whole
process of building a blog to remind you about
them.
12. Either you change them and get things right or you
ignore them and give yourself some reasons to
worry about in future.
Pay heed to the way you feel about your blog. Is
there anything that needs to be changed? Change
it.
No, don’t get stuck in meaningless hassle or tweak
everything continually. But ensure that whatever
exists on your blog, is fine.
3. Start like you never started
Everyone notices when you start like a beginner.
Your audience watches when your number of posts
grow from 2 to 5, when you tweak the site theme
again and again, or when there isn’t much
interaction going on your blog.
But this perception of being a beginner can cause
harm by snatching from your blog the credibility it
deserves.
So rather start as if your blog exists since a couple
of months, fake it till you make it, and launch with
a bam!
13. How can you do it? Keep prepared what you’re
planning to do later. A free e-book, webinar, or
something that you thing you’ll do in the future.
Observe the big blogs. Find out why you perceive
them as BIG and do more of what makes them look
big to you.
However, note that you may ignore this part, as
starting a blog from scratch and being open to your
readers, works similarly.
They feel a bond between themselves and you blog
when they watch it grow slowly and know that they
were with you since the first day.
14. The Pre-launch Strategy
So here it is. The pre-launch strategy.
The following points will emphasize on the
mistakes which you can prevent and the
precautionary actions you can take to make your
blog succeed.
To be clear, it’s about what’s crucial but goes
plainly unnoticed.
Define the purpose of your site
Why would you start a website? There has to be a
reason that drives your intentions and motivates
you to work tirelessly.
If you’ve got a reason like money, then you might
be creating just another futile site.
15. Your reason doesn’t need to have a practical
explanation but it needs to exist, because it is what
will help you thrive in the long run. It’s your
purpose of existence.
Everything starts with a purpose – the same is
applicable to your site.
For instance, we started Codeblot to help the
computer science students like us who lack a
proper guidance regardless of the profit we might
make, as there weren’t many people doing much in
our field.
It’s simple.
You feel a need for something and think that you
could be doing something about that. That’s when
you get to work.
You decide to fill the holes which exist in the
internet!
Doubt your idea to be sure about
it
Everyone has an idea, and everyone thinks that
theirs is the best.
16. That’s that mentality which makes most ideas utter
failures. People don’t want to think why their idea
might fail.
They start working blindfolded until it’s too late
and circumstances begin to show-up negatively.
Soon, they doubt their decisions and wish to start
again.
But most of the time it’s late.
Understand your idea clearly and make sure that
it’s something that you can create success with and
which people are in a need of.
Your ideas aren’t water or oxygen. No one needs
them badly enough. Yet, you still take up one and
make people want it. That’s where the art is – In
making people want your idea.
If your idea isn’t something which people can be
made to want or doesn’t serve a huge need, then
chances are that it’s just not worthy enough to be
brought into existence.
Here are some signs that your idea might be a good
one.
Solves problems
17. Simplifies things
Educates and creates awareness
Entertains and pleases
Encourages improvement
If your idea is into doing any of the above
mentioned things well enough, then it might be a
fine one to pursue.
Analyze your market
Billionaires buy Rolex watches, introverts buy
books, and fitness-conscious people buy exercise
accessories.
Are these all people the same? Nope.
Blogging isn’t different from the real markets as far
as targeting the right audience is considered.
18. You cannot start creating random content and
throw it at all kinds of people.
In that way, the outcomes will be highly unspecific
and can generate disastrous instability for your
blog in future.
Stick to the rules from day one. What are the rules?
Find the needs of your target audience
Find ways to fulfill those needs
Research the lifestyle of the people you create
for
Use leads and analytics to be specific with your
actions, products and content
Be prepared to serve your audience and
customers with what they expect from you
The only way to save your blog from some
odd traffic catastrophes is to thoroughly
understand your market and generate content
which is relevant to your audience and provides
value to them.
Form an audience growth
strategy
19. The best advice about getting more traffic is pretty
simple – “get more subscribers.”
It’s one of the best blogging advice I’ve ever read. It
makes sense.
The base of traffic are subscribers. If you focus on
gaining more subscribers then traffic will follow
naturally.
Instead of worrying about SEO and other technical
stuff, your first priority should be engaging a crowd
that can relate to your work and support it.
Serve the people who back you up by providing
them with whatever they deserve. Their trust is
most valuable thing, and will be your strength in
the long run.
There are some pretty genuine ways to grow your
audience.
Like, giving an E-book on subscription, launching
contests on social media, giveaways, etc.
However, be sure that you stick to the morals of
your blog and be smart when you promote while
using these tactics.
20. For example, if you’re giving an E-book, then don’t
simply provide a box saying “Get your free E-book.”
Not only that makes your work look vague but also
makes your product almost invisible to your
audience.
Instead, you can rephrase the same as “Download
your free guide to doing xyz to be better at xyz.” I
bet your audience will love it that way.
Secondly, make sure that every action of yours
aligns with philosophy of your blog.
I still remember a contest held regularly on a
website which sold books. I had even won once.
They gave one book per month to a random person
who would answer a question on their website,
which I thought was a compelling idea to keep their
customers coming.
But later they switched to giving music speakers
and other costly stuff to the readers once in every
three months. This disappointed me, because they
had become irrelevant.
Also, their costs would have probably increased as
branded speakers cost more than books. The
audience interaction would have decreased too
21. since the frequency reduced from once a month to
once every three months.
“The right approach is to rather combine
your goals and audience’s interest in such a
way that it benefits both.”
A few things you must remember while attempting
to gain new readers are:
Keep your content and giveaways relevant to
your niche.
Be the first one to initiate the conversation
with your readers via social media or
comments.
Ask your target audience about their problems
and insecurities so that you can solve them in
future. They’re likely to interact much when
you show your interest in them.
Stick to some specific topics while creating
content. This makes your audience aware of
what they can expect from you.
Find the platform where your audience hangs
out and stay much active there. You main goal
is to spread your message. For instance, most
22. teenagers use Facebook whereas business
professionals are soaked up in LinkedIn.
Overall, keep some ideas prepared to attract a
troop of people who would really love your work.
Then keep working for those people, stay focused
on their needs, find out what makes them stay with
you, earn their trust, and finally dominate.
Understand your audience
Walk into the shoes of your audience and you’ll
know everything about them.
While doing anything on your blog, keep your
audience at the center of attention because it is
whom you write for, and it’s who decides your
success.
Although the concept of defining an audience
persona is quite hyped, you don’t always need some
stats or solid demographics to begin with.
23. You can simply define your audience based on their
interests, problems, mind-set, goals, and other
human qualities.
However, in certain cases you’re obliged to follow
the norm as things might not work otherwise.
For example, if you run a fashion blog then you’ll
necessarily have to target young women of a certain
age group who are interested in clothing, make-up,
and accessories so that you can benefit by selling
them affiliate products or provide a course.
Whereas in the self-help niche there are no such
rules. Everyone has some dreams and goals, all
people like to be inspired, and statistics have less
place on such blog.
You get it?
Whatever be the method you choose to define your
audience, make sure that you have a good deal of
information about the people who you want to
write for.
Lay a solid foundation of useful
content
24. Brainstorm some article ideas and turn them into a
stack of pure gold.
Keep some posts queued for publishing before
launching as this will avoid you from losing your
online consistency after the launch just in case you
fail to generate new content for a few weeks or
months.
However, while batching content make sure that
you create only evergreen posts and don’t attempt
writing about time-sensitive topics that might get
outdated by the time you launch.
Your initial content creates a perception about your
blog in your reader’s mind so it’s better to give
them something that could keep feeding them for a
few days until you come up new content.
Also, make your content versatile and shallow as
this will make your content look more credible.
You have a lot of options. Here are some:
Infographics
Videos
Graphic Images
25. PDFs
PPTs
Podcasts
Create a content plan and
structure
Most of the readers become familiar with your
work after reading a few posts. This is what decides
whether they’ll stay with you or leave.
If there’s a certain way you want to be seen, start
acting like it and generate content for the kind of
audience you want to attract.
For example, everyone know that BuzzFeed creates
short content and list posts that are entertaining,
Wikipedia provides in depth articles studded with
26. hyperlinks, whereas The Huffington Post has its
roots in almost every category.
Some bloggers can’t stop using obscene words like
f*** or s**t, whereas opposite to this, some
bloggers will hesitate to use these words even once
as doing it might disappoint their readers.
All blogs form a similar image in their reader’s
minds with their content.
Although it isn’t always visible, every site follows a
specific pattern of content and uses a content
structure.
An overall solution to keep your content steady and
specific and create an identity in the long run is to
create a content plan.
Here are a few quick ideas to assist you with this.
Stick to a specific writing tone. Honest, funny,
serious? Decide how you wish to be perceived,
decide your type, and create later.
Generate the content that suits your audience.
Videos are good for someone with a blog
containing a lot of humor, and infographics
with statistical data look fine on marketing
27. blogs. Similarly, what is it that would suit your
audience? Make that a part of your style.
Would you prefer behaving like a formal
journalist and stick to the details only, or
would you rather be cracking some jokes and
be a bubbly blogger? This is your personality
that tells the readers about who you are.
Choose it wisely.
Follow a repetitive format in most of your
posts whenever possible. This will make your
readers used to it and they’ll find it easier to
understand you.
Above all, edit your posts several times and mind
your grammar if you’re a beginner to keep the
quality of your posts top notch.
Also, just in case you’re confused about what kind
personality you should be developing for your blog,
then focus on the kind of audience you want to
attract and act like one of them.
This would make everything easier for you as they
could easily relate themselves to you and feel a
natural bond.
You must be thoughtful about this section,
especially if you wish to establish a personal brand.
28. Focus on building a community
If you can look at a group of people with a smile on
your face and say “these are the ones whom I write
for!” then you’re already on the right track.
That’s because you’ll need a community to
succeed, and when you have an audience in mind,
you have a clear idea about who you are working
for.
In case of blogging, it’s your readers who love what
you share, appreciate your work, and back it up in
all ways they can.
To get started, interact with other bloggers who
have the same passions as yours, ask your initial
readers to spread the message about your blog, or
try to convert more visitors into regular readers.
Your main aim is to connect with the people for
whom your work is best suited and persuade them
to have a space for your blog in their mails, feeds,
and hearts.
If you observe closely, the only major difference
between the successful blogs and the unsuccessful
ones is the difference in the amount of people who
back them up. That’s a huge factor.
29. Build some connections before
you get started
Even the finest work on the internet can stay
unrecognized if it fails to reach a right audience,
and most of the content is such – the one which is
good but doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
In such case, networking and genuinely socializing
with the leaders of your niche can be a great
solution.
Not only this will make your work grow at a rapid
pace but also teach you some lessons which will
stay with you throughout your blogging journey.
So building a networking strategy can be a lifesaver
for you if done properly.
However, know that networking isn’t about using
others for fulfilling your own motives. Instead, it’s
a way to grow together by genuinely helping each
other.
To be clear, interdependence is in the blood of
blogging, and without it everything gets harder.
A few quick ways to connect with the leaders in
your niche are:
30. Follow them on social media and help them
grow in all ways you can. You’ll definitely be
noticed.
Mail them personally. Most of the bloggers are
humble, and they reply too.
Ask them for guidance and stay limited to tiny
interactions. Sometimes this much effort is
enough.
Comment on certain blogs and be an active
reader to make your presence felt.
Give your blog a face
You may call it a brand, but I prefer calling it the
face.
That’s because each and every element on your
blog plays a role in how it is perceived by the
readers.
If your blog really stands apart from others, if it’s
really worth remembering, then it’ll stick to the
31. reader’s heart and mind. They’ll become curious
about you, feel a subconscious drag towards you,
and tend to support you in your mission by
becoming a part of it.
It’s not just about the theme and the kind of
content you create but the overall outcome of
everything on your blog.
Your job is to make the readers feel like they’re
home.
Most of this face-making can be done before
launching a blog and is a finer idea than tweaking
your website several times after its launch.
Branding and all the other stuff matters so much
because it creates a perception about your blog in
people’s mind.
Here are few tips to give you a clear idea:
Choose the logo, subtitle, and other major
details based on the philosophy of your blog.
Make your readers feel special and make your
blog more about them than yourself
Be careful with the words you on sensitive
elements such as call to actions, about page, or
32. comment form. These tiny things are create a
lot of influence and must be used wisely.
Let your readers know more about you by
including your stories, relevant real life
pictures, and personal opinions often. It is
essential to form an honest bond with the
readers.
Be authoritative and specific about the work
you do. This helps you gain credibility and
prevents you from looking like a beginner.
Use similar kind of language, graphics, and
phrases in most of your content. Your readers
will likely remember what appears
repetitively.
These tips are just for giving you a basic guideline.
There's a lot more you can do.
However, there are several other aspects that
define the image of your blog.
A nice way to find the right match of ideas for your
blog is to ask simple questions like “does it reflect
the mission and personality of my blog?”
If you feel alright with your decision, then go
ahead.
33. Be prepared
I created a PayPal account even when I had no
belief that I was ever going to earn using the
internet.
A few months later I earned my first 250 dollars.
You see, if I wouldn’t have made that PayPal
account in advance then I might have lost the
opportunity.
When you’re getting started, it’s obvious to miss
out some important things since they’re left on
tomorrows.
However, when the opportunity knocks, you won’t
want to lose it due to silly reasons. It’s better to pay
attention to what you’re going to need in the long
run and do it first.
Also, many of the things don’t happen immediately
and can waste your productive time when you’re
supposed to work.
For example, AdSense approval takes time, a
PayPal account takes nearly a week, and you need
time to set up graphic items if you’re planning to
create a shop.
34. What you think is simple and can be done later
creates a lot of hassle and distracts you later. The
earlier you finish this part, the better.
Just do a quick requirement analysis, go through
your plans for the blog, find what’s needed, and
proceed.
Make a list of all that is required for your blog and
finish everything on it.
Here’s are some quick reminders for your
reference:
Linking of affiliate accounts to the bank
account
Creating new advertising network accounts
Getting your own pictures clicked
Creating a PayPal account
Creating affiliate partner accounts
Did I miss something? Well, then consider that too
and leave a comment maybe.
35. Make a list of resources you will
need
One idiotic mistake
you can make is
focusing your time on
not-so-important
things instead of
creating content. Most
bloggers do this.
Don’t spend your time digging the stock photo
sites, searching for free vector images and icons,
finding video creating tools, hunting infographic
making sites, and doing other random activities
that don’t contribute to the success of your blog.
To avoid this trouble, make a checklist of resources
you’re going to need.
It can be quite time-consuming to deal with all this
stuff, so rather dedicate some time to solely making
a list of resources which you are likely going to
need in the future.
It’s one of the smartest move you can make for the
sake of your productivity.
36. In our case, we gathered a list of stock photo sites
licensed under CC0, made a list of essential plug-
ins, and sorted out the necessary elements for the
blog.
Also, we made sure to at least have an idea about
all the tools we were going to need for managing
contests, generating polls, and creating content like
infographics or custom images.
Understand all the activities you do for creating
content, growing audience, or improving your blog,
and then make a checklist of resources that
contains all the aspects of your requirements.
Find a team with similar
interests
Decide whether you’re going to run the blog alone
or is there any need for a team.
If you’ve made up your mind to work as a team,
make sure that your teammates share the same
goals as yours.
Often, you might be held back if your team fails to
find a purpose in your undertaking.
37. It takes quite less effort to start a blog than running
it for years. So rather choose a team which can
persist and keep work consistently on the blog.
Set up all the tiny things
As per the size, niche, and type of your blog, mind
the elements that need fit into your blog for making
user-friendly and accessible to readers.
Here’s a quick list for your reference:
Contact forms
E-mail addresses for different purposes such
as contact, advertising, etc.
Pages such as Terms and conditions of use, or
privacy policy
Visual elements – themes, header graphics,
social icons.
Social media profiles
Sidebar widgets to increase engagement
Pop-ups and notification bars to gain more
subscribers
38. Decide monetization methods
What kind of money-making method do you think
might be suitable for your new blog?
Are you focused on generating more content to
attract visitors and then convert those visits via
advertising?
Or is it that you’ve got a lot of products to
recommend to your readers? Affiliate marketing
would be the best option in that case.
Have you got any products of your own to sell too?
Even that would be a cool idea.
There’s always a specific monetization method that
can work better for your blog than others; find that.
You can always keep experimenting. However, find
something which you can rely on in the long term.
39. A few things you must consider
doing before starting a blog to
thrive faster
The growth of a blog doesn’t solely depend on your
hard-work.
The truth is, you may go on creating post after post,
experiment with your content and yet reach
nowhere close to what you call growth.
You need to have a solution, or else you will
become the next one to fall in the rabbit hole.
The blogs on the internet are similar regardless of
what their niche is. Very similar. What it really
takes to succeed is being unique, persistent and
patient.
If you look at everyone, you’ll notice that they are
craving for attention, creating in spite of knowing
whether someone cares about what they create, and
40. trying hard to establish themselves as an authority
in what they do.
So if don’t taste success initially, then maybe it’s
not your fault as it’s easy to get lost in this mob.
Also, not giving up counts the most.
If you ask me, the only thing which leads to succeed
in blogging is – surviving.
It’s disheartening. It’s tough. It’s boring. It’s
useless. It’s insensible – you can have a lot of
excuses to quit. But only one way to succeed –
survive – no matter what.
"In the beginning, measuring
your value in terms of outcomes
is a cheap way to decide your
success."
You’re taken lightly when you’re just a beginner.
Other bloggers perceive you as weak and don’t see
you as a potential partner or competitor.
41. The leaders in the industry hesitate to work with
you as they doubt your credibility.
The readers keep ignoring you as they think that
you aren’t worthy of their attention.
But then, you get what you deserve.
You get the first comment on your blog.
Your Facebook fans increase by small
numbers.
Fellow bloggers invite you to guest post.
You get some fan mails.
People become curious about your work.
That’s when you realize that you’re succeeding,
gradually. This rising curve is a proof that you’re
growing, even if slowly.
And if you keep up this going constantly, you win.
It takes years to learn, a few years to create, some
more years to build an asset, and all this time isn’t
easy either.
But it pays off in the end.
42. For now, a single advice you must mind is
– survive.
All bloggers who are leaders in their respective
fields have only one thing in common – they
survived.
During the years there have been thousands of
bloggers. The good, bad, and the excellent.
However, the only the ones who had the guts to
keep striving against all the odd did remain. No
matter how awesome others are, no matter how
different, once they perish, everything ends.
Want some motivation?
Go through the oldest archives of some popular
websites and you’ll find out that they too were once
awful, ordinary, and small. I bet you’ll be
awestruck.
But as you pay close attention to the hard work
they put into creating those valuable wonders, you
realize that success isn’t that easy after all.
But you also discover what you need to do –
survive.
43. Survive as long as you can. Until you accomplish
what had started for even if it takes some sacrifices,
sufferings and frustrations. Give it all that it takes.
Well, that was just about what you must be doing
until the end, but there are some things which you
can do even before starting to begin with a boom.
Here are a few:
1. Create a buzz
Our first 2 tweets in which we had used 2 hashtags,
gave us 7 new followers. Isn’t it interesting? Maybe
not.
That’s an important statistic if you ask me,
considering that we didn’t even have our site
running at that time and had just introduced it.
44. Make people wonder, evoke curiosity, create some
suspense, and then reveal.
That’s a tactic.
Once you begin talking about a subject, people
begin to notice. And then, to those whom your
work really matters, wait.
You attract the spotlight by constantly talking
about your work and keeping your current
followers updated with what you’re up to which
spreads your message even further.
If you do this smartly, you get the exact outcomes.
2. Build connections
You can make things really hard for yourself if you
refuse to join the network of bloggers which
already exists.
Chances are that you’ll see the same faces on the
internet again and again from different
blogs. That’s because the internet is such – a place
where everything is interwoven and
interdependent.
45. If you can’t sense the diplomacy that exists among
bloggers then you may miss a lot of opportunities.
When you’re new, you need to find your way to get
through this network and become a part of it. If you
don’t – you either survive hard or you perish.
For this, you might need to start with mailing
random people, asking for advice from the leaders,
helping others for some favors, etc.
Make a place for yourself somehow and get
established.
3. Seek help from fellows
All bloggers are experienced, in some way at least.
You are likely have to deal with some difficulties
later which can be hard to solve if someone hasn’t
got your back.
It took me quite long to understand how socializing
works on the internet. But then I tried connecting
with others in all ways.
It worked.
46. One blogger suggested me some places to guest
post which bring more visitors.
Another one introduced to me the tools he used to
create videos and told me about which
monetization method helped him more.
Overall, it’s one of the most valuable practices I’ve
learned while blogging. This little bit of connecting
with your folks can be responsible for your next
successes.
When you keep getting these tiny chunks of help
from others your work becomes relatively simpler
than it would have been otherwise.
Also, you get known for the work you do and form a
powerful group of people whom you can depend
on.
4. Guest post
As a beginner, I always underestimated my work
and thought that it sucked.
No comments. No shares. No feedback. Nothing!
47. So I did a guest post; it got 300+ shares. Which
made me realize that I wasn’t that bad but just
missing a connection with people.
But that was when my blog was running.
However, when you still haven’t started, you have
better chances of attracting some new followers via
writing on other blogs.
Apart from that, if you get featured on big blogs
then you can use those posts in your testimonials to
exhibit your credibility.
Either way, guest posting reaps huge benefits.
48. Revise everything to achieve
perfection
Once you’re finished with the completion of the
whole process, revise it thoroughly and spring up
some custom tactics for your blog.
Although this post provides you with a general
outline, you need to be more specific with the steps
you take on your blog depending on its niche and to
achieve the desired outcomes to attract a certain
audience.
Your initial marketing efforts must resonate
your motto and create an awareness among
your audience to develop an honest bond with
them
Use the promotional tactics or advertisement
campaigns creatively and take on the method
which is most suitable
49. Choose your monetization methods
depending on “what you can get by being what
you are.”
Experiment to find out the best practices
which you can adapt
Execute tasks step-by-step and
be patient
Don’t do everything at once.
Divide the whole process in chunks and finish tasks
one after the other to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Avoid creating clutter and be specific with each
step that you add to your launch strategy.
"Everything you do must
contribute to the growth of your
50. blog. If it doesn’t serve a purpose
– drop the idea."
Also, if you don’t make an earth-shattering entry
using your pre-launch strategy or fail to bring out
the expected growth within the chosen deadline
then don’t worry much.
Most parts of your blog will expand with time. It’s
just the beginning.
Consider your pre-launch strategy to be at the
center - it serves as the seed for the rest of the
success that follows.
Slowly, everything falls at place and you become
almost a professional. If not, you become capable
of taking your own wise steps at least.
What else?
51. Launch – all good things follow
after this
The pre-launch strategy is just a start.
You'll find out what's right for your website a
few days after the launch.
Click here to read the excellent guide
created by Ramsay Taplin on how to start
a blog.
Need some help?
If you need my assistance with your content or
website, send me your inquiries. I'd be happy to
help. Feel free to start a conversation.
You may hire me to audit your
website and design a custom
content strategy for your
website or blog for 250$
- Hire me!
52. About Author
Vishal Ostwal is the co-founder at CodeBlot, you
may mail him and ask him more about online
marketing and content strategies.
You may connect with him on LinkedIn.