I’ll be honest with you, making the decision to start a blog was one of the two best things I have ever done in my life. The other one was becoming a vegetarian, in case you wondered.
It’s truly a fulfilling hobby and even a way of life. Plus, you get to make money if you have the patience and dedication. What can be more rewarding than getting paid for something you do out of passion?
But just as with any new activity in life, it will take some learning and getting used to. Fortunately, blogging has a rather small learning curve, with some of the most important decisions taking place BEFORE you launch the blog.
“Why before?”, I hear you asking. Because that is where the foundation lies for the rest of your journey as a blogger.
If you start a blog with the wrong ideas in mind and miss a thing or two, you will end up hating the hobby down the road. You will most likely give up and never return to blogging again. You will be like the bird that never grew old enough to fly.
On the other hand, if you do everything correctly right from the start, as long as you stick to it, you are set for success. Hence, this is where the topic of the post comes from – 12 things to do before launching a blog.
I say all of this from experience. When I started my blog, I had no one to teach me, nor did I think that anything could go wrong. I did things my way, and I now wish I could have done some of them differently. Although, it could have also been much worse. I say this because seven years later I still write for my blog. 👨💻
So, below you will find my list of 12 things to do before launching a blog. Enjoy!
Here is the list of the things to do before launching a blog:
1. Pick a niche
Picking the right niche is extremely important. It is the foundation that I mentioned in the introduction. If you pick the wrong niche, you will have a very hard time growing your blog in the future.
You may be wondering, what can be so difficult about choosing a niche? You simply go with something you are passionate about, right? Right, but there is more to it.
I am a big believer in the idea that your niche should be chosen based on your interests; not by how much money it can make you. However, don’t fully disregard money. It also has its place on the list of things to do before launching a blog.
The broad vs. narrow niche dilemma
Generally, my blog is related to self-development. And although, as you can see, I write quite a bit about blogging these days, I have written about fitness, diets, software apps, esoterics, meditation, motivation, Amazon FBA, etc. I write about everything that I can connect to self-development. Starting a blog in order to free yourself from the nine-to-five rat race, in my opinion, is also a form of self-development.
Because my blog niche is so broad, I can create content around many different things and never get stuck on what to write about next. Having this kind of freedom of choice is truly a luxury for the creative mind.
On the other hand, because my niche is so broad, I have always had a hard time finding a true fan reader. Some people like to read about health, but have no interest in astral projection and lucid dreaming. Others like to read about blogging, but have no interest in working out.
The result is that while I am able to attract different kinds of people, I am also having a hard time attracting someone that is interested in all of my content.
Point of action:
My advice to you is to start by writing down on a piece of paper a list of things that you could blog about. Don’t analyze your thoughts just yet, you’ll do that later. Try to get at least ten things written down.
Normally, people end up with a list of broad topics such as “dog care” or “health and supplements”. That’s good, but now your goal is to see whether you can go a bit deeper into those niches.
Dog care could become something like “care for pugs”. Health and supplements could become “health and supplements for vegans” or “health and supplements for pregnant women”. These are just examples, but I hope you get the point.
My advice to any aspiring blogger is that you don’t go with a very broad niche like “self-development”, but you don’t go with a too specific one like “dental health for elderly pugs” either.
Please note that neither option is strictly wrong. But keep in mind that if your niche is too broad, you’ll have a lot of competition and will have a hard time growing your audience. If your niche is too specific, there may be not enough people interested in your content.
But at the end of the day, it’s your call.
2. Check niche profitability
The second point on the list of things to do before launching a blog is niche profitability. Every blogger wants to make money from their blog sooner or later – fact.
When you have written down a list of possible niches, look a few years ahead and see how your blog can make you money in each of the niches.
- If you are ok with just placing ads, then all you have to do is focus on growing organic traffic.
- If you want to do coaching, you need to figure out whether there is coaching to do in your niche or not.
- If you want to do affiliate marketing, you need to know whether there are enough products for you to promote in that niche. Check Clickbank for product ideas.
- If you want to sell a digital course or a membership service down the road, what will it be about?
Finding a niche that isn’t too broad and is profitable is a great start!
Recommended: How I Made 6,5k in Two Weeks as an Affiliate (+Mistakes)
3. Study your competition
The next on the list is to study your future competition. Use Google to find other blogs in your niche and analyze them.
Alternatively, use websites like SimilarWeb and Alexa. Both of these websites can offer a lot of useful information on your competitors, including popular page URLs and statistics.
The goal of this task is to study your competition, to see how bad or good they are doing, how many “old” blogs there are, how many “new” blogs there are, and how fast they are growing.
It’s hard to be objective in this task, but do it anyway. Just write down everything that stands out to you and come up with ways how you can be DIFFERENT from your competitors. There’s always more than one approach.
4. Pick a name
Pick a name for your blog that is catchy and its meaning is clear. A visitor should instantly see what your blog is about just by looking at the name.
Also, preferably, use a short name. While it’s easy to understand that my blog’s name “Growth Evolution Development” is about self-development, it’s not short at all. This creates a number of problems.
- It’s hard to memorize.
- It’s hard to fit on the blog header and other marketing material.
- It’s too long to make a domain name out of. https://growthevolutiondevelopment.com is just silly long. (Check point 7. for more clarification on domain names.)
If I would have known better, I would have never gone with three long words when I started. But what’s done is done.
Finally, you may ask, “can I just use my real name for my blog?” Yes, your real name can become your brand’s name, but this works better for people that are already popular and known, and can easily be found through Google. Having a blog about technology called “John Smith” makes little sense and will probably slow you down. “John Smith Tech” is a bit better.
I would suggest you stick to some common words for your brand, unless your blog is about YOU.
I hope this part is clear. Again, the choice is yours.
5. Check if the blog name can be used legally
This thing to do before launching a blog is almost never talked about, unfortunately. You don’t want to blog for a year, just to find out that your blog/brand name is already legally protected. Using somebody’s trademarked name can get you in trouble.
To check whether it is trademarked or not, a good place to start is at Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). Then search using this option -> Basic Word Mark Search (New User).
6. Pick a platform
You may be considering existing blogging platforms because you don’t want to invest financially in your blog, at least not just yet. But I recommend that you always go with WordPress.org.
Recommended: What Is the Best Blogging Platform and Why?
The reason why I recommend WordPress.org is because it gives you full control over what you can do with your blog, while many other platforms won’t allow you that, especially if you take the free plan.
Also, if your blog does grow and you will want to transition to your own website down the road, it won’t be as easy. That’s why it is important to start right.
Finally, getting a domain name and a hosting provider for your own website is actually cheaper than you may think. You can find a domain name for free with some hosting providers or pay around $10 a year for one. A hosting provider can cost you as low as $2.95 a month for the first year with Bluehost, which I personally use.
7. Pick a domain name
A domain name should be short and easy to remember. Ideally, it should be the same as your blog’s name.
As I already mentioned, I really wanted to call my blog – Growth Evolution Development. So I did. But having a domain name “https://growthevolutiondevelopment.com” was just waaay too long for anyone to remember. I ended up going with gedground.com.
Notice how it almost nowhere on my blog says the word “ground”. I have unfortunately created confusion between my blog’s name and the domain name.
Because of the difference, the readers might memorize my blog’s name or my blog’s domain name. I am sure I’ve had to pay a price for it with slow traffic growth.
Important: go with .com. “.com” is so common that even my grandma knows it.
To check the availability of a domain name that you are interested in, click “Domains” in the header of Bluehost.
8. Pick a hosting provider
As I said, a hosting provider can be cheap. Sure, when your traffic grows, you can pick a more expensive one that will be able to handle millions of monthly visitors. But when you start, no need to spend that much money.
I personally use Bluehost (affiliate link) and that is what I recommend to others as well. They don’t cost much AND they offer you a free domain name to start with. Of course, you get to pick the domain name.
Bluehost also has a one-click WordPress setup. It’s literally as easy as making one click to launch your WordPress blog. Nothing technical.
9. Choose a theme and logo design
The ninth point in the list of things to do before launching a blog is to pick a theme and a logo.
Concerning the logo, you can get one created for cheap on Fiverr. I had mine done there. Just type in “logo design”.
When you make an order for the logo, be as specific as possible about the details. Look for examples on the internet. Your logo needs to really show what your niche and your blog are about. It’s the face of your brand, unless you are literally using your own face image.
Concerning themes, no need to be fancy. Pick a simple one. I chose a really basic theme and developed it over time to fit my needs. If you don’t know how to code, you can also ask someone on Fiverr to do it for you for relatively cheap.
There are some great paid themes for WordPress if you want to take that route, but there are thousands of free ones as well. Just google for “WordPress themes”. I am sure you will find what you are looking for relatively quickly.
Again, if you don’t know what your theme should look like, just browse other blogs for inspiration.
10. Make a list of topics to write about (keyword research)
Once you have picked your blog and you are about to launch your website, it’s a good idea to create a schedule for yourself.
Decide right there and then how often you will post. I do it once a week. You can publish your blog posts more or less often than that, but when you do make a decision, stick to it. In blogging consistency is key.
Click To TweetIn blogging, consistency is key.
Create a long list of blog topics to write about. It’s just so much easier when you know them in advance. To do so, you need to apply at least some basic keyword research. I discuss what keyword research is here.
In a nutshell:
- you look at what your competition is writing about (use SimilarWeb and Alexa for research)
- what people often search for using Google’s search bar
- and/or you use a professional keyword research tool like SEMrush (pricey, but advanced). Also, use a free Chrome extension – Keyword Surfer. Sooner or later, every blogger invests in a keyword research tool, as they help you see what exactly you need to be writing about to attract more visitors
11. Create professional social network accounts
The eleventh point in the list of things to do before launching a blog is to create professional social network pages for your blog. Why? Because you will be sharing your content there every single time you publish a new blog post. Social networks give your blog much more exposure and therefore traffic.
Download our FREE guide >>>7 SMART STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC FASTER!<<<
I personally use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but you can also use Pinterest, for example. Some travel and cooking niched blogs do really well on Pinterest.
Apart from sharing my blog posts on social networks, I also create motivational quote posts to keep the engagement up. This is an example from Instagram:
12. Continuous learning about blogging
The final point in the list of things to do before launching a blog (and after) is to keep educating yourself.
The world today evolves quickly, especially on the internet, which is why it is crucial that you don’t fall behind. Keep reading other blogs (ones like this 🙂 ), learn what your competition is doing, and even consider finding online courses and coaches for extra guidance.
When I first started, I made plenty of mistakes because I did it on my own. It took some time for me to realize that I needed to learn more. Later on, I made the decision to invest in Affiliate Marketing Mastery. It was what helped me move forward in blogging much faster. As they say, better late than never.
You can also find many affordable blogging courses on Udemy.
So, these were the twelve things to do before launching a blog! I hope you found them useful. If something was unclear and you have questions, feel free to drop them down below in the comment section.
Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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