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Preparing for a Successful Blog Launch

Posted on June 23rd in My Sites — 10 Comments so far. Got something to say?

This summer I’m going to be launching a new blog (or three- we’ll see after one) and I’m going to use all the things I’ve learned through this site to increase traffic and readership on both.

Some keys to get off the ground and out to many people quickly:

Launch with content. At least 5-7 posts.
An awesome design. If you can’t do it yourself, outsource it.
Put it out there. Submit to every gallery, launch site, forum that you know.
Promote it on your other sites.
Ask some favours- maybe a friend or two can write up a post.

Keep in mind, all those things are free. I can launch this entire site for the cost of the domains because I have the skills to develop it. Getting into to advertising and spending money, you can really do your new site some good:

Buy ReviewMe reviews of good sites (try for under $100)
Start a ReviewMe campaign for cheap
Buy TLA on good PR and high traffic sites
Advertise on related sites
In fact, advertise on the sites at the top of your niche

I’m currently still working on the design, but I’ve picked out an awesome name and have my domains all registered. The name is memorable and is oozing with identity. I really loved this name when it came into my head, and was so happy to see all the domains available.

One thing about being a solo web developer and wanting to pursue your own projects, is that you have to cover all aspects of the site. Not only are you the designer and developer, but you have to keep the database happy, the users happy, the advertisers happy AND the content coming.

The success of a solo launch is dependent on you being able to work around all those things.

I’m going into a relatively un-tech savvy niche with this site, but successful sites in this area do have hundreds of thousands of RSS readers (hint, hint).

When ever I concoct an idea, the first thing I think about much before the name of the site is the one search keyword I want to land on the first page of Google for. For this site, I can see the first two results are PR6, but results #2 and #3 are both BlogSpot blogs, #3 only being PR3. The other sites are mostly PR4.

Depending on the site’s launch in relation to a PR update, I want the site to be PR5 and then I’ll work on PR6.

But as I mentioned before, you can use the successful launch of a new site to really propel your other sites too. First of all, the release post on your own site will attract readers and any updates will also. Readers love hearing about project updates, especially money- ask Josh Buckley.

Concluding, the ideal launch for me is a “Freelance Switch” launch. The went from 0 to 8000 readers in no time, because it really is a great site with great content. More updates on this site and more are right around the corner, so it would probably be a good idea for you to subscribe to RSS if you haven’t already.

Leave a comment

Josh Buckley
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:25 PM

Hey dude,

Thanks for the link-love I can’t wait to see the blog you have in the pipeline. Getting to pr 6 is apparently 4 times as hard as it is to get to pr 5. Using digg should get you the backlinks required :p

Also, check your e-mails please.
Connor Wilson
June 23rd, 2007 at 4:24 PM

4 times? I figured it would be around 10 times.
Alex Mould
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:23 PM

Getting to 8000 readers on launch, nice. Good design too.
Connor Wilson
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:45 PM

It wasn’t right off the bat, but after a couple of weeks they got right up there.
Ryan
June 23rd, 2007 at 7:45 PM

I would think you would want like 10 - 15 articles to start off. I am also thinking of launching another blog soon so this was already on my mind.
Marky
June 24th, 2007 at 6:45 AM

Nice. I can’t wait. I enjoy reading your blog and I would sure be interested in reading some others.

Goodluck with PR6 O.o.
Mike
June 24th, 2007 at 11:32 PM

Nice this sounds really interesting!
Angie
June 26th, 2007 at 2:36 AM

Though I would settle for PR5 happily, that PR6 floats in front of my eyes every second of the day. I cannot wait to see your results.
The Personal Development Blog
June 27th, 2007 at 7:38 PM

I’m a subscriber. Good luck to you! Your blog looks great.
Adam
August 6th, 2007 at 8:47 PM

Another great article Connor. Lots of good advice that I’ll take into thought when I finally launch easyctutorials.com (Still working on the design). Keep up the great posts.