Posted on November 2, 2006
Tips for a Successful Blog Launch
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
A successful blog launch is not an inherently simple process. Like most things in life, a new blog only gets one chance at a great first impression. You need to generate enough buzz about your blog to get people to visit, but you also need to ensure that you have all of the proper elements in place to convince readers to come back for more.
In addition to having great content, a directory site called Aviva has created a list of 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch. You may not feel that all of the tips are relevant for your site, but using them as a guide can provide a great starting point for making sure your blog has some visibility.
One great tip is to make sure you don't launch before you have at least 5 blog posts. This may mean that the launch is delayed a bit while you find enough content, but the result will be worth it. One initial post isn't enough to give readers a sense of what your blog is about--having more posts will also increase the chances that you will get linked, as your voice will already be more established.
Making it easy for people to read your great content is another way to help ensure success. You should provide several ways to syndicate your content, including easy to find links to RSS feeds, an opportunity to receive posts via email, and even those trendy social bookmarking icons to make it easy to submit great posts to those sites.
You shouldn't rely on your readers to submit your best posts. If you feel you've provided something that is helpful and informative, you should submit to all the major sites, such as Digg, Del.icio.us, etc.
The article also mentions a topic we've delved into in the past: strategic commenting. The motto here is that you get what you give. If you participate in other conversations and leave a link to your site, the chances are that people interested in that other site might pay you a visit to see what you have to say. Getting traffic that is already like-minded can help boost your readership. However, you should still include a link in places such as your email signature or your Myspace profile--every little bit helps.
I encourage everyone thinking about creating a new blog to check out the article. For those of you with existing blogs, the list provides an opportunity to see if you are taking full advantage of all social and syndicating tools available. If you're not making it easy for people to find you, link to you, or subscribe to you, then you are most likely losing out on reaching a larger audience and your blog is not reaching its full potential.
