7 Tips to Show You How to Launch A New Blog

Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 06:54 pm

Do you want to learn how to launch a new blog the right way? If this is your first blog then chances are you have no clue what it takes to start a blog or why people get involved with blog writing. Today, I am going to share why you don’t need to focus on a blog launch and instead focus on doing things the right way.

Do You Really Need to Do A Blog Launch?

I’ve seen some bloggers say that they did a blog launch before they even started writing blog posts. Then I’ve seen some bloggers say that they wrote tons around 10-25 blog posts before they launched their blog.

The truth is that you can do it either way you want. It really doesn’t matter if you launch with your first blog post or 20. No one is going to see your blog until you get out there and start promoting it.

Maybe you’ve been putting off launching your new blog because you’re wondering what the best day to launch is? From my personal experience, there is NO best day to launch.

How I Started My Blog

When I started this blog, I started with just one blog post, I didn’t even have a launch plan. I’ve made several mistakes along the way, for instance, I didn’t start promoting my blog until it was 6 months old.

If you want your blog to grow, you need to focus on promotion.

The growth of this blog has been extremely slow because I dragged my feet on a lot of important areas.

I’ve started getting search engine traffic, but I truly believe if I would’ve focused more on SEO from the get go, I’d be a lot further than where I am today.

If only I would’ve been more diligent about using Long Tail Pro to do proper keyword research. But I took a lot of shortcuts at the beginning, now I have a bunch of posts that will probably never reach the first page of Google.

The cool thing is that they still bring me some traffic.

When I Start My Second Blog

About a two weeks ago, I started my second blog. This time, I decided to start in a popular niche on Pinterest.

Instead of launching my blog with only one post, I decided to write 5 blog posts and go live. My goal was to write 20-30 blog posts before going live, but the truth is that it takes me forever to write a blog post.

When I started the blog, I thought that it would be a lot easier to write the blog posts. But the truth is that I haven’t even written any more blog posts for my new blog.

I’ve decided that I am going to continue working on it, but it’s NOT going to be a fast process. I figured out that I definitely enjoy writing content a lot more for this blog.

I’ve struggled with writing content for a niche that I knew nothing about in the past. The only reason that I started the second blog was that I thought that I would enjoy writing about the topic.

Maybe it just takes time to get into the groove of writing for a brand new topic? Who knows, only time will tell if I can start enjoying the writing process for it later on or not.

The last thing that I want to do is spend months getting content out the door. Oh and I’ll definitely be starting a blog in a niche that is popular on Pinterest.

Here’s a quick look at some of the popular niches that do extremely well on Pinterest:

• Parenting
• Food
• DIY/Home Decor
• Health/Fitness
• Frugal Living
• Making Money

If you’re not interested in any of those topics, then here are 58 more popular blog topics.

How to Launch A New Blog

You first need to get your own blog setup. Now I am not talking about using a free blogging platform. I know the thought of spending money on something that hasn’t made any money can be scary.

But you need to let the fear go and start on a self-hosted blog. It’s not expensive if you start on a hosting account that is great for beginners.

When you are setting up a new blog, you shouldn’t spend a lot on your hosting.

I personally use SiteGround for my hosting account. When I started this blog, I signed up for the GrowBig account and paid 3 years in advance for it.

Once my site reaches 25,000 pageviews then I can decide if I want to move my site to another hosting account or upgrade to the next level on my hosting account.

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to start your own blog without breaking the bank. Once you get your blog set up, come back and make sure that you start implementing these tips to help you stay on track.

#1 Build Your Foundation

Your blog is going to represent what you are and what you do. This means that you’ll definitely want it to look professional, but the last thing you want to do is spend a fortune.

Well, the great thing is that there are several WordPress themes that you can use that look amazing and are mobile responsive. If you are brand new to WordPress and have absolutely no experience whatsoever.

I suggest grabbing an Elegant Themes membership and downloading the Divi Theme. (I use this theme on a lot of my client’s site and they love it.)

Plus with your membership, you’ll get access to the Monarch Social Sharing Plugin and Bloom which will save you money later on down the road.

Of course, if you want to start with the same theme that I use, then you can pick up the Genesis Framework and use one of the Restored 316 themes.

Related: How to Choose A WordPress Theme What I Recommend

Either way, you want to choose a WordPress theme and don’t want to spend too much time on the design. After all, it’s the content that’s going to be the most important part of gaining loyal readers.

How to Launch a Blog Successfully

Once you get your blog set up it’s time to get busy writing content your target audience is going to want to read. Now before you open up just any keyword tool, I want you to spend some time researching other popular blogs in your niche.

Head on over to Pinterest (since this is the platform you’re going to focus on) and start finding other bloggers in the same niche. Once you have a list of 10-15 blogs.

This plugin has helped me grow my following on Pinterest, the cool thing is that you can get your Risk Free 30-Day Trial.

It’s time to find out what you’re going to write about. Follow these steps if you want to learn how to launch a blog in 90 days or less. It all just depends on how quickly you can write the articles you want to start with.

#2 Time to Do Some Research

Go to Buzzsumo and sign up for a free account. When I did it, I think I was able to get a 30-day trial or 100 free searches. It’s been awhile, so I don’t really remember.

Start doing your research on those blogs that you found. You’re looking for the blog posts that have been shared the most on Pinterest. This will give you an idea of what topics people are actually willing to share.

As soon as you find the blog posts, jot them down inside of your Google Drive document. This way you’ll have a ton of blog post ideas that you can write about.

Related: 7 Reasons You Need to Find Popular Blog Topics People Love

Do this for every blog you found on Pinterest that is in your niche. Your goal is to find 20-30 hot blog topics that have thousands of Pinterest shares.

Once you do that you have the topics that you’re going to add to your own blog.

Don’t Copy Their Content

There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing about the same topic that the blogger wrote about. After all, everything on the Internet has been written over and over in the bloggers own unique perspective.

So whatever you do make sure that you write your own content and don’t steal theirs. That’s totally wrong and you don’t want to get slapped with a Take Down Notice.

Just put your head down and keep writing. Your goal is to write 20-30 high-quality blog posts as quickly as you can. This way you’ll have several articles that you can start promoting right out of the gate.

If you can’t write that many articles, then just start with 5 like I did. (just don’t make the same mistake I did of NOT writing any more for over 2 weeks.)

#3 Using Pinterest to Promote Your Blog

Your main focus as a new blogger is to get traffic to your blog. If you can grow your pageviews and join a good ad network, you’ll be making passive income in no time.

As soon as you write all your blog posts, you want to create 5-6 pins for each of your blog posts. This will give you enough pins that you can start circulating throughout Pinterest.

If you have never used Pinterest, I recommend signing up with Pinning Perfect, which is the same course I bought when I started using the social media platform.

It’ll show you everything you need to know about using Pinterest for business. Plus it’s updated on a regular basis and you get lifetime access to all the updates.

Here’s a tutorial that will show you how to verify your WordPress blog on Pinterest. Read everything that you can get your hands on about Pinterest, I recommend starting on their business site.

#4 Create Your Pinterest Boards

Once you’ve created your business account on Pinterest, it’s time to create some boards that you’ll be pinning your content as well as other people’s content too. The Pinning Perfect course covers everything you need to know about creating your boards and your Pinterest profile.

Make sure that you’re using niche related keywords on your pins and your boards. This way you’ll have a much better chance of showing up the smart feed.

#5 Join Tailwind

Tailwind is the approved API Partner of Pinterest. Plus, it will help you automate your pinning so you can focus on other things like writing content.

This is how I set up semi-looping on Tailwind to keep my pins circulating.

I recommend signing up with Tailwind before you even have your blog posts written. This way you can start pinning pins to your boards and allowing some time to get Pinterest familiar with the types of pins you share.

It’s going to take some time to build trust with Pinterest. The sooner you start pinning other people’s pins (while you work on yours) the faster you’ll build up your trust.

Once you get your pins created, then you can slowly switch from sharing 100% of other people’s pins and sharing more of yours. I personally share about at a ratio of 70% mine and 30% other people’s pins.

Honestly, I don’t think there is a set ratio that works. You just want to make sure that you’re sharing more of your pins while also sharing a few other blogger’s pins.

#6 Join Tailwind Tribes

Start joining as many Tailwind Tribes as you can. Everyone is going to tell you to start joining Group boards because they are going to be your bread and butter.

The truth is that you’re going to have a hard time getting accepted into group boards if your a brand new blogger. Most group boards require you to have some type of Pinterest following before they allow you to join.

This plugin has helped me grow my Pinterest following without lifting a finger. If you can get more followers on Pinterest, you’ll have a better chance of getting accepted into group boards.

Although make sure that you watch this video as Pinterest is saying that group boards won’t play a huge role soon. But I wouldn’t worry about that until it actually happens.

So when you start growing your following start applying to some group boards.

Until then focus on sharing your content in the Tailwind Tribes. Just remember to read their rules because every tribe is different and you don’t want to get kicked out for not following the rules.

You need to learn how to promote your blog on social media. A new blog is NOT going to get any traffic from Google for a while, so don’t spend a lot of time trying to get organic traffic.

#6 Write Publish and Promote

As a new blogger, one of the most challenging things to do is to sit down and write content day after day. It may take a while to get your first blog post written.

Remember your goal is to get your first 30 blog posts written. Then you’ll want to keep creating 5-6 pins for each and every blog post you write.

It’s a ton of work and you’ll be tempted to quit. Especially, when you start looking at your Google Analytics and you don’t see any visitors. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial that will show you how to set up Google Analytics.

Keep your blinders on and just keep doing these daily blogging tasks. Whatever you do, don’t stray or jump to a different traffic source because you’re not seeing results fast enough.

Pay attention to your blog analytics and it will tell you which posts people are resonating with on your blog. You can then use this information to write more posts that people like.

Before you know it, you’ll start to see your first couple of blog visitors.

#7 Watch It Grow

It takes time, but if you started a blog in one of the niches I mentioned above, it shouldn’t take too long. After all those niches do very well on Pinterest.

Hopefully, you have monetized your blog and set up your email opt-in. If so then maybe you’re starting to see some money coming in from affiliate marketing and people are starting to give you their email address in exchange for your lead magnet.

Either way, as your Pinterest account, continues to mature and your pins get circulated more on the platform. You’ll start to see more traffic, heck you may even have a pin go viral.

How to Maintain the Momentum

Running a successful blog is more than just the launch of the blog. Now that you’ve learned how to launch a new blog, you’re going to need to continue to nurture your blog if you want to see it grow.

Remember those 30 blog posts that you wrote at the beginning. Well, if you haven’t published them all at once, then schedule some in the WordPress platform to be published in the next few weeks.

This will give you a small break from writing all those blog posts. Plus it will give you more time to write more content and keep creating pins for your blog.

Eventually, you’ll come up with a system that works for you and helps you grow your blog using Pinterest.

Once you have a good Pinning strategy down then it’s time to start focusing SEO for your blog. Backlinko has a great SEO guide to help you understand how Rankbrain works.

Your Questions Answered

How Many Posts Should I Write Before Starting My Blog?

I see this question asked so many times in Facebook Groups. The truth is that there is no right or wrong answer as to how many posts you should write before you launch your blog. No one is going to see it anyway.

If you’re following these 7 steps to launch your blog as quickly out the gate as possible. You’re going to need at least 30 blog posts. Don’t worry if you can only get 5 done, that will work too.

As long as you keep writing until you have at least 30.

This way if you create 6 pins for every blog post it will give you 180 of your own pins that you can promote on Pinterest.

How to Grow My Audience As A Blogger?

One of the most challenging things you’re going to face as a new blogger is growing your blog. There are several different variables to how fast a blog will grow.

Pinterest has been huge for bloggers who started their blog in one of these niches. Pay attention to what other blogger’s in your niche are doing.

Instead of thinking of them as competition. Start thinking of them as friends. These bloggers have already found what works for them and I’ve seen people share what’s working for them in Facebook Groups.

So the easiest way to grow your blog is to start networking with other bloggers. Don’t try to do it all by yourself, it’s much better if you have some friends that you can talk to when you need some inspiration.

Final Take Away

It’s easy to start blogging online, once you get your blog setup. The hard part comes when you’re trying to grow your blog and earn money from it.

Personally, I don’t think that there is a perfect blog launch checklist. It all comes down to personal preference of how you do it. The most important thing to remember is that you need to promote your content.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that it happens overnight or in a few weeks. While it is possible that someone might share a pin of yours and it can go viral on Pinterest.

The truth is that it’s not easy growing a blog and turning it into a profitable venture.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. All you have to have is the patience and the persistence to keep blogging even when you’re not seeing the results you want.

I truly believe that you can’t lose as long as you don’t give up. If you launch your blog using these 7 steps, you’re likely to succeed a lot faster than someone who starts their blog with just one blog post.

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Did you find these 7 tips helpful? Let me know if you feel I missed something, I’d love to hear your thoughts.