Hey! I’m Amanda, mindset coach and blogger. Here to help other mama’s reach their family travel dreams and goals!
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Many blogs only give you the very first steps to starting your blog:
Step #1: Pick Your Idea
Step #2: Get Hosting with Bluehost (my hosting of choice for as low as $5/month)
- At the same time you will register your domain (approx. $10)
- And begin your website using WordPress.org
Maybe they’ll venture to give you two more steps…
Step #3: Find a theme
- For versatility I use the Divi theme by Elegant themes
- But this requires patience and a little understanding of design and development
- You can also check out ThemeForest.com for some inexpensive WP themes
Step #4: Fill your website with great content and monetize
This is only the start of blogging and there is so much more to go through before you are ready to officially launch and finally find success with your blog. You can read about the 6 Stages to Successful Blogging (& Where Most Quit) to get a good overview of all the stages that bloggers go through before reaching success.
So you’ve started a blog, have a handful of posts, put together some affiliate links and made your blog design as nice as possible.
Where do you go from here?
Maybe you only have 5-10 hours a week to work on your blog because you work full time and have a family. Maybe you have 10-20+ hours per week to get to work. The time you can allot to your blog only matters in that it will speed you up or slow you down in regards to when you can launch.
My biggest tip in preparing for launch is: “Don’t rush your launch”.
If you only have 5 hours a week to work on your content, then take that five hours and do your best. If you have more time, then use it. But don’t launch until you and your blog are ready.
As you may have read in the Stages to Successful blogging post, Stage #2: Starter, can take quite a bit of your time. At this point many bloggers can become uncertain about how to move forward or what to focus on. Well, that’s what this blog is for.
Go through this checklist to be certain you are ready to launch:
⃞ You have no less than 25-30 posts
⃞ Your Brand is consistent throughout your website and all promotional materials
⃞ You know your targeted audience: Make sure you understand your audience well so that when you move forward you can create content that interests them and makes them want to share it.
⃞ Read other similar blogs to find materials that your audience will eat up
⃞ Join Facebook groups and take note of what your audience is talking about and asking questions about. This is important when creating anything for your business: Know your audience!
⃞ List of upcoming blogs to ensure you have enough content to keep you going for a few months without having to think about what your next topic will be. You need to always put out 1 post a week. Keeping this consistent makes your readers keep coming back for more week after week.
⃞ You have a great email optin, including the first 3-4 emails set up
⃞ Set a schedule for your business: Making sure that you can consistently put out the materials you need to keep your readers interested. That means at least blogs, emails, facebook, pinterest, and other social media, etc.
Here is an example of where you might put your time to start:
- Blog: 2-3 hrs to write, format and post/schedule your blog post
- Email: 1 hr to format and schedule your email(s)
- Social Media: 1-2+ hrs to create images and content and schedule for the whole week
- Monetization: 2+ hrs working on how to monetize your blog (create eBooks, eCourses, proper affiliate links)
- Take Audit: 1hr working on auditing your website. This means that you go through your website and ensure all links are working, you have updated your related posts and made sure that you make adjustments to low-performing aspects of your website to ensure all areas are performing well
⃞ Set up your social media:
- Get started with Pinterest: Set up your boards, join group boards and learn about Tailwind Tribes
- Start your Facebook page and populate it with some of your interesting materials. Schedule your upcoming content to ensure you have at least 2 posts a day for a few weeks.
- You can do the same for the other social media platforms you wish to use (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, BlogLoving, etc), but don’t feel that it’s necessary to do this yet. Focus on Pinterest, then on FB, then on other platforms as you get going and have the time.
⃞ You have at least 1-2 monetization methods on your website and if you can, consider your long term goals in making money. Do you want to have courses? Do you want to have private groups? It’s good to have an idea of where you’re going to help you in your scheduling and planning for your blog as you move forward.
Phew! Now that you are able to make it through that list, you are officially ready for your launch!
Don’t get put off by this list. It is a lot, but it is also all very much worth it.
Remember your dream, go back to it when you feel overwhelmed and use it to take that next step forward. Remember that the Success Stage is down the road and if you can check these markers off, then you are well on your way to that stage.
Do not give up!
Find an accountability partner if you need to be able to help boost each other up and move your business forward. Many try to do this alone, but there is a world of people out there with the same struggles and the same dream and you can be there for each other. Find that group with like-minded people and partner up.
Where are you in being ready to launch your website? Let me know in the comments below…
Want to finally start that blog you’ve been thinking about for ages? We have a great FREE email blogging course that bring you through all the steps to be ‘Launch-Ready’. Sign up here!