Wondering when to launch your blog?

Getting your blog live is something you might be delaying because you are waiting for the right time, to have the blog designed perfectly, or until you have enough content. BUT that is not the right strategy and I will explain why below.

Getting your blog live

1. There Is No Big Launch!

One thing that is important to understand is that there will no big launch and all the bells and whistles that go with it, unless you are a big brand such as BMW and with a significant budget to pump into the launch.

Don’t expect high traffic when you first launch.
Don’t expect high traffic when you first launch.

When you launch, you are extremely likely to get only a trickle of visitors if any visitors, to your site.

So the idea of a big and important launch day holds little value for most of us bloggers.

The relevance of this for you as a blogger is that there is little to be gained by waiting to go live.

On the contrary, getting your blog live immediately actually has a number of benefits, even if you have just one post and the design of your site is developing.

2. It Is Much Easier to Be Motivated

One of the KEY benefits of just getting your blog online is that motivation will become that much easier! Why?

By going live with your blog, even with the bare minimum on your blog i.e. just one post, you will immediately have something TANGIBLE, that is, something you can visibly see or touch.

You will have something:

  • To build on.
  • That you can add to.
  • That you can see and that will push you and make you want to improve on.

Think of getting your site live within the next 7 days much like trying to grow tomatoes. You have to plant the seeds first.

You do not need to worry about the finished product. You just first need to do something tangible.

As the seeds grow, the motivation to water the plants becomes easier, as you see and hopefully enjoy, seeing the plants develop.

This is the same for your blog. Just get something live and then enjoy growing it.

Get online and you will be amazed how quickly your blog can develop once you get started.

3. You Can Immediately Implement What You Learn

It is very likely that you already read the blogs of others in your niche and as a result, you might have come across ideas, useful plugins, a great way of structuring the user menu on your site, and so on.

By already having your blog live, even from the start, it means that you can immediately try out anything that you come across as you yourself are learning.

Making notes and a to-do list is a great idea – BUT – if you can try out and test things as you learn in a tangible way, your site will develop quite naturally and with less effort than if you try to go for one huge launch.

4. Blogging Is an Organic Process

Your blog will never be perfect! Never.

Things are constantly changing online and so will your blog, whether it be your main design, the writing style, how you layout your posts, or the plug-ins you use.

Blogging gives you a voice in the world.

There will always be something to update and change on your site.

So, do not get carried away with looking for perfection on your blog!

Do not think you have to wait until you have, say, twenty perfect blog posts and a stunning-looking design.

You can go live with one blog post and a basic design and then build and develop the site as you go. Just get online and build and move forward.

5. Search Engines Love Regular Content

Search engines love regular content because it shows that your site is live and actively used. It is, in other words, not just some static old and unused site.

This, in fact, is why allowing people to comment on your blog post can be a great idea. It means you can have extra content added to your posts and the posts will be seen as engaging with the public. Google loves this.

Pinterest is another search engine and one of the most popular online. It uses images and they love to have brand new content posted from brand new blog posts.

Weekly is best (or more often if you are able) but weekly is good.

Now – imagine that you decide that you will wait until you have 50 blog posts written before you put your site live? Well, that is fine to do.

But you might want to just get your blog live and then start adding one post a week to your blog to build it gradually.

You can can pin that one post every week to different Pinterest boards and build your site and your Pinterest presence simultaneously.

Take a look at the Pinterest for Symonds Research training for example and the thousands of followers they have built.

Let me summarise the points I am making here:

Search engines love regular content, so why not just write your content regularly from the start, rather than thinking you have to create tonnes before going live?

6. Get Online This Week and Overcome the fear of going online

There are some other key benefits to getting your blog online immediately or, let’s say, within the next seven days.

a) Overcoming the Fear of Going Online

From the feedback we get from you all, we know that many of you are fearful of opening up to the world and going online.

People from around the world will see your ideas and judge you?

Friends and family will read your posts and there is no escape.

Well – the very best way to overcome this fear is to just get online. Go live! Now!

Building links to point to your own site is an important ranking factor, for moving your site up the search engine results.

Furthermore, this process takes time i.e. a year or two.

So, the sooner you can get online and start building some/any kind of online presence with your website address, the sooner you can start to build these links.

Building links on various platforms to your site will help you in the long term.

The easiest way, for example, is to start with creating links on any social media profiles you have.

Do you use Facebook? Also, if you have accounts, add a link to your site from Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and other social media accounts you have.

Make sure to add a link to your blog from your Facebook profile.
Make sure to add a link to your blog from your Facebook profile.

c) Start Using Your Global Voice

Whether you are blogging to generate an income, purely as a hobby, or to spread your views on important issues, by blogging you will have a global voice.

So why delay having that voice? Why not go online now and use the opportunity that the Internet and blogging afford you?

One thing is for certain, until you put that blog live, and until you begin to have some kind of online presence, people will not find you or know about your business, or cause.

Suggested Actions

It is all very well me babbling on here (although I hope it’s been useful babble) but actions are what count and so I want to give you some suggested actions.

In the next 7 Days, I suggest you try to achieve the following:

  • Get your domain and hosting
  • Install WordPress (if you use Bluehost then you just use the one-click install).
  • Publish live your first blog post.

Common Questions

Should I Start Blogging?

Yes. Absolutely. Get to it! You will have a global voice, the chance to make an income online (with a lot of hard work) and you can go online very cheaply.

What to Do Before Launching a Blog

As discussed in this post, there is very little you actually need to do before going online, because you can build the blog as you go.

You will though need a few things, namely, a blog URL (address) and hosting.

I would strongly advise using paid hosting because, in the longer term, it means you can include ads on your blog and you will have much more adaptability in terms of adding things such as plugins and other tools.

One of the easiest ways is to use someone such as bluehost.com and buy the domain and hosting all in one go.