Start A Blog Checklist: What Your Blog Needs Before Launching
Do you think you're ready to start a blog? Then…you need something to help you guide through blogging like a ”start a blog checklist” that you will also find here.
But having a blog checklist is not enough, you have to know what written on the checklist is for.
Blogging can be so simple for some when they only think about writing and publishing blog entries but for those, who wanted to take blogging to the next level, starting a blog should be planned out the right way.
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If you're not yet totally sure about blogging, you gotta check out this free mini e-book.
I understand why I read a lot of hesitations and questions regarding starting a blog like:
”How many posts do I need before I publish my blog?”
”Do I need 50 blog posts before I make my blog live so it will rank easily on search engines?”
Now for the first question, it doesn't matter how many blog posts you publish, they wouldn't rank or even appear immediately on Google.
So you shouldn't waste more time contemplating how many posts should you write and publish before you make your blog online, and do these things instead that I'll be mentioning in this starting a blog checklist.
Disclaimer: Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost to you.
Starting a blog checklist for beginners:
You don't have to be creative with this but you gotta be personal and raw when it comes to this. So why do you want to start blogging?
Just like your ”whys” in blogging, you should know personally the goals of your blog. With your goals in mind, you also have the exact time associated with your blog. For example, by the time you reached the sixth month of blogging, you'll be earning €600 a month already from your blog.
Other than that, you should be willing to learn and have a passion for writing. If you think, you're not good at writing in English, you can ask your friends to proofread your work, hire someone on Fiverr or use the tool Grammarly.
What kind of topic do you want to share on your blog? Do you like teaching about technical matters, then you've gotta go for the tech niche.
If you're into losing weight and diet, then the health niche is right for you.
How can you determine your niche?
-Think of a subject or topic that you can talk or write about for hours
-What topic do your friends, relatives and neighbors ask you for help or answer
-What topic you're not so good at but you are willing to learn, improve at and eventually share
If you have the answer for those, then you're ready for the next step.
If you have a list of names to choose from, you can look them up directly on Namecheap. Avoid names that are too long, numbers that are not relevant to your niche or topic and hyphens.
You have to ensure that your content appears on the internet and people who have access to the internet will also find your website and its content. Aside from that, a web host sees to it that your website is up and running. So if you have problems with your blog or website, you should always turn to your web host and ask for assistance.
I recommend Lyrical Host and I've been with them for almost 2 years already and can't complain about their services and the customer's support is excellent.
Though WordPress may not be so beginner-friendly for some, once you know how it works, you will appreciate the backend and the functions of WordPress. Aside from being the most popular platform, WordPress is also search engine friendly.
You wouldn't want to welcome your readers and visitors with an empty homepage, do you?
A lack of multiple blog posts or entries may be understandable if you're new, but you shouldn't discourage your readers from going back again when they don't have any idea who you are and what are you writing about.
Important pages you should add to your new blog are:
- Contact – make sure your readers can connect with you
- About me – let them know who you are, what you do, what is your blog for and of course, the about me page is not only about you entirely, but let your visitors know the benefits of reading and visiting your blog
- Blog page – a single page where all your blog entries are.
- Homepage – the first page that your visitors will see so make sure you are leaving an impression already
- Legal pages like Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Categorise your blog posts or simply add categories even if you have only one blog entry.
If you are in a health niche, you can add categories like weight loss, diet and nutrition, healthy breakfast, and healthy recipes.
Adding categories helps you organise your blog so it won't be all over the place and your readers will easily find what they're looking for or what they should be reading when they're on your site.
Easy peasy.
I started with one single blog post when I launched my blog. I didn't even remember though what I did first – wrote a post first or made my blog live.
At that time, it didn't matter because I was receiving zero visitors when I published my blog.
I started gaining traffic by promoting my blog on Facebook groups, and then on social media like Pinterest when the latter was still predictable.
By the way, if you want to start on Pinterest or do some Pinterest cleanup, grab this Pinterest Profile Audit Guide for free.
So what should be your first blog posts?
Your first blog posts should be dependent on your niche and the future topics you will be covering in your blog.
I found a lot of blogs with informal first blog posts like an introduction of the founder of the blog which can be found already on the ”about” page – so avoid that kind of post.
So if you're into the health niche or tech niche, get into it, write about it and publish it.
Again, save your self-introduction on the about me page where it usually belongs.
If you're a total beginner, you might have not thought of keyword researching before you write a blog post. But it is better if your blog posts are SEO-friendly already than go over once again in the future because your blog entries don't receive organic traffic.
Choose a theme, a responsive, mobile-friendly theme for your blog and audience. Buying a premium theme is not a must-do if you're starting a blog and if you're tight on money right now.
WordPress offers free themes as well that you can use initially on your blog until you can afford to buy a paid one.
If you like my theme, you can check out more similar themes on Hearten Made where I bought this gorgeous Kadence theme.
Check out this post too: 7 Feminine WordPress Themes For Female Entrepreneurs and Boss Babe Bloggers
Launching a blog can be overwhelming for people who don't have enough knowledge of the digital world of blogging so a blog checklist would be really helpful so you'll know what you still need to do, install or add to your blog. And speaking of that, we're not yet finished here.
Now that sounds a little strange or may be complicated, but believe me, it is not that hard. Sitemaps enable search engines to crawl and index your pages. You don't have to do it manually and you can use a plugin to create a sitemap, and it is also possible to do it without a plugin. Here's a post on how to create a sitemap for your blog.
If you want to track what performs well on your blog, then you should connect it to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Adding these two helps you analyze your organic traffic or traffic through search engines like Google.
Google Search Console gives you more information like search queries internet users ask or write to find your blog posts.
If you have envisioned that your blog will give you monthly income after six months, then you need strategies to achieve that goal and vision.
If you want to monetize your blog, you can apply to affiliate programs relevant to your niche, you can write sponsored posts and be paid for your time and opinion, and you can use your portfolio to offer services as part of your online side-hustle or you can sell digital products.
But if you want to focus on growing your traffic, you should work more on SEO strategies or social media like Pinterest and Facebook.
So if you have done everything above, you can work more on other things to improve your blog.
Like they said, there's always room for improvement if you're not satisfied with the outcome and if you want to take blogging seriously.
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