Did you launch a blog that has never got any visitors? Maybe you are thinking of starting one and looking for possible guarantees to have a successful blog launch?

If you?re like me, you are looking to plan your next blog launch carefully. You want to secure maximum exposure. You want those Google Analytics to show traffic from day one.

I?ve had an experience where a blog of 70 posts went unnoticed for three months before I took it down. It never had any real visitors, and completely wasted my time and energy on creating and building its content.

However, with that experience in mind, I decided to find out how I can make sure that my next blog launch doesn?t hit the same brick wall.

I wanted visitors, organic visitors.

So, I?ve read, tested, and came up with essential steps to a successful blog launch. The following article gives light to these steps:

Step 1: Good Niche Selection

Let?s start with the obvious steps.

If you aren?t sure of your niche selection, it probably isn?t a good one. There are thousands of small, medium, and large niches to choose from. Some are highly competitive, while others are relatively new and easy to conquer. Some of these niches have millions of monthly searches, and others barely make it to a thousand.

That is why you need to select a niche that fits what you are looking for and have realistic expectations. Only then you can move on to a strategically successful blog launch.

Step 2: Create The Blog but?

Let?s be clear, you won?t succeed in launching a blog if you don?t have one in the first place. That?s just common sense.

However, having a WordPress blog isn?t all that it takes. You need to have a great domain name that reflects your brand, a professional SEO-friendly theme design, and high-quality content.

These are the basics, and you?ll need the best blogging tools for that. Still, we aren?t going live yet.

We are only starting the planning now.

Step 3: Get Active Online

Before you launch your blog, you need people to know you exist. That?s why you have to start using social media and other blogs to your advantage.

Once you have decided on your niche, create accounts and join relevant forums. You should be able to find many active groups on Facebook and Reddit. Twitter will provide you with the ability to connect with other bloggers in your niche, and so will LinkedIn, if you are in a professional niche. You can use websites such as Quora to find your audience.

Basically, you need to put yourself in front of as many people as possible, both target audience and competitors. All of that before your blog is even known to exist.

You are not doing any [direct] self-promotion yet. You should be merely answering questions, interacting with your target audience, and networking with other bloggers. They are more open to you when you don?t have any blog to compete with them.

Step 4: Guest Post on Other Blogs

As your presence online grows, many will start looking to read more of your content. You don?t want them to find your blog just yet, so you start writing for other blogs in your niche.

This step is highly recommended for link building and profoundly undermined for networking. When you are reaching out to bloggers to write on their blogs, they usually suspect you are doing off-page SEO and reject your pitch. However, since you don?t have a blog visible yet, your chances of landing guest post gigs are higher.

Not only so, but when you write for other people, you are putting your content in front of many more eyes than your blog could get in its launch. And you still can include a link to your blog in the author bio.

Now, you?re probably asking yourself ?if I have no blog, what link would I put??

The answer is

Step 5: Create a Landing Page

List building is also a technique that is left for when the blog is fully functional, but that?s just wrong. If you want to have a successful blog launch, you need traffic that is ready to see what you have to offer.

Your contributions to social sites and blogs should lead interested readers to a ?coming soon? page on your blog. Include a sign-up form and promise to notify your subscribers as soon as the blog is officially live.

You can stop there, or you can make sure that whoever lands on the coming soon page becomes a subscriber.

Step 6: Offer Exclusive Value

You may be wondering why anyone would subscribe to a blog that doesn?t exist, especially when they don?t know what it is about?

Fair question.

Let?s answer it.

First off, they DO know what the blog is about since they visited through the link on your author bio or after checking your profiles on social media. You have offered excellent value for free, and it encouraged them to visit your site.

Now, why would they subscribe? It?s because you are offering them exclusive content even before the blog is launched.

You can offer an ebook and promise early access to the website before its launch. You can provide value to the email list while you build your blog comfortably.

Step 7: Talk To Your Audience

Steps 3 to 6 are all set to make sure you have a direct or indirect line of communication with your target audience. You want to make sure that when you launch your blog, they are ready to visit, stay, share, comment, and return the next day.

The best way to do so is to know what your niche is missing, and what your audience is asking for. On social media, you?ll find many questions that need answers, and you can build your content around those. When you visit your competitor?s blogs, their audience always asks for more, but the owners aren?t always delivering. That could be your opening.

Or you could just ask your list of subscribers what they would like to see. A direct question would yield many answers, and each answer is one blog post ready to written, published and shared with them.

Step 8: Launch Your Blog

Now, after weeks, if not months, of waiting, it?s time to hit the publish button. But before that, you need to make sure that your blog is accessible, loads fast, and full of high-quality content.

You should test your theme?s responsiveness on all screens, proofread your content, and make it shareable.

When you finish testing and finalizing your blog, alert your email subscribers to check it out. Allow some of them to have a look around before the actual launch, ask for their feedback, and see what needs to improve. No matter how perfect you think your blog is, there is always room for improvement.

When that?s done, email your blog subscribers, your network of bloggers, and share across all your social media accounts.

Step 9: Enjoy!

Once all of these steps have been carefully done, your blog launch will have tremendous success. You won?t be disappointed, but you need to stay ahead.

Always improve and provide more value to your audience. Ask for feedback regularly, make changes whenever possible, and stick to your brand?s voice.

And most importantly, enjoy a successful blog launch and continuity!

Conclusion

Following these steps, many have seen excellent results. Their blogs had a jumpstart, and they never looked back. It?s time for you never to look back as well!

Follow these 9 steps and let us know in the comments how successful your blog launch is.

Happy blogging!

Author bio: Youness Bermime is a professional content writer and marketer. He owns WritersDo, a blog that helps new bloggers learn how to write and promote their content efficiently. He also writes for ActionTakingMogul, a blog that encourages readers to take action and start making money online in many different ways.