I came into the blogosphere the natural way…my blog was birthed slowly and came to discover its own voice and the like. It’s not a bad way, but its not the only way. If you’re a blogger considering starting a second one or if you’re a blog reader who’s interested in starting your own, you can make it come into the world with a bang.
Aviva compiled a list of 21 tips for a successful blog launch. I think they’re excellent if you’re trying to create a pretty popular blog from the get-go.
I’d add some tips, including to start your own network if you don’t see anything in your niche. For example, Pinyo of Moolanomy started the M-Network as a way for personal finance bloggers of a certain blog age (as in started last summerish). Great idea. Or Queercents is a place for GLBTQ personal finance bloggers to write together.
Another idea, besides setting up a bunch of good posts at the launch have a number ready. Just in case you get writer’s block…that way you won’t crash after you launch well.
Why start a blog?
1. Accountability–that’s why I started mine. To have a place to write about my finances and what I was trying.
2. Learning–I expect you learn a lot from being an avid blog reader too, but I think being a blogger helps me learn even more. Writing is part of learning.
3. Community–commenting on blogs can build conversations but having your own blog helps even more. You can respond more fully to posts and ideas through your own posts.
4. Monetization–blogging isn’t always lucrative, but you can sometimes earn money with a blog. If you’re starting the blog to make money, I think starting with a bang is even more important.
I have some ideas for eventually starting another blog…but I want to prepare well first, writing posts, getting a good theme, setting it up nicely, all that.
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Aviva’s list is great. Thanks for sharing!
I’m actually working on starting another blog myself, if I can find the time to write for four (the new one, plus two of my own, plus The Bargain Queens). And in the meantime, I’ve shifted focus on All About Appearances — so I definitely know what you mean by a blog “discovering its voice”.
My motivation is definitely a good mix of all the four you listed. Mostly, though, I really like being a part of conversations. I’m unapologetically opinionated ; )
Wow, great link Mrs. Micah!
I just started blogging this month and I am amazed at how much there is to learn. I’m like you in that I started in order to keep myself accountable and to keep track of what I am trying. I’m hoping for some nice and steady organic growth.
Thanks for sharing your journey and your tips!
Thanks for the Aviva list. its informative
Hi Mrs M – Great reasons for starting a blog. I’ve noticed that those who begin blogging for money alone quickly run out of steam.
I have never known anyone to be successful in any endeavour when their only motivation was money.
Good tips. Two of the best blog to read when dealing with blogging are http://www.skelliewag.org and http://www.problogger.net — in that order.
Personally, I found blogging to be a great learning experience.
I continue to learn, grow, and find my voice. It’s definitely a work in progress for me!
Thanks for the helpful info. I’m going to check them out now. 🙂
Blogging has helped me focus on my financial goals. I hope to continue this for years to come.
I guess I started [my new blog] with a bang or at least that’s what I’ve been told. I have been blogging on myspace before, so I was not new to blogging per se. I have also started a couple of failed blogs where the problem was that even though the subjects interested me, it was hard to come up with something I thought was worthy of publication on a regular basis. I think maybe the critical question is: “Do I have enough material stored in my brain about this subject to write a book about it?”. If yes, then I think or hope that blogging can go on for a long time. If not, then it will be hard.
PS: Interesting idea about starting a network. Maybe I should do that, eventually.
Great post! The main reason we started our blog was accountability. We often say Toxic Money blog is our written statement owing up to our goals/debt payoff. We were also amazed by how much you can learn about your own finances writing a blog, and about finances in general reading someone else’s blog. We just love how supportive and educational this little “finance blog community” is.
At this point we’re not looking to make money through blogging… we’re just happy to have a tool to keep us on track with our debt payoff and savings goals. We also love how inspiring other people’s stories are. All in all, we should have discovered the world of financial blogging long time ago. 🙂
Let us know once your other blog is “live”!
Accountability was number one for me when I started. I’ve found it incredibly helpful to be able to track back my progress and plan where I’m headed!
Also, I’ve learned a ton through sharing and reading about other people’s experiences!
Great post, thanks!
Shauna
http://www.shauna26.wordpress.com
Mine was for accountability as well, but also to give back a bit. As we started out on getting our finances together, we learned a lot from blog like this one.
I also though technially t would be harder to start, but there are a lot of great tools (like Blogger or WordPress) to get you started.
As far as money goes, it sure hasn’t happened yet! But all of the top money making blogs were started by people that had passion for what they were doing. I have never seen a AdSense farm have high traffic!
Aviva’s 8th point is particularly important. Commenting isn’t just important after your launch, it’s vital prior to the launch so you can start making relationships with other bloggers and creating a name for yourself.
The 8th point is really important. Network, network, network to become successful.
Good link, Mrs Micah. Thanks for sharing.
The Aviva site is amazing! And its links really lead you to a lot of other interesting sites. Thanks for posting that.
Do you really think you need to start with a “bang”? In the first place, if you don’t already have a bunch of readers, wouldn’t that be like the proverbial tree falling in the forest…who’s to hear the bang? From what I was able to gather from Trent Hamm’s series on blogging at The Simple Dollar, it looks like you need to build a fair amount of decent content, first so there’ll be something that will interest a bunch of people and second so there’s a well of information for search engines to explore.
That seems to make sense & so it’s what I’ve been trying to do in what I call the “beta” launch of my infant blog. Also, as Early Retirement Extreme mentions, I wanted to see if I actually COULD come up with enough ideas to write something every single day (yipe!). The other reason I didn’t feel like I should try to leap full-formed from the head of Zeus is that I didn’t want a lot of ads until (or unless) it looks like people are interested in reading what I have to say.
But maybe that’s the wrong idea…maybe it’s better to dive in headfirst and try to max out readership from Day 1. ????
Definitely set it all up before you make an announcement here. I started writing and working on my new blog for about a month before I felt ready to let me regular readers know. I thought that some would stop by and check it out, and I didn’t want to look half-finished.
That’s quite the comprehensive list of to-do’s when starting up. I’ll second the need to link, link, link away in the beginning. Any extra readers you can gain early on will be huge.
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