In general most of the people prepare checklists to
perform any work,the same thing goes with the blogging too. If you have blog
set up checklist you can find out ways to improve your ranking and sales.
If you are setting up a new blog, here’s the most
comprehensive check listyou can use to start a blog from scratch.
A question arises in general “Do I really need a checklist
for starting a new blog? My answer is yes if you want to build up a blog that
makes money.
WordPress is highly recommended over any other blog
platform of you are a beginner to begin a blog.You will have thousands access
to thousands of plugins themes so you don’t have to be tech knowledge to manage
your blog.
1.
Here is the ultimate checklist for
starting the new blog Make sure you know why
you want to start a blog and use this to make a
commitment to stick at it for at least a year..
2.
Develop some concrete goals that
have a deadline and a specific outcome.
3.
Research the other blogs in your
niche and see what they are doing and how you might
be able to improve on their failings. Keep
researching regularly so you never stop learning about your market and targets.
4.
Brainstorm a strategy for your blog with
your end-goals and potential products in mind. It doesn’t have to be finalized
but it’s good to have some ideas about where you want to end up.
5.
Check to make sure your brand or
domain name isn’t already taken by some other
company.
6.
Purchase a domain name and hosting
package so that you fully own and control your website
and aren’t limited by a free blogging platform’s policies and technologies..
7.
Install WordPress on
your domain name as your free blogging software, through which you write posts,
edit the design/template and build out your website.
8.
Suggestion is
to Use a complicated username and a complicated
password that involves many different characters, capital letters and numbers.
9.
Set up an email address using your
domain name which you can use to sign up for
services related to your blog. .
10.
Choose a responsive theme that
fits your purposes which may mean purchasing a premium one or searching through
some quality simple themes that have a focus on content.
11.
Give your site a name and tagline that
includes the domain name and ideally your target keywords in the header. Change
this in SETTINGS > GENERAL.
12.
Create a sitemap with
the plugin XML Sitemaps so that Google can see how your site is
structured and updated.
13.
Add a social sharing
plugin like Mashshare so you have some clean and
simple icons where people can click to share your articles.
14.
Register for an Akismet key to
help combat spam comments that your blog will inevitably receive.
15.
Add a plugin like Subscribe to
Comments so commenter’s can receive notices when you
reply to their comments.
16.
Add the Yoast SEO plugin and
set up the basics. This can be quite an advanced plugin so don’t waste too much
time now you can squeeze it as you go.
17.
Sign up for a service
like AWeber where you can store your email
subscribers’ addresses, create opt-in forms, analyze stats, etc.
18.
Create some opt-in forms for
your sidebar, bottom of posts, header, etc. using the AWeber form generator and
add them to your blog’s code.
19.
Create a lead-magnet or free
eBook that you give away to readers in exchange for
them signing up for updates. This should be a very high quality/high value
offering that is tight on the topic you want to talk about over the coming
months.
20.
Create an automatic Follow Up email that welcomes
subscribers to your blog and lets them know what to expect next as well as
delivers the free eBook.You can create follow up email from the GetResponse
21.
Edit your title in your theme code so your
post name appears first instead of some ugly alternative.
22.
Write an About Page that
describes who you are and why you and your blog are different to the other ones
out there.
23.
Create a contact page that
has an email address where people can reach you, and maybe links to social
networking if you prefer to be contacted there.
24.
Consider adding a privacy policy and
term and conditions page if you have advice on what it needs to include in your
local area.
25.
Add a high quality photo of
yourself to help create brand personalization.
26.
Consider having a logo made for
you by a designer on Freelancer or Elance but don’t let
this stop you from launching and getting started with your blogging.
27.
Create a Start Here page or
subscription pages that introduce your blog and let’s people know what it’s
about and how they can get updates.
28.
Add some links to your social
networking profiles on your About Page and/or in your
sidebar so people know where to connect with you off-site.
29.
Write your first pillar blog
post of at least 2,500 words that really sets
the tone for your topic and your blog’s style. You want to provide as much
value as possible as soon as people land on your site so they know you’re the
real deal.
30.
Add relevant links to
that blog post that point to other quality sites and resources to give your
post more authority and help you get on the radar of other site owners.
31.
Consider adding lots of other media to
these long-form posts like videos, audio, graphics, resource lists, etc. as
this increases the value of the post and is a quality ranking factor for
Google.
32.
Think about your categories and
tags that
you use and try to put each post into only one category and 3-5 tags based
around your keywords.
33.
Sign up for an analytics package like Google
Analytics or Clicky so you can track visitors and see where they
land and how the behave once on your blog.
34.
Sign up for Webmaster Tools to
give you some interesting insights about how Google sees your blog and how you
can improve your search performance.
35.
Get your photo to appear in
comments by associating your email address with
a Gravatar account. This works on any blog that has photos enabled in
comments.
36.
Get some genuine feedback from
someone who has experience in the field and is not afraid to tell you if
something is done badly. Accept as much criticism as they take and be willing
to try out their suggestions.
37.
Publish your first post on
a high traffic day like Monday or Wednesday at East Coast US time for maximum
chance of exposure.
38.
Promote your post by
sending out emails/tweets to people that you’ve mentioned in your amazing
pillar article letting them know that they were featured and even spending a
few dollars on Facebook Ads to your get blog out there.
If you follow all of these steps you’ll find that
your new blog is set up in a way that will give you a good start and put you in
a position to grow and change in the future.
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