I came across an article posted at Aviva Directory thanks to Andy Hagans which offers 21 tips on how to launch a blog – successfully. With thousands of blogs launching each and every day, this list provides some basic steps one can take in the first couple weeks of a blog launch.
Tips are provided under six main categories – The First Impression, RSS & Subscriptions, Social Bookmarking (aka Going Viral), Getting networked, Link Building and Finishing touches. Following are a few that stand out in my mind.
8. Leave highly valuable comments on other blogs in your niche
Every niche within the blogosphere is made up of a few tightly knit communities. Like all communities, so much of what is actually going on (passing links, giving tips, etc.) is all done behind the scenes through email and IM. As a result, getting integrated into some of the communities in your niche is essential to growing your blog.
10. Include tons of outbound links in your posts
As a new blogger, your target audience is other bloggers. They have the links that you need to get to the top of the search engines and to get in front of other readers. So a big key is getting other bloggers in your niche to notice you.
A good trick is to use website referrals to your advantage. Almost every blogger checks their site referrals list on a daily or weekly basis (which tells them the last page a visitor was on before they landed on their site). They use this list both to track new links and to see who is talking about their site. By putting a lot of outbound links in your posts to other blogs in your niche, you can start to raise your profile.
13. Submit your blog to blog directories
Incoming links help your site to get spidered, indexed and ranked better by search engines. Conveniently, there are many blog directories that specialize in categorizing and linking to quality blogs.
21. Dress up your comments
People want to participate in and link to a vibrant site. So create one by encouraging your friends to comment on your blog. The key is that you want to create the impression of an energetic and participatory group of readers. Nobody wants to be the first guy to comment on a post, but everyone wants to chime in on a hot debate.
There’s a lot more good stuff there. Head on over to Aviva Directory for the full article.
