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12 Comments

How did you launch your blog?

Hey everyone! I'm currently building a blog, with the longer term goal of building a paid community with premium content.

I've got the site setup, my first few articles written, but I'm sitting on the fence about how to launch it.

My main concern is that there are only a few articles and that people might have a quick look, but not signup for the newsletter.

So I've come up with two ideas to try and get some subscribers as part of the launch announcement:

  1. Offer a piece of awesome premium content for free in exchange for their email address (I've been doing this, but now second guessing if that is the right approach cos it feels a bit gimmicky even though it's good content)
  2. Make some awesome copy to explain why they should signup for the mailing list, ie. sell the dream of what this community could become with their help.

I'd love to hear how other people have launched their blogs? What did you find worked best for you? I feel like I keep yo-yoing between how I want to do it, which is probably just me procrastinating launching at this point...

Edit: Thanks to everyone who has already replied! I feel like I don't need to make a big deal about the launch now. You guys are awesome. Thank you.

Thank you in advance!

  1. 4

    If you write awesome content, people will not need any extra persuasion to sign up for your newsletter for new blog-post alerts. Share your awesome content through the usual channels to gain more traffic. Then keep posting/emailing/sharing awesome content until your website creaks under the high volumes of traffic and blog comments. Only then will you know your content is actually awesome, valuable and engaging and a paid community stands a chance of success.

    1. 1

      I think awesome content is a bit of a high bar and a bit vague. From what people do here, I would rather narrow it down and talk about what the function of the blog would be. For example it can be channel to keep project's and/or company's fans engaged. So you have a blog, now define it in other terms of course quality writing goes a long way that is not the hook.

    2. 1

      Thanks @colcol - I agree 100%. I realised after posting this that I didn't want to be one of those people who tried to trick people into signing up just to get subscribers. I'd prefer that people can decide for themselves if the content is right for them or not. Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)

    3. 1

      Agree - just keep doing what colcol said :D and I will add building backlinks when time is right (when you have some traffic coming in already)

  2. 2

    For me I prefer to take things slow, I probably wouldn't do a launch and focus in on sharing individual articles to gauge people's reaction. I do this to help give me confidence in whether what I'm writing is on the right track, then as I gain confidence I may work up to doing a launch or ramping up promotion of it.

    Lots of people don't do it like me, and that's ok to. 😊

    1. 1

      I read Rosie's newsletter and I think she knows what she is talking about haha!

      IMO a launch doesn't really help, at max just a boost in traffic and then die down, slowly make sure each article is exposed is more important.

      And I think you nailed it yourself, both your ideas have "awesome content" in it, when you create awesome content, people read

      1. 1

        Thanks @jessicaleo and @rosiesherry this is great feedback and I totally agree! I think I got distracted hearing about how some businesses did a 'launch' and had a bunch of success. But thinking about it now, I don't think that's the right path for me anyway, I'd much prefer a slow (and more sustainable) burn, and see what content people are interested in and go from there.

  3. 1

    In line with most of the advice here, I'd start with the newsletter and email list of the people you already know in your network. Audience and community builds with trust and you should aim to accrue your reputation over time. Start with engaging your immediate audience and build from there.

    The important thing is to get into the habit of publishing regularly, get feedback from your early audience, and iterate.

  4. 1

    How about using paid channels like Facebook Ads to gain some initial traffic? Would that work?

  5. 1

    Just take it slow and don't pressure yourself too much with a launch. When you prepare for a blog, all you read is "write valuable content", or "write the best in-depth article that's out there". That can put a lot of pressure on you.

    Besides, it's hard to create awesome content from the start. Even if it's the perfect article that covers all the information out there, you still need to tune in to your readers to make that connection to your community.

    Just analyze what your readers like, lean in to it, market it for more exposure, finetune again. It's a process.

    In regards to the email list building, you can test both options and find out what works best. There are a lot of websites who use multiple email magnets. Sometimes even on one page (wouldn't recommend that though).

    Good luck with your blog

  6. 1

    I don't do "launches" for blogs ;). Just make it public.

  7. 1

    I didn't do an actual launch. I just started sharing my blog posts and notifying friends and acquaintances.

    If you don't already have an online platform or a large following, gaining eyeballs takes so much time and effort, a formal launch wouldn't make much difference anyway. So, as others suggested, it's better to just start.

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