Imagine this:
Launch day has come. Over the past couple of weeks, you’ve been excitedly preparing for the launch of your blog, and today is the day.
You wake up, rush to your computer, and quickly log on to your freshly launched blog, and….
Crickets. Nothing.
Nobody leaving comments on your blog posts. Hardly any traffic at all. And your email service provider is showing a big fat zero where you wanted to see dozens of new subscribers.
Your launch was a bust.
That’s the nightmare, right? No blogger wants to experience a failure to launch. So are you making these blog launch mistakes? Here are:
Launch Mistake #1: Taking Off Without a Runway
You publish a blog post, pick the perfect theme and add your social media profile buttons to your website. You’ve launched, right?
Well, not so fast. This is a mistake that new bloggers often make with their blog’s launch.
Think of your blog launch as a plane.
The plane needs a runway to taxi down before taking off to gain speed and momentum. Without the runway, the plane won’t go very far – if anywhere.
Your blog launch is like that too. You need a runway before you take off to launch effectively, and that runway happens to be time.
Don’t just open the doors on your blog and assume that your job is done. Set a launch date in the future so you can use the extra time as a runway to gain momentum for your launch.
Launch Mistake #2: Leaving Your New Readers Hanging
When you launch a blog, you want to see as much traffic as possible land on your blog. You want those readers to stick around and remain loyal fans.
But launching with only one article is like opening a library with only one book. What’s a reader to do after they’ve finished the one book?
If you launch with only one post, you’re leaving your readers hanging. You need to give them something to do after they read your initial article.
Instead of launching with just one or two blog posts, launch with three or four. Give readers something to do after they read your launch post.
Recommended reading: Launch: An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams
Launch Mistake #3: Being Foggy on Your Goals
This is a mistake that new bloggers and experienced bloggers make alike:
Being foggy on their goals.
Every blog post, every button, and every image on your blog should have a purpose. It should lead the reader toward one call to action, one goal. To do this effectively, you need to be crystal clear on what your main goal is from the second you launch.
If your goal is to convert readers into email subscribers, you’re contradicting that if you have social media buttons all over the place!
If your goal is to get people in your Facebook group, your launch goal won’t be met if your call to action is to subscribe to your email list.
Remember: one goal at a time of your launch. Become crystal clear on your goal and make all of the elements of your blog work toward that goal.
As you become a more established blogger, you can increase the goals and calls to action, but you want the most successful launch possible.
Launch Mistake #4: Backloading Your Launch
When you launch your blog, all of the work happens when your blog is up and running, right?
Then, you can start promoting, list building, and writing, right?
This is actually a huge mistake. When you backload your launch like this, you’re losing out on opportunities to gain readers, generate buzz and drum up excitement for your launch, which helps you gain a much farther reach.
Instead of backloading the work for after your launch, focus on promoting your blog, building that list and writing posts and social media updates before your website’s “go live” date. You can even submit guest posts, create YouTube videos, make live streams on YouTube, LinkedIn or Facebook. Get creative and I'm sure you'll come up with lots of ideas for things to do before you launch so you can avoid this next mistake…
Launch Mistake #5: Launching to Nobody
One of the biggest blog launch mistakes new bloggers make is that they launch into a void.
See, a launch is one of a blog’s biggest moments. Other than a product launch, it’s one of the only newsworthy events for a blog. So it’s a huge mistake to use this newsworthy day on nobody.
Launching your blog when you have no subscribers and no audience is like setting off fireworks in the middle of an isolated desert.
The fireworks go off, and they’re exciting, but there’s nobody to witness it, nobody around to ooh or ahh about the fireworks, and they go off in vain. Start making connections with others in your niche by leaving insightful comments on their blogs or connect with you on your favorite social networks. That way you will already have an audience before you hit publish.
Instead of launching to nobody, build an audience before you launch so you can harness the power of that audience to make your launch as newsworthy as possible. Drive traffic to your pre-launch landing page and capture those emails before you launch. Don’t launch until you have an audience of 500 or 1,000 subscribers.
This will make everything you do on your blog more effective when you do launch.
Launch With a Bang by Avoiding These Blog Launch Mistakes
What could be possible if your blog launched with thousands of visitors on day one? If you already had an audience who shared your posts and helped generate buzz around your launch. If your launch goals were met or even succeeded?
You’ve been working hard on your blog.
You want to set it up for success, reach your launch goals and make sure your hard work goes to good use.
So make your blog launch work harder for you by avoiding these five silly launch mistakes.
And when you do launch, the only crickets you’ll hear are outside, where they belong.