Checklist For Setting Up a New Money-Making Blog
I am a fanatical list maker. I love the efficiency I feel when I use them. They keep me organized and focused, and I love seeing all those check marks, which of course mean I’ve gotten a lot of work done.
I created the list below to keep me on track when setting up a new blog site. I’m happy to share it. Please keep in mind this list applies to MY situation and yours may be slightly different. For example, I use DreamHost for domain hosting, but you may choose to use something else. Regardless, I believe this list can still be useful to the new blogger needing a push in the right direction.
For the sake of keeping the checklist a manageable size I’ve summarized each step, but have included links to to additional information I may have.
Be sure to check out each link for more details about each step.
| ____ | 1. | Use Google Adword Keyword Tool or freekeywords.wordtracker.com to search keywords and choose a good blog topic. Looking for a gap. Look for a starving crowd. Look for demand, profitability, competition. Look for high number of searches, but low competition for that keyword. Look for LTKW (long tail keywords). Work with next step at the same time. If niche chosen is “cotton bed sheets” try to get domain name that matches exactly … cottonbedsheets.com. |
| ____ | 2. | Goto GoDaddy.com to check availability and register domain name. As domain is being purchased set nameservers for DreamHost to the following: |
| ____ | 3. | Go to DreamHost.com and add new domain. REMEMBER: Choose to set domain up either with or without the www. Just don’t do both. Google doesn’t like using both. Create two new emails using new domain name.
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| ____ | 4. | Use One Click Installs to install WordPress to new domain. (DO NOT use the personal email address which I just set up in step 3 since this will be used in just a moment when I set up a new WordPress user. Use another email address which I check frequently since admin messages will be coming to this email account. ) Set up new user in WordPress for myself. This is the login I will use to access the account, make changes, create new pages and posts, etc. This is where I want to use the new personal email address created in step 3. |
| ____ | 5. | Install Thesis theme to WordPress blog. Customize.
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| ____ | 6. | Start writing. Re-visit keyword strategy. Decide what the first few blog posts will be written about. Do further keyword research if necessary. Every page or post should focus on one or at most two top LTKWs. Write “About Me” page. Answer the question “what does this blog have to offer?” Write a CALL TO ACTION which hints at the value inside. Who is this blog written for? What are the benefits? Only after these questions are answered, then bio/tell about yourself. |
| ____ | 7. | Set up accounts in the blog name at social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. |
| ____ | 8. | Spend several weeks creating content and working to optimize that content. Review SEO Fast Start guide again. |
| ____ | 9. | Work at promoting website, getting traffic to blog, and getting inbound links. Get involved online in groups related to topic. Write articles and post to places such as squidoo, eZineArticles, |
| ____ | 10. | Sign up for Google Adsense and affiliate programs in your niche. |
| ____ | 11. | Write product reviews for the programs you’ve signed up for and incorporate the reviews into my site. |
| ____ | 12. | Continue the cycle. Writing more content, work at getting more inbound links pointing to your posts or pages, stay involved and interacting via social media. |
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