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How to Launch a Blog and Have Fresh Content for Weeks

Posted By Darren Rowse 10th of January 2009 Writing Content 0 Comments

This question from James of My Fitness Guide hit my inbox this week:

“My question is, when starting a new blog, do you write a list of all your blog topics first, then plan to write one of them per day, or do you write it all as fast as possible to build your archives, and then try and think of a fresh new blog topic every day?”

Here’s my answer (I’d be keen to hear yours in comments).

James – I generally suggest a few things with regards to content when I’m starting a new blog.

1. 5 Posts Already Published

I like to have at least 5, preferably 8-10, articles already published on the blog – so when people come they can see you’ve written useful stuff already and don’t just see a blog with one post.

At b5media we ask our bloggers to have around 10 posts already written before we launch but I think 5 would be my minimum.

2. 5 Draft Posts

I also like to have at least 5 posts already written but held in reserve as drafts that I can post in the next few days after launch.

I find that when launching a blog you can be a bit distracted by the excitement of it all, by promoting it, by responding to comments etc – so content creation can sometimes take a bit of a back seat.

If you have 5 posts in reserve (I’d even prefer to have more than that) it means you can keep any momentum from the launch going for at least 5 days without having to write a whole lot more. In fact I usually start a blog with just 3 posts a week and gradually increase the frequency of posts over time – so 5 posts in reserve can almost last two weeks.

3. 20 Post Ideas

Lastly – I also like to have a list of possible topics to write about in future (I try for at least 20).

I actually like to write this list as part of the process of even deciding whether to choose a topic or niche because it helps me to work out whether I’ll be able to sustain writing on that topic for the long haul.

If you can’t think of 20-30 post titles/topics pretty easily before starting a blog it could be a signal that you’ve chosen the wrong topic.

Having this list at your fingertips means you’ve always got a topic to write about in the first month or so of your new blog.

And You’re Off and Running

I find that between having a few posts already up on the blog, having a few in reserve for the coming few days and then having a list of topics to write about that creating content for a new blog is not that difficult.

The numbers of posts that I’ve mentioned above will vary from person to person (and even for me I’ve not always exactly followed this formula) but I think it’s probably a pretty solid way forward.

The only thing I’ll add is that it’s really important to put your best foot forward in terms of the quality of your content in the early days of a blog.

Of course you’ll want high quality posts as every post on your blog going forward – but a few really high quality and engaging posts in the first week of your blog can really launch it and help establish some good traffic and subscriber numbers in the early days of its life.

What Do You Do When Starting a Blog?

I’m interested to hear what your experience is with creating content on a new blog? How many posts do you launch with? How do you keep the posts coming in the early day of a blog?

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. im wondering, writing a post and save as draft first or writing a post and post with schedule ? with this 2 method we still posting daily update right ?

  2. I concur with the idea that quality writing is critical for blog success during the early stages. I would also advice bloggers to not forget to target search engine traffic in their efforts to develop a reader base.

  3. I believe a blog site is like a magazine online, whether a business mag, fashion and style mag, life style mag or general.
    The point is to draft your copy in full before you put it on shelves for the market to have access to,
    You can’t have one topic on your mag then release it, it has to be professionally well done for your market to like it and
    Be able to compare from other mag’s.

    So my conclusion will be, you fully give you blog style and color, you add very nice topic’s according to the
    Market your blog is focusing on.

    Then you put online.

    Next step “Marketing”

    You then send your link to your business contacts data base via email to market it, if people
    Like it they will respond with good comments and suggestion. The twist is when people don’t like
    Your blog site they might not respond at all, which you won’t be able to understand and see/find
    The problem instead you’ll lose hits and never have business.

    I was watching Opra last night and they were going through book titled “A Good Design CAN CHANGE YOUR” OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.
    Which I truly respect see this blog site

    http://www.urbanbrew.co.za

    tell me what you’ll think

  4. Its very useful idea.
    I glad to do the same
    Thanks for good information

  5. Ye yes, helpful advice indeed. How the crap does writer dad pull it off? I swear I’ve seem his name as the first commenter on multiple posts here at PB. He is a beast! :)

    -Mig

  6. Some great ideas–thanks. I generally post three times a week (my blog is part of my job and I do have other responsibilities, as I sometimes have to remind myself!). I have a lengthy file of ideas I keep sorted by topic and at least a couple draft posts going at any time. Having a lot of ideas on deck means that I can quickly put a post together if I hear about something that’s time sensitive, e.g., a grant announcement, new report on a rural health topic or something in the news, like the current rural broadband proposal.

  7. Great Ideas. I currently have 22 unfinished posts on my blog. I often get the idea to start a new post as I am commenting on another blog. Getting back links and ideas and learning by commenting is my three way payoff from commenting.

    Rick

  8. Preparation is something I have always been good at when it comes to recreation. I plan pretty well. Sometimes when it comes to working on projects it seems just too easy to just start and go without preparing.

    I like the idea of having a dozen articles up and going as the Blog starts.

    Max

  9. fighting off writers block has been tough – these are great tips to see through it

    got on craigslist and found some great content writers

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