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If you’re looking for a quick and simple checklist to help you start your blog, then you have landed on the right place!
This post, starting a blog checklist, will provide you with a list of things you need to go through to start your money-making blog.
If you are new and you haven’t started your blog yet and you’re wondering about the costs, you can check out this post that will explain how much it costs for beginners to start a blog. It’s actually really affordable and considered a very low-cost money-making hobby or business idea!
Before you read on, don’t forget to download a FREE copy of your Start A Blog Checklist PDF printable here made by me!
You can always refer back to this nicely organized checklist to start and launch your blog. When you click on each box in this PDF printable, it will direct you to the appropriate page to help you complete your checklist. 🙂
I also have my FREE 7-day e-mail course that will teach total beginners, like you, how to start a profitable blog and use Pinterest to gain tons of readers and followers. This is the course I wish I had when I started using Pinterest for my blog.
I am very excited for you to start your blog and I can’t wait to see you start yours once you go through this simple 10-step blog launch checklist!
Alright, let’s jump right into it! 🙂
Step 1: Determine why you want to start a blog
It could be that you want to start a hobby blog for fun with no intention of monetizing, or perhaps you have the intention to turn your hobby blog into something that is profitable in the long run. Assuming you’re aware that making money with a blog is possible, you also need to take a step by and ask yourself the “deeper” question of WHY you want to start your blog, and by doing so, how will starting a blog change your life?
I know you’ve read stories about how bloggers are earning over six figures every year with their blogs.
Fascinated by the amount of money they earn, you are inspired to start one yourself too.
However, without determining or understanding why you really want to start a blog (other than the fact that it could help you earn a full-time income), you will most likely set yourself up for failure.
Step 2: Determine your interests and what you want to blog about
Once you’ve determined your why and what motivates you, it’s time to think about what you want to blog about.
There are so many things you are passionate about and you want to write about. However, thinking about all the possibilities of what you can write about becomes overwhelming, so I recommend you go through this blog post that will guide you on what to write about by determining your passions that will help your readers.
READ ALSO: Within step 2, I also highly recommend going through my comprehensive guide on how to choose a profitable blog niche. You should read it alongside my other post, what you should blog about.
Step 3: Choose a blog name
Now that you know your passions and what you want to write about, it’s time to choose a blog name that will reflect you, your brand, and your personality. This article here will show you exactly how to come up with a perfect blog name (AKA domain name).
Step 4: Start Your Blog with a Self-Hosted Plan
After completing steps 1 through 3, it’s time to start your blog with Bluehost using this step-by-step tutorial here.
I know some of you may be tempted to sign up for a free blog like Blogger, but I never recommend going the free route especially if you are serious about making money with your blog. I don’t know anyone who is actually earning a great income using a free blog.
When you start your blog by investing just a few dollars a month with a self-hosted plan, advertisers, affiliates, and partners will take you more seriously and work with you to monetize your blog. If they see that your blog is hosted on a free platform, they will not be interested in partnering up with you because they may see you as someone who is not serious.
I personally started my blog using Bluehost. I went self-hosted on a very low and affordable plan and was able to generate a healthy six-figure income. By going self-hosted, my income took off and I am now earning over $20,000 per month blogging!
Having that said, I highly recommend you reading what “self-hosted” really means and starting your blog here.
Step 5: Install a Blog theme
Once you have purchased a web hosting plan from step 4, it is time for you to install a Blog theme that you like.
There are both free and paid themes that you can choose from. When you are a beginner with a tight budget, you can always start off with a free theme and play around with it before investing in a more premium theme.
I personally used a free theme called Olsen Light to learn how to build my blog before I invested in the Foodie Pro Theme for two of my blogs. However, things have changed, so I no longer recommend any of those themes.
Today, I only recommend the Astra or Kadence theme for most bloggers (they both offer free versions) – it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced blogger. You can’t go wrong with those themes and it’s something you won’t regret down the road.
READ ALSO: I have a separate post on how you can install and build your blog for beginners with the Astra theme here.
Step 6: Build Your Blog!
This is the meat of building and launching your blog – it is the juiciest part!
There are a lot of steps to building a successful blog, from installing a free Google Analytics account to track your traffic, securing your website, downloading plugins (or apps) on your website, creating a blog logo, and fiddling around with your blog theme to making sure your blog posts and pages are properly “optimized” so you will show up on Google searches. Trust me, this part is not rocket science and it’s not hard to implement – it’s just a matter of someone telling you about it and how to do it.
Your Treasure Map To Blogging Success In Just 30 Days!
I truly understand the overwhelm with WordPress and the list of administrative things to do as a beginner.
When I was new to this blogging world, NO ONE was willing to help me with this part and it’s the most important part to get right the first time. It is SO important to build a solid foundation for your blog before moving on to the next steps such as getting traffic and making money.
Everyone kept touting how much money you can make with a blog and they were throwing me their courses on how to make money before I’d even had my blog theme set up properly and my first blog post published!
There was no one simple resource that would help me build my blog from scratch BEFORE even learning how to get traffic or make money with a blog.
After receiving numerous emails from my readers going through my similar struggle as a beginner, and asking for a simple resource to help them follow my footsteps to building a successful blog, I created this affordable ebook, The Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days, for beginners who are looking to start and build a successful blog from scratch with no experience.
I jam-packed this step-by-step ebook with a TON of valuable information and GOLDEN nuggets for beginners who are NOT tech-savvy and have no clue what to do after starting their blog.
Step 7: Write and Publish Your First Blog Post
Once you’re done with all the administrative stuff outlined in my 180+ pages ebook, Treasure Map To Blogging Success, you can finally write your first blog post!
In my ebook for new bloggers, I also go through a tutorial on how to draft your first blog post and the ONE important thing you MUST do before you hit publish!
I also have an article here on how to write your first blog post to give you tips and tricks on how to outline and structure your posts. This also includes where to find images for your blog posts.
Step 8: Generate more blog posts for your readers
Once you get the hang of writing your first few blog posts, you’re going to want to add more to your collection. I have a list of blog post ideas here for you to write about so you’ll never run out of ideas:
- Blog Post Ideas for Beginners
- Blog Post Ideas for Lifestyle Bloggers
- Blog Post Ideas for Beauty Bloggers
- 75+ Travel Blog Post Ideas for Travel Bloggers
- 80+ Blog Post Ideas For Fashion Bloggers
Step 9: Learn how to get traffic to your blog
While you are building your blog with enough content, you can get started with Social media and platforms where you can promote your blog and get traffic.
The two traffic sources I rely on are Pinterest and Google. For new bloggers, I recommend getting started with platforms like Pinterest. I am currently building an archive here where you can find Pinterest traffic tips for beginners. It is the source I use to get over 100,000 monthly page views for my personal finance blog and lifestyle blog.
I also offer my all-in-one super comprehensive Pinterest guide, The Golden Compass To Pinterest Traffic, that will give you the exact steps, strategies, and blueprint on how I went from 0 to over 100,000 monthly traffic for two of my blogs! It covers literally all the basics to intermediate and even advanced strategies to help you succeed on Pinterest!
I also recommend learning one traffic source at a time. It is very hard to manage when you stretch yourself too thin by being on every social media platform like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, etc.
Once you familiarize yourself with a traffic source and you are getting results from it, you can move on to the next one for better diversification so that you don’t have to rely on one source.
As I always say, less is more!
Step 10: Make money blogging!
After you have started your blog, have set it up properly, and are getting some traffic, you can start learning how to monetize your blog. I have an article here that explains how bloggers get paid and make money with a blog.
Wrap Up on Starting Your Blog Checklist
That is it, my folks!
10 simple steps to follow when you are looking for a checklist to start and launch your blog!
Starting a blog and making it successful will not happen overnight. However with hard work, motivation and consistency, I am very confident that you’ll be able to start your blog and build it to success!
You can follow my blogging journey here where I documented how I earned my first income with my first blog! I went from $0 to earning an extra $500+ per month within my first 6-7 months of starting my blog. And within my first year, I was making over $5,000 per month.
18 months in, my income took off and I was earning over $10,000 per month with my small and personal blog. I couldn’t imagine it being where it is today earning over $20,000 every month!
As always, you can feel free to leave a comment below and let me know if you have any questions about starting your blog. I am always happy to help!
Until then, happy blogging!
I hope you found this starting a blog checklist blog article helpful!
Don’t forget to follow me on my brand new Pinterest account @blogsavvypanda here so you can stay up to date with my blogging and Pinterest tips!
Also, follow my other Pinterest account @finsavvypanda here.
Hi Ling,
My name is Brianna. I have been following and learning all your tips on how to start a blog and more. You have been so awesome with everything including detailed tips on how to get started, how to be successful, etc. I purchased the ebook from you and it has been very helpful. It is very well put together and I 100% recommend it to others!! I have been learning so much from you and I can’t thank you enough.
Would you be able to please take a look at my website and let me know if there’s anything I can do better! Thank you again for being apart of and helping me expand.
Hi Brianna!
I am glad to hear that you found my ebook, The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days, helpful with starting, building, and launching your blog! 😀
I took a look at your new blog and so far, it is coming along great. I am so happy to see you make progress with your journey to weight loss blog!
Here is my feedback for your website:
Banner at the top – I really love the way you designed your banner and it looks really pretty! I am guessing you purposely made it as big as half a page, which looks great! The only thing is it took me more than a few seconds to figure out that I was supposed to scroll down to see your content. you can decide whether to make it smaller (e.g. a small logo) or keep it the way it is. It is a personal choice, but that was just my feedback to you as a regular reader and what I’m subconsciously thinking when I land on your page.
Blog roll – This is similar to Tina Penner’s feedback that I gave her here. It looks like your current blogroll is showing the full blog post, which you don’t want. It’s much better if the reader clicks in to read the full blog post. You can shorten this in the appearance >> customize >> theme setting >> content archive of your WordPress dashboard – play around with those settings. You can enter 300 for limit characters.
Social share plugin – I recommend you going into your Shareaholic plugin and disabling the ads. The first thing I see is an ad pop-up at the bottom of your blog. There is no incentive for you to have those ads turned on because you don’t get paid, and if anything, that distracts your readers and they may click on those ads and end up leaving your page, which you don’t want! Turning off the ads by Shareaholic will require you to log in and switch them off. So, alternatively, you can quickly disable Shareaholic from your WordPress and just download/activate another social share plugin called “grow social” by Mediavine. They have a free version available and it’s what I use on this blog too.
Social media buttons on side of your blog: I recommend taking off the social shares that appear on the left side of your blog. These types of shares that float on your page become very distracting to your readers and may block your content when they are on mobile. When your readers are distracted or frustrated with things floating on top of the content, they might end up leaving your site which is something you don’t want!
Mentioning other blog posts: I see that you write a lot about your weight loss journey which is excellent because this will attract a particular audience who is only interested in your tips on how to lose weight along with the different diet plans that helped you. One big thing I really recommend is going back to all your blog posts and link them to each other. All your posts relate to each other and you can SO easily link them naturally on your posts (I go into the details about interlinking, both external and internal, along with the importance of them, in Chapter 10 of my Treasure Map to Blogging Success ebook, so make sure to review and follow that section thoroughly when you are drafting your blog posts). By doing that, it increases the chances of your readers staying on your page and giving you more page views which translates to higher traffic.
Blog post length – Whenever you have the chance or the time, I recommend you going back to your blog post and increasing its length. There is no rule of thumb of how many words you should have on your blog post, but as a beginner who is new to this, I would say aim for at least 1,000 words as your minimum point. The great thing about blogging is you can always go back to your posts and improve them or change them once you understand who your true audience is! 🙂
About me page – I really like your About Me page because it introduces yourself and the problems and struggles you face where people can relate to you and your story. I recommend you link some posts your readers will find helpful on this page. For example, you can link them to your weight loss meal prep post, healthy snacks post, detoxing for weight loss, etc., or any post you want them to visit from your about me page. Overall, don’t be afraid to throw more links to your top blog posts, but of course, don’t overdo it with too many links. Balance is key! You can review Chapter 5 of my ebook which talks more about the about me page along with Chapter 10 together to learn how to optimize linking throughout your blog.
About Me on your side bar – I recommend you add a quick link after your last sentence saying something along the lines of “You can learn more about me here” and link it to your full-detail About Me page. This will prompt readers to click in and read more about you and likely follow you.
So far, you are doing such a great job with your weight-loss blog! I recommend you keep up the awesome work!
I’d love to see you go back and make these changes to improve your blog! I can’t wait to see you grow your readership with your blog months and years down the road!!!
You go, girl!! <3
Hi Ling,
I found you on Pinterest and when I started thinking of starting to blog seriously, I knew I needed help because this was way above my head. I am so thankful I found you and have learned so much through The Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days ebook!
One of the things I really enjoyed about your ebook and opened my mind was choosing my niche and determining my avatar. It especially took quite a bit of pressure off where you said it was ok to not get it 100% figured out right in the beginning. Whew! 😊
Another really enjoyable part was inserting links into my blog posts. Seeing as I’m not tech-savvy AT ALL, I had always wondered how people did this in their blogs, and now I know and can manage to do it myself quite easily!
I still have a lot to learn, but I have launched my new blog and I am looking forward to learning a lot more.
Thanks for all the help you have given!
By the way, I would also like you to take a look at my blog for feedback on content and how to use the widgets. My blog is https://bitsofscrap.com/
Thanks again for all your help!
Hi Tina!
I’m glad you find my ebook helpful in getting you started!
It’s nice to see that you’ve installed your theme and published some blog posts in less than 2 months! I’m happy to see that you are making progress to a brand new blog!
You are off to a great start with these small baby steps!
Here are some of my feedback:
Contact me page – It is good that you are using a professional email. The only feedback here is you’ll want to make this page a little bit longer than just inputting your name and email address. Have a few sentences to say.
About Me page – It is awesome that you talk about your hobbies and scrapbooking, sewing, crocheting, etc. And you have tied it back to saying what your specialty is which is special occasion alterations like wedding and grad dresses. I recommend making this page longer and talking about how you are going to help your reader and your audience. Perhaps you will have tutorials on how to sew certain clothing, special ways of sewing, and other tips and tricks. Once you have those blog posts ready I would suggest you link them from your about me page if they are the posts you want your readers to click through. I recommend revisiting chapter 5 of my ebook that goes through the “About Me” page along with chapter 10 about properly and optimizing linking your posts throughout your blog.
Logo or image – You can also include either your logo (if you still want to remain anonymous) or an image of yourself on your about me page, so people know there is a real person behind this blog.
Blog roll – it looks like your current blogroll is showing the full blog post, which you don’t want. It’s much better if the reader clicks in to read the full blog post. You can shorten this in the appearance >> customize >> theme setting >> content archive of your WordPress dashboard – play around with those settings. You can enter 300 for limit characters.
Blog post – I know you are working on them right now which is great. Because you are less than two months into your blogging journey, I’m going to assume that you haven’t filled up your collection of blog posts yet. I recommend writing more content and making each of them a little longer. I have more tips on how to write and structure your blog posts here, along with chapter 7 of my ebook for more details:
https://www.blogsavvypanda.com/first-blog-post/
Images – I’m not sure if you selected the small size within WordPress when you uploaded it. You can select medium or full size to make it appear bigger on the website. Right now, it is a little too small. This can easily be fixed by selecting the “full size” in the drop down when you edit the settings of your images within the blog post. I also see some images are broken so it doesn’t show anything. You might want to take a look at some of those. For example, your blog posts about “How to shorten dress pants.” Also, don’t forget to optimize your all images as was mentioned in the ebook!
Widgets – I believe you have a question about widgets. You can go through my ebook and chapter 12 where I talked about adding widgets to your blog. So far, I see you have the search bar on your blog. I am going to assume that you want things like images or banners in your sidebar. You can easily add those by dragging the “image” option (just like what you did with your “search bar”) and dropping it into “Blog” Sidebar (this is what it’s called using your current theme, Oslen). With my theme, Foodie Pro, it’s a little different as it’s called “Primary Side Bar”. This will be a little different depending on which theme you use, but the concept is the same all across. It’s using your mouse, holding it, and dragging it over into that sidebar mentioned in my ebook. You should see all your available widgets under the left-hand side when you are in the widget’s settings of your WordPress dashboard.
Overall, it is really great to see that you have started your blog and you have some content up within a short period of time. I hope this feedback helps! I look forward to seeing you making these changes and improving your blog! I also recommend going back to my ebook and continue to review and implement what is taught there! It is a work in progress, and I am really excited to see how your blog will turn out in the several months ahead! 🙂
Hi Ling,
Thank you so much!! I’ve learned a lot from your e-book. It’s a great reference. So, so glad that I came across your blog. Just want to let you know that 3 months from now, it’s going to be cookwithrachz – 1st birthday 🙂
Your help is greatly appreciated!!!
Rachel
Hi Rachel – It’s always nice to hear from you! 🙂
I’m really glad you found my e-book helpful!
So happy to see that your food blog is up and running, AND turning 1 in 3 months! Woo-hoo!!! <3
I hope you find my feedback for you from a few months back helpful. Let me know how everything is and if you have any questions!
Hey Ling!
My journey has been so exciting since I came across your course on blogging and then even a bonus was the step-by-step guide through the “Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days” ebook!
I loved the fact that that you gave important tips throughout the ebook about what is really necessary and what is not. My favorite chapter is chapter 13 on how to create your own logo. There is so much you can do!
I would never have managed without this ebook and I’m so glad I purchased it! It took me longer than I thought and I was so excited to finally hit the launch button after following the simple guide in your ebook. Again, thanks for such a detailed product!
My blog has been up for a few weeks and I would love for you to give some pointers good and bad so I can improve. Thanks for all your time and effort!
Here is my blog: https://ourrayofhope.com/
Please take a look and let me know how I am doing.
Thanks 😊
Thank you again!
Hi Chalice
I am really happy to hear that you find my ebook, The Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days, helpful with the first chapter of your blogging journey! It is so great to see that your blog is up and running. I am very happy to hear! 🙂
I love your blog name and your choice of blog post ideas – you make them all related to a common theme which is fantastic!
I also like how you explained in your about me page, what your blog is about, and how it will help your readers.
Overall, this is an excellent start that is really well-put-together – it represents your ideal audience who need help with mental health, depression, anxiety, and overall wellness. Well done on that part!
Here is my feedback for your blog.
Feedback 1:
I mentioned that your “About Me” page is good because it tells your readers who you are targeting and what your blog is about.
One thing I recommend is to elaborate on how your blog will help your readers in a bit more detail. I also recommend you link to your top posts, or any main post, you want your reader to go to from your “About Me” page.
For example, you can link them to your post about mental health tips, how to ease anxiety, how to stop toxic thoughts or ways to prevent a negative mindset, etc.
I also see that your blog posts are not mentioning your other blog posts. I recommend you going back to change that.
I go over the details of this in Chapter 5 (section 5.1, About Me page) and Chapter 10 (proper ways to link your BOTH your posts and pages), so definitely review those sections and implement them.
Feedback 2:
I see that you are using Gmail on your contact me page. Although this is fine and there’s no problem with that because everyone does create a Gmail account for their blog. However, it is best to use a professional email. In Chapter 2, I go through the simple steps on how you can get your professional email for free. If you haven’t done this yet, I recommend you check it out!
Feedback 3:
I would get rid of the social shares on the left side of your blog. Readers tend to get very distracted and frustrated when they see social shares floating along with the content they are reading. I recommend placing them like how I place them on this blog and my other blog – Horizontally at the top before they read the article and another one at the very end of the article.
Feedback 4:
Currently, I see that you are using a dark and black background for your theme.
There is nothing wrong with that because it’s a personal preference, so it is up to you!
But, I would recommend using a white background over black – especially black text on a white surface is much easier to read. Not only that but I personally think that white will represent, especially in your case for your blog, where you want your readers to be in the future.
I see white as positive, light, happy, and bright compared to black that tends to be heavy, gloomy, and just overall dark. I do think white represents “Our Ray of Hope” much better – signaling that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! 🙂
You can also feel free to take a look at other blogs within your niche or even blogs in general. You’ll notice a lot of them use a plain white background with black text.
Final feedback:
In addition to all of this feedback, I recommend you add more content to your blog! It never hurts to have more content for your readers. Also, I advise making your blog posts a little longer.
I have more information here on how to write a general blog post.
https://www.blogsavvypanda.com/first-blog-post/
Definitely take your time to build this at your own pace and don’t feel rushed.
Last thing. I don’t see you have a logo placed on your blog yet. Because you don’t have a personal picture of yourself, it would be a great idea to put your logo on your about me page, or your side bar where you lead the reader to click through to your about me page. I talk more about the side bar in Chapter 12 of The Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days. So I recommend checking it out and reviewing it!
I look forward to seeing you making these changes and improvements to your blog! You are doing great so far and I’d love to see your progress and grow in the months and years ahead! 🙂
Hey Ling!
I have been so curious to ask if Pinterest pays its users, especially the ones with millions of followers?
Hi Adam!
Pinterest doesn’t pay you for having followers. It’s more about using the platform to get traffic back to your website to reach people and then make money with your blog. You can make money with your blog through various methods such as display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, selling your own digital products, and more! 🙂
I am so glad to find your blog when I was doing some research on how to start my own blog. There is a lot of overwhelming and conflicting information out there so I was very happy when I found this blog on Pinterest and even happier when I signed up for your course.
Your E-book is an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to create your blog with full recommendations on how to build your pages, and great tips for optimizing your website.
Overall, with the guidance of your e-book, I was able to build my website and launch it, all within 30 days!!!
Ling, I would love for you to check out my blog (www.lifestylebyellie.com) and offer some recommendations, observations, and any feedback.
As always, thank you for your willingness to help and responsiveness!
Ellie
Hi Ellie,
I am very happy to hear that you find my blog and ebook helpful in starting, setting up, and launching your blog!
I remember the day you told me that you signed up for your blog and started from scratch! That was literally just a month and a half ago, and now you have a beautiful blog up and running! I love your logo too!
I am VERY impressed that you have all of this done, along with a lot of great content published already! This is wonderful news and I want to say congratulations again!!!!
Here is my feedback to you:
Feedback 1:
You’ve done a great job In your right-hand side sidebar with your “About Me” section. I recommend you add a quick link after your last sentence saying something along the lines of “You can learn more about me here” and link it to your full-detail About Me page.
It is great that you have an About Me page, but I recommend making it a little longer by telling your readers why you started this blog and what your mission is (e.g. how you will help and serve them).
It could be that your blog is still very new, so I am going to assume that once you build more content and you understand your readers a little bit better, you will elaborate your about me page and explain that part.
You can review Chapter 6 in my ebook – I have a section that talks about how to determine your avatar or your reader.
It’s good that you also mentioned a favorite blog post of yours on this page to get them clicking around. Don’t be afraid to throw more links to your blog posts! But again, I am going to assume that you will expand on this part over time. After all, you are going into your second month of blogging, so what you’ve done so far is already amazing! 🙂
Feedback 2:
It looks like you got Google AdSense approved, so congratulations on that part too!
There are times when I am on blog posts or pages, and I see this type of script or code “google.com, pub-3033049590763023, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0” in a text form. You might want to double-check that part as I’m not sure where it is coming from. It could be from you manually placing your Google ads I am assuming?
I see it in the butter garlic shrimp pasta blog post, after the sentence, “this easy 15 minute butter garlic shrimp pasta can be added to your weekend lunch menu or save you some time during your busy weekday schedule.”
Feedback 3:
I see that you write quite a bit of delicious recipes on your blog. You might want to look into adding a recipe plugin on your blog like WP Recipe Maker and learn how to use it. This will structure your blog post much better if it’s a recipe post. Along with that, it is good for Google searches too.
Feedback 4:
Lastly, I recommend making your blog post a little longer. There is no rule of thumb saying that your blog post must be at least x amount of words long. However, you’ll benefit by beefing up your post and just adding a little bit more content.
For example, in the blog post, you have about Surface Cleaner, you might want to include a paragraph explaining in more detail along with examples of what this cleaner can be used for, the benefits, and what it’s good for.
Why do you think your reader needs to know about this? How will this solve their problem and change their life when they use this cleaning mix?
I also recommend including more pictures in this post such as before-and-after photos with different types of products it’s used on. These are ways you can beef up your post and make them longer.
Overall, when you are writing your blog posts, think about the purpose of your article. Who is it for? Whose problem are you trying to solve? What is the intention of you writing that specific blog post? Is your post meant to entertain, solve, or inspire? It could be all but think about the main purpose.
You are doing really well in your 2nd month of blogging, so keep up the momentum! I hope my advice helps! I’m looking forward to seeing you making those changes to spice up your blog! 🙂
Hi Ling,
I want to say that your blog has helped me start my blog. Though I was confused at first with all the information overload, I do believe I’m on the right track.
Also, your “Treasure Map to Blogging Success in 30 Days” ebook gave me all the tools I needed to start my blog. You’ve broken down the process and made it easier to understand and accomplish! I have worked through your easy steps and will continue to go back over your ebook to review and enhance my blog.
I also would love for you to look at my blog and let me know what needs improvement.
https://travellingincharleston.com
Thank you for your feedback, Ling!
Hi MaryBeth
Thanks for your feedback about my ebook, The Treasure Map to Blogging Success! I’m glad you found it easy to follow and helpful!
I just took a look at your blog and so far it looks beautiful – I love your theme and your choice of colors! I am very happy to see you come this far since the day you started your blog with Bluehost. Keep up the great work!
Here is some of my feedback.
Feedback 1:
The first thing I would do is create an “About Me” page instead of calling it “Hello World.” People are usually accustomed to looking for an about me page. When you call it “Hello World,” they might not know that this is an “About Me” page.
You can just simply copy and paste everything over from your “Hello World” page to your “About Me” page and publish that, and then unpublish your current “Hello World” page.
Once you have done this, I recommend you interlinking some of your top posts, or your favorite posts, on this about me page so your readers can click around. This gives you the opportunity to guide them or direct them to the blog posts or pages you want them to go to. I cover the full details about interlinking in Chapter 10 of my ebook, so go through it and implement those tips taught in that section.
Feedback 2:
I see that you have a sidebar that dedicates estate space to “Travel Products I Love”. This is a great idea, but I recommend you create a page for this (like how you create an “About Me” page, “Contact Page,” etc.) so that it gets included in your menu bar above.
You can think of this as your “recommendations page,” but you can call that page “Travel Products I Love” because it sounds like a good fit for your type of blog.
When you place a bar with Amazon affiliate links on the side for readers to see, it distracts the reader and they will most likely bounce off your page to Amazon. They may or may not buy, but this type of affiliate marketing strategy doesn’t tend to convert very well because it’s not intentional. A better way to get your readers to buy is to write a review post about that specific product and link it to Amazon in that review post.
For example, you can create a new blog post called “Ryka Devotion Walking Shoes Review” and insert the Amazon links within this blog post.
Feedback 3:
I recommend you deactivating the Shareaholic plugin because there are ads appearing on your blog space, which is not worth it since you’re not being compensated for this. If you like this plugin, I suggest you go into the settings and turn those ads off.
I know I recommended this plugin in my ebook, but I didn’t realize that their default settings had ads turned on, so I will be updating my ebook to mention this. It might be a hassle to go in and turn off the ads, so you might just want to deactivate Shareaholic and install a different social share plugin.
One I recommend is called grow by Mediavine. You can find and download it directly in your WordPress when you are searching for “grow social”. You can review Chapter 3 of my ebook to learn more about plugins, how to search for and install them.
Overall, you are doing excellent and you have a good amount of blog posts! Congratulations on making it this far!
I hope my feedback helps. I look forward to seeing you make my recommended changes to improve your blog! 🙂
Ling,
I greatly appreciate your feedback & I like what you suggested. I will make those changes ASAP. Thank you Ling!
MaryBeth Conrad
I’m glad you like the suggestions! 🙂
Thank you for this 😌… I’m going to get started and hope I’m going to make it!
That’s great to hear, Naomi! I can’t wait to see you get started with your blog! 🙂
Hi Ling… I just wanted to share that OMG… I just hit launch my site. It’s finally live, haha. Signed up Nov. 14th, goal was to launch by Jan 14..so a tad behind. I know it needs work, but I had to start it or it would have been a lot longer. It needs work, I know, however, it’s a start. If you have a second I’d love some constructive criticism 😊 http://www.cheerstoafunlife.com
Thanks for all your emails and your Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days ebook, that was a HUGE HUGE step by step guide in setting everything up.
– Sylvia
Hi Sylvia!
I’m really happy to hear that you found The Treasure Map To Blogging Success ebook a huge step in helping you get your blog launched and set up!
It’s okay that you did not launch on your expected date. This happens when people are busy with kids and have full-time jobs which are totally understandable! I always tell my readers to take their time to slowly build their blogs, and it’s what I did too when I was working a full-time job while building my first blog. The great thing is when you write evergreen and timeless content, you only have to write it once and that blog post can bring you continuous traffic for months and years down the road once you promote them or optimize them for searches. 🙂
I took a look at your blog and it’s nice to see that you have your “About Me” page published along with one blog post. Here are a few things I would recommend doing.
Continue to write more blog posts! 🙂
One of the first things you mentioned in your about me page was that you enjoy making quick and healthy recipes. On top of that, you are active and enjoy working out, which is awesome!!!
I recommend writing blog posts that cover those topics since these relate to each other and you can easily link them on your posts (I go into the details about interlinking, along with the importance of them, in Chapter 10 of my Treasure Map to Blogging Success ebook, so make sure to review and follow that section thoroughly when you are drafting your blog posts).
Healthy Living, recipes, and anything to do with exercising/workouts tends to do very well because a lot of people search for these tips!
I also see that you have a blog post about how to have a romantic date night dinner, which is super cool and helpful! I just recommend you to not put that as a page on your menu bar. Your menu bar usually consists of links to your about me page, contact, shop, and a list of your recommendations.
Instead, you can have a blogroll for now where your latest blog post shows up at the top of your main page or blog page. I go into details about how to set up your blog menu in Chapter 5 of my ebook so you can take a look at that too.
I also recommend you going back to check that your article about date night dinner is a “post” and not a “page”. There is a difference, and I also talk about the difference in chapter 5, along with how to create each one of them.
One last feedback.
I noticed that you have ads turned on associated with the Shareaholic plug-in, which doesn’t compensate you in any way. Go into the setting and turn those ads off because this may cause your readers to bounce off of your page since it’s directing them elsewhere. You may have to log into your user account and change the settings. Another simple way to fix this is you can deactivate the Shareaholic plugin, and use a different social share plugin. An alternative one I recommend using is Grow by Mediavine. I am using this one in the blog you’re reading here. It is free to use and you do not have to be accepted into Mediavine Network to have access to this plugin.
I hope this feedback helps you with making the changes necessary to improve your blog. I am really looking forward to seeing you implement these tips and revisiting my ebook! Let me know how that goes!
Overall, great job with getting started and having your first blog post published – congratulations on that!
I can’t wait to see you implement the advice that I just shared with you! 🙂
Hey Ling,
I’m excited and just launched my site. Now I would love for you to check it out and give me all feedback. Good and bad. I want this to be a great site. Please let me know what else to do to make this really pop. Thecraftyitalian.com Thank you
Hey Brandon!
I am really pumped up for you and excited to see that you have your blog published!
I read your “About Me” page and it is well written and structured! One thing I recommend you doing is adding a little bit more and telling the readers what they will be getting out of your website and how you are there to help them. It is also a good opportunity for you to link some of your blog posts that will either help, entertain, or inspire them. Other than that, great job with that page! 🙂
Here are some more tips to make your site great and awesome!
The very FIRST and MOST important thing I would do is to log into your Dashboard and check out your permalinks under the settings. I see that your posts aren’t actually directing me to your blog posts (so I can’t even read any post or article on your site) and the URL looks a little off. It goes something like this “https://thecraftyitalian.com/?page_id=879”. I see a lot of beginners make various mistakes with their permalinks, and it’s something that The Treasure Map to Blogging Success ebook explains in detail within Chapter 6, Things To Do Before Drafting and Publishing Your First Blog Post.
Similar to Sylvia’s case in the feedback I gave her comment, I recommend you going into your Shareaholic plugin and disabling the ads. The first thing I see is an ad pop-up at the bottom of your blog. There is no incentive for you to have those ads turned on because you don’t get paid, and if anything, that distracts your readers and they may click on those ads and end up leaving your page, which you don’t want!
I also recommend you not inserting your social share buttons on either the left or right side of your blog because when readers are scrolling down, it follows along with the page and it is not user-friendly. From my experience, a lot of readers get really frustrated when they see social buttons on the left side or right side. Instead, I recommend you placing it like how I do in the blog you’re reading now. Another social plugin I recommend using is Grow by Mediavine. It’s the one I’m using on this blog – it’s nice, clean, simple, and easy for readers to share your posts.
I also see that you have uploaded a lot of images, which are beautiful and eye-catching!
The feedback I would give here is to properly rename your files before uploading them into your blog. I tried to save one of your images and I noticed that you did not rename them properly prior to uploading them to your blog.
I always recommend my readers carefully rename their images to certain keywords and phrases for optimization. This is a tip about improving your images, pages, and posts for Google searches for beginners. I also cover this in detail in Chapters 8 and 9 of my ebook; where and how to find blog images along with a list of things you should do before putting them onto your website, so I recommend reviewing that part too.
The one blog post I was able to click through and read is your Beach Walkway, which looks like a beautiful DIY project btw – and Pinterest friendly! 🙂
I recommend making the post longer and adding some headings along with subheadings. I also have a post here on how to write your first blog post for some tips.
I hope these recommendations help with improving your blog and making it look great! I am really looking forward to seeing you implement the advice I just gave you. Let me know how it goes!