My blog is doing really great and many bloggers are really impressed with the achievement of my blog so far. I am also happy with this level of achievement and I am going to be achieving many more great things to come in the future.

This is because I have put in a lot of work into this blog because I am determined to make my blog a success and to educate others on how they can make their blog a success as well.

In this post I am going to share with you what I did to get this blog off to a really great start. Getting this blog to where it’s at now was a lovely but challenging journey.

First Step To My Success

In order to get this level of success you have to take the word free out of my mind. This is the reason why I am on a WordPress self hosted blog. There is nothing better than self hosted and this is one of the 5 common mistakes new bloggers make.

I remember being on free hosting and waking up one morning to find my blog deleted with all my blog posts. All my articles were gone, never to be seen again. So my tip for you is to stay away from free hosting of all sort.

Domains:
I purchase my domain at Dynadot.com, so I recommend you getting a domain there for your blog. Please don’t use free domains.

Quick Tip: When buying a domain name, choose a name close to the niche the that you are going to blog about.

Hosting Packages:
Hosting is very cheap and affordable. Check out these prices below by Hostgator.com

HostGator has hosting as cheap as $4.95

    Hatchling Plan (Starting at $4.95/month)
    Baby Plan (Starting at $7.95/month)
    Business Plan (Starting at $12.95/month)

If you order your hosting package now and use this coupon code below. I will give you a discount of $9.94 off the package price.
Coupon Code: websuccess

Click HERE To Order Now

Your Blog’s Design

This is a very important part of your blog and basically almost the blog itself. The layout, design and outlook of your blog also helps visitors to like your blog. If you don’t have an appealing look then your readers will hardly want to visit, so this is why it is important for you to have an eye catching blog.

Thesis Theme

WordPress Theme

The WordPress theme that I am using is called Thesis, it is designed by Chris Pearson. Thesis is a great frame work and allows you to customize it very easy with or without the knowledge of HTML or CSS.

You can easily change your layout in 3 clicks, move from 1 column to 2 columns or even a 3 columns theme in just 1 minute.

Click here to watch a demo video.

ThemeSheep

Theme Sheep - WordPress Themes

Themesheep is a WordPress theme and community site that aims to deliver the industries best WordPress themes.

ThemeSheep is all about creating the most beautiful WordPress themes on the web.

Themesheep is a business that a friend of mine, Rob Rammuny, he works with along side with his two business partners Josh & Jeremy. Alongside with delivering the industries best WordPress themes, they have formed a WordPress community for all WordPress lovers and fans.

Click here to check out ThemeSheep.

WooThemes

WordPress themes for everyone

WooThemes was started by 3 respected designers in 3 different countries.
WooThemes is also another great site where you can get an eye catching Word Press theme. Auto Updating the WooFramework is the ability to automatically update the WooFramework from older versions. So you don’t have to download it again when a new version is out, with a few clicks of the mouse you can easily upgrade to their latest version.

They also have tutorials, support forums and theme documentations.

Click here to check out WooThemes.

Must Have Plugins

In order to get your blog off to a very great start there are some plugins that you must install for you to be successful at blogging. I have a list of my favorite 18 plugins, but listed below are the plugins that will get your blog noticed in no time.

    All In One SEO – This SEO plugin will help your blog to rank better in search engines.

    Feed2tweet – Automatically tweet post as they are published to my twitter account

    Google Analytics for WordPress – This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.

    Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.

    TweetMeme Retweet Button – Adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.

    WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.

    WP Super Cache – Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.

    SEO Slug – The SEO Slugs WordPress plugin removes common words like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘in’ from post slugs to improve search engine optimization.

Blog Posting

Posting is the heart of the blog. Without good blog posts then your blog will die.

When I started blogging in March of this year I wrote 3 post on the first day. Why did I post 3 post on the first day? Well my blog was new and I didn’t want it to look new. So I wanted to fill my blog with post so that my newest visitors think that my blog was off to a great start. The first 3 post that I made got 18 comments, and I was really impressed with this start. I got those 18 comments because I wrote great post which captured my readers mind and this made them leave a comment.

The next day I wrote another great post and that post got a total of 19 comments. Imagine on the first 2 days of blogging, 4 posts with a total of 37 comments. WOW!!! This was really great.

In the first month, March, I made 18 posts and that first month now has a total of 161 comments.

So what I encourage new bloggers to do is to write there best posts in the first month to get your new blog off to an excellent start. Click here to find out how I write such great blog posts and how I develop such great writing technique.

Promotion

Promotion…Promotion…Promotion…

This is also another important role that you have to do on your own if you want your blog to have a successful start. You have to promote your blog from the start as soon as you publish your first few posts.

3 ways to promote a new blog:

  • Use Social Media
  • Social media has given me lots of traffic over the 3 months being online, and I am so happy and thankful for social media sites. So I encourage you to make good use of social media.

  • Blog Commenting
  • Blog commenting has also given many unique visitors and good traffic. This is also a great way to get others to notice your blog and to make comments on your post as well. Make a list of the top trafficked blogs in your niche, leave some good comments there and watch your traffic grow.

  • Guest Posting
  • If you would like to reach new people from other blogs then guest posting is what you should do. Choose other blogs in your niche as well and write a really great post and I bet this will draw people to your blog.

Those tips will surely help you to improve your blog statistics.

Group Discussion

These are this things that I did which made my blogging successful. For every month there is an average of 1 post every 2 days.

How did you start off your blog?
Or, Do you have any other tips for new bloggers who want to skyrocket their new blog?

Leave your comments below…

66 comments

  1. Reply

    Very true … One should never opt for a free domain and host. This is from my personal experience, once I opted for a free domain and after a few weeks I was threatened to pay $$ or else the domain will be deleted.

    Also I agree with your words on choosing a theme, plugins and posting frequency.

  2. Ben

    Reply

    Good tips, it’s important to lay the foundations properly in order to prepare for success in the future.

  3. Thomas O'Hearn

    Reply

    Guest posting has been huge to my success. I recently guest posted on ComLuv, actually six days ago, and the response was great. Over 68 comments on the original post, 30+ new subscribers to my personal blog, and a great traffic spike.

    Definitely helps you get your name out there with a new blog – find a high-traffic website accepting guest posts, write some quality stuff, and submit it!

  4. Reply

    Hey Kharim,
    Brilliant post! you’ve mentioned all the important points and I can figure it out because I often visit blogs and the points you mentioned either draws me to a blog or keeps me away. A lot of newbies who are running blogs can benefit from this post, its loaded with all the right information.

  5. Marketing Philosophy

    Reply

    Great tips, they can really help a newbie get started blogging

  6. Megan Brown

    Reply

    This is really a great and effective tips.

    And I am also totally agree in your very first point that don’t go for FREE hosting as free are never comes with guarantee so as a results there is always a risk that when your blog will disappear and your all hard work gone dead.

    Another tips is also mandatory that -Must have plugins. Plugins are really plays an important role in success of blogs as they works as MAGIC.

    Finally this is very informative and inportant post for NEWBIE. I like it very much.
    Thanks a lot for sharing such wonderful post with us.

    Rest all are basic tips but important also and not to be neglected if you don’t want to loose any LOOPHOLES.

  7. SEO Gold Coast

    Reply

    Awesome !
    great post for someone like me who is setting up things to become a blogger and will try to share my knowladge on Search Engine Optimization and Marketing.

    You will see mr around.

  8. Paul

    Reply

    I’m glad I came across this post as I will be starting a new blog for my wife. It is nice to know that others have had success when starting a new blog.

    Providing value to your readers and working hard are always good keys to a blogs success.

  9. Therm

    Reply

    Kharim, I’m confused as to where you got all those comments from on the first and second posts. Were they friends? New People? Search engine people?

  10. Tinh

    Reply

    I have done all of them. For the plugins, I do recommend replace wp super cache with W3 total cache

  11. Dave

    Reply

    Hi I have a quick question. How do you promote a fresh new beauty tips blog/website? Where and how?

  12. Daniel Sharkov

    Reply

    It took me quite some time to read the whole post, but it was definitely well worth it. I have to agree that if you really want to become successful, going for a paid domain name is a must. Although there are a lot of free blogs in existence that are getting tens of thousands of visitors a day. I have heard a lot of positive feedback on Hostgator and I believe that I will be using it in the near future.

    • Reply

      True Daniel, this is the longest post that I have written because I wanted to cover all the things that must be done to make a blog successful at start

  13. Srinivas Rao

    Reply

    As somebody who has been at this for a year, I can say you are definitely on the right track. You’ve got some great ideas here. I think connections and community are the key to really growing your traffic. I found that guest posting above all things is the #1 source of traffic and subscribers.

  14. TechDubDoob

    Reply

    I definitely prefer a self hosted WordPress blog over anything else in terms of free alternatives. You can do whatever you want and you actually own it. It’s pretty cheap to do as well.

  15. Luqman

    Reply

    Thanks for give us the formula you are using to sky rocket your blog, it is doing very well. I think time to do all this is the main problem blogger like me used to have, some of us know this things, but the time to exquisite it is very small.

  16. Reply

    I have not heard of SEO Slug before. I am going to try out this plugin to see if it can improve serp rankings.

    By the way, without common words like a and the, will keywords density become higher?

  17. Jonathan Beebe

    Reply

    I think the best way to skyrocket a new blog is to come up with a strategy that fits well with your own schedule and just STICK TO IT without fail.

    I think your promotion tips are great, and if you follow those three simple things (as well as update your blog regularly with GREAT content), all you have to do is just KEEP doing it and your blog will become a success.

    Thanks for another great post Kharim 🙂

  18. davy

    Reply

    Hey Kharim

    Great post ive only started my blog in the last month i got a lot of great advice from this post also some really cool plugins just want to say great work really helpful

    Thanks
    Davy Norton

  19. Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella

    Reply

    I couldn’t agree more! Having a self-hosted blog on your own domain is paramount. After all you want to be the one in control of your blog’s destiny, not some free host who has no real interest in your success at all.

    WordPress is definitely the must have blogging platform if you are looking for real flexibility and ease of use. You can’t go wrong when there are so many great themes available choose from, either.

  20. Joe Boyle

    Reply

    Great post, Kharim! That’s practically this whole website in a quick post 😛

    Excellent tutorial on how to start up a WordPress blog 😛

  21. Onibalusi Bamidele

    Reply

    Really Great and Detailed Post.

    Thanks a lot for writing great posts like this.

    -Onibalusi

  22. Natalia

    Reply

    Hey Kharim,
    Do you have any other promotion tips? I’m especially interested in marketing to a Caribbean audience but it’s been slow to catch on.. I’m on Twitter and I’ve created a FB Fan page so far, but I think I’m being a bit impatient… 🙂

    • Reply

      Thanks for your comment Natalia (@caribiztips)

      You have to be patient with blogging and getting to the top. I have checked out your blog, I love your design and I have a few tips for you.

      I have some posts coming up, one with how to steal traffic from other sites. So stay tuned for that article 🙂

    • Robyn from Sam's Web Guide

      Reply

      Hey Natalia,

      From what I have experienced, the Caribbean audience can be a bit stubborn when it comes to dedicated readership. I think you could try guest posting on already popular Caribbean blogs, ensuring that you are providing info that is specifically suited for the host site’s niche. I realize that readers of Caribbean blogs don’t really venture out to find other blogs. So reach out to them on already established carib blogs and offer something useful and new. You could gain some readers this way.

      • Natalia

        Reply

        Between the both of you I’m sure I’m in good hands 🙂 Thanks for jumping in Sam!

  23. Dev

    Reply

    Hey Kharim,

    Nice Post kharim. Those are awesome tips ;).
    You have really awesome stats man. Keep up the good work bro.

    Thanks for sharing this great post. Good Job.
    Btw. You Fb profile pic is really looking awesome 😛

    ~Dev

    • Reply

      LOL Thanks Dev. These are the stuff that I did to make this blog have a great start and new bloggers can use this as an example to sky rocket their blog as well 🙂

      LOL You like my FB pic huh… Thanks bro 8)

  24. Reply

    I agree, all in seo pack and google sitemap generator are the most important plugins, great post dude 🙂

  25. Justin Dupre

    Reply

    Great stuff! Seems like you are pretty much together and set. I’ve always thought connecting all of these factors together were the hardest part when starting an online business. Nice post!

  26. Shirley Osei-Mensah

    Reply

    Great tips, Kharim :). One tip I’d also provide is that when starting a new blog and you are already on a social media site like Twitter sharing your knowledge and expertise there, it helps to skyrocket your blog when promoting cos you are already established there so your followers will visit your blog and become readers, targeted ones at that, and thus bringing great and quality targeted traffic to your blog :).

  27. Reply

    Yeah.. even it’s a new blog.. we have to enhance it or we’ll waste our time. Don’t wait too long to enhance the site because in blogging and Internet time is very precious where in just a few secs the results could change.

    I also use WP-Stats and honestly it helps me a lot! 😛

    • Reply

      Thanks for the comment Nasrul Hanis. You are right, you don’t want to wait too long to sky rocket a new blog. It’s best to start as soon as you launch the blog 🙂

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