The most critical time for a blog is its first year. By a rough estimate, I’d have to say that 80% or more of blogs that people read were started within the last five years, and the remaining are still not “complete” blogs, still functioning much like a normal website. The fact that many blogs are still new or don’t have all the characteristics of a blog says something about the owners – it takes a lot to start a blog and continue it after the first year – most will stop within the first few months.

This guide is not to persuade you to start a new blog if you neglected one, but to help you begin on the right foot, after the initial launch posts and includes various tips to help you maximize the benefits of blogging that you might have overlooked when you began.

Starting Out

When you start your blog, even if you already started other blogs, it could be difficult to understand the proper technique for marketing and administering your blog, so this is the stage that you should be researching and documenting everything you do and how each change affects your blog in terms of traffic and subscribers.

The 0-30 day period.

While many of the topics addressed may seem like “common sense” they are essential in creating a high-desired blog.

• Make sure that at least one new post is published per week (you don’t want your blog looking neglected).
• Connect with other bloggers through comments and emailing them.
• Advertise on other sites – you need to get your blog’s name out there somehow.
• Read other blogs. Now, sometimes this is something that you shouldn’t do, but it can certainly help in the initial stages, as no one knows everything.
• Learn the critical ideas in blog design, how to post properly, and create a blog that just works for you and your visitors/readers.

The First Few Months

Additional critical months start after you have reached your one month anniversary – you have now accomplished much more than some people, especially the blogs that have been created by spammers with only one post.

The 2-9 month period.

• Sign up for services that will allow you to connect to other people who share similar interests. It might be too much “social” overload if you do this initially, so this is why I have placed it in the 2+ month period – you want to ensure that everything has settled and is working properly during the first month.
• Set goals and define where you want to take your blog. Don’t fear creating un-realistic goals, as you will one day be able to look back on this and see how far you have come and where you still want to go.
• Consider investing some additional time in coding, more advanced concepts than during your first month. This will be used in the upcoming time frame.
• Never slow down the frequency of posting unless you do it gradually – it will be obvious to readers that you are beginning to neglect your blog.
• “Complete” your blog – add all the About, Advertise, Contact, Terms Pages, and so on…

Approaching One Year

Most blogs won’t make it to the first year, due to lack of interest from the original writer or due to the fact that the visitors grew tired of the sparse content on the site – as previously described, it is all a vicious cycle that can’t really be prevented. You need to learn how to deal with it.

The 9-12+ month period.

• Add features to your blog. Create a blog theme if you are in the blogging niche or a WordPress plugin if you want to contribute to the community. They take some dedication and time, but can be well worth it in the end.
• Begin more aggressive marketing campaigns to prevent your blog from going stagnant. Not all blogs will require immense marketing campaigns, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.
• Change your theme, if you were using a “free”, non-customized theme. Users want to see change and evolution, even if it means taking a step back every now and again.
• Hire additional writers or invite guest writers to your blog. It isn’t a bad time to expand and do some guest posting yourself – you will benefit on your own blog from this, but make sure that the blog you are writing on permits a link back to your site at the beginning or end of the article, otherwise you wouldn’t be receiving the proper credit.

Conclusion

I wanted to outline the steps that you should make in your blog over the course of the first year. Now, not every blog will be able to follow this, but it is a general outline for success. You can get away with not following all these steps, but it might become more difficult in the long-term.

What other advice (following this format) would you pose to readers?