The Ultimate Guide: How to Launch a Brand New Website
Note from Raelyn: While this is a GREAT way to launch a new website, it is perfectly okay to launch it immediately and then tweak things from there. Don’t get too caught up with the little details and never get around to launching.
Launching a website can get a little crazy at times.
There are just so many things to do, right? The to-do list never ends.
Take a deep breath, friend. Take a deep breath.
Wouldn’t you like to have a simple step-by-step tutorial to launch your website?
This post will do that for you.
Let’s go!
Just starting out as a new entrepreneur and want to start your blog right? In my Free Blog Starter series, you’ll learn how to launch a website (tech worries begone!), get your website visitor-ready, make money blogging, and much more. Read here:
How to launch a brand new website
When I first started my blog, I just did it. Looking back, I really wished that I had more confidence to do a huge launch. It could have played an instrumental role in helping me to start a successful blog even quicker.
In my opinion, launching your website is extremely helpful as it creates a certain something that every biz needs: momentum.
Having momentum gives you extra motivation to get over your fear and do the necessary work. For instance, you will be more driven to promote your blog posts after publishing when you have some traction already, or to invest in the best blogging and business tools.
Launch before you are ready
To kick things off, here’s a word of advice for you.
Launch before you are ready.
If you have been procrastinating and obsessing over every small detail of your launch – here’s a little encouragement for you: Just launch it – don’t worry.
One of the biggest mistakes I see many entrepreneurs make when they launch their websites is that they keep putting off the launch date because something isn’t “perfect” yet.
Things will never be perfect, so if you read this and know deep in your heart that this applies to you…
Launch that dang website! 🙂
Get hosting
I’m going to assume that you have already bought hosting and your domain name.
(If you have not, check out this step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog before you proceed. This has been shared over 50,000 times and has helped thousands of entrepreneur start their websites!)
Have a “coming soon” page
Before you launch, you want to have a coming soon page up, which will mostly consist of an opt-in form for people to sign up for your freebie (more on that later).
This does 2 things.
First, the “coming soon” page tells people that you’re launching your website soon.
Second, a coming soon page allows you to collect opt-ins before you even launch your site.
On launch day, email your pre-launch subscribers to inform them that you’ve launched. That way, you are already launching to an audience.
Offer an attractive freebie
A freebie or lead magnet is a great way of giving value to your audience even before you launch. At your “Coming Soon” page, I highly recommend that you have a simple freebie (nothing fancy, just a checklist or something similar would suffice – but make it ultra valuable) that gives your potential blog readers a ton of value.
This will increase the conversion rates of your coming soon page. i.e, more people will sign up and be notified when your site is launched.
When people consume your freebie, they are also more likely to remember who you are and swing by your new website to check out what you have when you have launched.
This will also allow you to build your list before your website launch. It is never too early to start building your list and nurturing potential buyers 😉
Watch this video to learn 3 secret lead magnet ideas:
Professional looking websites for the win!
You want to have a professional looking website when you launch your new website. The worst thing that could happen would be that you launch, and people who visit never comes back again.
You could easily find a premium theme that would solve this problem for you, at a shoe-string budget. One of the best themes available is Divi.
If you need a website theme, check out my done-for-you website kit, Your Stunning Website. You will learn how to create a beautiful website using the premium Divi theme (which will be provided to you as I have a developer license). Or if you’re a technophobe, there’s a professionally designed Your Stunning Website Divi template that you can use that looks amazing out of the box.
This will give your new readers a great impression of your website when you launch it.
Branding is important
Having a professional website is just the first step to creating a great, memorable brand.
Creating a brand that stands out from the get-go will help people to remember your website.
These 8 questions will help you with launching a great brand:
- Do you have a consistent brand style (fonts, colors, images)?
- Is your website design amateur or professional?
- Can you confidently say that your content is the best of its kind?
- Do you have a lead magnet(s) that consist of your best work?
- Have you positioned yourself in a unique way that differentiates yourself?
- Have you incorporated your achievements into your business so that people can know, like and trust you?
- What’s your personal story and how can you build your business around an unforgettable, authentic story?
- Is your product the best or just another one in the crowd?
If you’re launching, you want to be launching something great, right? 🙂
Have about ~5 articles available during launch
It is recommended that you launch with at least a couple of articles, so that when people come to your site, they have something to read and engage with.
How many articles should you launch with?
I would recommend launching with about 5 articles. It isn’t too hard to write and come up with 5 articles, and there are enough articles to give your first visitors a good first impression.
There is no hard and fast rule to exactly how many articles – just have some content available!
Quality content
So now you know that you need to have content ready on your new website. To be very specific, what you need is have QUALITY content.
What do I mean by having quality content?
I’m talking about in-depth, amazing pieces of articles that will blow people’s socks off.
In today’s competitive internet arena, launching with mediocre content will not catch people’s attention.
Here are some examples of great content:
- Content round-up posts (for an example of an epic round-up post, check out my post: 101 Tips From Top Experts on How To Start A Successful Blog)
- In-depth list posts (for an example of an epic list post, check out my post: 190+ Catchy Headlines/ Blog Titles To Get More Attention)
- Personal posts
- and more!
Here’s a template for you to learn how to write a perfect blog post.
Promotion plan
You now have content ready on your website, have a great looking website and know that you need a solid brand + value proposition before launching.
The next thing you need to do is to get people aware of your upcoming website launch.
If this is your first launch with no budget, I would suggest not to over complicate things. You’ll notice that I have intentionally skipped many administrative tasks like setting up Google Analytics, as these can be implemented after launch. You need to keep the momentum and launch quickly.
What you need now is good content to engage visitors, clarity on exactly what your brand is and what your business is about, and some eyeballs to your site. The little nitty gritty details can be added later.
Reach out to people
When you have no one at your site, it is difficult to get people to automatically share your upcoming new site.
You’ll have to do something called outreach – aka reaching out to people and either asking them to 1) sign up for your upcoming launch or 2) share the freebie the moment you’ve launched.
Reach out to people you know, peer bloggers, complementary businesses…
Share the link to your coming soon page and get people who are interested to opt-in to your freebie and be notified when you launch.
Influencer outreach
Aside from reaching out to potential readers, reach out to influencers in your niche as well for an extra boost.
For influencers, share with them great content that you’ve written, or give them an incentive to share your freebie/ content/ coming soon page (whichever feels more appropriate for the situation).
Do note that most influencers are very busy people, so you’ll need to make sure that it’s a win-win situation for them to want to help you out.
It’s tiring, it’s a pain, and you’ll face countless rejections, but when you’re trying to launch a new site – you’re going to have to put some hardwork in.
Social media platforms
By now, you would probably have figured out where your target audience is hanging out at. Regardless of the channel you use (eg Facebook groups, Twitter, Pinterest etc), how you promote essentially remains the same: Promote your upcoming launch and drive traffic to your coming soon page for people to opt-in.
If you have a budget, you can run some ads to drive people to your “coming soon” page. This is the fastest and most efficient way to get people to know about your launch and sign up for your list. [Tweet “The ultimate guide to launching: Great tips here on how to have a successful website launch!”]
Summary
To have a successful website launch, here’s what to do:
- Launch before you are ready
- Have a coming soon page with a freebie for people to opt-in before launch
- Professional website
- Focus on strong branding
- Have around ~5 quality articles ready
- Have a promotion plan (outreach + social media)
Just starting out as a new entrepreneur and want to start your blog right? In my Free Blog Starter Series, you’ll learn how to launch a website (tech worries begone!), get your website visitor-ready, make money blogging, and much more. Read here:
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