Upstart your new blog

It is important to take time to develop your blog before you open the doors to invite visitors. Think of it as preparing your house before you put it up for sale. You need to update kitchen appliances and paint or do something else to make it presentable. Well, your blog is just like that.

If you are starting a blog with the intention of one day having a mega blog with thousands of hits per day, you need to take it slow. Make sure it is presentable for the masses and then test market it. This would be the development phase.

You'll need a good week just to get your layout right. This includes everything you need in you sidebar, the right header image, and some starter posts. Your sidebar should include navigation, links, and subscription information at a minimum. You can also introduce ad elements.

Then you can move on to your test market phase. This us where you simply post and get a few visitors to lend their comments concerning your presentation. You can find these visitors by leaving comments on other blogs first complimenting the blog owner and then asking them to check out your blog and tell you what they think. I'd be happy to look at your blog if you would like my opinion Ryan.

Adjust as necessary from what you learn from your test marketing phase. You may get a few comments that you don't agree with. However, you'll most likely get some wonderful constructive criticism concerning something obvious that you overlooked. This would be a sign of success in the process.
When you are done with your test marketing, you can work on promotion.