Over the years I have created a lot of blogs. Most of them are profitable and some of them didn’t bring me even a penny. During the last 5 years, I have seen so many changes in the blog design, creating content and Google updates.
If I analyze the profitable blogs that I built over the years, I noticed that I carefully followed a checklist.
If you are setting up a new blog, here’s the most comprehensive checklist you can use to start a successful blog from scratch.
Do you really need a checklist for starting a new blog? Well, yes if you want to go in the right direction of creating a successful blog that actually makes money.

Before we begin, for beginners, I highly recommend using WordPress over any other blogging platform. It’s fast, reliable and secure. You will also have access to thousands of plugins and themes so you don’t have to be tech savvy to manage your blog.
If you want to create a blog that matters, you definitely need a solid blog setup checklist that will increase the chances of making your blog a success.
So are you ready? Let’s jump into the details.
What’s your blog about?
Before thinking to launch a new blog, imagine your ideal blog reader. If you don’t know who you’re actually helping with your blog, you will never succeed.
It doesn’t matter whether you are blogging for money or fun, you need to find “target audience” for your blog. Once you know who you are targeting, it becomes easy for you to create top notch contents and drive more traffic to your blogs.
Here’s a great guide on finding target audience for your blog.

What’s your monetization strategy?
Building a profitable blog that makes money is not really hard if you have a clear strategy about the type of monetization strategies you want to use.
Most beginners fail to make money blogging because they don’t create a monetization strategy. They mostly consider blogging as fun and they don’t put serious efforts in building targeted audience. That’s why they fail to make money or they end up making peanuts from their blogging efforts.

Create a successful content creation strategy
Great content is the key to building a highly successful blog. Just don’t rehash content in your niche, write problem solving contents that your audience love to connect with you.
Make sure to find great blog post ideas by using tools like Moz Open Site Explorer or Buzzsumo.
Don’t write what you think will go viral, write what your audience really wants to read. After all, successful blogging is all about caring your readers. You can also use surveys to take feedback from the readers who are relevant to your blog’s topic.
Also find a consistent blog posting frequency and stick to it. Create blog posts in advance and schedule them according to your blogging frequency to build a loyal readership around your blogs.

Create a list of bloggers in your niche
One of the most important factors that make or break any new blog is this: your connections with other bloggers. If no one knows you, you’re going to fail miserably. Start building connections with other bloggers, create a list of 30 to 50 bloggers in your niche before launching a blog.

Why should you create a list of relevant bloggers in your niche?
To leave blog comments: Blog commenting is the easiest way to get to know other bloggers. If you leave thoughtful comments on other blogs, you will get more traffic and you’ll also building links to your sites (even if they are of no-follow). They help you quickly index your blog posts.
To write guest posts: To rank higher for any keyword you are targeting, you need quality links from other sites. Without having links, you simply can’t rank for a keyword by having a new blog. If you don’t rank higher for keywords, you won’t be able to generate any traffic from search engines. So make sure to write quality guest posts for others in your niche to quickly build good links.
To connect with them on social media: Social media is the new SEO. If you are a beginner, social media sites like Facebook, twitter can help you increase your blog traffic. Write great headlines and you will attract more people to read your blog posts. If you are connecting with top bloggers in your niche and if they somehow like your posts and tweet about them, you will get a ton of traffic that will impact your overall SEO.
To build strong relationships: [/b]Relationships with other bloggers go a long way. Even if you want to spread your brand awareness offline, you can use your online connections. So start considering blogging as a way to grow your name instead of thinking it just as a money making source.
[b]Decide 3 topics you are really passionate about
The most common question I get from new bloggers is, “what do I blog about?”.
If you’re also one among them, this article helps you.

My suggestion for any new blogger is to pick any 3 topics that you absolutely love to talk about. Think about any 3 topics that you are really passionate to blog about (even if your efforts are not bringing you money or traffic). It’s easier to build a profitable blog if you spend quality time on crafting great contents.

3 essential elements you must not ignore
#1. Pick a memorable domain and use the best web hosting
I know choosing a good domain name is really hard. If you’re on a limited budget, getting a great domain name for your blog is almost impossible. Here are few solid tips for getting a domain name that matters.
Pick a domain name that is easy to remember and type
Avoid numbers and hyphens
Always choose .com extension
Search for your favorite domains on ExpiredDomains.com (and try your luck to get a great domain on a limited budget)
Use domain suggestion tools like Domainr.com for finding domains quickly
Web hosting is another crucial factor that will highly impact your search engine rankings as well as your website loading times. I would strongly recommend you Bluehost for all your hosting solutions. They not only give you a free domain name but they are also the most reliable leading web hosting providers.

#2. An appealing design
Whether you know it or not, design is the king online. If you have an appealing design for your blog, you’re already halfway succeeded in quickly grabbing attention of the first time visitors.
I highly recommend Elegant themes if you want to get your hands on a large number of themes at a low price.

#3. Must-have plugins
There are over 20,000 plugins available on WordPress directory. WordPress is known for its plugins.
Here are few plugins I’d recommend.
Akismet (to stop spam comments)
Easy WP SEO (to write search friendly posts)
Contact Form 7 (to easily create contact page)
Long tail Pro (to find long tail keywords to increase your search traffic)
XML sitemaps (to create a sitemap for your blog to quickly index your posts by Google)

Absolutely essential pages you need to include on your blog
About page: Without having an about page, how can someone even know who you are and what you like. Make sure to create an about page before even launching the blog and tell your readers how can you serve them. Most beginners write all fluff on their about pages. Make your about pages about your readers, not you!

Services/products page: If you want to build a profitable blog, make sure to include service page or hire me page from day 1 on your blog. Offering services through your blog (like content writing, logo design or anything you can offer) is the quickest way to make money from blogging.

Contact page: [/b]This is a must. Provide your contact page at the top or bottom of your blog where your readers or visitors can easily find your contact page to get in touch with you.
Final touches to your blog
So far, we’ve discussed about a lot of essential things from creating target audience to installing few must have plugins on your blog. Now, we’ll talk about few more things that matters a lot for launching your blog.

[b]Attention grabbing logo: Use site like Fiverr to get amazing logos for your blog for just $5. A great logo is a must if you want to create a professional design for your blog to attract more audience. Try to include a tagline for your blog in your logo design to make it easy for readers to understand what your blog is about at first glance.

Set up social media accounts: [/b]Once you set up your blog, create social media links on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ etc. Try to name the pages on social media sites similar to your blog name to get prominent results for your blog on Google search results.

[b]Add Google Analytics: If you want to find out where your visitors are coming, you need to add Google analytics to your blog. Setting it up is easy by following this guide.

Build an email list from day 1: If you want to make more money from your blog, you need to create a lot of passive income streams. To get it done, you need a thriving email list. Every top affiliate marketer and blogger in any industry makes majority of their money using their email lists. So start building email list from day 1 if you want to make money blogging even when you sleep.

Make sure your blog is both mobile and search friendly: [/b]After mobile-friendly update from Google, every website owner is now more focused on making their blog design mobile responsive. If you don’t want to lose traffic from mobile visitors, make sure to create a mobile friendly site. Search engine friendly design includes faster loading pages, mobile responsive and better navigation.

[b]Final thoughts about the checklist for starting a new blog
From my experience, I can say that, to create successful blog from scratch, you need a solid blueprint (I call it as a blog setup checklist).
And you MUST follow a proper checklist if you are starting a brand new blog. Why? The reason is simple, by following a blog setup checklist, you will know what to do and most importantly what NOT to do.
By having an ultimate checklist for starting a brand new blog, you can create better content, drive more visitors from search engines and create long lasting relations with other bloggers in your niche.
So what do you think? Do you find this checklist useful for starting a successful blog from scratch? If you have any questions, shoot them up in the comments below and I’d be glad to respond.

you really did well...
Thanks OP..

K

good 1 OP, but this days, the whole blogging and website creation/design of a things seems to be using interchangeably alot. Just from my own little understanding.

k

Relationship between bloggers remains an illusion as everyone is seen a competitor, it doesn't work

If your target is mobile traffic from Nigeria , go less with the plug-ins on WP cos they messed up user experience on mobile browsers especially opera mini which 80% of Nigeria mobile traffic comes from

To check if your website/blog is mobile friendly
Click here

nice one

Nice say @OP

Hmmm

Thanks OP

I wish i understood all what you said

Ok

...

Plz I need a very good, fast and talented web designer/developer... I gave d job to someone before but dumped the task half-way. If you are interested please msg me,,, I'd be waiting.....

Softttt

Everybody wan be blogger these days

nice

my Signature says everything abt me!!!

Thanks for the topic, I really learn a lot of things from the post.

ok

AWESOME POST ...

@tutusaint, so you're not creative enough to create your own unique signature line?

Nice and precise summary

THIS AWESOME