The Prelaunch Success Plan

by Paul on May 17th, 2005

There have been many times on this site and on others where the criteria for building a successful blog have been discussed, but I have never gone over what it takes to make a successful site/blog before it launches. I would advise myself to follow these guidelines since I get a bit overzealous with every launch and always seem to launch a bit too early, but that still doesn’t seem to stop me.

The Design

Not surprisingly the design of your site is what gives the visitor their first impression of what to expect. Silly me has taken the lazy route as of late and pretty much tried to make all my new sites as ugly as possible. I have started to take on my own Simpl(e)y Done design philosophy and apply it some of the sites that I run on my own. While the designs will not get me into any design galleries, they should leave a pleasing first impression with my readers.

My goal was to go back to a basic (heh, extremely basic) design for all the sites that was readable to the visitor and then I can begin to improve upon each individial one that will help make them distinct.

Over at Binary Thoughts they discuss Blog Design & Subscriber Base and ask an interesting question if we have become so fascinated by the design of a site that we have disregarded the content that it possesses. I think it’s more along the lines of if you have a design blog and it is well-designed and looks “pretty” then this instantly builds credibility for yourself. On the other hand if you launch a design like my own with very little use of images and color then the initial impression of the first-time visitor is that my credibility isn’t as high as the next guy who has a better looking design. Notice how all of this occurs even before they read the content?

This is why it’s so surprising for me to see so many of the new blog networks launch with horrendous designs. Sure a search engine visitor may ignore the design enough to read some of the content and click on an ad, but why risk chasing any of them away? Maybe I place too much emphasis on design, but I have yet to find a product or site that is well-designed and easy to use fail.

The Content

Over at Business Logs I wrote about pre-launch content and how important it is to a site. In this community you see too many people announcing the launch of their sites and the only content that can be found is a “Welcome to my site” type entry. People bookmark sites with great content. People add sites to their RSS feeds with great content. Not too many people can remember a site with one entry welcoming them.

Try to have at least 4-5 quality entries on your site so at the very least visitors have something to explore and are given a better idea of what to expect in the future from you. Even better is you can have something that will get you linked by one of the high traffic linkers.

What is it?

Initially when you launch, I think it is a good idea to have a visible description of what your site is about. It’s probably better to always have a description of what your site is about on the homepage, but over time some people choose to discard it and put it on the about page. I will have an about box soon describing what this site is about so I am not being a hypocrite.

After your visitors get passed the design of your site they are going to wonder what it is about. If they can’t find it or have to search too hard for it they may just leave. Let them know where they are and why they should be there.

The Review

When it’s almost time to launch a site it is easy to get so excited that you prematurely launch it, announce it and only come to find some major errors when people start visiting it. I should know as I seem to do this with every site I create. Before you launch you should ask a couple of people to review the site to help point out anything blatantly wrong or missing that you may have overlooked.

Creating a successful site begins before it launches. You may have a plan in place explaining how the site will grow and become popular over time, but how well you are prepared before the launch can dictate how hard you have to work to acheive your goals for the site.

With all of that said I see a million things that need to improve on all of my sites. Both a gift and a curse for writing these kinds of entries I suppose.

Ryan Latham
May 17, 2005 at 7:31 am

I think this may be the first time I agree with 100% of everything you had to say. It does seem now that people are too focused on the design of the site as opposed to the information that it houses. The whole design equals credibility point is evident at almost any level and nearly every niche.

I do tend to get antsy as soon as a project nears total completion. In general I usually launch I site before everything is entirely done; however I have gotten better at this.

At a time I would launch something as soon as I was done designing it; I was so eager to show off my spiffy designs that I would work it into an index template and throw the site up disregarding everything else. Yesterday I launched PCR without a contact page, and an unfinished about page (don’t look at me for that shit; that’s all Rod and Dusty).

I think every time you launch something you should hit the ground running too. Not only have some entries ready at launch; but have some ready for the next few days. I feel it is critical to prove to anyone who may be skeptical, that you are ready to commit to the project.

By dishing out post after post for a few days people begin to see that you didn’t go out on a limb and just up and decide to create a site for something that you wanted to write about at the moment. Keep writing afterwards too, but after you have spewed content for several days, several weeks, or several months; you gain a little bit more freedom in holding off on content. Eventually skipping an occasional day does not become the determining factor of its success.

Also it never hurts to launch something on a Monday, Tuesday or a Sunday. I’m writing an article about days of the week and what results they wield as far as blogs as we speak. Stuff you probably already know, but I took it a step further and tried to make a hypothesis as to why certain days show the results that they show, and how to get this to work on our side.
Scrivs
May 17, 2005 at 9:37 am

First I am glad to hear you finally agree with me.

I don’t agree though that people have been getting caught up in the design of their site too much, in fact I don’t think they get caught up in it enough! I think being around design sites all the time you can see them overcompensating with their designs instead of giving the content more attention, but in the problogging field you see very little care for the design of a site.

Launching a site early usually has to do with the fact that once you get 80%-90%, all the rest tend to be the little details that you can fix up after launch.

I also agree in having a stack of entries ready to go once the site has launched.
Joe
May 17, 2005 at 10:00 am

Excellent points Scrivs. The design of a site will only get you so far. You may end up in the Vault but if your site relies only on its looks, then it will have its 15 minutes of fame and then fade away. Solid content will peak the visitor’s interest and keep them coming back for more.

We also can’t forget that search engines don’t care what you look like. They are more interested in what you have to say.
David
May 17, 2005 at 12:29 pm

I think Joe said it perfectly. I have visited many sites from various Vaults and Galleries, and maybe one in every hundred I end up adding to my bookmarks or subscribing to the RSS because the content on some of the prettiest sites stinks, though the same time, I look at those sites and wish mine was prettier…
Andrew
May 17, 2005 at 3:29 pm

When does “launch” take place? For example, I created my blog on Apr 1 (2005). During April, I worked on the themes, got a domain name, decided on a tagline/mission for the blog,…
I regard May 1 as the launch date of changingway.net. April was a beta month.
Ryan Latham
May 17, 2005 at 3:45 pm

Launch is when the actual promotion of the site begins. Not telling your friends and colleagues about it; but presenting it to the general public.
LcF
May 17, 2005 at 10:10 pm

thank you. I am preparing for my new blog site, this is what I need! :)
Mike
May 18, 2005 at 9:53 pm

Thanks. For those of us about to get in the game, this was a much needed primer.

For those out there with drivel instead of content and for those that have butt-ugly designs…..here’s your wakeup call.

Mike

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