Whenever you start a new blog, it pays to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you officially launch it. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so you want to make sure that it is the best possible impression you can make, so that you can hook those visitors right off the bat, rather than working to get them later.

Is there interest?
Does the world need another celebrity blog that follows Britney Spears? Or is the topic just so small that it can’t even support a blog with more than two subscribers? Make sure before you start your blog that there is enough people who are interested in your blog.

Choose the right angle
Once you have your chosen topic, make sure you are picking the right angle to target. It could be targeting a particular segment within the topic (moms, tourists, experts, etc), particularly one that is underrepresented by blogs.

Avoid spur of the moment launches
So you registered a domain name late last night after a night out with the boys/girls, uploaded Wordpress and launched it after replacing “Hello World” with “Hello readers”. I would like to know one blog reader who would find this appealing! And not only is it not appealing, you just lost your first impression on those who do end up there. This isn’t to say that those spur of the moment domain name purchases won’t lead to a top blog, but you do need to do a bit more planning between buying the domain name and officially launching the blog. And while you do that, make sure that the domain name you thought was available and purchased is really the great one you thought it was late at night… you wouldn’t be the first person to discover you made a typo in that excellent domain name due to fat fingering after a night out!

Have at least two week’s worth of excellent blog entries
Take the time to write and rewrite your first two week’s worth of blog posts, on a schedule that you plan to keep up, whether than means two posts per week or eight. If you have any entries that just aren’t as great as you hoped, save them as a draft and you can tackle them in a few weeks. But you really want to make sure your initial posts are good enough that people can’t help but want to subscribe when they see the quality of your work.

Have a good look
Just like your blog content can make a critical first impression, so can the look of your blog. If a custom design isn’t in the budget - or you aren’t quite sure what you want your custom design to be quite yet - at least install one of the free templates available so that you aren’t using the default Wordpress template (yes, most people will recognize it as the default, and judge you for it). Just make sure your chosen template isn’t sponsored by something like Texas Holdem or Payday Loans!

Have your blogroll ready
Find the top related blogs and add them to a list to add to your blogroll. Don’t add them until right before you are ready to launch, though. This is because they will likely show up as backlinks on the blogs you link to, and you really don’t want those top bloggers seeing your site until it looks good enough that they will likely blogroll you back. Not sure who the top people in the space are? Find one blog that seems to be the industry favorite, and start blogroll surfing from there, making note of the sites that are frequently updated and also have a blogroll.

External links in your blog entries
Try and include as many comments as you can, without going overboard, linking to well known blogs in your space. This will show up as backlinks for those blogs, and some might publish your trackbacks as well. And definitely leave them as straight links, don’t put a nofollow on them. The goal is to get those authors interested and visiting your blog, and hopefully end with a link to your new blog.

Create your About Me and Contact pages
Make sure you tell people a bit about yourself, especially if you are well known in the market area or even in another market area. And add a contact form or another way for visitors to contact you if they want to ask a question or share a hot news tip.

Have your plugins installed and tested
First and foremost, make sure you have Akismet or another spam prevention plugin activated and working. Then install any other plugins, such as for SEO or simple usability. And install one of the social plugins, such as Sociable, to make it easy for visitors to submit your entries to social media sites.

Remove all traces of monetization
Don’t make it obvious right off the bat if this is a blog you want to make money with… even if that is true. Keep it ad-free initially, or if you must have ads, don’t make them front and center or in a super obvious place. As your readership ramps up, you can also ramp up your ads, but it is best to keep it ad-free for your launch.

If you follow these smart tips before you launch your brand new blog, you can help ensure that your launch not only goes as successfully as possible, but that you get the most value - meaning links and subscribers - as possible. You only have one shot at making that crucial first impression, so ensure you make the most of it.