How To Pick A Launch Date For Your Blog

Darren Rowse just started a new blog on twitter.  He never put any launch date or announce one date to launch, he just launch.  Well it’s a risky move, but for Darren, he already have a loyal reader.  For most of us it’s could ended-up as a adverse effect while if successful, it could also mean a good start-up. So if you willing to take the risk publicize your launch date well in advance.

Experience any bad day late?

On the positive side, having a launch date that everyone knows about is a great way to motivate you and your team to get the project done on schedule.  However, be very careful in how you promote your launch date because while you want to let your readers know about your new blog and new features of your blog, that doesn’t mean you need to publicly commit to a specific date months in advance of the actual launch.

Over at brainmates, Fern Jones-Middleton offers five fantastic suggestions for Launching New Products Successfully, including:

Don’t release a launch date in the market unless you’re 110% sure you’re going to make it. Your company can look pretty silly in the eyes of a customer if it’s not available when you say it will be available. Also, look out when you use ‘Coming Soon..’ How soon is soon? I’ve seen companies advertise a new product on their website when ‘soon’ is 6 months! That’s not very soon in my opinion.

Variable VS fixed dated, which one is beautiful?

If you feel the need to provide some date for the market and your potential reader (obviously) but do not want to commit to a specific date, one of these alternatives should provide much of the benefit while at the same time not opening you up to potential problems:

• Accurate but non-specific date, like coming this fall, new version in 2009 or in second quarter of 2009.
• Commit to a “by” date by which time the blog will be launched, for example by September 1 or by the fourth quarter of 2009 or by the second half of 2009 (a combination of “by” and an accurate but non-specific date).
• Attached other event to the dates, whose dates can either be fixed or variable. Examples of fixed dates:
  • After the SBA Conference
  • Within weeks of the presidential election.
  • In commemorate the 90 days President Obama in office
• Variable dates can be statements like:
  • 90 days after President Obama in office
  • two months after Sarah Palin lost the election
  • shortly after Gov. Schwaneger approved the tax bil.

It’s a dateline

Regardless of what launch date you choose, you need to consider the pros and cons of releasing a specific launch date. If you decide not to publicly promote a specific date but still need to provide some time frame for the launch, consider one of the options above which will allow you to answer questions from your readers, partners, and other external stakeholders but still provide you with some flexibility around the actual date.

Last time, when you launch your blog,  how do you choose your launch date? Variable or fixed dates?

This articles still lack of something – your comment or your generosity to promote it by giving a Thumb-Up, Digg or simply making it Delicious.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Related posts

• Rule 1-9-90 (1)
• How To Promote Squidoo Over StumbleUpon. (0)
• How Long Before I Can See My First Traffic. (0)
• WordPress Now 2.5 (0)
• Will Facebook Lose To Twitter? – An Update. (10)