Installing WordPress gives you an empty website and a large number of possible decisions.
You may already have dozens of article ideas. Some will be basic beginner questions, while others will involve specialist parts of your hobby that you particularly enjoy.
The obvious question is: what should you publish first?
There is no universal first post and no magic number of articles required before a website can launch. What matters is whether you have a clear plan for where the site is going.
My preferred method is to map the reader’s complete journey and then work through that plan one hub at a time. Individual articles can be published as soon as they are genuinely useful. You do not need to wait until the entire website is finished.
The objective is not to make the site look large as quickly as possible. It is to build a connected body of content that will eventually guide someone from the beginning of their journey to the result they want.
A new website does not need a certain number of posts
You will sometimes see recommendations that a new website should launch with 10, 20 or even 50 articles.
I do not think a fixed number provides a useful test.
Five detailed, connected articles could help a reader far more than 20 posts covering unrelated questions. Equally, one enormous article may attempt to cover so much that the reader cannot easily find the particular answer they need.
Before publishing, ask:
- Is the purpose of the website clear?
- Does the published material provide genuine help?
- Can a reader identify a useful next step?
- Does the navigation work?
- Have sample pages and posts been removed?
- Are the necessary policies and disclosures available?
- Does every public page contain something worthwhile?
A website does not need to be complete, but the content that is public should be useful in its own right.
Plan the complete reader journey first
Before deciding on the first post, identify who the website is intended to help and what they are trying to achieve.
For Action With AI, the intended reader wants to build a useful hobby website, potentially using AI to make parts of the work more manageable.
That broad objective can be divided into several stages:
- Understand what building a hobby website involves.
- Choose a suitable hobby and focus.
- Build the website.
- Create genuinely helpful content.
- Find an audience.
- Explore realistic earning opportunities.
These stages provide the basis for the main hubs:
- Start Here
- Choose Your Hobby
- Build Your Website
- Create Helpful Content
- Find Your Audience
- Earn From Your Site
The first post should come from this journey plan rather than an unrelated collection of keywords.
This does not mean that the plan can never change. New questions and better ways of organising the material may emerge. However, the initial map gives every article a destination.
Begin with the first hub in the journey
If I were starting a new site from the beginning, I would work through the hubs in the order that makes sense for the reader.
Someone should normally decide what their hobby website will cover before worrying about advertising or affiliate programmes. They need to establish the website before developing an advanced content-production system.
Beginning with the first hub has several practical advantages:
- Earlier articles establish ideas used later.
- Connected subjects can link naturally to one another.
- Research conducted for one article informs the next.
- Missing questions become easier to identify.
- A complete section becomes useful sooner.
- The website develops in an understandable order.
This is different from publishing one post about choosing a hobby, one about Pinterest, one about WordPress backups and one about affiliate income.
Those four articles might all belong on the final website, but they do not yet provide a connected route through any part of the process.
Complete one hub before moving to the next
Once the complete journey has been mapped, choose the first hub and work through its supporting-post plan.
The process looks like this:
Choose a hub
↓
Write its supporting posts
↓
Connect related articles
↓
Complete the hub page
↓
Check for gaps or misunderstandings
↓
Move to the next hub
Working this way creates depth in one useful area before attention moves elsewhere.
It also provides a clearer production target. Instead of facing an endless list of possible articles, you can concentrate on the next unanswered question within the current hub.
This approach is not a secret search-engine technique, and it does not guarantee rankings. Its principal benefits are usefulness, clarity and manageable production.
A connected section is easier for a reader to follow and easier for the owner to complete.
My Action With AI content did not develop in this order
Action With AI did not begin with a complete journey plan.
I originally wrote about AI topics that interested me, including large language models, individual tools and Google AI Mode experiments. Those articles helped me develop my research methods and produced useful first-hand material.
However, I eventually realised that the AI Mode experiments represented only one part of what someone building a hobby website needed to understand.
I exported my existing posts and pages from WordPress and used ChatGPT to help:
- identify what each article covered;
- group connected material;
- map the reader’s complete journey;
- compare existing coverage with that journey;
- identify missing subjects;
- create an ordered production plan.
That showed that some later-stage areas had considerable depth while basic website-building questions remained unanswered.
I am now working systematically through the Build Your Website posts. Once the main supporting articles are complete, I can create the finished hub that connects them.
The earlier AI Mode articles have not been wasted. They already provide depth within the Create Helpful Content part of the site. The current task is to complete the route around them.
Publish each useful article when it is ready
Working through one hub at a time does not mean keeping every article hidden until the entire hub is complete.
A finished post can be published as soon as it provides a useful answer.
Publishing as you work allows it to:
- become available to readers;
- be discovered and indexed;
- collect early Search Console information;
- be linked from later articles;
- reveal questions that need further explanation.
Waiting until an entire hub or website is finished could delay publication for months.
I also see little reason to worry that publishing several completed articles together would automatically be regarded as spam. The quality, usefulness and purpose of the pages matter far more than maintaining an artificial interval between publication dates.
Nevertheless, publishing as you go is usually the practical choice. Each finished article starts contributing while the remaining work continues.
Plan the hub first and finish it later
A hub should be planned before its supporting posts, but it does not necessarily need to be published first.
Initially, identify:
- what the hub needs to explain;
- which questions belong within it;
- which questions require separate articles;
- the likely order in which someone should approach them.
Then write the supporting posts.
Once enough of them exist, you can write or revise the public hub so it accurately reflects what is available.
This avoids publishing an empty page containing a list of “coming soon” links.
A hub can be published before every possible supporting post exists if it already contains a useful overview and real destinations. However, planned articles should not be represented by broken or placeholder links.
The useful distinction is:
Sketch the hub first, write the detailed content and then complete the public hub page.
What should be ready before publishing the first articles?
A new site does not need a polished corporate design or every planned feature.
It should have a modest, functional foundation.
Depending on what the website does, this may include:
- a clear site title and purpose;
- simple navigation;
- an About page;
- a way to make contact;
- an appropriate privacy policy;
- cookie information and consent where required;
- an affiliate disclosure if affiliate links are present;
- no remaining sample content.
Not every policy or technical requirement applies identically in every country or to every website. The important point is that visitors should not encounter misleading sample material, broken navigation or unexplained data collection.
Design should also be good enough that the site is readable and does not look abandoned. It does not need weeks of polishing before the first useful article appears.
Be honest that the wider site is still developing
Publishing an incomplete journey does not mean pretending that the entire guide already exists.
A short message on the homepage or Start Here page can explain what is happening:
This website is being built one stage at a time.
Action With AI is developing a complete practical guide to building a successful hobby website, from choosing a subject and setting up WordPress to creating useful content, finding an audience and exploring earning opportunities. Some sections are still being developed, but every published guide is intended to be useful in its own right.
This is not a full-screen construction notice that prevents people from accessing the site. It is simply an honest explanation of the project.
The message should sound deliberate rather than apologetic. You are not publishing half-written articles. You are publishing finished parts of a larger guide that is still growing.
Once the initial content plan has been substantially completed, the notice can be removed or updated.
Do not create empty placeholder pages
There is an important difference between explaining that the site is developing and publishing dozens of empty pages.
Avoid making public:
- blank hub pages;
- pages containing only “coming soon”;
- article titles with no meaningful content;
- menus filled with unfinished destinations;
- URLs created solely to represent planned future posts.
Keep those items in your content plan or as WordPress drafts.
A URL should become public when the page offers something useful. The homepage message can explain the broader plan without creating thin pages for every future subject.
Add internal links as the hub develops
When the first supporting post is published, some of the articles it should eventually connect to will not exist.
That is not a problem.
Publish the article without those links and return to it as the hub grows.
For example:
- Publish the hosting guide.
- Later publish the WordPress installation guide.
- Add a relevant link from hosting to installation.
- Publish the backup guide.
- Link it from the hosting and plugin articles.
- Complete the hub page.
- Add links from the supporting posts back to the hub.
Internal linking is therefore part of the continuing production process. It does not need to be completed perfectly on the first publication date.
A useful link should answer the next likely question or explain a connected issue. Links should not be added simply to reach a target number.
Check whether the subject is being understood
Completing one hub at a time also creates a useful point for review.
Once several connected articles exist, I can examine:
- which Search Console queries produce impressions;
- which pages appear for those queries;
- whether the searches match the intended subject;
- how Google AI Mode describes the hub or category;
- whether it can identify the relevant articles;
- whether important questions remain unanswered.
Google describes Search Console as a way to understand how a website is crawled, indexed and presented in Search, including the queries, pages and countries generating activity. Google’s Search Console guidance
These checks provide evidence, but they are not final judgments.
A new site may have very little search data. AI Mode answers can also vary depending on the question and the available sources. One strange response should not trigger a complete restructuring exercise.
The purpose is to look for consistent signs of genuine misunderstanding.
The AI Mode category provided an example
I originally used the category name AI Mode Analysis.
Search impressions suggested that this might be interpreted as a category about AI Mode analysis tools rather than experiments examining AI Mode responses.
I renamed it AI Mode Experiments, added a clearer description, changed the category slug and redirected the previous address.
That was a reasoned change based on evidence. It was not simply a preference for slightly different wording.
This is another advantage of developing coherent sections. When several connected articles communicate the same purpose, it becomes easier to investigate whether that purpose is reaching readers and search systems clearly.
Do not let one hub expand forever
Completing one hub at a time does not mean answering every question that could ever be asked before moving on.
Some hobbies and website-building subjects can expand indefinitely.
A hub is complete enough for the initial plan when:
- it explains the broad stage;
- its main beginner questions have been answered;
- the supporting posts form a sensible sequence;
- obvious gaps have been addressed;
- the principal articles link together;
- the reader can identify the next stage.
Advanced questions and smaller subtopics can remain on a future-content list.
Without this boundary, the first hub could consume all available time while the rest of the reader’s journey remains untouched.
The initial aim is meaningful coverage across the complete journey. Additional depth can follow.
Leave room for the subjects you enjoy
A structured plan should not remove all spontaneity.
The AI Mode experiments may not have been the most efficient way to build complete coverage, but I enjoyed conducting them. They kept me engaged and helped create original material.
A perfectly structured production schedule is useless if it makes the owner lose interest and abandon the website.
When a new idea appears, ask:
- Does it help the intended reader?
- Which hub does it support?
- Does it deepen something already published?
- Is it sufficiently important or timely to interrupt the current sequence?
- Could it be recorded for later?
Occasionally publishing a relevant experiment will not destroy the plan. The important thing is to return to the main production sequence afterwards.
The plan should guide the work rather than make it joyless.
Completing the initial content plan is a major milestone
The clear aim is to reach a point where every main hub has been completed to a useful initial level.
At that stage:
- the reader can move through the entire journey;
- every principal hub has supporting material;
- the most obvious beginner questions have answers;
- internal links connect the main ideas;
- future content can add depth rather than repair basic gaps.
The website is not permanently finished. New material can then be informed by:
- reader questions;
- Search Console queries;
- AI Mode misunderstandings;
- changes in tools and platforms;
- new experiments;
- subjects that deserve deeper treatment.
Completing the initial plan creates the foundation from which that later work can grow.
A practical first-publishing process
For a new hobby website, I recommend this sequence:
- Define who the website helps.
- Identify the result the reader wants.
- Map the complete journey.
- Divide it into main hubs.
- Plan the supporting posts within each hub.
- Establish the essential site and policy pages.
- Begin with the first hub.
- Publish each supporting article when it is useful and complete.
- Add internal links as connected posts become available.
- Finish or revise the hub page.
- Check for important gaps or misunderstandings.
- Move to the next hub.
- Continue until the initial reader journey is covered.
You do not need to wait until the entire website is finished before publishing. You do need to know what you are trying to complete.
Build with a destination in mind
A blank WordPress website can make every article idea appear equally urgent.
Without a wider plan, it is easy to follow whatever seems interesting that day. That can produce valuable individual posts, but it may not produce a complete resource for the intended reader.
The better approach is to map the destination first.
Work through the journey one connected hub at a time. Publish useful articles as they are completed. Be honest that the wider guide is still developing, and use real evidence to check whether each section is communicating what you intended.
The principle is straightforward:
A new hobby website does not need every planned article before it launches. It needs a clear content plan and a sensible order in which to complete it.
That allows the website to become useful from its earliest stages while steadily progressing towards complete coverage of the reader’s journey.