Improving a Blog

subway turnstile

I’ve always taken the discussions regarding the importance of the blog seriously.  The blog establishes the permalink whereas building digital identities out solely on social media platforms effectively turns the keys to your content over to the company.  I come down with both feet firmly on the side of making the blog the home-base.  It’s an idea I was introduced to by Chris Brogan at a bootcamp he ran a year ago.  The home-base provides a place to tie all of your social media out-posting activity back into.  Listening to Chris concerning positioning in this space has provided the main strategic framework for what I’m doing here and across the web.    If you are seeking traction in this space, know that I’ve never been misled at any step trusting Chris and his vision, and trust is something Chris also has a great deal to share on.

Now that I’m moving out of the start up phase of my digital publishing activity, it’s important to me to find ways to continually improve.  While much of my energy goes into crafting the content streams that further my goals,  it’s also really important to me that I keep the systems I’m using functioning in an optimum way.  Matt Mullenweg shared a useful link that provides a good framework for working a blog.  The fifth suggestion gets to the heart of what I’ve been focusing on.

“Find ways to improve. Organize your archives a little better, add links to your social networking profiles, or spruce up your “About” page. Find ways to regularly improve your site, making it more visually appealing and more user-friendly.” Amber Riviere, Your Blog is Your Mothership

It’s the user friendly part that has become a priority for me.   The first thing that I did was explore and review the many settings options available throughout the WordPress dashboard and spent time making sure I understood them all.   Then, with some back-end support from Jeb, I’ve experimented with finding ways through plugins and widgets that can improve the user experience here.

I’ve excited by a new search plugin that brings advanced search features finding content on this blog. I’ve been making some waves lately about the importance of search, so extending the search capability within this blog is a way of walking the walk and not just talking the walk. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Along with his fine poetry, I was taken with a translation capability that Dirk Johnson installed on his blog.  While I’m not yet sure how much traffic the translator I’ve installed will get, having it sets a tone concerning accessibility which defines my values for all visitors.

There have been a few other back-end adjustments which have more to do with how search engines interact with this domain, and oh yes, one other thing.  I’ve pulled the plug on my AdSense account.  After serving out over 17,000 impressions over ten months, that experiment is over.

There’s more to come.  Jeb and I are also working getting the photo gallery optimized and are trying out some e-card solutions for facilitating ease of sharing.

You see, what happens is that when given some attention, one neat feature after another presents itself for review.  WordPress continues to amaze me with what it can do.  It’s pretty easy to take it’s power for granted.   Spending time under the hood helps prevent that from happening.