I’ve been blogging for over 7 years now. In that time I’ve seen blogs go from relatively simple web interfaces to the current iteration which are incredibly complex, using thousands of lines of code. The standard WordPress blog has grown exponentially in size and complexity.
I didn’t realize how much things had changed, until I decided to go through John Saddington’s blogging improvement series this week over at Tentblogger. It had been quite a while since my blog has had a tune up, so decided to follow John’s advice and get started.
I didn’t realize what I was in for…
I started with his series on WordPress. I figured it would take me about an hour to get things cleaned up and running smoothly.
I opened the post and found…
55 articles!
This was just to get WordPress setup!
I started at the beginning and followed the list down. I was able to fix most of my common blogging problems from his insightful research.
At the end of DAY TWO I finally had things tweaked satisfactorily.
Now it was on to his series on Search Engine Optimization.
This time it was only 41 articles.
After another day of tweaking, honing, and rewriting, I finally finished up this list. Now Google and the other search engines can find me.
Now it was on to his series on developing great blog content.
This list was a little different, with some subjective categories. It wasn’t as simple as just following instructions. I actually had to do some major thinking on these.
After going through 45 different posts, I now have a pretty good idea what a good blog post looks like. I took a bunch of notes, but my mind is still swimming in data.
The list of 45 articles took me to the end of DAY FOUR.
Now it was on to tweaking Adsense. I’ve been tweaking since early this morning and have learned a great deal about Google’s ad network. In the last few hours I put in place some tweaks that may double or triple my ad sales.
I finally decided to take a break and actually put a post out. While you may not see much difference on the outside, my blog is considerably different on the inside!
It’s tweaked, massaged, and optimized. I’ve actually just scratched the surface.
Here is my main point…
Blogging Ain’t for Sissies!
This is tough stuff. And I’m only half through his list…
I still have his major sections on ProBlogging, Online Equity, Advertising, and Branding to go.
John has created some killer content…
Just don’t try to go through it all at once or it WILL KILL YOU! 🙂
Question: What Do You Need To Do To Tune Up Your Blog?
