That’s the question my blogging coach Bea Fields who conducts the “Become a Blogging Maniac” course asked several of us on our weekly call where we offer each other advice, the names of new WordPress plug-ins, articles to read, etc. We’re graduates of her course and have formed a nice circle of bloggers who care about each other. She asked us to look at our blogs and ask ourselves:
- What would you change about your blog?
- What would you stop doing?
- What would you start doing?
- What would you do more of?
After some thought, I realized that the questions were really about how would changing our blogs change our business. It was surprising how frank we were in admitting we don’t have all the answers. I know I don’t. My blog has become central to my business and how I promote myself. Honestly, without getting too gushy, my blog is me. Putting in the work, week in and week out, I have accumulated a body of writing that has literally pulled me in the direction I want to go.
Would you change your blog?
In looking back at the topics I’ve covered in my blog, I’ve found where my passion lies. I know every professional blogger out there says to have a plan that outlines your blogs and posting schedule, but I’ll be honest, I winged it a lot. And I’m glad I did because it gave me the freedom to let my words take me where I was destined to go.
First thing is, I’m changing my blog template so that it emphasizes my three basic service offers as a business writer: blogs and web copy, employee engagement and branding. That’s where I’ve learned my passion and focus lies.
Second, I’m cancelling most of my subscriptions to the blogging newsletters and tip sheets that cram my email box every day, and paring down to only one or two that I feel are essential. Ditto with all the news and discussions updates from most of my LinkedIn groups. I was reading more than writing.
Third, I need to start reaching out more to fellow bloggers, and leveraging social networks – particularly LinkedIn – to begin establishing more productive business relationships.
I’m glad I’ve put this all down on paper, because we’re continuing our discussion on next week’s call and I’ll be ready.
What would you change about YOUR blog?
Jeannette,
Thanks for posting this. It’s always enlightening to hear other’s experience and thought process. Right now, I’m a bit giddy about my blog because the new design is live and I’m able to write for the first time with opinion in the mix (most paid gigs don’t encourage this). I’m still working on making it more accessible to all with feeds and streams, so I guess that would be the major right now. Also (if anyone has suggestions on this one, they’d be much appreciated) it seems that when the new design was loaded, we lost all our search engine pick-ups (Google alerts, search listings, etc.). I cetainly want to change this
! Any ideas on what might have gone wrong to lose this attention?
Thanks Jeannette.
For sharing your personal experiences. Even I w’ll have to look at my blog, to find what to change.
Templates are really good option to start with. I can change them according to environment ( feeling, certain occasions ).
Designer Templates would be a good option I suppose.