Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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October 18, 2008

Invite Back Your Muse by Cleaning Up Your Blog

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:27 am

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Duck! The HTML Is Falling!

falling_leaves

Any time is a good time to look around at we’ve been living with, but not seeing. At the change of seasons, it seems we even get the urge to do that. I’ve got a server move coming, so I have an additional incentive. Who wants to back up and pack up things that aren’t working?

The point is that over time we load up out blogs with noise and clutter . . . is it time for a clean up?

Any time of the year is a good to clean up your blog. Here’s a quick checklist to make your home base more appealing.

See what other folks are doing. Find your own version of new trends in the blogosphere. Naturally, you’ll want to have a compelling reason, but when you do, changing things on your blog can attract new attention.

A new look — a cleaner, sleeker blog — can inspire a blog writer and appeals to a blog writer’s muse . . . who wouldn’t like an easier more ideas and less distraction? Readers won’t find a cleaner, sleeker blog a problem either.

What else could help with blog clean up?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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9 Comments to “Invite Back Your Muse by Cleaning Up Your Blog”

  1. October 18th, 2008 at 7:47 am
    Serge Norguard said

    For me it is a good idea to clear the sidebar, though at the same time, I just cant think of how to clean it up for it looks fine for me…

  2. October 18th, 2008 at 9:43 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Autumn cleaning instead of Spring cleaning?

    What else would help? I think realising what worked best the last few months - so perhaps renaming or adding a category to make it easier for your readers to find more articles of the same caliber.
    (Funnily enough I just had a look at one of our webshops and decided to give that a nice autumn cleaning this coming week - specially in the ‘categories’ and links ;-))

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  3. October 18th, 2008 at 10:01 am
    Grant D Griffiths said

    Hey Liz, this post is timely consider we did more then clean up http://blogforprofit.com We gave it a completely new redesign. It was overdue and badly needed. Just need to get my SOB badge on it.

  4. October 18th, 2008 at 10:11 am
    Ken said

    A fresh mind is a fresh blog!

    Read something completely different. Do a headstand. Go about your typical day without speaking for 24 hours. Skipping eating - Juice. Compliment a stranger. Give something away that you like.

    You will come back to your writing with a changed mind - and just maybe an expanded audience.

  5. October 18th, 2008 at 10:38 am
    Dustyhawk :: Broken Mirror » Sidebar Cleanup said

    [...] Sidebar CleanupBy Serge Norguard. Filed in Admin Works, Personal  |     The point is that over time we load up out blogs with noise and clutter . . . is it time for a clean up?–Liz [...]

  6. October 18th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
    Karen Swim said

    Liz, this really hit home. I am still trying to settle in from my move and have not yet added all the badges but have not figured out where to put them so as not to clutter the page. One thing I’ve done recently with posts is experiment with putting all the hyperlinks at the end in a reference section rather than in the body of the post. I got the idea from Rosa Say and it actually does make for a cleaner read and more like the offline reading we do. Now off to tackle that sidebar!

  7. October 18th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
    CatherineL said

    Hi Liz - This is a great reminder. I carried on blogging for months long after the purpose of my blog had changed without changing the header. I simply didn’t make the time to learn how to do it.

    Now as for sidebars, I need to take a look at what other blogs are doing and get mine looking half decent. I’d love a left hand sidebar but I’m worried I’d wreck my blog trying to change it.

  8. October 18th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
    --Deb said

    Cleaning? Is this going to involve dusting? Scrubbing? Or just the organizing kind of thing. Because, organizing is fun, scrubbing is hard work! (grin)

    (Love the title, by the way.)

  9. October 18th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
    Amy Derby said

    Deb, funny you mention cleaning. When I read this I thought “how can I be so ocd about my blog’s sidebar but never clean my closet?” :-\

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