So I was going to write a blog post today. I was actually going to do it two hours ago. Instead I’ve just spent those hours searching for a new theme and tidying up my blog.
Finding (Creating?) the time to blog
I have just agonised over almost 200 themes searching for the ideal one. Is the one I’ve chosen ‘perfect’? Well probably not but it’s free, I quite like it, it’s quite plain and I like the font. (other themes with other fonts are available).
It’s a perfect example of how I procrastinate about blogging. I think it’s something I should do. And that blogs are really valuable. AND when I write a post, I really enjoy it. It’s just getting round to it that’s the problem. I got some advice about making sure ‘blog post’ was on my to do list every week. Which I thought was a great idea. Totally agreed with it. Then ignored it. Possibly because I thought “Aaaarrrgggghhhh, once a week? I can’t possibly fit that in”.
Part of me is possibly still a little scared of it. That’s one of the reason’s I put off doing things. Another part of me possibly still sees it as something I shouldn’t be doing, that I can easily knock off the end of my list when I’m busy. It’s really strange, I honestly believe in the value of blogging so I’m not totally sure why I do this. Especially as intellectually (and strategically for my business) there are loads of reasons why I should blog and in fact must blog more often. Perhaps it’s a confidence issue?
I use this image in my PPT to show fear of social media. I think it’s funny. The cat that is, not fear of social media.
Flickr CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/85843672@N00/318700028
One of the reasons that I should blog more, is that I run training sessions about blogging, (I do run a service blog, but am very aware that when I say to delegates “keep your blog updated, people won’t follow static blogs” that I’m not practising what I preach when it comes to my personal blog.
Blog style
Because of my recent training sessions, I’ve been thinking a lot about the look and feel of blogs and I wanted my blog to look better. I’ve realised my blog is quite text heavy and possibly difficult to skim read so I’ve had a look at where I can add more white space. I do realise that might be the nature of my blogging style and that I might have to live with it, but I’m going to see if there are ways I can make it better.
I’ve got one post that has a numbered list, 1- 10, but each point has a lot of text in, so I wanted a space in between each point. I can’t do it. I simply can’t work it out. I’ve tried it on the visual view, by just adding a line break, but when you update, it goes back to the way it looked before. If you try fiddling with the html, you lose continuity with the numbering. I have NO CLUE. (Answers on a postcard please)
I’m also going to look at my paragraph size and I try and make them a little shorter. They can be a little lengthy especially in my ‘stream of consciousness’ posts. I’m also going to see if there are a few more images I can add to some of previous posts to break up some of my text.
Blog jargon
The other thing that my delegates and I were chatting about was the jargon used. Things that I take for granted are not necessarily very clear to those new to reading blogs. On my website I have ‘Useful links and resources’ but on my blog I’d kept ‘blogroll’. A term that last week I had to explain. I’ve changed it to the slightly clunky but more meaningful ‘Blogs I read’. The other thing that was confusing to the uninitiated, was the tag cloud. Some people said they found keywords in lists, with number of posts where the keyword appeared more understandable.
e.g. social media 5.
I can see why this could be an issue and how this might be more meaningful, but I do like a tag cloud and my theme doesn’t have a widget where I can do a tag list. Unless you know of a way I can do it? I’d quite like to experiment and see what it would look like.
So yes, I have procrastinated. But I also blogged. And I tidied my blog up and chose a new theme. Not a bad afternoon’s work after all.
What do you think?