One of my favorite bloggers, Jennifer Rice from What’s Your Brand Mantra?, is reinventing herself as a blogger after some time away from her blog. She’s decided to take a simpler, more personal approach to her blog and will be breaking some of her rules of blogging:
1. No more blogroll
2. New photos which reveal personality
3. Less rigid posting schedule
4. Posting on a wider array of topics of interest
I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes for Jennifer – hopefully she finds the new approach a refreshing new start.
I think reinvention from time to time can be a great thing. For me its something I’ve done a number of times, often accompanied by a new design, a new blog, a new blogging platform, a new category etc.
Have you ever reinvented your blog? How did it go?
I think often narrowing your focus as well as scheduling random things to blog about allows helps to get those blog creative juices flowing.
Redesigning a site also helps out a lot, even checking out new ones on (via blogskins.com) helps keep a blog from getting old. At least it does for me! ;)
you only like her because she is sexy
I’m reinventing my primary blog now, partly because of life changes and partly because most of my original material now goes on bloggingbaby.com. I’ve gone from being a personal “daddy blog” to being sort of an “after hours” blog,talking about issues from a parenting perspective that aren’t necessarily kid-safe.
People change. Life circumstances change. Your blog has to change accordingly.
I also dumped my blogroll,albeit for different reasons than Jennifer
Im a bit concerned about the death of the blogroll because its going to make it harder for new bloggers to get a start, but then again I’m not sure when the last time I used one was.
Duncan, like I said in my piece, I think that “problem” can be remedied by frequently linking to new bloggers in posts. You can find them easily enough – looking at Technorati tag feeds, searching bloglines, and visiting the sites of your readers. A new blog gets much greater link-love from a link in a post than it does from sitting inert in a blogroll.
I’ve never kept a blogroll in the past, recently adding my bloglines one has had traffic to my site by those i’ve blogrolled. :) Its amazing how many people are tracking themselves with services like technorati.
Another solution to dumping a blogroll if you want a clean site is to use a little javascript and show and hide a div that encases the blogroll. Check out my subscribe via news reader link up the top right if you want to see what I mean.
Ha-ha, I’ve reinvented my blog just yesterday. I changed the design, categories and trying to change the style of my content.
I went through my own blogging mini identity crisis a few weeks back. It wasn’t really a meltdown or blogging depression (I think) just I found myself lapsing into blandness and I saw the eventual future: I’d get bored, start writing crap and no doubt let my blog dwindle away into a blogging ghosttown.
So I decided to go “Gonzo” – This recent post tells it all:
http://www.homeofficevoice.com/2005/08/29/gonzo-here-i-come/
Basically, what I decided was to put personality as the number one focus of my blog; write the way I talk, feel, act! Let some humor seep in, say things that I want to say and being politically incorrect if need be … I shook up my blog (it’s still not finished as I want my blog design/layout to be .. just a little different) and now I’m having fun because it’s me being me.
Pictures really help humanize a blog and make a connection between the writer and the reader. You can, however, have too many pictures. *shudder*
I JUST finished re-designing my blog, of course nothing fancy changed, but the sites image is now being changed from the “Full Of Art” Site, to the “Hyper Happy” new era, which will surely make me feel fresh with the new look of the site :-)
Heat
What is up with Bloglines?
Darren at ProBlogger has been complaining about Bloglines for a couple of weeks now and while I too have had problems today has taken that cake, as it were. Today many of my subscribed weblogs are showing with new posts but they are not new or e…
Although going all “personal” does fire up some more topics and contents,however, the readership may suffer unless the blogger has already established his/her reputation. I recently did a little research to dig out the common characteristics that the top rated blogs share (You can read it here: http://www.yunasville.com/archives/129 ) and one of my findings is that a personal blog doesn’t have a good chance to make to the front page. But again, Jennifer may suffer little impact since she’s already got a fan base. However, for those newbies, blogging about personal matters may not draw as much readship as you desire.
Hmmm, I would have to respectfully disagree with yunasville about making a blog personal. While I am far, far away from being an A-list blogger, I have found that adding a personal edge to my stories really draws in readers and keeps them coming back for more. For me personally, the difference between the blogs I regularly read and those I don’t is all about personality. In fact, I find the “About Me” page is where I usually start when first checking out a blog.
Just my 2 cents.
And I totally agree about re-inventing your blog. I just went through that process, and it’s made a huge difference in how I feel about posting, etc. Nothing wrong with mixing things up a bit!
I just reinvented mine, Darren, changing its name from “Better Business Communications” to “Attract More Customers.” The new name is more benefits-oriented, and that’s really what it was all about anyway.
I also changed the template, because I discovered that my old one didn’t display correctly in IE (I always use Firefox). Next, I’ll flee Blogger and move it over to Typepad (probably) or WordPress (if I can install it correctly), and may install it on a new domain. (Actually, I’m not sure that’s a good idea or not — any thoughts?)
PS: Many thanks for all the great blogging info, Darren. Big help for a newbie!
Tom McKay
Attract More Customers
http://www.MaineCreative.com/blog.htm
I actually revamped my blog this morning. I changed the theme to a generic and probably overused WordPress theme, but then threw in some custom code for Adsense. I figure I got to start blogging more after seeing your August Adsense totals! whoa!
Every blog needs to constantly reinvent itself. It’s called evolving. To me blogs are a representation of self, what and how we write is a reflection of who we are especially the more expression and feeling we put into the post.
From my part of the blogosphere, people often argue that changing the style and form means changing who they are and what they are known as. I think that’s wrong. Changing a style, a form or even the the type of subject isn’t necessarily bad…it means you can be better in the way you write or express yourself.
I’m in the midst of changing the form of how I write and how I see the way I write and I’ve been documenting it in my posts. I don’t think it’s wrong. I think it can actually help reach out to more readers. Not everything is about looks. After all, the heart and soul of a blog is still in the way you write.
[…] I woke up today to find that people have been talking about blog re-invention. To change your blog into something else. A different style. A different taste. A different…something. Whatever it is, it’s just that your blog has become different to that of the one. I guess I’m not the only one undergoing a phase of blog evolution. Then again, when you come to think of it…all successful blogs do the same thing. […]