I was looking through the blog this afternoon trying to figure out if there were ways to help make it easier to navigate. Long time readers, I'm sure, will recognize this as a sure sign that I'm knee deep in the Great Blog Roll Call slog as every year I do this seems to be coupled with posts like this. It's such a weird thing because I know that there aren't a lot of people out there combing through my archives (though apparently someone is sharing a lot of my stuff on facebook lately, so thank you for that). All the same I know from having read through so many blogs that if I really want to give people the opportunity to do so that I have to make things easy for them.
Like if you want them to go through your archive you have to make it something they can actually find and use in a meaningful way. That's basic sense right there. But if you want them to be able to find your posts when they start searching on Google then you have to do other things. Accurate titles that reflect the content within is a good one - and I'm not fucking doing that one because it bores the hell out of me - although I am trying to fix the series so that it's easier to spot them by linking their titles with a button at the front.
Then there are the labels that I'm using on the posts. I know from having read a bunch of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reports that this is on the low end of the spectrum for drawing new traffic to the blog. With those labels I'm not so much worried about drawing new traffic as much as I am at making it easier for people to find things that they actually want to read. Don't get me wrong; using pages like BEST READS OF THE WEEK and SHORT STORIES AND UNFINISHED TALES makes things easier, but those don't help when people run across me absent mindedly working on my problems with Time or the Americas Campaign that I'm working on. So for me the labels are something that I decidedly need to do better on.
I also need to update and release the the FRIDAY ART FEST page so that it reflects all of the artists that have been featured on the blog and which works that I've shown. By far this is the least popular series on the blog as most people don't really give a shit about it, but I like it so I keep doing it.
Fuck, I also need to finish this week's BEST READS OF THE WEEK before Wednesday when I want to have it published. I may be late on it though. A lot of people updating and I've added 35 more blogs to the list so far. Which reminds me, I'll be posting a poll later in the week about the type of descriptions that I'll be using for the GBRC 2015. Look for that sometime in the Tuesday to Thursday range.
Other than that, how's you're weekend going kids?
I made a second page that holds links to my "game-able posts" I'm not sure if it helps people find stuff , but it does let me present the stuff that I think people might find useful separate from the less useful stuff I post. (AKA the majority) Speaking of which I need to update that page.....
ReplyDelete"Speaking of which I need to update that page....."
DeleteMy wife swears that's how every discussion about D&D goes with me.
Sounds like a lot of work. I spent the morning working out the math for a wood fired hot tub, 'cause, well, I want one. My middle son thinks I should build it on wheels. I think he'll just use it as an excuse to hot tub down the hill into the cul-de-sac. Ultimately it is going to have to be able to withstand jumping the curb and landing in a neighbor's living room. This afternoon the game shelves are getting straightened to prepare for a new week of madness, as I shut the power off to the TV and only Red Wings hockey seems to have enough juice to power it back up.
ReplyDeleteDigging the Best Reads of the Week, got me to some writing that I would have missed.
"I think he'll just use it as an excuse to hot tub down the hill into the cul-de-sac. Ultimately it is going to have to be able to withstand jumping the curb and landing in a neighbor's living room."
DeleteI would still do that today, and I'm 33!
"Digging the Best Reads of the Week, got me to some writing that I would have missed. "
I'm so glad to hear that people like that series. It's one of the things that I work the hardest on and I never know if it's worth it!