Although I am still very much learning about blogging, I have now established my little blog and am enjoying it. This post is designed to pass on some handy hints for daily maintenance of a newish blog.
- Check for Spam Comments
This sounds really odd but every day I like to read all the comments and try and respond to every one. However, after a while I realised that some comments were not coming through. They were hiding in my spam folder and so I was missing some lovely comments and seeming to not value these contributions. Now I check the Spam comments every single day. Not one of them has so far been actual spam. I am glad that I have discovered this and engaged with more readers too.
- Optimise Images
You need to find a way to condense new images or they will slow down your page loading speeds. I have started using the free version of Smush, which I discovered as a WordPress plugin and have found very easy to apply. I simply press ‘Bulk Smush’ after I have created a new post and it does all of the hard work, making my pictures much quicker to load.
- Check readability
Make sure you use the ‘preview’ option to check through a post as you write it. Looking in preview gives you a fresh pair of eyes as the text will look different and you will find it much easier to tune into what is being written. By doing this I often spot simple grammatical mistakes that I may not have seen whilst reading in ‘draft’.
- Provide Built-In Links
Search engines like blogs which have plenty of internal links. To begin with I didn’t do this but soon learned just how important it is to include links to previous posts in every article. When I add a link, it gives me the chance to write a word to replace the messy link itself. So I can say click here instead of https://jamieadstories.blog/2021/07/11/how-to-start-a-blog-easily/.
- Read Plenty Of Blogs
You cannot write without reading and, similarly, you benefit from checking out other blogs before writing your own content. I have grown to love reading other blogs and am learning a lot from the factual content and lifestyle suggestions. When you check out a blog that you like, drop them a comment to show some support and engage with the blogging community. You never know, you may come up with some inspiration from other blogs and even make those bloggers intrigued by your own posts.
- Enjoy Blogging
If you start to love blogging then carry on and create plenty of content. Engage with the community and learn from others. If, after a few months, it gives you no joy at all then it may not be the type of hobby that suits you. I am absolutely loving the process and will definitely continue to do my best to improve my content and develop my blog.
