A Quick Word on Metaworking for My Blog

What kind of metawork do I do on my blog? In a previous post, I mentioned that some of us use metawork as an excuse to avoid real work, but that some metawork is often necessary to make your projects a success.

Here’s a quick run down of what I do on this blog behind the scenes.

List of Sid’s Blogging Metawork

For my blog, some of the metawork that I have been doing to lay the foundation for my writing is:

Deciding what direction my blog should go. In my guest post over at Remarkablogger, about writing a blogging creed, I discuss how reading some of the posts in his Remarkablogger manifesto series led me to realize I needed to have more focus in my blog.
Keeping up with similar writers in my space, by reading lots of blogs and interacting with the bloggers – either directly via email or in the comments. I have also been very fortunate that some bloggers have noticed my blog and contacted me, and reached out to help me. Along the same lines is the next item…
Networking with other successful bloggers. I originally started out asking questions on many free blogging forums, but have since subscribed to Perfomancing Hive, a forum with a fairly small membership (I would say there are 20-50 truly active members on there), but where I can get real, quality answers to my questions. It’s $10 a month, and it’s worth if I can get 1 or 2 questions answered a month by the likes of Chris Garret (who literally co-wrote the ProBlogger book and runs the excellent Authority Blogger course). Along with having a network, to ask questions, they also help me by promoting my blog – telling their friends, readers, or posting on Twitter.
Designing my blog. I initially started out with a default WordPress theme, and then a free theme that was more trouble than it was worth. Since then I moved to a premium theme, Thesis, and have been very happy with how it “just works.” I aim to keep this website clean and always let the content have center stage.
- Related to this, one of the bloggers I have been fortunate to meet is Thaya over from OMNINOGGIN, a great site about blog design, optimization, and improving your visitors’ experience. I spent some time speaking with Thaya over email and then chatting over Facebook, and he’s given me some great ideas for my site as well as other things I can do with my development skills to help other people with their blogs.
- I also use YSlow, with Firebug, to make sure my site loads quickly. It’s not perfect, but I aim to try and make it as fast as possible. There is always more tweaking that I can do.
Researching topics and reviewing products and services. I spend a lot of time writing down ideas on random pieces of paper, emailing them to myself, etc – and then finally writing about them. I am not receiving any compensation for the products I am reviewing – and I have told the folks giving me the products to review, I cannot promise a positive review just for free stuff. This has turned off some folks, but I can’t imagine selling out at the beginning.
Reader interaction. Of course, one of my favorite parts of this website – hearing from my readers via email and in the comments. I feel really fortunate to already have a growing community of readers commenting on my posts, and emailing me when they enjoy something I write. Thanks for being out there reading my work, and keeping in touch. I have been pretty busy this weekend, but I promise to get to every comment and every email. I really do enjoy having a community to interact with – even if people don’t always agree with me =)