Photo-A-Day #1624

A week ago I read the post How to Write With a Knife by Michelle Russell on Copyblogger.com. It was all about self editing and having tighter content.

I’m not that good at self editing. I tend to ramble (see, I didn’t need to say that I tend to ramble nor did I need to point it out to you.) However, I’d like to be a better writer. To do so I need to prune my words a bit. Like the photo above there are some great parts of that aloe plant but there are also some dying parts to it. The plant needs to be pruned and re-potted. It has grown wild for years.

This blog has been part of my life for over 6 years now and it has had many incarnations over the years. I’ve had different themes, I’ve added different widgets and links. The blog has been completely cluttered and totally lean. Right now I have a little clutter in the theme and some clutter in the writing so I need to do some pruning.

How to Prune Effectively

1.) Remove useless chicklets. Early on when I started blogging I had chicklets all over the place. Everyone and their brother has a top blog list and you can get listed as long as you pop a chicklet up on your blog. These chicklets add up and clutter the place. See if you are actually getting traffic from these sites and if not toss the chicklet.

2.) Over Advertising. Is your blog cluttered with ads? Which ones are making you some money and which ones are not. Move those money makers to a prominent place and dump the losers.

3.) Hidden Content – Is your content hiding behind all the ads,and chicklets and videos and the whole blog design? Look at your design, that beautiful header might be way too huge and if it makes your readers scroll to find your initial content then it is time to make that header leaner and smaller.

There are many more ways to prune your blog and make it healthier and cleaner, do you have some tips to share?