It’s almost the end of the year. Time to rethink our lives and of course, to rethink the purpose of our blogs. Before you go off finding a new template to revamp your blog design, it’s best to sit down, put on your thinking cap and plan first before anything else. And yes, you should plan as early as now. After all, you don’t want to spend the 31st in front of your computer, working, do you? And besides, making decisions take time, so give yourself that. When you decide on revamping your blog, however, it’s not as easy as changing templates over (unless that’s all you wanted to do in the first place). Here are some things to think about:

1. Blog Design

If you’ve been using a free template and your readership has grown tremendously over 2007 and hence, your earnings, perhaps it’s time to get yourself a custom-design theme. If not, you can always find a new free template for the new year to give your blog a new look.

2. Expunging Non-performing Ads

Take time to study the effectiveness of your advertisements. For CPC ads like Google Adsense, you can try using different placements if you haven’t been earning much from it. For affiliate programs and similar, you could think of a way to get them more noticed (i.e., using a “Buy Now” button, creating content with affiliate links in it, etc.) or you could remove them altogether if they’re not bringing in the profits. Sometimes, reducing the unnecessary ad clutter could get what’s left to perform a lot better.

3. Re-think Your Blog’s Goal and Purpose

Read through your entries for 2007. Do you think you managed to adhere to your original goal and purpose? Were you able to disseminate new information as you had intended? If not, it’s time to re-think what you want to do and what direction you want to go. If you had, well it’s time to build upon what you had accomplished and decide what to do next.

4. Plan Your Every Step of the Way

Markus Merz of Performancing has written a piece about how to create editorial calendars for blogs. If you’ve been disorganized this past year as I had been, an editorial calendar would do you well.

Aside from the points mentioned, what aspect of your blog do you think needs a revamp for the new year?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 4:00 pm and is filed under blogging. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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