Did you miss the early posts on this subject, you can read them here.

Last post I mentioned a few general ideas to get you started on rebooting your blog, this time I thought I would add some geared more towards getting you to write about knitting, (and hopefully get me to write more too).

1. Remove old posts
There’s a lot of debate about deleting older content from blogs. Some say it’s important to keep old content for continuity other say get rid of weaker content. Before deleting all your old posts – decided do you really want to remove them, can they be re-written or updated or are they no longer relevant. Personally, I have deleted some old posts, back in 2005 my blog was full of questionnaires for Secret Pal Swaps, posts filled with photos of the gifts I received in these swaps or badly taken photos of finished projects. I believe no-one is interested in these posts – so I deleted them, especially as most of these finished objects no longer exist in my wardrobe.

2. Old Project
Which brings me to the next idea – got an old project you still own/use/wear regularly – then write about it. Re-take the photos, talk about the project  – why do you love it? Has it held up well over the years? If you had to re-make the project what would you do differently? Likewise you can write about knitting disasters.

3. Write a review on your favourite yarn or knitting book
Do you seem to always use the same yarn? Have you knitted every pattern from one particular knitting book? Or have a favourite designer. Write about it! Whilst reviews of new books are nice – isn’t it better to have a review from someone who had used the book for the last few years – who has made notes in the margins (or on post it notes I like I have).

4. Start a writing a series of posts
As content is king… One of the most obvious things to do is write a regular series to insure at least one post a week. My favourite example of a series is Knitting Bliss’s Modification Monday, where she showcases a modified version of a pattern – often with amazing results (Most my favourited project in Ravelry come from these posts). Another great example is Ysolda’s Technique Thursday. Whereas these post require a lot of preparation it’s easy for you to start a series something like WIP Wednesday or FO Friday.

5. Don’t make it all about knitting.
Just because you started your blog to talk about your knitting, it isn’t set in stone that it has to be a knitting blog. Talk about your daily life, take photos of your pets/kids/home, review a film or tv programme, Often my posts with the most comments are those where I haven’t talked about knitting.

Got an idea – add it in the comments below.

Missed Part One, you can read it here.

I have several ideas to improve this blog as part of my reboot, as a few people mentioned on social media they would also like to start blogging again I figured I would share my plan over the next few posts.

1. Re-design
Give your blog a little facelift, mix it up a little, there are many articles on the web about what makes a good layout, I’m not going to re-hash them here. Alternatively, you can download one of the 100’s of themes available (many for free) for your blogging platform. For me, this theme is old (I designed it back in 2011), since I love my colour scheme, but the header, sidebar and menu look dated to me. If you don’t fancy a whole new layout – change one aspect like the header.

2. Re-organise you Sidebar
When I started blogging, the sidebar seemed to be the place to put all your information, a list of blogs you followed, “link to me” buttons, amazon wish lists, lists of what you were watching or listening too. At one stage I had to have two sidebars just to hold all that information. Now, there is a lot of debate whether we still need sidebars. All I will say is, think about how you read blogs, chances are it’s via a third-party platform like Feedly or Bloglovin’ when the posts are displayed you don’t see the sidebar. I’m not suggesting you drop you sidebar – they are useful to hold information or advertising (if you have paid adverts), just clean it up a little.

3. Add Sharing Buttons – especially a Pinterest “Pin it” button
As I mentioned, we have changed the way we read blogs and find blogs, social media is a major part of that – so get your blog out there. Add “sharing” buttons at the bottom of your posts (your blogging platform will have loads of plugins for this)- there are loads of sharing sites, it’s up to you which ones you add but I recommend, Facebook, Twitter and of course Pinterest. Just a quick note, I would also suggest you make your images pin-able, as I said earlier think about how you read blog posts – I’m sure you have found a tutorial or recipe via Pinterest, you might have even added those blogs to your daily reads, make sure your blog is found my other crafters.

4. Link to Related Posts
Any article you read about websites or blogging will tell you the most import act is to keep your viewers engaged. Once they are reading a post you want them to stay on your blog and read past posts. Thankfully, there’s are several “Related Links” plugins to help you with this (personally, I like Related Posts on WordPress as it’s customizable), the plugin automatically finds older, similar post you have written and add links to them at the bottom of your blog post.

5. Add Pages
Most blogging software has moved on to Content Management Systems, so you can add more information in the form of pages, this can be anything from an archive section, FAQ, or a gallery. The section I would suggest adding is an “about me” page, I’m not suggesting you write your entire auto-biography, just a few lines and a photo. Imagine you are meeting a new reader how would you introduce yourself, let them know when you started knitting, who taught you? Why you knit? Blog about your family or pets – don’t forget to introduce them too.

You can read Part Three of this series here.