I have a quick post for you today regarding the future of this blog and what I intend to do keep it real. Opinions may vary but your blog is not all about communication. Obviously writing engaging content is about 99% of it but all websites need structure, and structure is what I intend to give this blog.
Over the coming weeks you are going to see some changes in the way this blog is laid out. When people land here, I want to keep them here for as long as possible.
I want people to know who I am, communicate and come right back for more. But most of all I want the people who read this blog to find exactly what they are looking for and not X out because they can’t find it.
Check out the video below where I explain in a little more details what my intentions are.
Do you agree with the video and do the changes make sense to you? Have you anything you would like to request?
As always, I want to hear what you have to say it does mean a lot.
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There is nothing special about me, I'm just a regular guy who makes money by working online. I am very passionate about what I do and I would love to show you around...
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Dan,
Amazing job man and I think you drive way, way faster than I do! haha
Apart from that quick joke, I think that what you are talking about here is something that many people give for granted and shouldn’t be taken that lightly.
Having the good content reachable -apparently- is not easy to do and I’d certainly hate to not be able to find great content like the one you created about e-mail marketing and improving our optin ratios.
I really look forward to see what your solution is for this and I’m 100% sure your solution is going to rock!
About the site’s layout, I think it is perfect but I think you mean the structure more than anything else.
Last but not least, when I first created my own site, I wanted to use the simplest permalinks structure (postname) but I had thought of something like this in advance and figured out that I was going to need to define categories in order to create automatic menus from them.
I still haven’t implemented this but there is no rush, I still don’t have any great content pillars and having a category for just one post it doesn’t makes much sense to me.
Anyway, enough of my rant, you know I love coming to your site so I’m pretty sure you’ll come up with a clever solution, can’t wait to see what the next changes are!
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..6 Hours Self-Imposed Social Media Blackout
Yeah I know Sergio, when I was watching the replay I though man how fast does it look I am going. I wasn’t breaking the speed limit?
I have been thinking about my blog for a few weeks now and how I really want it to work for everyone who visits. I have been listening to a lot of info and have decided I am going to use a few blogs a case studies. I will approach the guys tomorrow (to what end I don’t know).
I guess we all start to figure out out blogs eventually as they grow. When you start you just nlog without structure or though to where it is going. I would rather put this in place now than in the future as my blog grows.
I don’t see that as a rant Sergio, you are aware of what is going on and I’m sure you will structure the right way in time.
Thanks for the comments mate and for adding value to my blog over the last few weeks
Have a great weekend.
Argh, forgot to ask you how did you set up your camera inside your car?
I had to hold it the whole time when I did my recordings.
Did you created some sort of a tripod base for it?
Thanks!
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..6 Hours Self-Imposed Social Media Blackout
Lol if I were speeding you were dangerous driving! Joking mate
This is pretty much the same as mine mate. Bargain:
http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Universal-Cellphone-BlackBerry-Magellan/dp/B002YESWOQ/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1328369781&sr=8-10
I stick it to my windscreen the Flip cam fits perfect!
I reckon it’s a great idea to do in car videos. Seems more personal don’t you think?
Des recently posted..New Branding For My Offline Products – Offline Blackbelt Production
Well, I though to myself I’m going out anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone and do a video one the way. Max productivity and not time wasted.
Hey Dan,
I think your blog looks fantastic but you have a lot more successful time in than I do. Can hardly wait to see what you come up with.
Cold you say, we here in Canada are experiencing the same type of temperatures and we think it’s fantastic (I love that word obviously), we are used to more like -20c to -30c at this time of year so -2c is almost tropical for us – lol.
Kelly the Canadian out!
Kelly Provost recently posted..How Mr. X built a $100,000/month business
Hi Kelly,
Wow -20! I experienced -16 once in Prague and that was way too cold for me.
I do have some ideas floating around and hopefully if I can pull it off it will be great what I have in store.
Thanks Kelly and don’t forget your sun cream for -2
Have a great weekend
Hi Dan,
Great post. I just hope it isn’t admissible.
How about posting videos which last over 5 minutes. That could increase the time your visitors spend here.
Joking aside, I know what you mean. Blogs are great but the content soon disappears into the archives.
You can use Tweet Old Posts so your Twitter followers don’t miss out but that doesn’t help your new blog visitors.
I will keep an eye open on your developments as I am not averse to copying the best.
Dave
Dave Whitworth recently posted..How To Make Money Online – Don’t Be A Plate Spinner!
Hey Dave,
lol I know, I don’t think I have posted a video under 14 minutes yet!
To be honest Dave, I think this is going to be a long testing phase, but I do want to get a good grounding for site navigation before tweaking.
Thanks Dave have a great weekend.
Hi Dan
Your blog looks great to me, but I hear what you are saying with regard to, the more posts you write, the further down the pages they go, ive used a ‘sticky’ before today but you can only do it once, i think.
I look forward to seeing your results.
BTW, sounds like a nice car, what is it?
Have a great weekend
Kevin
Hey Kev, this is the problem I want to resolve and I think it is going to be quite hard to achieve. But I will give it my best as always.
Lol the car is a Jaguar X type 2.5 V6. The car isn’t mine, it’s my father in laws. He works in Nigeria 6 weeks at a time, so I take it out for him now and then to keep it sweet. I am a little more boring than that I drive a Nissan as it fits the kids in:-)
I recently sold my Civic Type R as Emma (wife) quit work.
Forgot to ask Dan, where’s that fresh faced bloke on ya blog picture gone.lol
Kevin
Kevin Long recently posted..Where Did January Go?
Its the rough look Kevin
I am still running a little under the weather my friend. Also I hate shaving when it’s cold..brrrrr
I know exactly what you’re saying Dan.
When you stop and think. What exactly do you want your visitor to do? In most cases they read a few posts and then they’re off.
I’m in the process of rebranding my blog where the first page will be a squeeze page with a video packed with lots of good content. I’ll then have links to my blog, latest project and also another sign up form for a free product.
Studying the stats, it seems like a lot of traffic is from “image search” on Google where people are simply swiping pictures. Nothing you can do, but it would be nice to get a few more sign-ups.
As it stands, you’ve got a very interactive blog with lots of returning visitors. Seems to me as if you’re doing everything right. However, like you said on skype, there’s always room for improvement.
Looking forward to the changes.
Cheers,
Des
Des recently posted..New Branding For My Offline Products – Offline Blackbelt Production
Hey Des, it’s time for you to chill out man and have a nice Sat night in front of the TV. You have deserve it mate!
Can’t wait to see what you are doing with your blog Des, let me see it when you have it finished.
My blog may look ok and it does get readers, but I want a little more from it and I want people to enjoy it and use it as a resource. I’m not asking for much am I
Thanks Des
Have a great night
Thanks for the short tour Dan, I’ve never been to the UK so your quick drive was nice. I see you are by the water. Hope you and the family are able to enjoy that often. Not in the weather you’re having right now though. I’d love a little of that sunshine right now. It’s been raining for over a week and we are scheduled for more rain all this week too. I know we need the rain but I’m so over it!
Now on to the topic at hand. I like the overall look of your blog and you are right, most of us land on certain posts and are eager to comment on that but I often have people asking me for certain posts so I put the search box back on my blog. I set my archives page up because I felt it was a better way of skimming through the posts I’d already done. But with the search box I think people will be able to find them both.
I’ll look forward to what you end up doing with the layout. I have no doubt you’ll come up with something fabulous that we can all use to improve ours as well.
Thanks for the tip on the car stand. I always wondered what everyone was using. There’s no way I’m holding my Flip Cam like Sergio did when he was in the car. I’m a very good driver but that’s just asking for trouble. So you said that holder is good for the Flip Cam too? That’s good to know. Thanks for that tip.
Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you again next week!
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..Is Your WordPress Blog Set Up Properly?
I love the sea Adrienne and would never move far from it. The kids love it in the summer, it’s great when it’s warm.
Don’t get to mistaken by that sun in the video, I swear it’s cold rays! It sits so low in the winter and is terrible for driving.
I like the look of my blog too and don’t want to change the look or the theme, but just as I was saying to Des I would like my blog to be great resource for the readers. I have some ideas at the moment, I plan to go through my blog and try to be as objective as possible in the areas I feel need some work. A day of research needed here I think.
Thanks for saying the words “no doubt you’ll come up with something fabulous” that means a lot. I hope I don’t disappoint.
I use the holder for my iPhone and cam so it works for both fine as it has adjustable sides.
Thanks Adrienne and have a great weekend.
Hi Dan
Keep your eyes on the road !!!
I think having a section for tutorial videos is a great idea – I would watch them for sure…
Mary Kathan recently posted..My Picks for “Being Awesome” !
P.S. I also would like to learn how everyone gets their picture to show up in the comments.
Mary Kathan recently posted..My Picks for “Being Awesome” !
Hi Mary,
Just go to http://www.gravatar.com and create an account. The email address you use in the comment section has t be the email address you use in Gravatar. Upload your pic and you are done.
I look forward to seeing the new pic
Thanks for the help Dan – I got Gravatar’d !
Mary Kathan recently posted..IM Trustworthy
hurray!! brilliant Mary. You can add different profiles to alternative addresses too.
I could quite easily create a section on tutorials, but what I want to do is create a great structure. I have a plan!
Thanks Mary
Definitely learn a lot from your posts. I enjoy reading them.
Now for my personal rant. I hate videos. I am a visual learner — not an auditory one. But my main complaint is that there are very few UK accents that I can understand. I understand that there are many different accents. I have one I am sure. I am from the south and I talk slow and draw out my words. I am sure that it drives many crazy.
Unfortunately, you are one of those I can understand. Therefore, I am not a good one to express an opinion on this. Good luck with your ambitious plans.
Carol
Carol Smith recently posted..A Big Thank You To Dr. Mani For The 30 Day Blog Challenge
Hey Carol, I am sorry you can’t understand the videos very well. I will try my best to make the next video a little slower for you. I will also be back to my usual self with more written posts.
Hope this is ok Carol. Have a great weekend
Hi Daniel
I love your blog the way it is, but you obviously have your own ideas!
You could have a tutorials page with a banner on your home page to redirect?
I am thinking of having a ‘useful information’ page for all the tips and ‘how to’s’ in my posts.
Tutorial ideas:
How to do a squeeze page on your existing blog to save having to keep buying new domain names, maybe using Kompozer.
How to upload a free product with an upsell.
How to upload images and float text on your blog (Took me a while to figure that one out!)
How to backup your blog.
How to FTP through a cPanel, extracting files etc. (Took me a while to figure that out too!)
That should keep you going for a while!
Hope you are feeling better now, we have more than -2, we are having a snow blizzard!
Dee
Dee recently posted..The best laid plans ……
Hey Dee, I don’t expect any physical/cosmetic changes to the blog, but rather content structure and readability.
Tanks for the great tutorial ideas, I will certainly check them out.
Just one question, why would you want to FTP via cpanel? Personally I would always use an FTP client like Filezilla for file upload and download.
I am feeling a little better, not 100%. thanks for asking Dee.
Have a great weekend.
Hi Daniel
Sorry, it was rather late!
Uploading through FTP OR through cPanel. Most people are scred of uploading through cPanel, but I find it easier than FTP. FTP can be a pain when it doesn’t connect and you have to keep logging in. With cPanel, you just do it!
Dee
Hi Dan,
I think you blog works as is . I always hate when a site changes and rearranges ever thing like Gmail did last week. I logged in to my Gmail and had to learn how to do everything again. Before they changed I could go in to my Gmail account do my work and be gone in minutes. But as you know change will always come to everything. Most people say if things don’t update and don’t stay concurrent they will be left behind. So I do believe you are doing the right thing . Change and be with the forward momentum. You have a good start on you quest to prolong you visitor stay by adding that video which was 5:19 minutes long it doubled my minutes on you site because I Watch all the way to the end. And then I liked the content soI stayed some more muites to add my comment and then look around you site some more minutes. Good luck with you changes I’m sure it will be like you remolded new and shiny.
To Your Success
Regards
Zora
zora recently posted..Happy New Year 2012
Hey Zora, There are no cosmetic changes planned as yet, I want to concentrate on structure for the moment. Maybe I could create a 5 minute video every week that may do it!
I would be messing with functionality Zora so it should still look quite the same.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.
Hi Dan
I am busy tweaking my blog so I am looking forward to learning how you are going to change yours, I am always up for learning new ideas!
I like the look of yours as it is but like you say you want more so good luck and I will be back
Regards
Pauline
Pauline recently posted..Brand New Annual Giveaway Happening Now!
Hey Pauline, and a big welcome. Thanks for stopping by I hope not to disappoint.
I too like the look which I don’t want to change. Just a few tweaks to make experiences a little better.
Thanks Pauline.
Good quality video mate
As for the 4S – I love mine
I’m not so keen on connecting when I’m away from a wifi spot – but when I can jump onto Rachels Internet or my daughters if I’m visiting them – it’s great top check facebook and emails etc.
Can’t wait to see what fun you have with Siri… lol (John and I wasted an hour one day just asking it stupid questions… haha)
Enjoy it before you get all businessy and serious mate ..lol
Randy
RandySmith recently posted..Facebook Resources That Are VERY Handy! – Some Free!
I can’t wait to get my hands on Siri mate. Blog post idea, Blog post idea, Blog post idea. I get a good 3G sig now so I’m happy.
I hardly login to FB from my Mac I use my phone most of the time anyway.
I have no doubt I will have some fun with it first Randy.
Cheers mate
Hi Dan very timely have wanted to update and change my bog for sometime but it always seems to be last on the list, will be looking forward to seeing what you have in mind for yours.
Cheers
Rob
Well, Daniel, one of my friends makes tests and changes all the time on his blog. She says it’s a good strategy, especially if you ask for feedback all the time.
Jack recently posted..What To Do Before The Work Begins On Your Home
My point exactly Jack. If we don’t make changes and test, how do we know what works and how do we grow in our businesses.
Great point Jack thanks!
True Daniel, test, test and test again before changing anything:)
Jack recently posted..Simple DIY Projects That Can Transform A Home
That’s right Jack. That is why I use a test blog for any changes that need to be made. I have been burned before and lost my blog.
Thanks Jack.
Hi Dan
I think feedback from your subscribers is really important, finding out their needs is one of the most important things, you can then develop it and then offer it to them, but just as important is trying to make your relationship stronger.
Keep on testing Dan, and keep giving us these golden nuggets.
Kevin
Kevin Long recently posted..My New Ebook Is Complete!
Dan,
This is a pretty cool video. I mean driving while making a video for your blog seems a good idea. You’re engaging to people in a more personal way. Anyways, I think your video it quite long. I mean for me, it’s okay because I’m a follower of yours already and I always admired your ideas. But for first-time visitors a shorter one might be more effective. But overall, this is a great post and video.
And by the way, you have some shaving task to do Dan. LOL
Spatch
How to Blog recently posted..Blogging to Get Out of Debt Tactic: Write Good Titles
Hey Spatch, thank you for your comments I will take them all on board.
I know what you are saying about the videos, I will look at the length of them in the future. Sometimes I just can help but make them long it sometimes take time to get my message across.
Sorry for the late reply, Akismet spammed you are some reason? All fixed now.
Now I think there’s some problem with my IP. I left some good comments on a post that sparked my interest. After a while I went back to see how the writer responded. I was upset how he allowed a comment containing only the words ‘great post’ while he ignored mine. I think this explains the problem. I also have this problem joining a forum, it says that I have been banned. I haven’t even joined them even once. My internet connection is also used for my small internet cafe just beside my house. I needed a separate line for my personal use, I realized that recently. But I’m moving in to a new house this May, so I guess I’ll have my new line by that time. Hope everything is resolved now Dan. Apologies for causing you some troubles.
Spatch Merlin
How to Blog recently posted..Blog Commenting Marketing Strategy: Tested and Proven
Hey Spatch,
Not sure, but I was running Akismet again along with GASP and it does work, but I still fond a lot of posts being moved into the spam folder. I have disabled it again.
Back to deleting track backs manually.
No trouble at all just glad I found you in the spam folder
Thanks Dan.
I’ve had some friends (bloggers) who told me that Akismet does place some comments in the spam folder. They manually check their spam folder time to time to ‘approve’ those who seem to get lost. Glad you found mine in there.