When putting together a WordPress blog, deciding on what pages to include is essential. Even though you can add or delete these at a later date, it is always nice to get everything in place as early as possible. With that being said, how do you decide what blog pages to include?
On this blog, I have decided to keep things simple by adding only an “about me†and “contact†page. These are by far the most common pages, and in my opinion, two that every blog needs to have. The question is: what others are worth adding?
For blogs that sell direct advertising, a page based around this is always a good idea. John Chow recently wrote a great post on this. Being that he makes several thousand dollars each month by selling ads, it only makes sense that he includes this. But for smaller blogs without monetization, like mine, an advertising page would be all for not.
The nice thing about adding pages to a WordPress blog is the ease with which this can be done. Generally speaking, you can add a page in a matter of minutes, and to make things even better, it can be about whatever you want. If I wanted, I could have 10 pages ranging from my writing services to top posts and much more.
I feel that it is essential to find a happy medium between too few pages and too many pages. With too few pages your blog may appear bare to readers, and of course, this could leave them wanting more. But on the other side of things, too many pages can confuse visitors while also making it difficult for them to concentrate on the actual content.
As this blog continues to grow, it is safe to say that a few more pages will show up.
Text Link Ads recently released a new feature which allows bloggers to sell post level ads to interested advertisers. According to their website, post level ads will be exclusive to one advertiser, offering up to a 150 letter description, and will be positioned directly at the end of posts.
Since I am not quite ready to monetize this blog, I have come up with an idea of my own. I am going to include post level “ads†at the end of posts, but for now, there are two catches. First off, they are not going to cost any money! Sounds like a good deal, right? Additionally, I am going to choose the featured site at the end of each post. In other words, they cannot be bought; just yet at least.
At this time, my goal is to offer other blogs more exposure as opposed to trying to make money. This is why I am not charging for these ads, and instead making the decision on what to include based on my own personal decision.
So how am I going to choose what blog to feature? Better yet, how long will the ad stay in place?
1. I am going to choose the blog based on what I come across during my daily readings. For the most part, the blog that I feature will be related to the content of my post in some way, shape, or form.
2. The ad will stay in place forever! Even though the post will begin to drop down as each day goes by, the ad will always be on my blog. So obviously, this is a bit of link love that could help in the long run. In many cases, I may place the same ad on several posts.
I am going to start using these ads in my next post; which will probably be later today or tomorrow. To be fair, and to offer some fun to my readers, the first person to comment on this post will get the first post level ad. After that, I will make the decision on my own with each post!Â
There is no denying the fact that I love blogging. Not only does creating content excite me, but I am having a great time learning the technical side of things as well. For this reason, I am thinking about starting a new blog. But as you probably know, this is not something you can jump into without considering all of your options.
The problem I am struggling with now is whether or not I should choose a topic similar to ChrisBlogging, or if I should venture in an entirely new direction.
A similar topic could be something such as the book writing process, freelance writing jobs, writing for magazines, etc. But on the other side of things, there are hundreds of other topics that I could explore. While not all of them would interest me, I am sure I could find a couple that would fit in quite well with my likes and lifestyle.
There are pros and cons of each option. Choosing a similar topic will allow me to more or less build off of the success of this blog. To go along with this, I have plenty of knowledge when it comes to writing because this is what I do for a living. On the downside, this may not give me much of a change, which could get boring in time.
If I choose a topic that is completely unrelated, the fun factor would be quite high; at least early on. After all, it would give me the chance to break away from writing about freelancing, making money, etc. And with this, I think that it could spice things up quite a bit. Facing off against this is the fact that I need to find a topic that I am passionate about, and of course, one that people are interested in.
I am not 100 percent sure if I should start another blog at this time. Do I have enough hours in the day to write and market a new blog? Probably. But with that being said, I do not want to add so much work that my freelance writing career begins to suffer.
Over the weekend I plan on brainstorming some ideas, and taking a closer look at my day to day schedule. Hopefully by next week I will have a better idea of what I am going to do!
