One thing that bloggers should constantly be doing is changing and improving their blog. I personally have some changes and ideas which will be implemented soon, and I would expect that most the people who will read this post will have some ideas of how they can improve their blog.
When I was thinking of the changes I’m planning on making here on Teenius, a thought suddenly struck me: ‘Should I really be doing this?! After some more thinking, I did some digging and have come up with a post that I hope you’ll enjoy about implementing changes on your blog.
Why bother making changes on your blog?
Change is an awesome thing, it’s crucial for the success of any blog. It means that you can keep your blog fresh and modern, as well as allowing you to keep up with any ‘state-of-the-art’ blogging trend which will enhance your blog.
A change could be something as small as adding a new widget to the sidebar, all the way through to a complete design and logo revamp. So, shall we make some changes?
Wait! Do your readers want it?!
This is what made me stop and think before I make some of the proposed changes here on Teenius which I spoke about earlier. Your readers are undoubtedly the most important part of your blog; they create a community, and will ultimately determine whether your blog is successful or not. So, the question you have to ask yourself before you even think of making a change is ‘do my readers want this?’.
It goes without saying that if your readers don’t want it, then it will be a negative change and not only be a waste of your time to implement the changes, but also risks you losing valuable readers. So, how can you tell what your readers want?
- Ask regular readers – By asking some of your regular readers, you can get the general consensus of your quality readers. You only need to ask three or four people, but their advice will be invaluable, and will give you an idea of whether you should make the change or not.
- Ask non-regular readers – Ask other bloggers and people in your niche what they think. Even if they don’t follow your blog, their opinions could be really helpful. I find great places to find more advice is Twitter and through internet forums. You should find that people are usually more than willing to offer their advice!
- Do a poll – Polls are great way of gathering information from the readers on your blog, purely because they’re so simple to complete. I personally recommend using the plugin ‘WP Polls’ to do it; it’s really simple to use, and free! It’s also a great way to get feedback from lots of people!
- Just do it – I don’t recommend this at all, but I’ll add it in anyway. You could always just make the change; you will find out whether it works or not, but it also has it’s risks (such as your readers not liking it!).
So, to summarise that little section, you should try and find out whether your readers want the change before you implement it, and a great way to do this is to ask some of your regular readers or do a poll. You could also just ‘jump in at the deep end’ and make the change!
Should you really make the change?
This point doesn’t really apply to the changes I’m on about making, but you also have to think about more than just your readers when you do something differently on your blog. I’ve listed a few of the points you should consider:
- Your branding – Things like blog designs and logos are how people remember you, and therefore is an important part of your branding. Changing these too often will result in a negative effect on your branding, which is quite simply awful. Imagine how awful it’d be if I changed my mascot now! It’d have a catastrophic effect on my blog.
- Accessibility – Again, I’m mainly referring to the design here. Will the new design make your blog harder to get around? If yes, you definitely shouldn’t do it. Also, by adding something to your blog you might make your blog load slower, which could affect your traffic.
- The Benefits? – Are the benefits of making the change really big enough to warrant the disruption that implementing the change will cause? In the long run, how much difference will it make to your blog? Do the benefits of the change outweight the negatives?
Time For Change
I’ve made a little diagram below to show what I feel the process of making a change on your blog should entail. This should hopefully take you from start to finish of the process.
Conclusion
So, to conclude this ‘longer than usual’ article, before you make a change on your blog, you should seek extensive feedback. Remember that, generally speaking, the bigger the change, the more feedback you should try and get. Once you’ve made the change you should then also seek feedback, as that way people can actually see what it looks like, rather than just working on theory.
It should also be noted that this article is my entry in to the Champion Blogger Contest, which is currently running over on David Shaw’s blog.
Very good post Simon!
I agree that it is good to get feedback from your readers regarding changes.
As for the branding issue, I think a lot of companies and blogs have gained from changing their brand, I think the key is that you should not do it very often, once every couple of years maybe!
Exactly. For example, I have no intention to change the theme here on Teenius for a long time. I mean, there’ll probably be lots of small changes along the way, but it probably won’t be unrecognisable from this theme for years to come!
Readers is the king indeed. Yeah, our blog changing should make the readers have better experience.
Exactly. If it doesn’t benefit your readers, then there’s no point in doing it!
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Nice post!
On my blog, I make regular changes and the feedback is just amazing. Some people love it, others want to know how I did it and there are the odd user who complains.
I’m still trying to get my blog to the point where I can say that I’m totally satisfied. I make changes and feel that I can always do better, go beyond and push myself. While doing this, I learn more about CSS and PHP and that’s why I love it.
Glad to hear you make changes successfully. I think that you can never please everyone, but you should do your best to please as many people as possible. However, always remember that if there’s nothing wrong, you don’t need to fix it!
Also, I’m not sure you can ever be ‘completely satisfied’, purely because the blogging world is always changing, and there’s always something you can do to make your blog better!
Just wanted to say that your CommentLuv is not working, the box is checked but nothing shows up. I suggest looking at it.
Yeah, I know it’s currently not working, but as I’ve said in other comments on different posts, I’m working on fixing it (and the other plugins), so check back in a few days!
don’t change like Technorati does, i feel difficulty to navigate around because it somewhat different than before too different i mean..
ask reader is the most important thing to consider before changing, because they the one who use our blog not us. and you also could use something like “beta” version.. you change for a week and then change back to normal and ask use what they think.. if they love it.. continue the change and if the don’t so don’t.
great post.
Awesome idea about launching a beta design! I know big companies like Yahoo do it, so I’m sure it could work pretty well.
Hi Teenius,
Great post! yes I love changes. I’m always looking for improvement, that’s why I’m always trying new things to implement on my blog.
I love to use Twitter to get some feedbcak from my regular and no-regular readers; some of they gave me some good ideas and I’ve implemented them on my blog. Now I’m thinking to change my theme, but it’s an important change, I want to do this step in the right direction, you know what I mean.
See you Teenius.
Thanks for the comment, David!
Yeah, I know what you mean about the theme. You don’t get the chance to change your theme that often (I definately wouldn’t recommend changing more often than every 6 months, probably not even a year!), so it’s important to get a really good theme when you change it!
Making changes to your blog is really important, especially when you are missing something valuable. It is risky though so be aware. I like your suggestions and would just add that you need to know why you are making changes.. for you or the readers?
Exactly. As I’ve said quite a few times on this blog, the thing that makes a blog is readers, so the change has to benefit them in some way in my opinion!
Nice post, I hope to read more from you soon.
Every once in a while, it’s good to “shake things up” in a monumental way. It shows that the site or business is maturing and needs have changed.
Very true, but at the same time a major change shouldn’t be taken that often, especially if it’s going to completely change your branding strategy. For example, look at a big company when they change their name/logo… they publicise the change like crazy so that you still associate the name/logo with the old company!
I always love changes but more organized way. Whenever I want to make tiny change I first implement it in a demo blog(located on my sub-domian) and ask both my offline and online friends for a feedback. That’s really help me to take decision. In my early days I play lot with my themes but now I think I have a stable design just trying to implement a good logo. Thanks for your well organized article. Very helpful for all types of blogger.
That’s a really good idea, thanks for the comment!
Change is inevitable. That’s the only thing in life that doesn’t change. I think small changes should be done constantly, while big changes should be few and far between. Great post, site looks great too.
Change is inevitable in a growing site such as a blog- which is updated daily. However, it becomes sometimes important to over-ride what your visitors want to see, to improve conversion rates, SEO etc
some changes one just have to make, like changing to wordpress from blogger… but certain changes like perhaps changing a theme when the last theme actually did no wrong etc. can backfire. so perhaps making a poll and getting the feedback of regular visitors can be really important other wise perhaps one has to revert back to the change with quite a loss of money and visitors…
Change is good and necessary it helps people who visit you regularly to notice things they haven’t seen before.
Asking the comment of readers is a great way to do any changes in the blog.