I have a collection of blogs, so blog retrofitting is constantly on my to-do list. Each day I choose a blog and go there to see what I can do to make it better.
Here’s my normal routine:
1. I check to see if the blog needs updates. Often WordPress versions need an update, and plugins need updates too. I have a collection of plugins I like to use with WordPress, and I make sure everything is working right. There’s always something to do!
2. Next I check for new comments. Comments are never posted automatically. I vet all comments on all of my blogs, to eliminate spam. Yes, spammers love to place comments on WordPress blogs, but they should never get through on mine because I’m reading and watching, and protecting my blogs.
3. Following comment approvals, comes spam comment deletion. Usually this is as simple as clicking on the “empty spam” button. However, there have been occasions where a blog has been subject to a spam attack, and I’ve found upwards of 100,000 spam comments posted within only a few days. These are typically caught by my anti-spam plugin, Akismet, and held for my decision to delete. Unfortunately, when you have that many spam comments to delete, the “empty spam” button will laugh at you. I’ve found a good solution: the Batch Comment Spam Deletion plugin. This plugin has saved me many hours of spam comment deletion horror. You just set it to delete, and it will delete small batches of comments until the entire pile of trash is gone.
4. Next I download a backup copy of the blog. To do this I go to Tools > Export. I save my backups to my hard drive. Very simple, and easy to use if restoration is needed, because in that case, you can simply reverse the process, and use Tools > Import.
5. After all this regular maintenance is done, I check on the users section of the dashboard to make sure nothing is amiss, and also use a few anti-hacking plugins: the Theme Authenticity Cheker and Exploit Scanner. I’m also protected by Wordfence. I’ve been blogging 15 years already, and in that time I’ve seen all kinds of hacking, spamming, and general all-around unfriendly behavior. If you have a blog, you should protect it.
6. Next, I’ll make new images for my blog. Most of my blogs are very old, and pre-date Pinterest by years. So the older blog posts have no pinnable images. That’s a huge social media gaffe in this day and age. If there’s nothing to pin, you miss out on the joy of having your page represented on Pinterest… which is one of the best sources of traffic on the Internet. So I’m constantly making new images for old pages. I also add Pinterest widgets to pages when the subject matches one of my Pinterest boards. There’s one further down on this page. Pinterest is a big part of my social media strategy these days.
7. While I’m updating old pages, I make sure the ads are showing correctly. On some blogs I like to include one AdSense unit in the sidebar, so it shows on every page. I place one more in the body of each article, and one at the bottom. Conversely, if Adsense isn’t generating income on a blog, I’ll take the ads off as there’s no reason for them to be there. I also like to have at least one Amazon book or product – something related to the topic of the page – on every article posted on my blogs. Many of my older blog articles do not comply with these new standards of mine, so I have to add things when appropriate and needed.
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8. Last but not least, these days I’m adding a subscribe link to my YouTube channel. I’ve decided that YouTube is a necessary part of my business, for traffic generation, and maybe someday I’ll even make money there, as I’ve been accepted as a YouTube Partner. My channel needs more subscribers! It also needs more videos.
Today I worked on two blogs. One is new – a domain I’ve owned for a few years. I recently placed a WordPress blog there and am using it to advertise my services as a content writer and editor. I seriously am busy right now so most of my new content writing offers will be referred to a friend, who is currently building her content writing business.
I also worked on a website that lists all my online efforts, and where I occasionally write articles about what I’m doing to earn money online. That site has a series of private pages with all my links and bookmarks that I use to operate my business. This is helpful because if I ever have to use a different computer, my frequently-used links will be available on the site.
One thing you must learn about having a website is that revisions of that site are never done. If you care about your web presence you will continue working on it regularly. Old content becomes outdated and must occasionally be revised or improved on. All my sites get my regular attention. That might make you wonder how many sites I have. Let’s just say … more than ten! So I won’t get to every one of them every week . . . but I try! Most of them are listed at LJ Martin Web. There are over two hundred articles at this site alone, so reviewing them can be a time-consuming bit of business improvement. But this is so necessary.
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