Blogging Changes I’m Making This Winter

Every time one of my favourite blogs shares a post with a title similar to this one, I get a little nervous about them shutting down or going on hiatius. If you’re the same way, don’t worry! lydiaschoch.com isn’t going anywhere.

I have and will be making some changes to this site that I wanted to let my readers know about, though.

All of these changes are being done in hopes of driving more traffic to this site. I’m confident about my writing abilities, but in 2019 I’d like to become better at marketing the things I create so that new audiences can discover my blog and my stories.

Marketing is something that I honestly struggle a bit with, so if you have any advice I’d sure like to hear it. Comment on this post or send me a DM on Twitter if you’re interested.

In the meantime, here are the things that have, will, or may be changing on this site in the near future. Not everything is set in stone yet, but this is the direction I’m thinking about taking in the new year.

Comments on Old Posts

As of earlier this week, I’ve opened up comments on all of my old posts. I’ve received some messages from people who were disappointed to find comments closed on posts that were shared more than 10 days ago. Originally, I’d set them to close after that amount of time to combat spam that was overwhelming my inbox.

The spam has been much more manageable this time, so let’s see if I can make this a permanent change. If your comment doesn’t show up right away, it probably got caught in my spam filter. I do my best to release those posts as soon as possible, but do feel free to nudge me if it’s been a few days and you don’t see anything yet.

Reader Questions

At the end of this month, I’ll be blogging about a question that a reader asked me in the comment section of a post recently. Her question was so big that it might take more than one post to fully respond to. Stay tuned for that post. It’s going to be a fun one.

I’d love to make this a recurring feature if or when other readers ask me questions, so fire away if you have any!

Book Blog Memes

From talking to other writers and bloggers, I get the impression that participating in weekly book blog memes like Top Ten Tuesday can be an excellent way to drive new traffic to your site.

I’m still looking into which ones would be best for me to participate in, and that list is one of several online that I’ll need to go through between now and January. Top Ten Tuesday is extremely popular, but I’m also curious to see if I can find something that’s specifically related to sci-fi/fantasy, mindfulness, or fitness. Whatever I pick, I will only be doing one or two of these a week at the most.

Suggestion Saturday

As much as I enjoy doing Suggestion Saturday posts, they are having less and less of an impact on drawing new visitors to this site with every passing month. They also require an investment of my time that I’m wondering might be better spent writing other types of posts.

I have not yet decided if I’ll keep doing this in 2019. I need more time to think about it.

Guest Posts from Others on This Site

Yes, I will continue to offer other bloggers the chance to write guest posts on this site if they contact me first. I’ve seen some bloggers become pushy on this topic, and that’s not something I’m comfortable doing at all. This is something I only want to do with people who are enthusiastic about it.

With that being said, I will be on the lookout for sites that list guest post opportunities to see if I can sign my site up for such a thing. It would be interesting to introduce you all to other bloggers who write about the same sorts of stuff I do.

Guest Posts from Me on Other Sites

If I find such a site, I may also be signing up as a guest blogger there. You all will receive links to any posts I write for other blogs, although I’ll have to come up with a creative way to do that if I put an end to Suggestion Saturday.

How Do You Attract New Traffic to Your Blog?

Please let me know in the comment section! I’d love to hear your tips.

10 Comments

Filed under Interviews, Writing

10 Responses to Blogging Changes I’m Making This Winter

  1. Looking forward to seeing how your plan develops.

  2. Lydia,

    I’m definitely not good at attracting new readers. I’m hesitant to tell people about my blog, partly because I’m never sure it’s worth reading, partly because health issues mean I’m sporadic, but mostly because it feels pushy and obnoxious. The trend seems to have let up a bit, but for a while it seemed I couldn’t turn around without someone — strangers, acquaintances, people who ride the same buses that I do — urging me to take their card, visit their site, read their blog. A few even “helped” me by taking my phone and pulling up their sites for me. Ack.

    I do not want to be one of those people, but I sure haven’t found a non-annoying strategy. Maybe I should hire a sky-writer…

    • I’m sorry to hear you have health issues, Ruth.

      Yes, I’ve run across bloggers who are pushy about their sites, too. It’s one thing to let people know that you write about topic X, but I never want to cross that line and be obnoxious about it either.

      If you’re interested, I’ll let you know which techniques are working for me after I’ve had some time to test some stuff out.

      • Lydia,

        OF COURSE I’m interested! Thank you. I am completely committed to using you and your site as role models. I’d really like to hear from other people who have found ways to let folks know about their sites without wearing flashing neon. I should say that I have also come across people who do manage gracefully to make it known that they happen to have dropped a post about just this or that very topic. I seem to lack that grace however.

        Ruth

  3. I’m glad you’ve opened up comments on older posts. Engaging in conversations with readers seems to be a good way of keeping them once they’ve found your blog. I occasionally get comments on old posts. People also visit my blog because of comments I’ve made on other people’s blogs, so that’s another way of finding readers.

  4. A lady with a plan! 😉

    I think a lot of driving traffic comes down simply to putting in a butt-tonne of work (if you find a shortcut, let all of us know!)

    There’s tonnes of websites out there to help with blog traffic and social media, you just gotta keep going ’til you figure out what works!

    Good luck 🙂

  5. I tried keeping my comments open indefinitely, but spam was overwhelming. Combatting it was a nightmare of blocking IP addresses, email addresses and certain phrases. Now? I leave comments open for 2 months. That seems to be plenty of time for discussion and I get far less spam.

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