I’ve been doing a bit of blog housekeeping to try and show everything off at its best. A bit like cleaning the house I’m always left with a feeling that however fast I tidy up there’ll always be more to be done… but no matter.
Better to focus on the improvements you have made than the things you’ve still to crack 
I’ve tidied up the information page on working with me. Pretty important one this! I’ve drawn out the benefits in terms of business writing skills and improved self-confidence for people who write as part of their work
I’ve decided to drop the ‘welcome’ post at the top of the site. I have mixed feelings about this one. I have had a few readers stop by and say ‘hello’ on the back of a welcome post – and I can see that it’s easier to say ‘hi’ on a welcome piece than to jump in to a full-blown conversation. On the other hand it does take up valuable space and a prize spot on the site – and it can quickly start to look ‘dusty’.
I’ve added a multi-purpose bookmark (AddThis) with a dinky drop down function – it takes you to more social networking sites than I’d even heard of, making it easier than ever for you to share the great material that you find here (Thanks to Cat for the tip)
After all that cleaning I’m in need of a tea-break!
And no doubt my tidying up will have left some broken-link debris in its
wake. (My least favourite part of blog houskeeping). I’m sorry if you come across one – but please don’t be shy about
letting me know if you do…
How do you handle some of these things on your own site? Whether that’s space for bookmarking, disclosure of affiliate links, welcome posts, or keeping your widgets under control
And what are your favourite and least favourite parts of blog housekeeping?
Hi Joanna, I really like your new “working with me” page! My only suggestion is, I’d like to see your categories higher up on the sidebar – that’s usually the first thing I look at when checking out a new blog to get a sense of what it’s all about. I try to keep my sidebars as clean as possible, and I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not. But in that spirit I added a separate page for my blogroll and a separate page for book recommendations.
Brad, it’s good advice and I know you’ve written about the importance of categories before.
I’ll give it a try shifting it higher up.
To be honest I think I’ve got too much in my sidebars, and I could do with stripping the stuff out… but I’m attached to what I’ve got, and it’s hard to let go
Someone also suggested I put the posts aligned to the left and sidebars on the right – I might give that a go
The main problem I have with Typepad is not being able to create a tab at the top for a new page (I think this happens automatically in wordpress?)
I can create pages now, but you have to be an advanced user to create the tabs, and I just don’t know how. Each time I look into it I get scared. But it would solve a lot of my design issues…
Any typepad hacks out there reading this who want to offer me any help?
Joanna