With the stock market and real estate markets rebounding, employment levels rising, and more people turning to blogs for information and entertainment, I hope many of you had a fortuitous 2013!
I’m publishing my personal year in review this week and just finished curating the top posts on Financial Samurai for 2013. It’s pretty neat how much we can write over the course of a year if we stay consistent.
The following is a list of things I think many of us should consider doing to optimize our sites for the year. I’ll certainly be working on a number of these to ensure my site survives for a sixth year.
NEW YEAR BLOGGING CHECK LIST
1) Run the Broken Link Checker plugin. Links break all the time for whatever reason. The Broken Link Checker plugin will either delink or redirect your links so your readers have a better experience. A lot of blog commenters also let their blogs disappear over time. The plugin will clean up broken comment links as well. Deactivate the Broken Link Checker plugin once used because it is a resource hog. I also suggest running it during off peak hours.
2) Condense the number of categories. The optimal number of categories is around 10 or less. If you can be the expert at three to five categories all the better. Over the course of the year categories start increasing like clutter in your house. I’ve got a lot of cutting to do because I’ve got 20 categories.
3) Aggregate your top articles of the year into one article. A top articles of the year post serves to help new readers quickly familiarize themselves with your site. A top articles post also serves as a resume to showcase your writing skills if you’re looking to guest post or apply as a freelance writer. Consider a “Most Popular” category or tab as well.
4) Review all affiliate links. Affiliate links break all the time because the client no longer wants to run their campaign but fails to notify the publisher. This is really the job of your account manager to give you a heads up. I just found out one of my affiliates stopped their campaign after I asked my affiliate manager if anything had changed. She said the campaign stopped 40 days ago! Thanks for not telling me. I encourage everyone to randomly audit their affiliate links once a month to make sure everything works. Start with your top 20 most trafficked posts.
5) Rekindle old relationships and make new friendships. Everybody gets busy in the year and we often lose touch with old friends. Rekindle three good relationships and try to keep in touch at least once a month for the entire year. It’s easy to stick to people who look, act, and talk like you. The result is a pretty homogenous environment that stunts creativity and growth. Look to reach out to someone completely different and develop a relationship. You’ll likely learn plenty of new things. Some good synergistic genres include Marketing, Travel, and Writing.
6) Remove unnecessary plugins. Plugins slow down your site and makes sites more susceptible to hacks. Shoot for 15 plugins or less. Also make sure all plugins are up to date. I’d love to know from webmasters how many plugins they think is optimal and which plugins are the ones that slow a site down most and are most susceptible to crashes.
7) Revisit expectations with your webmaster. If you have a webmaster responsible for keeping your site up and running, have a talk with him or her to set out your expectations for the year. Air grievances now or be frustrated all year long.
8) Try one new type of media. Most of us simply write and publish. We should consider tying in the occasional podcast, video, or TV interview if we can get one. It’s important we not be delusional with our looks and communications skills by keeping things tight.
9) Ask yourself if you’re still having fun. If you’re not having fun because you dislike writing or are losing your soul by pumping out product review post after product review post for money, definitely reconsider your blogging strategy or quit. Nobody needs another boring blog that publishes the same topics.
10) Focus on affiliate revenue. Try your hardest to get off the direct advertisement drug. Shoot for direct advertising to be no more than 20% of revenue so you can sleep better at night if you’re serious about building sustainable income online. With many examples of continued five figure blog income reports due to direct advertising, there’s a great argument that you might as well milk it since it seems Google doesn’t mind. But I’ve seen about 15% of blogs who actively participate in direct advertising get crushed at any given moment. Take a look at LinkOffers, FlexOffers, CJ, or shoot me an e-mail if you’d like to be a sub-affiliate of mine for Personal Capital at $101 per qualified lead. There should be something for everyone.
BONUS: Hunt down everybody who owes you money! Keep a list of outstanding payments due and e-mail/call them relentlessly until they respond and pay.
BLOGGING CONTINUES TO GO MAINSTREAM
There used to be some fear several years ago that blogging was going to fade away. What a silly notion now that we’ve seen a massive growth in independent online media. Blog valuations have grown significantly in no small part due to the increased valuations of acquiring companies in this bull market.
I went down to Stanford’s Journalism school, supposedly the #1 journalism school in the country this Spring to learn more about their program and am amazed at how slow they are in adopting online media as part of their repertoire. No paper, TV, or radio station breaks the news anymore. Twitter breaks the news! I continue to push for collaboration between old media and new media for increased synergies.
There will definitely be winners and losers in 2014. I think the key is to just stay consistent and hold on for as long as possible. There’s nothing much we can do about the exogenous variables. All we can control is our own commitment.
STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG
It’s been over seven years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive and active income stream online now. My online presence has allowed me to pursue other things, such as consulting for various financial tech startups as well.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.
Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work. Get started. You never know where the journey will take you!
Updated for 2017 and beyond.
I use PrettyLink Pro to manage my affiliate links. That way I don’t have to audit and check lots of posts. If something ever changes, I just fix it in one place and it fixes site-wide.
That’s a good tool indeed. One still has to make sure the links work to change the links though, unless PrettyLink Pro identifies when an affiliate link is broken?
Good advice on creating a post that aggregates your other top posts. I did that a while back with my “Start Here” page, but have not really been as good about updating it as I should.
Just a quick note on the Broken Link Checker plugin: Only activate it and run it when you need to. It’s a resource hog.
Good advice on a Start Here page. I figure the “About” page could work, or maybe one can rename the About page to the “Start Here” page.
Good reminder on Broken Link checker being a resource hog and to deactivate it once used.
Great advice. I think I need to pare down my plugins. My site seems a little sluggish lately. I’ll also have to think about a top 10 articles post.
Great advice. My biggest plans are to dig in my heels and keep working hard on the site. I have a new site launching soon, but want ConsumerFu on solid footing first.
Will you be able to focus on ConsumerFu as much with a new site launching? What was your decision to start a new site if you feel your existing site needs more work? I personally don’t have the capacity to manage more than one site well I’ve discovered. I now post on Yakezie.com once a week or two weeks, whereas in the past it would be two times a week at least without fail.
I think everything will work out. I have actually been working on the new site for much longer than ConsumerFu. It is one of those ideas that has needed some time to percolate.
Great advice, Sam. This year I did a lot of video work with eHow. I’m going to get back to my own offerings in 2014.
What are your thoughts on sub-categories? I only have 4 major categories, but I’ve been trying to create a better organizational model with sub-categories so readers can easily still down to specific concepts.
Might be good… 5 main categories and several sub categories under each would look nice I think.
I wish I could run Broken Link Checker, but it always breaks my site for some reason. I’ve found the free app Screaming Frog to be very effective as well.
Yikes, good to know it might break a site. Will check out Screaming Frog. Thx.
I use Pretty Link Pro as well. I also have a custom link checker that will check my affiliate links for the “broken” language from the providers. It works well and I have reduced my number of broken affiliate links that way. I have been pushing for affiliate income and it has worked out quite well. I plan on pushing more for it.
Good to know it checks for broken links as well. Thanks.
I just started another website, and I think those tips could help me a lot on my first year. Thanks!
Splendid checklist and thanks; I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on TMP during the holidays, dealing with some issues that are starting to show (the fact that even I couldn’t find what is on it any longer, for instance). Apart from that, I’ve been working on the strategy for it (after I managed to rest a bit). Will, do the maintenance using the points you make. As to my plan for 2014 it is to continue growing TMP and move towards building an internet business (expanding as well).
Tip #2 hit me like a freight train. D’oh! Somehow I’ve always thought more categories were better, but a strong group of 10 categories further establish my blog’s niche and specific expertise. One of my goals for 2014 is to double my blog’s income, too. Thank you for compiling a great list.
Less is more with this one!
I like #3 a lot. I also have some streamlining to do on my site but this is an excellent road map.
Sam, those are some great tips. I think I’ll set a reminder to revisit this post in 3-4 months and take action. Since my blog is so new I probably don’t have as many concerns about broken links and affiliate programs ending.
One tip I might add is to revisit your banner ads strategy. I’m doing a 1 month trial run at Root of Good to see if positioning affiliate advertising more prominently will increase my revenue versus prominently displaying adsense advertising.
This is a really helpful checklist, thanks Sam! I finally got my wordpress upgraded and hope to learn a little more technical stuff this year. 2013 flew by in a flash and although I went through some bumps, I managed to keep up with my blogging. I’m looking forward to another exciting year and hope to contribute more. Happy New Year everyone!
Great tips! I just updated my categories from 29 down to 12. My goal in 2014 is to reduce unnecessary fluff and deliver consistent content. Please check out my Youtube channel as well. I’m slowly building a media presence there. http://YouTube.com/YoungAdultFinances
Great advice. I’ll try the broken link checker plugin, never used it, but it does make sense. Have a great blogging year everybody :)
Thanks for the list, and recommendation to focus on affiliate offers. I like what’s available on the Yakezie Network, and look forward to finally breaking the 200k mark in 2014.
Happy NY Sam and All.
Hope you make it too Chuck!
These are all really good things that I should really do for my blog. The other big thing I should focus on: Actually write some new content! Dry spell!
Ah yes, writing new content is Check list #1 that does not need to be said! :)
I was toying with the idea of starting another blog but have put it off because I don’t have the time to devote to running another site. Good to know about broken link checker!
Man, I don’t either. Lots of work just managing one, let alone two! Yakezie.com is a labor of love, and up for all of you. Maybe more folks will pitch in in 2014.
Great suggestions for the new year Sam. I’ve been off the blogging scene for a while but look forward to getting back into the swing of things.
Welcome back Marvin! Where did you go?
My son required much more work than I had anticipated ;-)
Great post, thanks. I’ve only just come across this check-list and very much needed to do at least 5 of them. I love this actionable content – very practical. Thanks again!