If I hired myself for myself, I'd fix these things.

I have a large and talented family, each member with their unique skill-sets. “The mechanic’s car doesn’t start!” is an expression we use, in many variations, to explain how we’re often the last to adhere to the advice we would give professionally, and often the last to benefit from our experiences and skills. If you paid yourself to do something for yourself, you’d do it right.

On that note, if I was paid to promote and optimize rarasaur.wordpress.com, I’d certainly be doing things a little differently. Here’s a list of things I’d fix on my own blog, and how to do it should you decide to implement these changes on yours.

(1) I don’t update my image alt tags or file names.

“The cobbler’s shoes have holes in them!”

WordPress has a nice, easy-to-fill-out field for the alt tags of your image. It also allows you to name your file. This is important for a few reasons. One, if someone subscribes via email to your blog, it’s very likely that the images are not set to load until they approve them. Which is to say, they’re only seeing your photo name. “IMG 0003″ doesn’t encourage a click so much as “Lovely Blue Flower”. Two, more and more people are searching via images. Google will search your files by name and alt tag. Three, if it’s your own image, putting your name in the alt tag is another little safety that sticks with an image.

Why I don’t do it:
I don’t mind if a picture I take gets lost in the depths of the internet without accreditation. Mostly I don’t do this, though, because I’m quite lazy and WordPress does not have a bulk update feature available for the media library.

Advice I would give myself if I was paying myself:
It’s only a few words to add to each picture, and it maximizes the potential of someone seeing your post or finding their way to you. It gets your name out there, and makes you easier to find. In other words, it’s worth it.

(2) I don’t have a tagline that indicates what this site is about.

I see a lot of people who still have the default tagline, or a blank one. It’s important to fill this out because the name of your site is a highly prioritized search field. It’s also important because it gives you nearly a whole sentence to convey to a potential reader why they should click and enter your site.

Why I don’t do it:
I love this template despite it’s flaws, but I don’t like the default location of the tagline. I have to use a background image to achieve the visual effect that I am seeking.

Advice I would give myself if I was paying myself:
Use worms, not cookies, to catch a fish.. even if you really like cookies yourself. In other words, if it makes it easier on a potential reader, or invites more people in, it doesn’t really matter if you’re 100% happy with the way it looks.

(3) I don’t have a dedicate blog roll or suggested blog page.

“The chef makes bread and butter for dinner.”

This one is about riding on the success of others, link reciprocity, and validation. It’s still good for both sides of the link so long as the blogroll isn’t infinite. It also gives your readers a good idea of the type of person you are– like how you only really get to know someone once you’ve seen their bookshelf and medicine cabinet.  It’s also a way of building brand loyalty– nothing says you value you a reader like listing their blog permanently on your page of suggested reads.

Why I don’t do this:
Honestly, the idea of it overwhelms me. I love so many of you, and you all write about different things in different ways. I don’t even begin to know how to organize it.

Advice I would give myself if I was paying myself:
Just start somewhere. Pick 20, and go forward. There’s no law that says you can’t change them out later, or re-organize them later.

(4) I don’t have a site map.

WordPress has an easy feature to link you up to Bing and Google. I’ve done this part. The second part, though, is to upload a site map via those search engine’s sites. This is important because it prioritizes what you want to prioritize in Google, rather than your most popular, which as we all know can be something that doesn’t really represent the wider genre of your work.

Why I don’t do this:
I’m not quite sure which posts best represent Rarasaur.wordpress.com yet– perhaps in 300 days my vision will be more clear.

Advice I would give myself if I was paying myself:
Just start somewhere. A partial site map is better than none.

(5) I don’t syndicate, at any level.

“The pool cleaner’s pool is always dirty!”

There are a multitude of third-party sites out there that accept submissions and links. Some, like the Kindle vendor, will even pay you when people read your blog. Some are just to get your blog out there to readers. Some bloggers are looking for guest bloggers, and I’ve only done that once or twice.

Why I don’t do this:
I have no idea. Maybe some part of me is waiting for someone to ask me, since the only ones I’ve guest posted or included on someone else’s site were done by request? Also, I feel like my particular blog is very much geared towards WordPress bloggers. I’m not sure on the benefits of mass syndication.

Advice I would give myself if I was paying myself:
The internet doesn’t ask, it accepts. If you want your content out there, you have to push it out there and try to get it accepted.

As far as your content being geared towards WordPress bloggers, you don’t have to sign up with 3rd parties to guest post or submit entries to collaborative sites.

In other words, just start somewhere.

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