I’ve been following along with the blog improvement challenges being posted each week by Tonia Kendrick in her series, “31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog.” While I don’t write about them each week, I’m trying to make some steady changes that will result in a better, more attractive blog. This week’s challenge is to update a key page—the home page, About Me page, or other page where readers might turn for information. To see all of Tonia’s ideas and suggestions, click to read her post at Tonia’s Roots.
Here's the three things I did for for this week’s challenge:
I decided I needed to add more to my Research Tools page, so I wrote a post about Social History Resources for Genealogists. I then added those sources to the list of Research Tools. I also streamlined the links for the other resources on there, to give the whole list a cleaner appearance. I’m happy with the way it looks now, but I need to keep adding more to it on a regular basis.
I consolidated “My Ancestors” and “Ancestors-in-Law” to a single page (still called “My Ancestors”). Basically, I mixed my husband’s surnames in with mine to create a single, alphabetized list of surnames that I’m researching. I also noted the state(s), counties, and/or country of interest for each surname. Hopefully that will make it easier for potential cousins or fellow researchers to make connections with my information.
I created a stand-alone About Me page. I have an “About Me” feature on my home page, so I didn’t see the need for a separate page until recently. But the blogging “GenSpiration” session led by Amy Coffin at the 2011 FGS Conference in Springfield convinced me otherwise. The new page tells a little about my background in genealogy and my interests. It also includes my disclosure statement (another “absolute must” I picked up from the session), my copyright statement, a note about source citations, and my contact information. I hope readers will find it helpful and easy to access.
There are some other ideas I want to try out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’d be interested to know what you think!
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You blog is wonderfully organized. I never seem to be able to carve out time to make the changes to my blog that I want. It is inspiring to read your posts about how you have implemented Tonia's suggestions. Organization is my downfall.
ReplyDeleteI really like your About Me page. It hadn't occurred to me to simply put Copyright, Disclosure and Sources information on that page but I think it was an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteI also like your sidebar. It's clean and easy to find things.
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ReplyDeleteMargel, I think your blog is great! Always a pleasure to read what's going on at 2338 W. Washington Blvd.
ReplyDeleteI find organizing to be challenging too, which is why Tonia's ideas have been so helpful. I'm just trying to do a little bit at a time :) Glad you like it!
Michelle, I put all those things on the About Me page because it seemed like the simplest way to do it. Nice to know the format made sense to you. I pick up a lot of good ideas from your responses to the 31WBGB challenges, too.
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