If I’m going to get my interests monetized, I’ll have to learn to make my site pretty, great.
I’ve had a personal blog for a couple of years now. I started the blog while slaving away at kitchens and not having an outlet to vent my thoughts. After several years of owning my site, I’ve decided to sit down and try to make it easier to navigate.
I purchased a domain, installed WordPress, bought a theme, and started writing. My posts were intermittent, personal, and on a variety of subjects. Sadly, I have realized that my site’s layout made it impossible to find some of my work.
I had categorized, tagged, copied, and used SEO, but no consistent views. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all the features present in WordPress and the theme I purchased.
Making Pages and using Post Grid
One of the problems I had difficulty with was finding a way to separate my post by their appropriate categories. For years I had sought a way to organize my posts by category. At first, I tried customizing the themes, but I did not get the look I was trying to achieve for my page. After I did a google search, I was introduced to the “Post Grid” plugin. I installed the plugin and managed to get my post separated into their respective category pages.
Post Grid made this simple by having PHP shortcode have my posts adequately categorized.
Going Back to Optimize My Posts
Now that I can categorize my blog posts, I can focus on optimizing my SEO ranking posts, internal/external linking, and error checking. Some of these posts are a couple of years old and are rife with errors. Using a tool like Grammarly should help me clarify my posts.
By refining what I’ve already placed into my site, I can gain critique and crosspost to publications on Medium. I’ve already earned a few cents since participating in the membership partner program. Furthermore, I can use the skills I’m learning from the “Good with Words” Specialization.
Small Steps to Freedom
With covid, my racialized position, and mental health concerns, I need to take this time to recalibrate how to navigate the world. Going back to normal after what I’ve experienced this year will never be an option. I’ve decided I want out of this madness, and effective blogging is one of the tools that I will use to become free.