Your website has a metabolism just like your body. You need to know how efficient that metabolism is in order to know if your site has a fast or slow burn rate, that way you can compensate to ensure your the fittest website out there;
- Fuel
Your content or posts are your fuel. The fuel feeding your website’s growth, if you don’t feed it, it will shrink in size and eventually die of starvation. There are two schools of thoughts about the amount of posts you should do. On one side some people say to only post 2-3 articles a week, and make them substantially long (1,000-1,500 words). I have a problem with that and here’s why; Your site’s metabolism will slow down and start to store fat if your don’t eat little and often just like an athlete. Keep your fires stoked with fuel to keep the fire large and hot rather than building it up and the fire dying down all the time. I post 5-7 times a week at a minimum, keep your site fresh and hot to ensure people keep coming back.
- Sugar
Sweet posts are the ones that become your most popular instantly, the ones that give your site a rush in traffic. For instance How to Deal With Negative Comments became my most popular post within a day of it being published, its the sugar rush the body of the site needs, the quick adrenalin rush, But don’t let your site live off sugar, which leads me quite nicely onto ….
- Carbohydrates
You need slow burning fuel for your site too, its the slow burners that provide the real heat for your site, burning white hot at the core of the fire. Post’s like There are more than 24 Hours in the Day and The Importance of Pen and Paper are my big piece’s of oak wood at the centre of my bonfire, there the posts that are making the sugar posts burn quickly, without these solid necessity posts the site would shut down very quickly.
- Water
Your site needs 1 thing more than anything else and more regularly, Water. It’s your maintenance of the site, It helps keep your skin healthy your brain in full working order and your body supple. So keep on top of your spam, make sure you sort out the spelling and grammar (I spend most of my time doing this!), Answer your emails, follow up on great comments. If your readers start noticing dark circles and flaky skin around your site, or notice your always ill with the flu or a cough they will lose faith in everything your saying. The most important thing to remember with water is, Little and often!
- Exercise
Get out there and use your metabolism to burn off the fat. Don’t let your site get chubby, you need it to be lean and fit, the moment you start to say that’s enough promoting and social networking for today I’ll do double tomorrow your website is going to start suffering. Mix your exercise up to keep the body guessing, don’t always post the same things, venture into new things, which in turn will make your metabolism faster.
So, is your website on too much sugar or carbohydrate heavy? Do you need to take in more water or lacking in fuel? Do you need to hit the treadmill more? What ever your metabolic rate, everyone could improve on something.
What do you think? Please Comment
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a big fan of analogies. Once you found them they enable you to draw conclusions and to get insights you would never have had otherwise. To compare a website with a living being is a hilarious idea! (It has got a metabolism and I dare saying that it moves – just think of the PageRank
[Reply]
theinfopreneur
Twitter: theinfopreneur
Reply:
November 22nd, 2009 at 13:32
PageRank How could I have missed that one out! Thanks for the great comment keep them coming!
[Reply]
Twitter: Annemieke_C
February 13, 2010 at 10:58
I loved the analogies! Great way to look at things.
I sure have to work on the fuel part, enough drafts but they don’t make it into posts.
But those you mentioned are all active in nature. What about the regenerating ones like resting, sleeping, reflecting, holidays.
Actually I have no idea how to translate that to a blog, but in the metabolism of a body it is essential.
Annemieke´s last blog ..Creative Development
[Reply]
theinfopreneur
Twitter: theinfopreneur
Reply:
February 13th, 2010 at 11:02
hey thanks for the great comment, I too have nearly a hundred draft titles with no content ha ha
Resting, sleeping reflecting and holidays, nice thought Do you want a guest post talkign about that?
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