Written on December 4th, 2009 at 12:12 am by kellydiels
Luck is a Curse. How NOT to Relaunch and Rebrand Your Blog. There May Be Tears.
A Guest Post by Kelly Diels. Image by Cayusa
Part 1. Blogging, Before I Got the Bright Idea to Relaunch and Rebrand: What I Did Right. Maybe.
Here’s my curse: I’m lucky. Things always seem to work out for me and even when they go wrong, they’re never actually as bad as they ought to be. I’ve never had a white knight ride into my life on a unicorn but things have never been so bad that I wished for one. Lucky, lucky me.
Why is that a curse? Because, when planning (ahem. I use the word loosely) to rebrand and relaunch my site using Wordpress and a professionally designed theme, I counted on Plan A working.
That was my first mistake.
My second mistake: When scoping (hahahahahahaha. sure. THAT’s what you call it) out the conversion, I expected Plan A to take place in a miraculous, lucky context.
The planets and stars would align in the House of Luck and the wind would be at my back and I am remorselessly killing the English language one mixed metaphor at a time.
Because I’m lucky, after all.
Lucky Blogging. The Beginning. It is Seductive.
Fortunately, when it comes to blogging, I didn’t do EVERYTHING wrong.
Here’s what I did right.
I started blogging because I needed to write. Luckily, I’m a half-way decent wordsmith so that part came easily.
Then I got lucky and people started reading my blog. More people than I know. Friends of friends. Strangers. You. I can’t believe my luck.
Then I started trying to figure out how to properly blog. I found ProBlogger and it’s archive of awesomeness.
Google and luck were on my side and also gave me White Hot Truth and I went to a fire starter and it lit me up. I thought, yes, I CAN do this. I can live like an artist, baby. I will.
Then, by sheer, random dumb luck, I found the World’s Strongest Librarian and he pushed me to start guest-posting.
(First I mulled on it for, oh, three months because although I’m sassy in text, I am ridiculously timid about making requests. My askus requestus muscle is highly underdeveloped. Offer to write something, for free, for someone else? THE NERVE. Case in point: I wrote a piece I intended for ProBlogger and then was far too scared to actually submit it. So I didn’t. I sat on the completed, undeniably awesome essay for ten days until I had a WTF moment and sent it. Luckily, Darren liked it and used it. WTF moments are important.)
So I started guest posting. More people came to read my site and said nice things and started following me on Twitter. I love Twitter, maybe even more than Facebook.
And I love Facebook something fierce and unholy because my future website developer/designer friended me there.
Lucky Blogging Makes You Uppity and Think You Can Change The World Or At Least Your Site.
My facebook designer friend and I became real, offline friends. IM conversations, cupcakes and a festival were involved and then it turned into a business relationship.
It was time to redesign my site. (I say redesign, but “design” is an overstatement for what I originally slapped together, so the “re” is a hairy lie.)
Now, luckily, thanks to the genius of The Internet and Facebook, I had a designer/friend whose work ethic and aesthetic I trusted. I could say bad words and be anxious and require handholding – while toggling back and forth between states of extreme control freakiness and childlike need for reassurance – and as a friend/vendor she’d be obliged to provide it. Lucky, lucky me.
So, in my blogging journey this is what I did right:
- When I started, I just started. I started somewhere/anywhere and figured out my focus and my mission as I went. This took six months
- I wrote good stuff
- People liked it
- I sought out expertise and experts and handholders
- I made friends. (If I was an internet marketer, I’d say I ‘networked’ but really I’m too socially awkward to network. It is juju love and cupcakes or nothing, baby.)
- I grew my blog organically until it – and I – needed a focus, a brand, a name, and a proper design
- Then, because I had friends, and had been following in their illustrious footsteps, I knew how to undertake the focus/name/brand/proper site challenge. I thought.
I was lucky. In the first six months of blogging, I did just enough right to think that wings and prayers and hot content were enough. Curses.
Still Lucky-Blogging. Tragedy Looms.
My luck held. My brain was on. I researched the design process. I researched sites I liked for inspiration. I thought about architecture. I thought about aesthetics. I thought about branding. I chose a developer with whom I actually wanted to work. I wrote a design brief, which forced me to clarify my vision, articulate it and map out the objectives for the site. My design brief gave my designer targets to hit and a guide for decision-making. She liked it and referred to it often. She told me so.
I invited feedback on the design and made changes. We tested the site. It was ready. It was time.
And then…
Part 2. My Blog Relaunch/Rebrand/Redesign: What I Did Wrong. No Doubt About It.
Luck was my lady. I had been blogging for six months and everything I tried, worked, and worked easily.
Then I made some quick, on-the-fly, hosting-related decisions and it all came crashing down.
Literally. There was an FTP error and internal permissions problem and what my hosting provider described to me in confidence-inspiring, technical language as a “zit”.
My new, pretty site? Nowhere to be found. My old ugly site? Also missing.
My sanity? See above. The same answers apply.
My Luck Runs Out. My Hosting Company Hates Me. Worse, It Is Indifferent.
In the midst of the bleeding and the bullets and grievous wounds inflicted upon me and my blog by my apparently uncaring service provider, I had a talk with a friend who manages huge communications projects with fancy, schmancy interactive sites. It went like this:
Friend: Can I suggest something?
Kelly Diels: Please.
Friend: Look at your site as your third child and guard it accordingly. Anytime someone is going to touch it, ask the following four questions:
A. Is it necessary?
B. What is the change?
C. What is the impact of that change?
D. What is the implementation/reversion plan? If the change goes to poop [KD note: he said a bad word here, but I'm prettying it up for you], how do I get back to my original state?
Your site must be up 24/7 as you never know who might be trying to access it. You probably have this in-hand but just my thoughts.
Kelly Diels: That was good. A little structure would have been useful…and preventative. I did not scope out the conversion process at all.
Friend: See your site as priority #1 and question and approve any changes made to it. Own it. It is not a toy. It is your business.
Kelly Diels: That is good advice.
Friend (pressing his luck): Thank you. Can I feel your breasts?
Kelly Diels: No.
Luckily, Boot-straps Are Good For Self-Flagellation, Too. Indulge Me.
You see what kind of emergency state I was in? I was soliciting advice (wise, as it turns out) from a very, very bad man.
I blame the trickster luck for my dilemma. If I wasn’t so lucky, all the time, I probably would have been more cautious. Maybe I would have done my research and made a plan. I certainly would have done things differently.
What I would do differently:
- Research service standards and guarantees.
- I should have researched service standards for hosting and compared them. If something is wrong, how fast does it get fixed?
- I should have researched the internal business processes for hosts. If something is wrong, do I call and it gets resolved right now? Or does a queue ticket get issued and the techies get to it when they get to it?
- I also should have researched what my current host would need from me to expedite transferring my domain to another hosting company. (Heads up, service provider.)
- Compare real costs. I would have consciously evaluated whether it is a good idea to choose a hosting provider that does or does not have a toll-free number. The company I chose does NOT have a toll-free number. I saved money by choosing a low-cost hosting package but then paid the difference -and then some, over and over – in long-distance charges. This is false economy.
- Question everything. I should have scoped out my hosting questions, up front, as part of the project plan. Instead, I chose the path of (apparent) least resistance, which was to stay with my current provider. (Heads up, current provider.)
- Invite feedback. I would have invited my developer’s opinion about companies she’s used (and loved!) in the past. I would have asked questions and solicited advice from my friends in the know about this sort of thing before I started, instead of in the midst, from the trenches, whilst under fire and bleeding.
- Question everything. Again. I would have asked my lecherous friend’s evil genius questions (above) about every single detail and at every decision point. For example, because my developer told me to, I switched my hosting from Windows to Linux. I made this choice without hesitation or investigation. This switch is exactly what caused the problem and caused my site to go offline for four days (and counting – at the time of writing it is still down). I didn’t anticipate the consequences of my decision because I didn’t think through the decision in the first place.
- Cop tools. Whatever it is that you’re doing, you are not the first to do this, so learn from the mistakes and successes of others. Ask them for their tools. My friend, for example, sent me a change management log to track edits and decisions to my site. It is usefulness gone Excel. My body parts are still off-limits, though.
- Formalize. Undertake and scope your own projects as thoroughly as you would for a client. Scope it. Question it. Plan it. Record it. Measure it. MANAGE it.
- Own it. Lead it. You ARE the leader. I would have taken my own business advice about blogging and owned it. Yes, it is a wise business decision to outsource the stuff I’m not good at; but I didn’t need to give away my authority, too. I should have assumed a Project Manager role instead of a passive client role. I should have forced myself to understand every single step and hurdle instead of thinking someone else would handle it because that is her job and she knows what she is doing. (She did it and she does.) This doesn’t mean that I would force myself to be well-rounded – which is a waste of energy – but I should have understood the issues and approached this more strategically.
- Anticipate problems. In addition to my lucky, cursed Plan A, I should have had Plan B through Z. I should have anticipated and assumed SNAFUs and adverse conditions and strategized accordingly.
- Eat your mistakes whole and do it better, next time. Please.
This is all basic project management stuff – which I know, and actually DO in my day job – applied to a context with which I’m not familiar (hosting, databases, technical details, design). I should have applied the skills and rigour of my “real” job to my own business. I’m still amazed that I didn’t.
I know why I didn’t. It was luck and freedom. They’re villains.
Part of the appeal of having your own business is the freedom to plot your own path and not be beholden by externally prescribed rules and processes. But some processes – like project scoping and management – are essential, and just because they feel work-like and bureaucratic doesn’t mean you should dismiss them. I will never, ever not scope a personal project again.
Luck and the Lady-Blogger. Not a Love Story.
Recently, I was interviewed as an “up and coming” blogger by another blogger. Srinivas Rao asked me how I figured out how to blog. Did I take a course, seek out resources and guides? Or am I making it up as I go along?
I said:
Oh, I am tap-dancing in the wind and the wind has no rhythm.
Until this week, that was both a flippant and a true answer. That’s freedom talking. And that was stupid.
The interview was for Srini’s blog called Skool of Life, which is very appropriate because the lessons I learned this week about how NOT to relaunch your blog are definitely school of life-ish stuff.
The best lessons usually are. I heard this on Twitter, so it must be true.
Luckily, I will do better next time. Because next time I won’t rely on luck.
Kelly Diels is a freelance writer and creator of the blog Cleavage (about sex, money and meaning, what’s not to love?) which has caused her to sob deep and wide rivers of tears this week. The blog is now fixed and prettier than ever. Please go look.
76 Responses to “Luck is a Curse. How NOT to Relaunch and Rebrand Your Blog. There May Be Tears.” - Add Yours
Lucifer@Blog Contests
December 4th, 2009 1:02 am
i felt i am reading a novel :)
A Real Reel Story of a Blogger…
when will be ur next time when u will not rely on luck???
Hmmm when willl i get success :-?
Pascal
December 4th, 2009 1:08 am
Luck-Lady-Lesson-Love- Kelly Diels
To Kelly – Thank you. You are reminding everyone to take care of their blogs. I often see many bloggers don’t take precautions in their blogs.
To All – Remember, Your blog might be hacked,deleted or your hosting company might done some thing wrong. So take daily back ups of your blog. When you give control to some one over your blog, don’t let him to do with out your notice.
Samantha
December 4th, 2009 1:09 am
Hi guys
I like the way your friend give the advice. Yes, your website is not just a toy, it should be treated well since it is part of the business. If you will bring focus on your site then there would be a chance of better outcome.
Kind Regards,
Sam
X
Jodi Kaplan
December 4th, 2009 1:23 am
Ouch! I just went and backed up my blog, just in case.
I’m about to update my Web site (mostly text revisions, no major design changes), but I’m going to download that first too!
By the way, I’ve had very good luck (er, should I put it that way?) with HostGator.
Henri
December 4th, 2009 1:23 am
Awesome. I like your unique writing style and I completely agree about just getting started. I don’t know if you meant it like that but you listed it as one of the good things so I’m guess it’s meant that way. Taking action and seeing what happens. Making mistakes and recalibrating is cool!
Deborah Richmond
December 4th, 2009 1:33 am
You seem to be writing this to prevent others from falling into the same mistakes. And, indeed, I and I’m sure many others are taking close notes. But then again, in this business of blogging, the nly people who jump in are people who can do that, just jump in. I’ve come across people who plan and plan and plan and plan, waiting for all to be perfect, but they never get their site up and lose a lot of valuable time they could be out there, making our mistakes, and learning.
We’ll try not to make the same mistakes. But, then again, the mistakes are the opportunities to learn very very quickly.
Blogging Guide
December 4th, 2009 1:35 am
All modifications that you make to your blog can be a hazard. I always backup everything before every change so I do not loose anything. In my opinion, being carefull is the only way to avoid those nasty situations.
Thanks for the reminder Kelly!
Michael Hampton
December 4th, 2009 1:39 am
I have nightly scheduled backups of all my servers running between midnight and 4 am (depending which server is being backed up). I take a second backup manually before making any significant changes. I host all my own sites; no shared hosting here. And I never, NEVER use Windows. Never use FTP, either, come to think of it.
The one thing I can’t figure out is, what (in this context) was a “zit”?
Justine
December 4th, 2009 1:39 am
Hi Kelly,
Thank you for taking the time to write this out for all of us. I play around a lot with the look of my site and it has had significant problems shortly after. I am too plugin happy and I think I’ve lost potential subscribers for a glitch I didn’t realize until much later in the day.
I also made the entire blog go down early on and the person helping me was like “STOP touching stuff, stop looking around, don’t go in there, you don’t know what you are doing”…. So now I wisely leave things alone and wait for her email when there is something funny going on.
Thanks again for the good reminder
~Justine
Lorraine
December 4th, 2009 1:41 am
Hi Kelly:
Yours luck isn’t such a curse. At least it moves you to action instead of endless, anxious thinking and “concepting.”
This reminded me of a tip in Seth’s post today. “Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
Casey Watkins
December 4th, 2009 1:43 am
What a great guest post. When redesigning your blog, I always setup a test blog and try every thing out before I change anything. This protects my investment, my blog.
Vishal Sanjay
December 4th, 2009 1:55 am
Luck is something im in search of, I believe this world has no justice it has only luck. I think hard work can build only huts not awesome palaces. I don mean to be an outlaw, but i feel when life does a lot of injustice it doesn’t matter if you do a bit to others, for your better future. I always think if there was any way i could just hack in to google and change my pr. Well WILD DREAMS.
David Walker
December 4th, 2009 2:11 am
Very funny Kelly, I’m laughing out loud while absorbing it all at the same time..still laughing about the WTF moments. I have plenty of those.
Thanks for sharing. I think many of us don’t think it through just like you did, despite not having six lucky months at blogging. We just want it over and done with so we can get back to blogging.
My blog is my baby, and I’m going to be a more hand-on parent from now on.
Going over to your blog to take a peek at your Cleavage..;)
Dave Doolin
December 4th, 2009 2:14 am
I like that “Third Child” notion.
Currently in the process of switching hosts. Going very slowly because I *do* know how tricky it can be, even when all the stars and planets are lined up.
Vishal: Justice is something we give to the world, not something we get from the world. The world may be unjust, but we as men and women can choose to be just.
Dana @ Online Knowledge
December 4th, 2009 2:14 am
So, where is the luck right now? It is in my blog, just meet her there. :D
Oleg Mokhov
December 4th, 2009 2:29 am
“Success is a dangerous thing. It tricks successful people into thinking they can’t fail.” -Bill Gates, Pirates of Silicon Valley
Hey Kelly,
Struggles are blessings in disguise – they train you to be cautious and an effective worker.
Like you mentioned, being lucky eventually caused a problem. But, the resulting struggle was the blessing in disguise that pushed for a cautious and effective approach.
Here’s to utilizing our struggles, getting the positive from them so we become better at what we do and don’t make the same mistakes twice.
Thanks for sharing you honest, humorous (and a bit sexy) story,
Oleg
Sandra
December 4th, 2009 2:42 am
Frist – thanks for the reminder. Luck is always on my side too, but back up plans are important. And you give some good, actionable information.
But second, and more important – Lady you can write!
It’s 7:30 ish where I am. I haven’t even had my coffee yet, my eyes are half glued glued half shut but I thought I’d pop into my reader and see what was up in the blogosphere. Just intending to check the headlines and bam! yours caught me.
And then the first paragraph. And then I started sweating. Ok, she’s talking about how things always go well, but I know disaster is looming! Oh, there it is – tragedy. I couldn’t put it down as they say. How will this drama be resolved? Will our heroine survive? Will her luck be restored? Whew! Yes, all is now right with the world.
It’s a gift. Yes, you can study writing skills and techniques and you can do all of the technical stuff to make sure your blog doesn’t disappear into the nether regions of cyberspace but it’s great to have that raw talent. That style that is uniquely yours. Writer Dad has it. You have it. Thanks for sharing it with me, the Wannabe.
Ohmigosh – I just wrote a fan letter! :) But I mean it – thanks.
Bradley
December 4th, 2009 2:57 am
luck may be a curse, but i sure wish i had some good luck once in a while!
Bradley
December 4th, 2009 2:57 am
luck may be a curse, but i sure wish i had some good luck once in a while!
Bradley
December 4th, 2009 2:57 am
luck may be a curse, but i sure wish i had some good luck once in a while!
Article Playground
December 4th, 2009 3:05 am
Was actually considering redoing the blog template over, because everytime a new blog post is published, gets the feeling there are bugs in the wordpress template. Perhaps it needs an upgrade or so, but will check it out
David Gillaspie
December 4th, 2009 3:31 am
What’s the difference between a WTF moment and an epiphany? The first is ‘what just happened and why, why, why’ (cue Nancy Kerrigan), the second is ‘Oh, okay, that’s it.’
You crashed your cleavage? That’ll leave a mark. But it’s the price you pay for experience, right? Maybe that’s what your Friend saw and just wanted to make sure everything was in order?
I like the ‘how-to’ elements you wrote. How to not run off screaming. How to not blame someone else even when it might be their fault. How to not sledge hammer your screen and hope the impact will bounce off those you didn’t blame, just so they don’t get away without consequences.
Maybe you didn’t include the three how-to elements, but it feels like you did. Either way, I’m putting my hammer down.
Unless you run a blogging empire like this character I follow on twitter named ‘Sir John’, one blog is a calling card. It’s a ‘how do you like me so far’ moment that either hooks a reader or glazes them over.
I’m still wondering how an opening like “I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head,” hooks anyone besides a latter day Beatles fan. Or maybe they were on to something?
Thanks Kelly,
David
Kang Asep
December 4th, 2009 4:34 am
thanks for sharing your story kelly
Dean Saliba
December 4th, 2009 4:48 am
I treat my blogs like my children. I’ve been on a night out before and all I wanted to do was get home and work on my blogs.
Suzanne Vara
December 4th, 2009 4:57 am
Kelly
Ok now that you have scared me almost as bad as Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (oh different time & part of life) … I am going to be changing my hosting as my site is hideous and needs some love and embracing. I am going to print this out and tape it on the wall so that as I go through the process I look over at it and be sure I do not muff it up.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com
December 4th, 2009 6:23 am
Great story. Sadly, my blogs require more attention than my kids do. They scream more too.
Robert Bravery
December 4th, 2009 6:46 am
Thanks for this. That reminds me, I should go and back up my bog.
Also a friend is thinking of re-branding and re launching, prehaps I should point him here for a quick read.
Mama Kat
December 4th, 2009 8:25 am
Bless you.
I am in the process of re designing and switching to WP now. I’ve been a passive client because I feel like I’m getting on my designer’s nerves. Thank you for reiterating that it’s ok to do that. This is my baby. And I’m paying her. I will no longer feel bad.
And I am going to link to this page when I post my switching tips…it will be sure to bring you at LEAST 5 new readers. See how generous I am??
You’re welcome.
And I love you.
Srinivas Rao
December 4th, 2009 8:54 am
I’m not sure what happened to my original comments. For some reason my comments disappear from certain blogs. Kelly, thanks for the shout out. I think you’ve taken some valuable lessons from the experience and turned into a great post for all of us. You’re quickly taking over the world.
Playstead
December 4th, 2009 10:34 am
Great article. I also switched my blog from Windows to Linux and it brought it down faster than Tiger Woods’ marriage. Should have asked what the downside was.
Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot
December 4th, 2009 12:16 pm
Well, you’ve got to know who you’re dealing with and get good people on board. Find people who know what they’re doing, who you can trust to take care of your baby and who will do it right.
I’m a website designer and you won’t believe the number of people who get their gardener to set up their website. And they pay them to do it too. Not much but it’s still $500 down the toilet. Plus they end up with a website which says: “I’m a rank amateur and you don’t want to touch my products and services with a barge pole.”
Better luck next time:)
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:21 pm
I’m late to the party, but I’m delighted – and gratified – that so many people found this cautionary tale useful. The best part of lessons learned is sharing them.
@Lucifer mmmm I have a novel in me yet. I’m a blogger/frustrated writer.
@Pascal wise words. Backing up…will do!
@Samantha – I like his advice more than the way he gives it…but if you like his style I can set you up :)
@Henri “recalibrating”. Perfect. Exactly. Thank you.
@Jodi…hostgator. Hmmm. Will add to my list of potentials.Thanks.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:24 pm
@Deborah yes – mistakes are the best teachers. And painful, too. But I don’t really regret it, because I learned a heap, have a pretty site, and turned the whole debacle into a ProBlogger pieces. Lemon. Meet Lemonade.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:26 pm
@Michael. I believe a “zit” is when your service provider is too lazy to explain to explain the problem and doubts your ability to grasp the explanation even if it was offered.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:36 pm
@Justine “STOP touching stuff…” – possibly my new mantra. Not just for blogging.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:37 pm
@Lorraine Based on your note, I just went and read Seth’s post. Now I’m feeling accidentally very bright. He REALLY is a genius.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:39 pm
@Mama Kat backatcha my attention-seeking poodle.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:40 pm
@Gabe we can trade. Kids.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 12:41 pm
@Sandra. I am pro-shameless flattery. It is a moral position. Thank you so much :)
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
December 4th, 2009 1:21 pm
Haha! Absolutely loved reading that. You’ve got a great frantic/heart on your sleeve writing style, Kelly. :)
My LOL moment – “My sanity? See above” hehe.
I think something we should all do is make sure we create a backup. Jason posted here on ProBlogger a few weeks ago stating 3 simple steps to backup your blog – everyone should do this!
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/10/10/how-to-backup-your-wordpress-blog-in-three-easy-steps/
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
Amanda
December 4th, 2009 1:52 pm
@Annabel, as Kelly’s designer and developer, I’d like to take exception to what you said but, I really can’t. It’s easy to look at Kelly’s words and interpret them as, “She had a shite designer/developer. Poor her.” This is just not the case. We struggled, yes, but it was part of the process for both of us. Kelly learned a lot about the design process and I learned a lot about the differences between hosts.
For the most part, Cleavage’s revamp — especially considering it was a free-of-charge-design — was absolutely a labour of love. I helped Kelly because she is my friend and I look up to her as a woman and a writer. I will continue to help her with her site as she and I are an awesome team, in spite of what may be interpreted from this post.
Best of luck to you all.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 2:47 pm
@Annabel Maybe I gave the wrong impression in this piece – I’m over the moon with my designer/developer, Amanda Farough. She absolutely translated my vision into a reality and really captured the ‘me’ I wanted expressed.
I’m not happy with how I managed the project, not her. As I said, I oscillated between control freakiness and childlike passivity and neediness. I should have circumvented that trap by approaching the whole thing as a project, to be scoped and risk-managed. Then I would have felt more empowered. And the hosting was the issue – I should have taken her advice because she’s been down this road before.
And Annabel, I can tell you know your stuff because I looked at your blog (NICE!) and you said something that landed in just the right place: find someone you trust to take care of your baby.
Yes. Amanda is that, for me. She’s still available to me at the drop of a hat/DM/IM, whenever I have a wobble. She fixes it. She’s all about making it right, right now. I have a few new projects in the works, and I’m taking her along for the ride. My hosting provider? No. No. No.
Lessons learned? YES.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 2:48 pm
@Playstead I feel your pain. OH HOW I FEEL YOUR PAIN.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 2:51 pm
@Robert – I’m not saying DON’T do it. I am just say do it carefully, and investigate every detail. And take the advice of the experts you hire. They know better. Really.
Kelly Diels
December 4th, 2009 2:52 pm
@Suzanne. I have totally dropped Glen Close/Fatal Attraction allusions into blog posts and no one ever picks up on it. Maybe you and I have just found our tribe. Or made it. So glad we’re in it together.
Raisins
December 4th, 2009 5:49 pm
You are reminding everyone to take care of their blogs. I often see many bloggers don’t take precautions in their blogs. If someone relaunch their blog then it will definitely affect the rankings of it, and by keeping this in mind you have to move forward.
Rita
December 4th, 2009 6:16 pm
Kelly,
You write really l-o-n-g posts. Do your readers like them? How many readers to you have?
Rita blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide
MichaelR
December 4th, 2009 7:09 pm
I made friends. (If I was an internet marketer, I’d say I ‘networked’ but really I’m too socially awkward to network. It is juju love and cupcakes or nothing, baby.)
I agree. I don’t network too, I make friends.
free online adventure games
December 4th, 2009 10:34 pm
Back up is a very important task :)
work at home
December 4th, 2009 11:13 pm
Thank you for sharing the information.
Alex Crabtree
December 4th, 2009 11:27 pm
Before you send luck on its way, I can provide it a nice home and promise I will take good care of it.
scheng1
December 5th, 2009 12:52 am
wow, sounds more interesting than the paperback thriller I’m currently reading. There’s a dead blog (dead body), and the diligence detective (you).
James 'Ideas' Rayers
December 5th, 2009 2:29 am
I’m looking to go through a rebranding process for my blog so this article couldn’t have arrived at a better time. I particularly like the ‘3rd child’ reference – it’s definitely food for thought.
On a side note, I like your writing style, a little quirky but refreshing. Good stuff :)
Annie
December 5th, 2009 2:48 am
Very much liked this article! So much truth in it! Been there, done that and I totally like how you wrote about it! I just wish I had half the luck you have LoL :-)
deskofken
December 5th, 2009 3:18 am
Great advise! What would you say to someone who offers to host you for free – in return they will get more traffic because of the publicity of your blog?
Marvin Wilson
December 5th, 2009 4:20 am
Showing what you did right as well as what you did wrong was inspirational. Thanks for being transparent and sharing.
And thanks for using humor in sharing your story. It made me smile. Actually I was laughing my ass off!
abrablog
December 5th, 2009 4:26 am
luck is curse? Emm…
Ray @ The Stock Market Club
December 5th, 2009 4:34 am
I have been here, done this. The hardest lessons are the best….so they say.
Alex
December 5th, 2009 5:37 am
Luckily this post came out a couple of hours after relaunching my blog, the only different is that I didn’t re brand it, my server was just down for a while, I am however adding my blog to another project and hoping for the best.
Bests,
Alex (GuruOfSales)
@donpower
December 5th, 2009 7:11 am
Hi Kelly!
There’s no such thing as LUCK. I think you, like all of us, are subject to the slings, arrows and adulations of FORTUNE.
I talk about the distinction between the two in my blog post:
Never Wish an Irishman Good Luck
http://donpower.me/great-ideas/never-wish-an-irishman-good-luck/
Good Fortune to you!
Bruce Nunnally
December 6th, 2009 12:14 am
I ran into this one yesterday (again): “7. Formalize. Undertake and scope your own projects as thoroughly as you would for a client.”
Someone asked me for advice on how to revamp their site, and as I was writing my brisk and insightful advice I realized I have some of the same issues I was explaining to them how to fix on *my* own site. Go figure.
Thank you for sharing these lessons.
Blommi
December 6th, 2009 11:04 am
How horrifying to have your blog “snuffed out”. I had a scare once, and that was enough.
I think I need to have a few WTF moments soon, I am skitish about approaching anyone for requests, also. My parenta must have told me one too many times, not to ask for things and it sunk in a little too well.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap
December 6th, 2009 4:56 pm
Kelly, you aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to find out what happens when well-meaning folks who don’t understand how search engines work “help”.
Check out the post I’ve linked to this comment which I wrote the day I saw the damage that had already been done by that kind of assistance. And that was far from the first time I’ve been the person to discover what was done too late to restore the drops.
I’m working on a new post now that can assist you in getting your site found by your target audience. I hope you’ll come by and read it. The title will be Are You Playing Hide and Seek With Your Market?
George Angus
December 7th, 2009 5:29 am
Darren,
I love most of the stuff here anyway, but in this instance, Kelly really hit it out of the park. Hit me right at home as I struggle to do virtually the same thing.
George
Jon Samsel
December 9th, 2009 3:09 am
Kelly-
I cringe because I feel your pain. Something similar happened to me once when I lost my entire blog due to a server admin who inadvertently deleted all the content on a remote hosted server. I was devastated!
LUCKILY, I had set up an RSS feed to my own blog via Google Reader, so I had an electronic copy of all my site content (plus images) of every blog post for the prior 18 months. I was able to export all my posts and import them back into my blog as soon as my new server was up and running. All I had to do was go in and reassign dates for each post, plus add back deleted hyperlinks. A pain, no doubt, but manageable.
Who knew Google Reader and RSS feeds could be a super cheap blog archiving mechanism?!
Best,
-Jon
http://www.jonsamsel.com
D. Campbell
December 15th, 2009 2:52 am
Simply want to say your article is stunning. The lucidity in your post is simply spectacular and i can take for granted you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your rss feed to keep up to date with succeeding post. Thanks a million and please keep up the fabulous work.
Kevin @ SuperSmartEbook
December 21st, 2009 9:56 pm
I’m glad I found this email just at the right time. I’m looking to rebranding my personal blog and you’ve just given me some very good advise and insights
Thanks!
deepak
January 14th, 2010 5:46 am
Nicely put.. must take care while redesigning your blog or even a static website.. lots of things need to be taken into account.
I too m in the process of redesigning my blog – http://www.tuubol.com
Luba Trumbore
January 22nd, 2010 7:55 pm
I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles.Just thought you’d be interested to know that I have added you to my bookmarks You make great points in a concise and pertinent fashion, I will read more of your stuff, many thanks to the author
Murphy Bed Plans
January 23rd, 2010 11:37 am
Finally!! I found a cool site with great information. Thanks Guys, I’ve already signed up for your feed….Thanks
NearlyEverything.com
January 26th, 2010 6:28 pm
Great article and strangely timely for me. I’m undergoing another round of upgrades & changes & technical flatulations. Stressful, but needed in my case.
I’ll drop a suggestion: staging server.
It’s so easy to set up a LAMP or WAMP (Google those) webserver on your local machine, that there’s very little excuse to miss doing all the changes to a local development server before launching. The major benefit of this is that you’ll have a backup of everything too. Great stuff.
…of course, I’m realizing many folks aren’t the techie and just do the writing. I guess my curse is that I’m both. Too much work.
Aaanyway…
james brown
January 29th, 2010 4:49 pm
I would have asked my lecherous friend’s evil genius questions (above) about every single detail and at every decision point. For example, because my developer told me to, I switched my hosting from Windows to Linux. I made this choice without hesitation or investigation. This switch is exactly what caused the problem and caused my site to go offline for four days (and counting – at the time of writing it is still down). I didn’t anticipate the consequences of my decision because I didn’t think through the decision in the first place..
Bicep Dumbbell Curl
February 8th, 2010 8:25 am
Good luck isnt always good for you. Bad luck has helped me more dealing with problems in this world. I have grown up in a pretty hard life. I have been thrown problems that i couldnt do anything about. But that type of stuff makes you stronger.
Free VOIP Calls
February 9th, 2010 11:33 am
@Danwow haha thats pretty good. hopefully you have good luck with that. keep it up
Dave Doolin
February 12th, 2010 2:31 am
I can hear your voice in your titles, which is how I landed here.
Shira
February 22nd, 2010 6:52 pm
Kelly,
I also had a nightmare with my Host when Tchochkes was hacked a while back – who did you switch to? Bc we’re looking for a different hosting provider… (also – who was it so I know who to avoid?)
Thx!
Shira
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