I tried a little experiment. I set up a new WordPress site (michelleworksoutloud.com) for my working out loud posts and hid the page on my primary website (michelleockers.com). I explained the rationale for this move on the first post on my new site . In a nutshell, I thought that having a separate site to work out loud would free me from the barrier of being concerned about not looking adequately ‘professional’ on my main business website. I thought I would post more often and in a less inhibited manner.
I was wrong. I didn’t post more frequently. I suspect that posting frequency is related more to how much priority I place on working out loud and my effectiveness at allocating time to make short posts as part of the flow of my work and learning. There is still a niggling voice in my head warning me about the risk of appearing unprofessional as a result of reintroducing these half-baked, less polished posts back to my website. I’m going to stop fighting with it, thank it and get on with it anyway.
There were two bigger concerns that having a separate site for working out loud raised for me:
- Authenticity and integrity – in part the strength and value of my work is related to me visibly practicing what I advocate, for all to see regardless of my relationship or potential relationship with them.
- Weakening my SEO – now, I’m not even sure if this is the right way to put it. My technical knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation is very limited. However, someone in my online network who has a decent grasp on the topic sent me a thoughtful message my new website was in no way connected to my current one and it had the potential to reduce my appearance in online searches as I moved activity off my primary website.
So, here I am again, reunited with myself – whole and intact. Ready to continue working out loud in a familiar place.
Where to Post – Michelle Ockers
10:13 am / August 6, 2019[…] I had tried this once before. In late 2017 I moved my WOL posts to a separate website. Then I moved them back again. The key reason I moved them back to my business site was authenticity and integrity. In part […]