My Working Out Loud Posts move back home

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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