Last Updated on May 22, 2023 by Michael Brockbank
Out of all the blogs I work on, this one seems to require the most work. But since I’ve dubbed 2020 as the “Year of Effort,” I need to put more into it if I want more out of it. So, it looks like I’ll spend a bit of time revamping and restructuring.
And although I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to rebuild the blog after Google’s algorithm changes in June of 2019, I’m still working on losing weight and becoming more fit.
In fact, I have quite a few plans for this site regarding health and fitness in the near future.
What is the Year of Effort?
I’m not sure exactly what the catalyst was that lit a fire under my ass. But about a month ago, I decided I was done just doing the bare minimum of everything. I want more out of life and what I can do with myself and career.
Perhaps it was my son committing suicide, a good friend’s accidental death or maybe moving my other son into the house. Then again, it could also be caused by my need for a better life.
More than likely, it’s probably a culmination of everything I’ve gone through over the past six months.
Whatever it was, I dubbed 2020 as the “Year of Effort.”
So, starting a few days before January 1, 2020, I began actually putting in the effort to follow my planned schedule. This means I’ve put in more work on myself and my career.
Forcing myself to accomplish daily goals, pushing myself to write more and spending less time doing nothing has been the key for the past several weeks.
Basing the average on just the last couple of weeks alone shows how I’ve added more than 43 actual workdays to the entire year. This means that if I keep up the amount of effort throughout 2020, I’ll have added more than a month of work time.
What All Am I Revamping on the Blog?
The first stage of fixing Crossing Colorado is working on the blog. I haven’t put much effort into its development since the Google thing happened.
Which, I admit, sucked a lot of wind out of my sails. But when the wind dies down, you need to grab a paddle and start rowing.
Theme Layout
One of the issues I’ve had with the blog is the theme itself. I love ColorMag, but it’s not doing what I need it to do. Mainly, it doesn’t seem to handle modifications for speed and efficiency very well.
Ever since I installed a few plugins to make it “faster,” it started acting…well, weird. For one thing, it locks up when I try to switch themes from ColorMag.
The bottom line is that I think it’s time for a change and see if I can find a theme that flows well for health and fitness.
Revamping Older Content
Part of good SEO is going back and fixing older content and making sure it’s still relevant. Not only does this please the Google gods, but it helps provide quality to the reader.
Which is going to be quite a bit of fun considering I use a ton of scientific data and links in my articles. In other words, I’ll have to research every blog post again during the revamping stage.
But it’s OK…I’d rather have facts and share actual knowledge than rely on obsolete information.
Plus, it’ll give me a way to remind myself why I built this blog in the first place; to help me stay motivated to lose weight and become healthy. It was never about making money.
Streamlining the Site
So themes and revamping older content is good and all, but what about the rest? Streamlining the site will help it perform better for users, myself and search engines.
This means I am going to spend time researching the best ways to use the caching tools, speed enhancements, security plugins and more to make it all work well together.
It also means I am going to add more content over time. Luckily, I have a writer here who needs practice and something to do until he finds a job and his own apartment.
Trying to Find the Time
The hardest part about revamping Crossing Colorado is finding the time. Because this is the Year of Effort, I am working much longer hours throughout the day and have other priorities.
But, I think I can get a little bit of love to the site. At least, until I can free up more time from the other things I am doing.
Sticking with a Schedule
Sticking with my planned schedule in Asana has been very beneficial. In fact, it’s helped me gain control over my clients, blogs and even YouTube videos (to an extent.)
I’ve also been paying more attention to my alarm clock that I have set for working out throughout the day.
As it stands, I can work on Crossing Colorado on Fridays while doing a bit of work on it throughout the weekend. Right now, my clients and other blogs take priority.
So, I suppose in reality, this blog is going to turn more into a hobby until I can re-establish it on the Internet. Which is sad as it used to be my flagship online.
Sigh…gotta love Google and its search for “quality” content.
Lots of Other Things Going On
As I mentioned above, I have a lot of things going on right now. Between YouTube videos for WriterSanctuary, the gaming elements I’ve added for Colorado Plays, and trying to keep my house in order, it takes a lot of time to keep the tops spinning.
Again, sticking with the schedule is going to help tremendously, though.
I’m spread a bit thin, but the flavor is still good. Well, that’s probably not the best metaphor. But you get the gist.
In the meantime, this blog is probably going to seem more like a journal of my health and fitness rather than compete with other focused blogs. Which is fine. Originally, it was to keep me motivated anyway.
Doing the Case Studies
Luckily, doing the case studies really doesn’t require a ton of my time. I mean, I still set aside the time needed to collect data. However, most of these can be done throughout the day while I work on other things.
For instance, I’m starting an “I Lifted One Ton Every Day and This Happened” study starting tomorrow. This case study uses the few minutes I spend at 10am and 3:45pm during my workouts anyway.
The bottom line is that I can still add the case studies as part of the revamping content phase without putting myself in hock in terms of time.
It’s an Uphill Battle
Google isn’t going to make it very easy to get CrossingColorado.com back to where it was in terms of visibility and traffic. All I can really do is keep doing what I was doing and let visitors decide if the site is for them or not.
In the meantime, I’ll do more revamping and see if I can turn this blog into something meaningful. At any rate, it’ll still be a method to keep myself motivated for health in fitness for 2020.
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