Building a Blog Without Falling Into a Hole

Guest Post by Michelle Minch

Last November, I decided I wanted to build a WordPress blog hosted at my own URL instead of blogging on a company site.

I settled on a complex WP theme that would allow me to post photos and slide shows, important to a home stager/interior designer. After weeks of trying to understand how to customize the theme, and make the pictures I posted appear, I was ready for a padded room. I hired a WP designer to help, but I couldn’t get the theme to work in a way that I could populate the posts and add pictures without her assistance.

I stopped writing. I didn’t want to post on the company blog because I really wanted to be posting on my new, and fully controlled by me, WP blog. I fell into a deep, dark blogging hole.

Fast forward to April: It was imperative I get back to blogging. My position in Google was slipping and business was starting to suffer. I decided to settle on a simple theme and started posting again. I’m now slowly climbing out of the hole I dug for myself by choosing a complex theme when simple would have worked just as well.

What I learned:

• Simple is better – WP is an amazing platform that has many customization options built right in. I can get almost the same visual effect with my simple theme as I would have gotten with the more complex theme, with a lot fewer headaches.
• Your content is way more important that what your theme looks like. Your readers won’t keep coming back just because your blog looks cool. People won’t hire you because they love your blog theme (unless you’re a web designer).
• Don’t create drama where there is none. You can change your WP theme as often as you change your underwear, so don’t get stuck when trying to pick one.
• Don’t get buried by stuff that really isn’t that important.

Michelle Minch is a professional home stager and interior designer in Los Angeles. You can read what she writes at http://www.LosAngelesHomeStagingInfo.com.

Image courtesy of Barely Fitz