The Brains Behind The Blog

When I first started blogging I simply sat down and typed, and for a while, that was all there was to it. I learned very quickly, though, that there was much more to blogging. Of course there are the blog posts, which are my job. I have never thought of myself as a good writer, but I seem to be doing pretty well here at The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too!

Another aspect of blogging is the blog design. You want your blog to be something people WANT to look at. I think back to the original template I originally chose from Blogger, and I can't believe I ever thought that was a "good" blog design. I absolutely love the way my blog looks now, and I hope all of you do too. I like the bright and cheerful look that my readers see when they come to visit. I have never considered myself a creative person, so I leave the blog design work to the professionals.

The content of a blog, along with the design of the blog, are obviously very important. What a lot of people don't realize, though, is all of the technical work that is done behind the scenes. I used to be pretty computer literate, but since everything in the information technology world evolves so quickly, I don't consider myself even remotely up with the times any longer. That's where my husband comes in!

I am so lucky to have my own "IT guy" to do all of the real programming of my blog. Brian is a web developer and knows his stuff! I am always amazed when I see him work because I have absolutely no clue how to even begin to understand what he does.

As my blog grows, so does the need for additional programming. For example, when I decided to review products and offer giveaways, I knew I needed web site analysis code inserted into my blog's template. The companies I work with like to know how many people visit my blog on a monthly basis, along with other metrics. Sure, I could have figured out how to add it, but it was much quicker and easier to ask Brian to do it for me.

I'm at somewhat of a crossroads these days, and need to really evaluate the direction of this blog. Do I still want to chronicle our lives for everyone to read about, or does anyone really care? Do I want to continue staying up late at night writing up reviews on great products? Are the giveaways I host on my blog worth entering? Those are just some of the questions I ask myself on a daily basis now. So as I start to think about things like multivariate testing and online conversion to evaluate what my readers really want, I am grateful that I have my husband available to look into these tools and implement them if needed.