My content plan for this year is now full of reader questions that were left for me in the survey – it makes coming up with topics for blog posts not only easy, but ensures what I write about is relevant to the PWK audience.
There were also so many lovely comments from readers who find the blog helpful and some excellent constructive criticism which will help me improve the way I deliver content on the blog.
I thought I would share a few pieces of feedback that I am going to be working on over the next couple of months and you can then let me know what you think of the changes. Most of them will be to do with the formatting of my posts, which will hopefully make them easier to read.
“I find that there is nearly too much information in your posts now. There are so many links in each one and when I click into any of them I get lost in that content and following the links from that, that I tend to get lost from the original post. I find I skim through the original and spend more time following links. Maybe instead of putting links throughout the blog post you could list them at the end the way you do with the this family life podcasts.”
“Please keep on referring back to the younger years (in links)that you wrote about years ago. I find this so helpful with my three, as the eldest only 5.5yrs.”
I really like this idea. Because the blog has being going for 10 years now I have often written on the same topic but when my kids were at different ages. For some of my more detailed posts I am going to have a further reading list at the end of the post that you can choose to read but not be distracted by throughout the post.
“Fast facts at the start. Just some dot points so I can choose if I need more detail or not.”
“I wish the posts were a little shorter. I always think that I’ll come back and read the post when I have more time!”
I am really enjoying writing in detail on particular topics, but this comment reminded me that long form may not be suiting all of my readers. I will try creating a short summary at the start of my longer posts before going in to full details and see if that helps.
“Not all of us are in Australia, so suggestion is just to be aware of that.”
As I write from a personal perspective it would come across as Australia centred. I am aware that many of you read from countries outside of Australia and I will do more to recognise this in my writing.
“Maybe combine your Facebook posts with twitter and also send a weekly or monthly newsletter directly to emails so we don’t miss some posts.”
My weekly newsletter always contains unique content and isn’t just an email with a link to posts I have written on the blog. As a consequence I know there are posts you will have missed if you don’t regularly come to the blog because I forget to link to them! I am going to reformat the newsletter to add an end section that reminds me to include links to blog posts and popular posts on my social media channels. You can then make a choice as to whether you would like to check them out or not.
“Find it a bit annoying that the homepage doesn’t go straight to the blog anymore, it is 2 clicks now.”
This is correct if you go to planningwithkids.com it will take you to my homepage which showcases all the work I do. As I do more than blogging now it is important to have a page that I can direct people to so they can find what they are after. If you scroll down the homepage a little you will find the four most recent blog posts which you can click on. My recommendation would be that if you just want to check out the blog, then bookmark the blog page planningwithkids.com/the-blog/ that way you will always head straight to the most recent posts.
Feel free to give me feedback in the comments of the posts as you see these changes or by emailing (nicole@planningwithkids.com) to let me know what you think. Thanks so much for reading the blog, I really do appreciate that you choose to spend time on Planning With Kids – Nic.
PS. A reader left the note below in the survey, but because the survey is anonymous I have no way on contacting the lovely reader! If you wrote the comment below I would love to hear from you so you can share your tips with readers of PWK – please email me at nicole@planningwithkids.com .
Actually I have an answer to my question from last year. I have since found a way to organise health info for my kids that works really well and a lot of doctors have commented to me how organised and helpful it is. I would be happy to share it with you and your readers.
Photo by Matt Jones on Unsplash