If you want to avoid that pain, or at least minimize it, here’s a process for developing a good, flexible category set:
- Write down the purpose of your blog. Even if you’ve done it before. Write down why you’re writing it, and for whom. Stumped? Start a statement like this: “My blog will help people who need to…”. The end of that statement could be ‘laugh more’ or ‘write a good business plan’.
- Write down the four things that keep folks from accomplishing that last bit of your statement.
- Make ’em into categories.
So for example, here’s my blog:
My blog will help people who need to better use the internet as a marketing medium.
What stops them from doing that?
- They don’t understand what internet marketing is. Category: Internet Marketing
- They aren’t familiar with current trends. Category: Trends
- Analytics is a mystery. Category: Web Analytics
- Blogging has gone from a concept to a tool to a part of the landscape. But it’s intimidating and hard to get started. Plus, folks don’t understand whether they should write a blog. Category: Blogging
That doesn’t mean I’ll get rid of stuff like e-mail marketing. It just means I’ll relocate those articles by clustering them around tags or some such. Or, I may just keep those categories and add on.
Either way, if you follow these steps you can prune your category list and develop a structure that’s in line with your blog’s purpose.
