Photo by Qatari Mother.

Having a great formula for your website is the key to its success.  However, long-term success may require you to change your formula as time progresses.  Adapting your approach - why to change, when to do it, and how to improve - is vital if you want your site to be around for a long time.

This is the difference between "one hit wonders" - sites that only publish one thing that's worth looking at - and sites that offer much, much more.  If you're not in it for the long run, why will people subscribe?

Before you change...

You can't adapt your approach before you've started.  When starting out, don't be afraid of making mistakes.  The trick is in identifying when you've made a mistake and what you can do about it.

Changing your formula is going to be a lot harder if you're lacking motivation or if people don't feel that they can connect with your posts.  It's not impossible to get it right if you're in that position.  It's just that you may need a completely need approach as opposed to adapting your existing one.

How to initiate a change

Analyse your current approach.  Look at what you do best, what you enjoy writing about, and what generates the most comments.  Look at what doesn't work so well, the things you don't enjoy writing about, and the posts that get few comments or none at all.

Armed with this information, you can start to look at patterns.  If certain types of post don't go down well with your target audience, or anything posted on a certain day largely goes unnoticed, perhaps it's time to make a change.

If you're unsure of what to do, you could ask a few of your readers.  Although it may seem like a good move to ask people you've already established a relationship with, sometimes you may get a more honest answer from a very new reader.  First impressions are crucial; if you can capture the thoughts of someone visiting your site for the first time, do!

You can't please everyone all of the time, and shouldn't try to; but if you never please anyone, is it worth continuing the way you are?

Can you see the difference?

Try changing one thing at a time.  It's easier to determine whether it's making a difference or not.  If you change too much all at once, you won't know whether all of the changes were worthwhile, or whether only one of the changes actually made a difference.

Try introducing new things without announcing them.  Some people might notice, some might not, but the beauty of change is when people notice it after it's made a difference.  You could mention your changes briefly in a round-up post, or after they've had a while to settle in.

The main thing to avoid is making a post every time you make a change, no matter how big or small.  It may start to look like the only thing you have to write about is the site itself.  Also, announcing a change then going back on it is not something you want to do too often.  Give it time before you decide if it's a change you want to stick with.

Reviewing your changes

How are the changes going?  Did they make an improvement?  Did you get the results you were looking for?  Is there anything else you can do to make things even better?

By all means make further changes if you think it will help your site.  Just try to introduce them gradually - don't get impatient and do too much at once.

In a nutshell

Change what needs changing.  Don't break what doesn't need fixing - or at least change it back if you break it!  And don't change too much at once.

What do you think?

Are there some things you could do differently with your site?