One problem was internal navigation: How do you find information that interests you on this site when there are only so many posts on the front page and the archive list is fairly inscrutable?
- One solution to that is noted in the previous post regarding tables of contents.
- Another solution was to add Texas AIDS Blog to Technorati's database and post their search button on the sidebar. I've tested the search function with several key words and find it much more efficient than the Google search function provided by Blogger.
- Yet a third solution, the tag cloud, doesn't seem to be working out, so we'll have to study that one a bit more.
Another problem was just simply knowing that Texas AIDS Blog exists and finding it. We have quite a ways to go in promoting the blog as a service for the Texas HIV/AIDS community, but we made a start by adding the blog to several blogging indices recently. Little "bugs" for these indices are starting to pop up in the side bar. If you use Technorati, Blog Digger, ReadABlog, BlogStreet, Globe of Blogs, BlogHop, BlogWise, Bloogz, BlogPulse, or PubSub, we've submitted the blog to those sites, and we should be showing up there soon, if not already.
A further issue is how to make Texas AIDS Blog accessible as a regular source of information for the community. We've already talked about adding email subscriptions via FeedBlitz [nodding "hello" to our subscribers there] or subscribing through Feedburner. As elegant as those solutions are, that doesn't quite get us to other feed services. That apparently requires an RSS feed, which I understand but don't quite know how to do yet.
One final note. I mentioned that I had tinkered with some settings last week and somehow managed to mess up the feed that was coming through Feedblitz. Almost as soon as that post went out, a fellow from Feedblitz' support section contacted me by email to tell me what the problem was. Notice that I didn't mention asking for help--but still the help came. Is that service or what? Thanks, Phil!
Thanks for coping with my learning curve. I think this will be the last of the "technical" posts until I learn more about that RSS feed thingie. Now for the news . . .
