Facibus On Blogging

Darren Rowse, as part of the the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Project has asked us to develop a ‘Sneeze Page’ for our blogs.

What is a sneeze page? Darren says:

A Sneeze Page is one that simply directs readers in multiple directions at once - back into your archives.

He goes on to explain how to write a sneeze page - basically, think of a facet (such as a common topic, timeframe or high-comment posts) and then meaningfully link them.

I’ve been writing sneeze pages for a while now without really know what they were called - as I’ve built up a body of posts on a range of different subjects, I’ve learnt to take inspiration (and link to) those that have gone before. One of the joys of the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin is that it allows navigation by tag as well as category. On Facibus Reviews, there are 155 original posts, going back to 05 April this year - on a range of topics, from restaurant reviews and recipes to information architecture and consulting. It also got me metablogging - that is, blogging on blogging, which is where I started to think about this blog. I started just writing about anything that entered my head, then moved on to faux cuisine, information architecture, and mixed it up with a wider range of topics.

With this blog (Facibus On Blogging), I’ve moved through a narrower set of topics - everything is not more than a degree (or two, perhaps) of separation from blogging. That said, with 110 posts since 05 May, I’ve still got a range of topics that I can refer back to within this narrower set. I’ve covered WordPress plugins, monetization, the craft of writing, and defeating the blog monster.

In the above paragraph, I’ve ’sneezed’ about the range of topics covered by Facibus Reviews as a story. The observant will note that I’ve referred to categories, tag matches and search matches rather than individual posts - ideally it would be to individual posts, for two reasons:

• links to specific posts are ‘worth’ more for search engine optimisation, and
• it would be good to refer the readers through to a specific post that makes a specific point (this is ideal if you want to entice people further into your blog and get them to stay longer - a fine thing)

Darren recommends adding value to your links by weaving some text around them to draw the reader further into your blog - not just a link list, but giving the reader the information they need to make the decision to go further. Here’s what he says:

One more quick tip on writing Sneeze Pages - don’t make them just a list of links. Readers will use them a lot more and follow your suggested links into your archives if you take al little time to introduce what the page is about and to describe what they’ll get when they arrive at the page. This little extra effort will mean your page is more useful and useable for readers.

It is an old standby of user centered design that unexpected behaviour needs to be avoided - giving the reader context means fewer surprises (and happier readers accordingly).

What I would like to suggest is that you consider using storytelling in your sneeze pages - weave the links into the thread of the conversation - and see how you go. My guess is that your readers will appreciate it, as storytelling is a fairly natural way to read (and, hint hint, an easy way to write!)

Note: Just to complete the self-referential loop - I’ve entered this post in Darren Rowse’s 31 Days group writing project.

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