Yesterday I met with my DSI cohort and talked about my approach to digital identity. The show-and-tell was fun, and yielded some really helpful comments. The best one came from Shawn Humphrey. What he said was so simple it kind of upsets me that I hadn’t figured it out.
Since I started blogging as a participant of UMW Domains last year, I naturally (?) made a new sub-domain for my posts. It kind of made sense at the time. I didn’t know yet whether I’d keep blogging or not. If it was going to be a temporary thing, I didn’t want to clutter my site. So I made it separate. Except it doesn’t really make sense, since clearly I have kept blogging.
Shawn pointed out how confusing it is that my blog is a sub-domain and the link is buried in my main site. Why didn’t I think of that?!? So yesterday, while if should have been grading (sorry students. I promise I’ll still have your papers back next week!) I ported my sub-domain into my main domain. Luckily, it’s all wordpress so it didn’t take too long. I think this works better.
Shawn also thought my bio was dry, and if have to agree. So I looked at his site and fixed my about page. It’s a little bare bones for now, but I’ll add stuff as I have more to say. BTW: ideas on what I should add? Let me know! Maybe I should even make this interactive in the future… Food for thought.
These changes are small, but I’m hoping they make my web presence clearer and more coherent. I may lose some readers, though honestly I doubt it. Google never liked my sub-domain, and readers generally either came from my main site and twitter. This does emphasize the importance of knowing your web analytics and just talking to people about your work once in a while so the simple solutions don’t stay hidden.