Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Design and Layout
Mobile responsiveness
Is your font web-safe, legible and the
correct size?
Does your blog look great in Safari,
Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox
Are you using a cohesive colour palette?
Do the colours work nicely together?
Does your template need an update?
Have you viewed your blog on various
mobile devices? Does it work well?
Site description and title
Are these correct and up to date? Do they
show correctly in your browser 'address
bar'?
White space/clear
borders
Have you got plenty of white space or
clear borders between content and
sidebars?
Fonts - size and choice
Browser compatibility
Colour palette
Theme/template
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Header
Sidebars
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Does your header look the way you want
it to or does it need an update?
Have you got one sidebar or two or more?
Is this how you want your blog to look?
Do you have a search button clearly
visible at the top of your blog?
Search Button
Are you using the footer area of your blog
well? Do you want it nice and clean or
would you prefer useful widgets in there?
Footer
RSS Subscribe Buttons
Do you have subscribe via
feedly/bloglovin' options near the top of
your sidebar?
Do you have an email subscribe opt in
box?
Email Subscribe Button
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Post Layout
Permalinks
Favicon
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Is your post layout working? Do you want
to add subtitles, justify text or other layout
tweaks?
Are your permalinks/URLs showing post
titles or just a number?
Do you have a favicon? Do you want
one/need to update yours?
Are you happy with the overall look - how
it all looks together?
Overall Layout
Navigation & Menus
Navigation & Menus
Is your navigation logical and easy to
work with? Or does it need a tidy up? Do
you need to refresh your
menus/categories?
Previous / Next Post
option
Do you have this feature at the bottom of
each post for fluid, chronological
navigation?
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Are they easily navigated to and through?
Archives
Categories
Tagging
Are your categories up to date and
logical?
Are you tagging your posts logically so
that you can curate those tagged posts if
need be? Do you want to display a 'tag
cloud' to encourage more page views on
older posts?
Do you have a related post widget
showing within your posts
Related Posts
BIO
About Page
Is your about page succinct and up to
date?
Do you have a photo of yourself on the
home page of your blog?
Photo Of Author
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Contact Button
Email Address
Purpose & Readers
Blog Mission Statement
Blog Ideal Reader Profile
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Is there a way for people to easily contact
you?
Contact form emails are not always
prioritised - have you published your email
address on your blog for urgent enquiries?
Have you written a mission statement for
your blog detailing why you are blogging
and what you hope to achieve? Is some of
this included in your About Me page?
Have you created an 'ideal reader'
profile? To help you focus on who you are
writing for?
Are you using Google Analytics to find out
more about your readers and improve
your blog's content?
Google Analytics
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Overall Vision Calendar
Editorial Flow
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Have you written down an overall vision
for your work (blog and otherwise) to
focus on as your blog grows?
Are you using an editorial calendar to
map your content plans?
Editorial Calendar
Are you making time to brainstorm fresh
ideas for your blog?
Content Brainstorm
Would you like to think about working
with other bloggers on your blog (and on
theirs?)
Guest Posts
Are you happy with the mix of content?
Are you using text, images, video,
podcasts etc in the way you most want?
Content Balance
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Pages & Posts
Are your existing pages all up to date
(broken links? Formatting correct? Images
loading?)
Pages
Are your most popular posts all up to date
(broken links? Formatting correct? Images
loading?)
Posts
Writing
Writing - Passion
Are you writing about the things you care
most about?
Is your own voice (or your chosen
professional voice) coming through in your
posts?
Writing - Voice
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Writing - Story/Message
Writing - Writing for new
readers & old
Writing Grammar/Spelling
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Are you telling the kind of stories you want
to tell, or focusing on your core messages
or things you care most about?
Will your writing be interesting to new
readers as well as your established
readers?
Are you checking your grammar and
spelling before you publish? Perhaps you
would like someone else to read your
posts and help with edits? Are you writing
proper sentences/paragraphs?
Are you concious of the structure of your
post? Are you writing your story logically
and clearly?
Writing - Post Structure
Writing - Post Length
Are your posts too short? Too long? Just
right?
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Writing - Post
Transparency
Writing - Post Title
Motivation & Inspiration
Time
Consistency
Self-care
Comparison
Purpose
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Are you upfront (at the top of the post)
when your post is sponsored or
commercial?
Do your posts have logical titles?
Do you need to work on your time
management to find time to blog? Is this a
bit of a challenge?
Do you need to adjust the post frequency
to keep things achievable and fun?
Are you making time to do fun stuff? Not
just doing 'bloggable' stuff?
Are you getting stuck because you
compare yourself to other bloggers all the
time?
Is your purpose still matching your blog
output?
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Images
Image Size & Quality
Are your images the correct size and
resolution for your blog's post body? Do
you know how wide this column is? Are
you resizing your images to almost span
that measurement?
Image Watermarking
Are you working on your photography
skills and developing great images to use
on your blog? Do you need to skill up a bit
more?!
Do you want to watermark your images in
Photoshop or Illustrator?
Image Labelling
Are you labelling your images correctly so
they are easy to find in your media
library?
Image Attribution
Are you attributing images owned by
others correctly (and asking for permission
to use those?
Image Style
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Image Library
Commenting
Comment Monitoring
Replying
CAPTCHA
Spam
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Are you taking the time to develop your
own 'stock image' library so that your blog
photos are always unique to you?
Are you happy with the way your
comment notifcation system is working?
Are you replying to comments as often
and in the way that you want to?
Do you want CAPTCHA turned on? Or
not?
Do you have a reliable spam filter - or are
you needing to wrangle those pesky
spammy comments a little better?
Is it easy to comment on your blog?
Commenting System/Ease
Social Media
Share Buttons
Do you have share buttons at the top of
your sidebar and/or within your post?
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
Profile Cohesion
Social Media Integration
Community
Linking out
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Is it clear across all social media platforms
who you are and where to find your blog?
(Especially important if you use differnet
handles on Twitter/Instagram)
Are you 'feeding' your blog into your
social media streams? Manually or with
scheduling platforms?
Are you linking to other bloggers you
admire frequently in your posts?
Do you have a blogroll? Do you want
one? If you have one, is it up to date?
Blogroll
Are you finding ways to meet other
bloggers or readers in real life?
Real life community
Are you commenting on other great blogs?
Community - replying
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Plugins & Widgets
Freshen up
Advertising
Are all your plugins or widgets up to date?
Are you using them all or can you remove
some? Are there some you'd like to add?
Sponsors
Do you want to consider working with an
advertising network?
Is it time to offer advertising on your blog?
Do you want to look for a long term blog
sponsor?
Affiliate Links
Would you like to introduce affliliate links
(where you get a commission from sales of
a particular product or service?)
Ad Boxes
Disclosure, Copyright &
Privacy Info
Are they the correct size and up to date?
Do the visuals suit your blog design? Is the
pricing structure correct?
Do you have a disclosure, copyright and
privacy statement on your blog?
Ad Networks
DIY Ads
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
SEO
Keywords
SEO plugins and
Approach
Product
Have you explored keyword tools and
thought about keywords and searchable
phrases which might bring more visitors to
your blog?
Do you use an SEO plugin? Are you
mindful of SEO? Do you need to find out
more about this?
Newsletter
Do you have a shop link on your blog?
Are there things you can sell?
Are there products you could develop to
extend the reach/readership of your blog?
Do you want to set up a monthly (or
otherwise) newsletter for your readers?
Events
Do you need a page for events to promote
the things you are doing?
Shop
Related Products
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Questions/prompts
I am
happy
with this!
Action This / Notes
Put on the
backburner!
Improvement & Growth
Repeating
Are you having regular catch-ups with
yourself to target areas for
change/improvement?
Are you noticing the things you are doing
right, and repeating those?
Tweaks
Are you tweaking small things on your
blog on a weekly basis to keep things
fresh?
Repurpose
Are you looking for existing, older content
that you can reuse in new ways? (updated
post, eBook, printables etc!)
Change
User Experience
Have you visited your blog from a
reader's point of view to experience how
they might navigate your site?
Notes
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Notes
Copyright : Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes