Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
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I'm going 'off grid' for most of tomorrow so will ping a few links up here for a start and dive back in later this week to provide a little more info.
But first off many of the articles I've written about using the network also apply to blogs, see my index page of articles.
One of the articles to consider in this list is the one about how to write titles for your blog posts, search engines read these like street signs so they can tell what your article is about.
I notice you are using WordPress and there are some SEO plug-ins that might help, for example All in One SEO Pack.
On the layout try and get anything that relates to your writing at the top of the page, for example a list of recent stories and then the subscription options so people can stay in touch with your work, below this you could place a search box.
And link within your articles where possible, this turns your articles into a resource for people as they can learn more through your guidance and it all comes from a link.
Also the sites that you link to will begin to follow your writing and very often write a piece about you for their own readers.
Finally, you have to turn up every day - or at least three times a week.
Will write more a little later...
About the RSS feed I enquired earnestly about this on the wordpress forum but got ignored and then told that it was a 'stupid question' and then that the orange cube in the address bar served the same purpose - my original question was simply 'how to add an rss button for visitors?'. Is this something you also know all about?
I've just had a look at your blog and i just wanted to say that i really liked some of your articles. Particularly the most recent one. I might even link to that from my site! I like the bit about not re-doing your bathroom just by adding a new bath... I love it.
Good luck, Charlotte
Charlotte - thanks for the feedback! Very nice to hear!! Why not leave a comment on the blog too - get other people starting! Thanks a mil!
On the mention of a newsletter, here is a great piece on newsletters in Wordpress.
I do recommend offering a newsletter to readers as not only are people still unsure about RSS feeds, you can regularly be in front of readers and so when they need something there is a good chance your email will be in their inbox.
I am a big fan of newsletters, you may have noticed the weekly one that goes out through the network, and here is a piece on my own site on why I value newsletters so much.
Also aiming in on the 'less is more' route to success I wonder how useful the tag cloud is to people, I think people just wonder what the heck these things are really.
The other thing about a blog is that they are very search engine friendly so there is a good chance that anyone doing a search will land directly on the page concerned, and having your categories and a growing number of comments will show new arrivals the activity taking place on the site.
And because you are using WordPress you have a wealth of advice and information out there, these sites bookmarked in delicious will help.
I have estimated, using different analytics, that 86% of my Landscape Juice traffic comes through the side door(search engine query) rather than directly through the front door.
Phil this site is frickin awsome mate - see the trouble I've had on other 'specialist' forums trying to get advice! I come on here, ask some mental questions completely unrelated to gardening and WHAM get some help straight away - as we say in Glasgow, Pure Dead Briliant man!
Cheers Guys
Nicky