5 Tips To Create A Great Site About WordPress

I’ve been writing about WordPress since 2007 and since then, I’ve seen a number of websites about WordPress come and go. Like many of you, I’m a fan of all these different websites and enjoy reading their points of view. Some of them even have breaking stories from time to time. However, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before the RSS feed goes dormant, never to be heard from again. As a writer and reader of a site devoted to WordPress, here are a few tips.

Consistency – Something I’ve lacked recently but I enjoy sites that are consistently publishing something during the week. If it’s only one or two things during the week, it’s easy to forget about that website despite subscribing to their RSS feed. Consistency also retains the audience and gives them an expectation that there is always something new to participate in.

In-Depth Knowledge – There are a ton of people in the WordPress community that know what is going on amongst the various facets of the project, write about it. Link things together, talk about stuff in the past and mix it up with stuff in the current/future. Bring comments, track tickets, discussions together. The WordPress.org project is a spaghetti of stuff going on, do your best to try to give visitors the big picture without all the cruft.

Try Not To Do It Alone – I’ve learned that there is just too much going on for one man to write about. To truly have a great, successful site about WordPress, you’re going to need at least 3-4 knowledgeable writers. A good example of this in action right now is WPCandy.com which is one of the few WordPress centric sites that was buried 6 feet under and has been resurrected with new life. In fact, the new site is better than the old one before it and it seems like the site hasn’t lost a beat.

Curation Is A Good Thing – Something I do here on WPTavern.com is curate news and information. I use my RSS Feedreader as a cockpit with a window to the internet. From here, I can get a good idea as to what the topics and trends are within the world of WordPress. The best part about my feed reader is my subscriptions to the WordPress keyword in Google because it brings in posts from places and people I have never heard of. Occasionally, I’ll find a real gem in that crowd. People are busy and if you can link to useful items with brief descriptions, you’ll be thanked for saving them time.

Longevity – If you’re going to start a site about WordPress, at least stick to it for a year. This has been the biggest culprit of good sites I’ve seen disappear. They all seem to do a good job for the first three months, then things gradually die off and within 6 months of starting the site, it becomes another graveyard on the web. There is plenty of room for sites about WordPress with everything that goes on during a weekly basis. Give yourself the time needed to gain exposure and become a reliable stop for information within the community.

Follow those five tips and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a destination stop for the WordPress train. Do you have any tips or suggestions that you could lend?