And I thought the inside of MY head was a mess!

So many ideas and new shiny objects...

For a while I've been pondering the direction of my website and my niche. Somedays it's been a real struggle to focus on one of the many ideas whirling around in my head. In fact, at times I have so much going on up there, I think I have a head full of scrambled eggs.

My website is a teenager!

Talking to my mentor on here has been helpful, especially in the realisation that I needed to take my website in hand, as I can see that things have moved on from my website's tentative steps in its infancy to now being a website on the verge of becoming a surly over confident teenager.

As an ex teenager myself - I know how important this time is. A lack of direction and too much freedom just leads to a big dollop of trouble.

Setting some boundaries

So, with the realisation that I now have a teenager in the house, I need to set some clear boundaries and set them fast.

• get the house rules in place
• negotiate a dress code
• work out the deal breakers
• have some agreed chores and goals

After all, there's no such thing as a free lunch these days, and if I'm the one that's going to be watering, nurturing and housing this belligerant oaf, then I want to make sure my teenager is pulling his weight.

Okay, so now I've identified my website as a male teenager with a smattering of facial hair. This post is going downhill fast, next thing I'll be giving him a name!

What happens next will just make your hair curl!

The teenagers bedroom...

Have you ever stood outside your teenagers bedroom door and hesitated before entering, slightly worried about what you might discover?

I have.

I decided that before we could put the new ground rules in place, I needed to take stock and assess the situation, so I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

I opened the door and peered through.

What I saw made me want to slam it closed again, but I took a big breath and ventured inside.

What I found was one HUGE mess!

This is a quick mindmap of my unruly teenage website. There's cr4p everywhere and none of it seems sensible to me. My teenage website, Ryan (yes, he's named now), looks at me expectantly. After all, he's a teenager, and HE KNOWS this mess is pure genius. (LOLs)

I smile sweetly at him and say.

"Ryan, I can't quite see where you're going with this, but I'm convinced it has potential."

A website stocktake is a lot like tidying a teenagers bedroom

Firstly. Your teenager won't want to play your game. They don't notice the mess, and they're happy with everything just how it is.

Secondly. Once you've managed to look under the bed, sort out the clothes and made piles of likeminded things, you'll realise that you have more stuff that doesn't match, doesn't fit anymore, isn't cool, smells bad, or is just ... sooooo last year.

Be prepared to throw some stuff out. It's hard to be ruthless, but you'll never see the light at the end of the tunnel if you don't.

When you've completed the crucial stocktake step, you'll be able to see what you're working with.

From there, it's a case of sitting down quietly and mapping out the direction you see things heading. You'll quickly see where new content is needed, and where existing posts and pages still do the job nicely.

In a perfect world...

In a perfect world, we never would have had children without a parenting manual imprinted into our subconscious. We would make perfectly timed and judged decisions and we would produce wonderful young ambassadors of our future communities.

But we are not perfect parents from the get go, nor are we perfect website developers. And that's okay. Some of the biggest successes and lightbulb moments come from the mistakes people make along the way. Some people (myself included) learn best by.... trying stuff and ocassionally breaking stuff. Then figuring out if it's even possible to put it back together.

And the morals of this story are:

ONE. When Ryan the website was born, I could never have guessed what he wanted to be when he grew up. I hoped for one career path, but he had other ideas. It was only when he hit his teenage years that his career aspirations became clear.

Moral One: You may actually need to write a lot of content and let your website mature a bit before your final niche becomes clear.

TWO. After clearing away the clutter, I realised that I didn't need to buy a whole load of new stuff, there is potential to work with what I've got.

Moral Two: A website stocktake will identify gaps in your existing content and provide you with clarity about the end product you are striving for.

THREE. Unlike having children, affiliate marketing does come with instructions. Wealthy Affiliate contains a huge amount of information and training on this site. However, I do NOT have the good fortune of a photographic memory and have not yet committed every single pearl of wisdom into my somewhat frazzled brain.

Moral Three: ... AND THAT'S OKAY! Sometimes our most creative moments are born from our bloopers and blunders.

Enjoy your online adventures and thanks for reading...

Best wishes, Karen

ps. I used MindMup for my website exercise, it was a good way to quickly get all the clutter out of my head and down on paper.