I know I’ve threatened this many times before, but I think I’m in a place where I can actually put in the time to fix CrossingColorado.com and get some of its traffic back. It’s been a long time coming.

It would be nice if some of my blogs generated a bit more income than they do. Combined, they bring in about three times what it costs to host them. But being able to pay a few bills here and there as well would be nice.

Besides, I love a challenge. And rebuilding a dead blog (or, at least one on life support) would be an accomplishment to relish.

What Happened to CrossingColorado.com?

Back in 2018, Crossing Colorado was on its way to pulling in some amazing numbers in terms of traffic. It was generating quite a bit of ad revenue from AdSense and was spearheading my weight loss journey.

Then, Google passed the YMYL/Medic algorithm update and I lost more than 90% of my traffic instantly. From what I could gather, the site was lumped in with all of those health scam websites, which pissed me off.

Every article I write is based on scientific evidence. And how the hell am I scamming anyone if I’m not asking them to buy anything? You can’t really say “Your Money or Your Life” if there’s no money being exchanged!

Anyway, my soul was crushed afterward. I put so much time and effort into building that site only for Google to crush it faster than a minisub exploring the Titanic.

Since then, it’s been difficult to set aside the time to really put forth the effort to revitalize the blog.

Until now.

What’s the Plan to Revive the Site?

First of all, we need to acknowledge that I don’t have a lot of time to dump into power-fixing a website. Between WriterSanctuary, writing my next book, clients, and the YouTube channel, my time is a premium.

However, I can squirrel enough away to put in a bit of work to get the site rolling again. It’s not a lot, but it’s a good start.

Well, at least I hope it’ll be a good start. We won’t know for a few months.

Two New Posts Minimum Per Week

The plan this time around is to publish two new posts each week at the very minimum. This is because I still plan on writing a weight loss or challenge update on Mondays. So, Tuesdays and Thursdays will have new content no matter what.

That is unless I get an article or two from those who are helping me write for the blog. For the most part, though, I am doing everything myself as I don’t have the money to hire another writer just yet.

Revamping at Least One Older Article Per Week

I’ve seen firsthand what rewriting and updating old articles can do for a website. That’s actually part of my job for my clients; updating old content to reach a new audience.

In essence, I’ll be doing for myself what I do for my clients. Unfortunately, I currently only have the time available for one update per week.

Getting Back to Social Media Updates

Social media doesn’t drive a lot of traffic to the blog, but it does bring in a few views. Plus, I’d like to be more active on social anyway as I am trying to build up a following for the brand.

Because I use Buffer for WriterSanctuary, I think I’m going to try another sharing service for Crossing Colorado. For one thing, it’ll give me content for WriterSanctuary in the form of a review. And reviews perform exceptionally well.

A Six-Month Journey

This whole process is going to run for six months. At that time, I’ll re-evaluate whether the effort has been worthwhile. If not, then I’ll just use CrossingColorado.com as a weight loss and fitness challenge journey platform. Kind of like what it is right now.

Then, I’ll put the time into something else. However, I’m hoping I can get some of the traffic back that I had in 2018. But that will greatly depend on whether I can keep up the effort.

As I said earlier, my time is kind of stretched pretty thin.

Keeping Track of the Data

Because I am a bit of a dork when it comes to spreadsheets and collecting data, of course I’ll have one for fixing Crossing Colorado.

I don’t know if anyone else will think it’s cool to watch the progress. Well, other than myself. But if you’re curious, here is the progress thus far.

The white fields are estimates while the yellow-highlighted fields are days when data has been recorded.

Why Not Just Start Over with a New Blog?

In many ways, it would be easier to just start over from scratch with a new blog. However, I’ve centered quite a bit around Crossing Colorado. Email, YouTube, podcasts (when we upload them), and even payment methods filter through the brand.

Not to mention that it still has quite a bit of sentimental value for me.

Besides, it’s already established while generating ad revenue from AdSense. A new blog would take several months before it can host advertisements. Google changed its policies a little while ago and now requires that your site has a bit of meat to it before authorizing ads.

Eventually, I’d love to post more content based on why I built the website, to begin with – to cross the state of Colorado on a bicycle. That’s not going to happen unless I figure out a better balance to manage everything I do.

Another element to revitalizing CrossingColorado.com is the fact that I want to see if I “still have it.” It’s been a long time since I focused on revamping a blog to reclaim traffic in such a manner. Between Google’s algorithm changes and a lack of time, it’s going to be one hell of a challenge.

Why This Blog Post?

I know a lot of people couldn’t care less about trying to rebuild a blog. But there are a couple who are interested in the data I collect when I go all-in on something like this.

For the most part, however, this post is more for me than anyone. It’s a way to remind myself what I am trying to accomplish while helping me set up the flow of this little experiment. I forget a lot, and writing out the blog post is a great way to remember what the hell I’m doing.

Also, It’s helpful to go back and read through the post to figure out what went wrong and what kinds of things might need to change for the next attempt.

I just wish things didn’t sidetrack my efforts throughout the year. My personal and professional life is quite chaotic, and it doesn’t take much to derail this train of thought.

Lastly, this website is a culmination of everything I do online. So, talking about updating an older blog seems fitting. I was going to publish it on WriterSanctuary.com, but I’m not sure if it would fit there.

Well, outside of using the data I collect to write an article about updating a blog. But this site is more personal and less SEO-focused.

In other words, I don’t want Google to penalize WriterSanctuary.com because it thinks the quality of the content is “thin.”

Let’s Hope for Stable Algorithms

Every time I try to update CrossingColorado.com or ColoradoPlays.com, Google shifts the goalposts further down the field. It makes massive, sweeping changes that ultimately affect the data.

What this means is that when the site gets a massive boost in visibility or a sudden decline in impressions, I have no idea if it’s something I did or because Google made another huge adjustment.

I guess I’ll just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. At least anyone subscribed to push notifications should get regular updates again.

Let’s See How Good I Am Today

I’m not sure if only two blog posts per day will make a difference for the blog overall in search. Google has made so many tweaks and changes, it’s difficult to keep up with them all.

Then, add in the fact that a lot of searches are driven by AI nowadays and it becomes even more difficult to generate traffic.

But that’s a rant for another day.

Anyway, I’ll roll up my sleeves and give this attempt maximum effort. It’s only two new posts and one rewrite per week. I’m sure I can manage that, at least.