As you all know, LFB has gone through many changes throughout the years. LFB is more than just the personal blog it began as, but we are still in the process of exploring what exactly that means.
*This is an archived article. Since 22 October 2017, LFB is only focusing on Berlin-related topics.
Which is why we want to cue you guys into some key updates we are making around here. While changing our content and posting schedule too often is not the wisest approach when trying to build a brand, the key word here is “build.” Or rather “raise” because creating your own online space is like raising a tiny little human that eventually grows up and has a mind of its own. We are past the infancy stages, but we are now faced with a surly teenager who isn’t quite sure where she fits in. We here are LFB are multifaceted human beings with an array of interests. That being said, our “smorgasbord of content” approach may not be the best. Which is why we have chosen to make a few changes as we learn and grow and I hope you will bear with us.
Update number one: Doing away with monthly issues
The idea was a cool one but at the end of the day, it’s just too damned confusing, clogs up everyone’s RSS feeds, and also kills our traffic. It also is what keeps me up all hours of the night the last 48 hours before the first Monday of the month. It’s painful and not even the smartest way to disseminate content. We have found the actual interaction in the comments have dropped dramatically under this format. But hey, you live you learn right? If we hadn’t have tested this schedule and format out, we would have never known if it worked or not. But it seems like at this point in the game, trying to adopt practices that work for print publications just may not work for the web. Therefore, we are going back to posting the original blogger’s way and will be posting content regularly throughout the month(s).
Update number two: Cutting out sections
As mentioned above, LFB is a bit of a hot mess at the moment. I have basically continued to create content for LFB as I did back when LFB was my personal lifestyle blog meaning I haven’t been very selective when it comes to categories. But as an online platform with multiple voices and with our goals to go in more of an editorial direction, we need a common thread throughout our sections and some simply do not have a place on LFB anymore (or at least for the time being at our current size). We are going to be removing the Lifestyle section as the articles here definitely fit into our other categories and we want to streamline everything! And as much as I love travel and food, we are leaving these categories to the travel and food blogging experts who post solely on the subject as well. That does not mean we will never have food-related or travel-related content that we have nothing to say on the topic and it also does not mean we may not revive these categories in the future, but for now we are going to be saying goodbye. (If you are still jonesing for this content, be sure to follow me on the gram.) But before we part ways with these categories we will be…
Update number three: Using September as a transitionary month
Today is the first Monday of the month and as you can see we are not rolling out the September Issue online all at once today. While we are still keeping with a Themed Issue, as mentioned above, these articles will be rolling out over the course of the next 28 days. This last issue in this format will be all about food!
Update number four: Revamping the homepage & testing out a new logo
With these changes, come the necessary need to revamp our homepage a bit. We will be doing away with the Issue style format, and will simply be displaying articles under the category they belong to in reverse chronological order. This also means doing away with the Daily Dose and the Digital Calendar for now. We are also trying to edit our template and logo to find the best visual fit to represent what we believe LfB to be. It’s a hell of a lot of transitions and some may stick some may not, but if ever there was a time to test things out it’s now, while it’s still early days.
Update number five: Dropping the blogazine
LfB will also be phasing out the “Blogazine” and will just be going by LfB. The concept can be really confusing to some people, especially here in Germany.
Update number six: Searching for our buzzword
I don’t know about you, but I was never a fan of the concept of a poser. So what if that 14 year old boy in your Chem class looks like a goth one day and decides to join the football team the next? Humans by nature are multifaceted, have an array of interests and are contradictory all at once. Besides, in trying to find ourselves it is our duty to go through many phases, and while in them, hold on to the bits that resonate with us, let go of the bits that don’t, and explore the next option. We are in this phase now. We are working to find that thread that ties all of our sections together. We are a lifestyle-based platform with a focus on Berlin, but how these relate to each other and how we become more choosy about what we cover concerning Berlin is still slightly up in the air but that’s okay. We’re still working on finding ourselves and we hope you guys will be patient and let us do so.
In closing…
So these are the current changes we will be implementing. We will of course let you all know about any other things that we are thinking about doing in the future. It has been a tough journey so far and we are still struggling to make sure LfB can stand on it’s own two legs. I quit my job over a year ago to pursue this dream full time and while I am rolling in the minus, I still genuinely believe in what I and the whole LfB team is doing. In addition to these changes, we really want to hear from YOU – after all you guys are the reason we do what we do. It would mean the world to us if you could spend the next 5-10 minutes to complete our survey. We will love you forever and if you include your email address and name in the response to number 20 we will be sure to send you some major love.
Please take our survey
Part 1 (questions 1-10) | Part 2 (questions 11-20)
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