A little while back I discovered this making of documentary about Raiders of the Lost Ark. I studied film at University and one of all time favourite things is to see behind the scenes of movies that I’m obsessed with (random factoid: I actually wrote an essay about the sound used in this film!)

I devoured the hour long video despite it’s fuzzy visuals, hardly noticing the constant flickering screen and terrible sound quality. The film was clearly recorded on VHS when it was aired in 1981, left in a dusty box for 30 years and recently uploaded to YouTube, but I didn’t care one little bit.

I actually almost didn’t notice how terrible the quality was until Gareth turned around and said to me, “Ugh, how can you even bear to watch that?” because I was so enraptured with the story that it was telling.

Your blog should be the same.

While the design of a website is important, more than anything else it is your content that will make someone read, subscribe or come back again and again. In fact some of the most popular blogs on the internet have minimal or dated designs but continue to grow because what they’re posting is so amazing. Check out PostSecret, Seth Godin and Zen Habits if you don’t believe me!

So instead of constantly redesigning your website, obsessing about SEO or caring too much about having the most perfect logo, invest the majority of your time into creating really great content: content that resonates with others, articles that solve problems, things that make people laugh, topics that we can’t help but want to read more of.

THAT is how you’ll take your blog to the next level, reach more people and ultimately grow your readership. If someone uncovers your blog in 30 years would they obsessively devour everything you have to say?