Are you in a blogging rut? tired of posting to your blog? as they say sometimes a change is as good as a holiday, and anytime is a good time to give your blog a spring clean, both as a way to improve your visitor experience, and to inspire you to be a better blogger.

1. A splash of paint
Try that new color you’ve always picture having on your blog, or spruce up the existing color.

2. New header
If you’ve got a generic text header I want to track you down and shot you….well, ok, no I don’t but there’s never been a better time to try putting up a custom designed header. If you’ve not got Photoshop or similar give The Gimp ago for all your image editing needs, its open source so its free as well. Sites like Freephoto and Freestockphotos give a wide variety of pictures you may be able to use as part of your header.

3. Clean up your links
There are programs that can monitor the accuracy of your links but I don’t use one so this is on my spring cleaning list for the next week. Check your blogroll and make sure everyone’s still there and blogging.

4. Edit old posts
Update old posts where you are getting traffic into them to add value to your site and to your readers. I’ve done this with old posts that were getting a lot of traffic from people looking for info on a similar topic, and by adding links to the newer content from the post the reader is able to find the information they are looking for, as well as staying longer at your blog.

5. Sign up to an affiliate program
Expand your horizons outside of Amazon to the wonderful world of affiliate mega sites such as LinkShare.com and Clickbank. New ads on your blog can equal big dollars if targeted well and both these services give you this power

6. Take a stroll, be inspired
Take a random look around the blogosphere, or even follow some of the links here and take some notes, what do you like about other blogs, what don’t you like. You’d be surprised how easy it is to pick up new ideas for your own blog.

Duncan Riley is the Editor of The Blog Herald: more blog news more often, the web's leading source