This is the second part of the Lean Blogging Series and I am going to discuss the principles of 5S and their applicability in the context of Blogging.

Now you would say I have got a fixation for everything that is Japanese after the Japanese Earthquake. Well, although I wrote two articles that were related to the Japanese earthquake: –  Things to learn from the Japanese earthquake and The world 2 months after the Japanese Earthquake, I like Japan and the Japanese for things they have contributed to the world in terms of how to go about life and management of small and big things at work.

I feel like I have had some connection to Japan in my previous life (if you believe in rebirth then you would understand this). I am just kidding. I too don’t believe in happenings of the past life affecting you in this life. It is what you do in this life affect you and you reap the benefits of your actions here on the earth while you are living.

After so much talk about past life and karma, let us talk about why I am talking about 5S.

What is 5S?

An organizational methodology originating in Japan that, when implemented, reduces the waste of resources and space while increasing operational efficiency. The 5S elements, translated into English, are Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain and are applied in some companies’ efforts to achieve “lean manufacturing.”  Source: – Business Dictionary

 

Sort (Seiri) –

To remove what is not needed and to keep what is needed.

There is a lot of stuff on blogs that is not needed at all. Stuff like content that has no relevance to the purpose of the blog, unnecessary things like an overwhelming number of tags and categories, unnecessary buttons like social bookmarking buttons of all type,

 

Advertising banners –

Many blogs start showing ads in the form of banners that are placed either on the side bars, top header and some times even within the content. But that is never going to help make a blog better. Though these things are placed in the hope that they can generate some advertising revenue for the blog, but they are of no great avail in case of blogs that don’t have so much credibility with the readers.

 

Unwanted advertising links: –

Another rising trend of advertising is to use code to include unwanted advertising links within the content of the blog.

 

Google adsense –

Although this is a good source of advertising income for some bloggers, it has become a trend for each and every blogger to has google adsense displayed on their blogs. It would not be a problem if these ads don’t come in the way of what the readers are looking for – content without any hindrances. Adsense is displayed above, below and between text content to maximize the chances of the readers clicking on of the links provided through it. This mostly acts as a distraction and earnings through google adsense generally are not so much for every one.

 

Content –

How can content be not desirable or unnecessary for any blog? Does this not go against the thinking of ‘content is king’? Well content of every kind can not be good for every kind of blog. It may depend on the type of blog you have. My be you have a business blog or a personal blog or a blog that caters to a niche.

 

So, if there is any content that is not related to the purpose of your blog then it ought to be removed or placed in such a way that it doesn’t come in the way of the content that you would want your readers to view first.

 

Straighten (Seiton) –

Place things in such a way that they can be reached whenever they are needed.

This should be applicable to many aspects of blogging. Things like  the layout of the blog’s different pages, the home page or the landing page and the internal pages where you have single posts.

 

It can not only guide us to have better layouts of the different types of pages we have on our blog but also tell us how we should arrange the overall website. How to place particular links for particular type of content etc. Better categorization of the content on the blog, tagging posts so as to give a better idea of what they relate to better etc.

 

Shine (Seiso) –

Keep things clean and polished, no trash or dirt in the workplace.

We have different type of content on our blogs in terms of the topics that are dealt in the posts and articles, different categories of content etc. So it becomes easier for the readers and visitors if all those categories of content are separated from each other as far as identification is concerned. For example a particular category can be denoted using a particular color of the background of the pages that carry the content of that category.

Such demarcation can also be carried out by labeling of the different sections of the website or blog about what they carry in that particular section. The purpose is to make identification easier for who ever visits the website the first time. Thos who visit your blog regularly will remember the identification mark you used for different categories and they will go directly to what ever they like the most on your blog. If you make life easier by even by saving a fraction of a second for someone then they are most likely to appreciate that.

 

Standardize (Seiketsu) –

Maintain cleanliness after cleaning (perpetual cleaning)

This is to set standards for what ever identification and fixation was done for the blog in the first three steps.  If any improvement is made in any field then that should be made the standard to be followed in that particular area of work henceforth. This not only maintains uniformity in all the areas of your blog but also lets you concentrate more on what you like most and for most of us bloggers I think writing is what we like most. So, to find more time to write of what you are passionate about, you out to set standards for all the other aspects of your blog.

 

Self Discipline (Shitsuke) –

Commitment to inspire pride and adherence to standards established for the four components.

Yes, it is actually what it means literally. Self discipline is the mantra to get successful in any field. And it holds true even more when taken in the context of 5S. The first four steps described here are to followed and carried out over and over again over a fixed period of time.

 

This helps to maintain a regular routine to keep improving whatever was left at a stage that required more improvements.

 

This is just an introduction of how and where 5S can be helpful in blogging and how it can help us improve the overall reading and exploration experience of our readers. More will come soon. In the mean time please feel free to comment about how you liked this article.