Since I began writing this blog, I have never really used categories to define what I write. Instead, I prefer to use tags to more loosely associate a number of definitions to everything I write.

However, it struck me that my huge tag cloud at the bottom of every page is not necessarily the most user friendly way to allow visitors to navigate my site. So, inspired by Lorelle’s article on using categories, I’ve gradually been going through all of my archives and moving them out of ‘uncategorised’ and into a more structured and tighter taxonomy.

Because I have not been using categories up until now, I have had no way of monitoring what I am writing about, and what I’m not (and should be) writing about. The lack of categories have prevented me and my blog from truly focusing and establishing an identity.

My lack of categories have made it difficult for potential readers to identify with me and my blog and this has possibly led to slower growth than could have been achieved. That’s not to say growth has been disappointing – I’m on track to meet most of the blogging targets I set myself at the beginning of May – I just believe that growth could have been even stronger with a well categorised site.

So, now I present to you an organised list of 14 categories. The new list can be seen over in the far right column, so feel free to have a browse.

Do you use categories effectively?

Do you use tags or categories on your site? Or both? And how to you prefer to navigate other blogs you visit?