Disclosure: Optimate Group Pty Ltd has a financial interest in The Jujube Tree Nursery.
Background:
The Jujube Tree Nursery is an online nursery specialising in the jujube tree. The history is here. This particular site was built to replace another site on another domain. We chose to use the b2evolution Content Management System (CMS) to build the site for several reasons I’ll cover in future posts, but primarily for its excellent blogging engine.
With the site built, and now being indexed by search engines, it was time to add that blog to further rank the site.
Analysis:
The tree appeals to exotic fruit tree enthusiasts, and enquirers often asked for information on how to grow and care for them. People who enjoy exotic plants are typically also well-read self-learners with deeper horticultural interests in general. The blog’s purpose was to not only answer growth and care questions, but to delve deeper on related topics such as soil science, plant nutrients, and botany that could also be of interest. I also planned to draw on my background in biochemistry and soil microbiology to explain more fully topics that were often glossed over or mentioned briefly in the ‘mainstream’ garden genre.
A weekly posting schedule was decided upon. This both enabled more content to be published more quickly, as well as provided more content for search engines to index more quickly.
The Approach:
This was going to be a very broad and deep section of the site, but ultimately this was a site that sold jujube trees, so some basic information on the species was a natural starting point. The first few posts covered some history and basic information on both the tree and the fruit, followed by planting, potting and climate information. By then the trees were entering dormancy and that became a good reason to focus more on subjects like soil science, which could help people better understand and prepare their own soil over autumn and winter prior to winter deliveries of bare-rooted stock. Posts have mostly been seasonally-driven since.
In Conclusion:
The blog was added in February 2019 and has since grown into a comprehensive resource for more than just jujube trees, and which attracts a sizeable readership. Some readers are semi-regular commenters, while others have made contact privately. Most are anonymous but the server logs attest to their numbers. I must admit that this blog has also become a very rewarding intellectual output for me personally, and some people have told me how evident that passion is, which is just amazing feedback to have!
Please get in touch if you’d like your own blog set up. We can install and set everything up to your requirements, and can suggest categories and topics that would be of interest to your readers. We can additionally do the research and writing on your behalf, or simply format and post on your behalf if you’d rather send your own writing via Word documents or emails.