A few days ago, we posted our blogging goals. This was part of a group writing project on Daily Blog Tips.
I looked at about 8 or 10 of the 78 blogs that participated and categorized them to see what people are up to. The impression I get from these blogs is that blogging is still quite a bit about providing something for the readers (e.g. goals about content and design) or getting something from them (e.g. increased RSS readership, monetization) – not so much about back-and-forth interaction. For example, there was only one person who wanted to have increased comments.
Whatever you make of it – these goals here and the ones included in the list of links below provide some wonderful ideas to follow up on.
Content (17)
- More basic tips on making wine and beer
- A series on different beer styles along with recipes (for a beverage-related blog)
- Make this site a better site with more tips on how I resolve my never-ending issues with programming languages, gaming obsession, online games, and other various distractions of the great web.
- Post at least every other month about the benefits of RSS in easing your daily blog reading, including a link to my feed.
- Interview more and more bloggers;
- Interview blogging dads that skate (that’s for the skating dads blog)
- Friday post for news articles, opinions and rants
- Have a video series launched by January 31
- Grow the Canada 9-5 series into an influential go-to for Canadian businesses bloggers. Post at least one video tutorial a month - I am planning on having how to’s for trick tips and building skate ramps etc.
- More guest posting
- Improving my personal skills - Let’s face it, I am merely a passable writer. If I’m ever going to get anywhere with blogging, I need to improve my game. To this end I have purchased several books on grammar, by far my weakest area, and hope to get through those early this coming year.
- Add in more of my reviews
- Link my work in Higher Education with this blog (for a university-related blog)
- More regular writing;
- Post at least once every other day - Once a day is going to be a bit of a stretch for me.
- Writing content that people will actually want to save for later reference.
- Write posts well in advance of publication
Social media and other types of interaction (10)
- Greater use of social networks
- Three mentions of linking with other bloggers
- Make a meaningful contribution through social media. We’d like to research and find ways to meaningfully enrich social media – not just for business purposes. We don’t want to be part of the machine that steals the social from social media.
- Do at least one big group writing project
- Get the “do follow” plugin working
- Explore more interaction with readers – more comments but also more … what? Social media type interactions? Let’s see.
- Average one email a day sent to me from a reader who enjoyed or learned from a post I wrote
- More commenting
Statistics and Ranking (9)
- 50% increase of Daily Page Views
- Google Pagerank: I would love to be a PR5 by this time next year.
- Three mentions of increasing RSS readers, e.g. “I dream that by the end of 2008, my readers will be around 10,000 per day. No joke. I do dream of this figure every day.”
- Increase in video use for posts
- Increase my Alexa ranking
- Own the “Blogging Dads That Skateboard” - I think I am the only one so that should be easy!
- Treble readership (both subscribers and casual)
Design (6)
- Learn how to customize a WP theme.
- Greater integration with image and video sites
- Improved navigation to find tips
- Four mentions of changing/improving the theme/design
Monetization (7)
- Get 4 reviews per month for $200 in the year 2008. That would mean another $800
- Electronic affiliate payments only
- Sell my sidebar button Ads here at $300 a piece, which will make me $1,800 monthly.
- Make $600 monthly from my other ads,
- Rounding up my monthly income for this blog to a nice figure of $3000 per month.
- Look at at least 10 ways of blog monetization and implement at least three
- Explore the possibility of monetizing the blog
Promotion (6)
- Inform universities of this blog (for a university oriented blog)
- Set aside time to communicate with academics, students, influential people.
- Let Student Unions know about the blog too and engage with them to find out what students are looking for help/advice with.
- Increased cross-promotion with my other sites
- Look into including an RSS subscription button in each post
- Create a badge for the Canada 9-5 series
Niche (2)
- Finding my niche - For too long I have meandered hither and from with my content. The idea that I could write about whatever was on mind my day that was just too enticing, and I gave in to it far too many times. So the time to settle in to just a couple of subjects has probably come, but picking those categories will be the tough part. I think my biggest problem is that everything I am passionate about (movies, music, tech, etc) are already extremely well serviced markets.
- Return to my original blogging niche: web trends and behaviours
Miscellaneous (4)
- Become more respected
- Finish my eBook and give it away free on this blog
- Figure out how to lure more RSS subscribers, comments, readers and more blog reactions to be listed in Technorati
- Put together a mission statement for the blog
Still want to read more about this? Here are the posts of all the people who participated in this project:
I guess you were referring to me when you mentioned only one person wanting more comments. Thanks for the link love and here hoping you meet your goals in 2008 too!
Dave’s last blog post..Tailgating Video: Baked Beans Beer Bong