Many people have created some personal blogging goals for 2010, which is great; I hope you accomplish all of them!
For many, though, a much simpler and perhaps reasonable goal is to make sure that your current blog doesn’t just die; keep it alive this year!
Now, that could mean a number of different things so I won’t exhaust the options and choices, but you’ve got a story to tell (an amazing story, I might add) so don’t stop telling it!
So… just curious… how are those 2010 blogging goals doing anyways?
Great question, John. As you know, I'm still trying to nail down those goals for my blog. Thanks for helping with the process.
of course! i thought of you. but only briefly… cause you're doing a lot of things great already!
I put up advertising on my blog (all non-profit stuff since no one really is going to accept me until I get my numbers up.) I did apply for audible.com advertising since about 1/3 of my book reviews are audio, but I was turned down. I also set up affiliate links on my amazon links. I have a 10% sales conversion rate right now. But two thirds of sales have been kindle versions of books (which don't generate any income.) So I have made $0.25 so far for the year. I might make enough to pay my $27 a year hosting bill. I have managed to keep up with my 3 a week posting schedule for almost three months now, but it is a bit tough (it means reading three books a week in addition to writing the posts.) I have managed to keep myself scheduled about two weeks in advance so I have some wiggle room. I would like a few more regular readers, but I have started having a lot of google search results (about 1/3 of my traffic). Overall I am pretty happy with things.
do you use affiliate links for your books when you link them?
Yes. And I get some clicking, not a ton. 28 clicks to amazon in the last two week. Three purchases. But I only get money if they buy a paper book. So I always link to the paper book and then they have to navigate to the kindle version. Of the three purchases only one was a paper book, so I only get credit for 1, and that was a used book so it only gave me 25 cents. But if Amazon starts doing affiliate credits on kindle books, or I get a few more people clicking my affiliate rate will go up too.
oooh. nice. you're a money making machine.
i want you to try out my new theme when it releases.
My goal was just to focus more on my voice and purpose. Narrowing categories. Growing my "brand."
It's coming slowly, but surely.
BTW, love the pic.
Did it once. Doing it again. Shooting for 10 or less.
I've reduced down my number of categories, set myself a schedule to fit my writing and course work around work, and am so far managing to stick to a post every two days – which I think isn't bad going for someone studying full-time with a pretty much full-time job, and halfway through my dissertation
Scheduling in disciplined amounts of writing time, though, is by far the most constructive strategy I've ever managed to implement with my blogging.
wait… wah? dissertation? … why are you blogging at all…?!?
j/k. wtg.
So far, so good. Readership's increased almost twice as much since December and the amount of discussion happening in the comments has practically doubled. Got some stuff planned for the next couple of months that'll hopefully expand it even more.
If that doesn't work out, I'll just post on ChurchCrunch full time. Non-stop. Forever.
puaha! great. can't wait to see… and yes. forever.
Blogging goals….
For Crazy Christian Clips the big focus is to fix the layout and get a more organized category system. I also need to get back into posting a little more now as it went a little quiet over the last few months due to exams and traveling in areas with superslow internet (or none at all)
For Joanna Muses, i think consistency needs to be the goal. Last year sometimes there was multiple posts a week, sometimes only 2 a month. My aim is one short essay/reflection, one song and at least one of a book review, poem, or links post per week.
I'm not sure what to do with Joanna In Singapore now that i'm back in Australia. For a few weeks there will be stuff to write about the shock of coming home and some things about Singapore i didn't get round to actually writing about while i was there. After that i could stop posting and leave it as a record of my time overseas or shift the focus to what i'm learning in my academic studies on Singapore society and culture.
did you move back to australia?
Yep, arrived back in Australia on Thursday. Unfortunately I was only able to study abroad for a semester.
My goal for the first 21 days of January was to post once a day. I wrote poetry in middle school and high school so thought I'd give it a try again and do poetic posts. I've met my goal of writing but haven't seen any significant increase in readership or comments. Most of my traffic comes from my Facebook friends which is ok but I'm now wondering how to tap into my small twittersphere.
i get a bunch of comments in my feed imported into facebook. it's ok… and there's almost nothing you can do about that…
my goal is to blog a minimum of once per day…i've missed a few days because of travel…but i'm going to start pre-writing for the days when i'm stacked…
Prewriting is definitely a good idea! I really should do that more
i do it a lot more…and in some cases i even pre-tweet …i did this over the holiday when i took an offline break so that my blog would keep fresh content…i think on the reader/commenter side i know that john posts several x's daily and i can rely on that…it's been key to creating the community feel here on CC.:)
This post hits me where I blog (or don’t blog). Keeping my blog alive is about the only goal I set in 2010. I took a break from blogging last summer and came back in the fall. But by the end of the year into 2010, I was just posting a few times a month. Not sure why that is but it is.
So I will heed your advice and try to stay alive into 2011.
Do not know what happened here, I thought the first one lost so I did it again. And with a different picture no less. Don't ask me, I dunno.
This post hits me where I blog, or not blog. I am down to a few posts a month the past few months, and that is after coming back from taking the summer off and starting up strong again. Not sure why my activity is down but it is. Keeping the blog going in 2010 is about the only goal I have.
So I will head your advice and try to stay alive to 2011.
great! you'll have lots of things to share with your new position.
So true! I look for guest blogging thoughts for here as well, and invite you to think about guest blogging on http://www.evangelism.net
Oh sweet.
John
not dying, not this year, and not the next – I have just started
I posted my goals here (7 Dec 2009): http://synapticlight.com/blogging-goals-for-2010/
1. Self Host: Done – thanks OurChurch.com
2. Non Template Theme: Done (Thanks John for your competitions) – but in the process of customizing.
3. 200 Subscribers: Done. Although I notice a huge amount from FriendFeed, so maybe just 50% there.
4. 1000 comments: Oh so close
5. Community: Will be my goal every year.
Woot.
Think I'll post a review at the end of every month so that those that help me attain these goals – inadvertently or not – can see the impact they make.
not dying, not this year, and not the next – I have just started
I posted my goals here (7 Dec 2009): http://synapticlight.com/blogging-goals-for-2010/
1. Self Host: Done – thanks OurChurch.com
2. Non Template Theme: Done (Thanks John for your competitions) – but in the process of customizing.
3. 200 Subscribers: Done. Although I notice a huge amount from FriendFeed, so maybe just 50% there.
4. 1000 comments: Oh so close
5. Community: Will be my goal every year.
Woot.
Think I'll post a review at the end of every month so that those that help me attain these goals – inadvertently or not – can see the impact they make.
Contest at 1000 comments please…!
John
My goals for 2010 were to post richer content than '09, narrow my categories, and have a minimum of 2 posts per day…it's only the 17th, but so far so good
good stuff! it's a longggggggg year…
yup…about 348 days left!