What do you want from your blog? Do you know? Have you ever really thought about it beyond, "it's fun?"
"The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them." ~Denis Waitley
I've been reading Typepad For Dummies (thanks, hubby!) and the authors give some good thoughts on goal-setting for your blog (interspered here with my own stamping-specific thoughts and paraphrases):
- Consider what motivates you. Why did you start the blog? What keeps you going on days when you think, "I haven't posted today. I really should... but I don't want to?" You goal could be sales, connection with your customers, educating your downline, simple sharing, or all of the above.
- Once you decide what you want out of your blog, it's time to evaluate whether or not you are doing that job or meeting those goals. Has it become a valuable source of information for your downline? Is it a place where your customers go when they need inspiration? Is it a jumping-off place for your DBWS, generating sales?
- Break down those big goals into increments. Write them down somewhere so you can reevaluate those goals and decide if you need to take a new approach.
- Try to transform intangible goals into tangible ones, and non-specific goals into specific ones. How will saying "I want to make money from this blog" play out in real life?
- Deal in facts. Concentrate on subscribers, not page views--and definitely not comments. One comment for every 100 views is unfortunately not at all uncommon, and should never be taken as indicative of whether or not readers are enjoying your blog. Page views are great, but can be falsely inflating. One subscriber means one person.
- Be aware of blog reading trends--slow down times, weeks where people's attention is drawn elsewhere by a big news event or major holiday. Don't get discouraged over a traffic dip that everyone is experiencing--not just you.
- If you have multiple goals for your blog, consider an editorial calendar. This will cover what you write and when you write it. For instance, say you want to make sure you mention the business opportunity once per week, along with regular posts targeted to the scrapbookers amongst your stampers. or you want to post a card sketch or color combo on a specific day of the week. Planning the week's posts out on an editorial calendar--or even just scrawled in your planner or a Post it Note stuck to the monitor--can help you stay on top of that general schedule.
- Focus on what you can control. Other people's reading habits are not controllable, ultimately. Make it as easy as possible to get to, read, comment on and subscribe to your blog, of course-- but set your own goals and work towards those, letting go of what is beyond our control.
Finally, I reccomend a SHORT (it's too easy to get carried away when viewing stamping blogs)and specific analytical browse through no more than four blogs. Look over the most recent posts and think about what their blogging goals might be. Are they working towards those goals? What are they doing/covering well? In what areas could some of them improve?
Just being aware of your blog as a tool to help you get somewhere is a huge step in the right direction. Being mindful of the blog's place in your larger business scheme will help you stay motivated to keep it up and turn it into an even more useful tool than it has been in the past.
Dream Big!
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