What’s your blogging goal for 2008? (Or: A funny thing happened on the way to the resolution)
Posted on January 2, 2008 in Blogs, Blogging, & Bloggers by DM
2007 was a big year for my personal blogging efforts. I learned that there can be a real purpose to blogging beyond just the usual navel-gazing and, well, I went a little overboard with the compartmentalization. I abandoned my original blog over on Blogger and after careful study decided to launch a marketing blog for small business owners using WordPress.
Then I began to miss the original blog, so to compensate I launched a political blog, a genealogy blog, this blog, and a blog about the pumpkin tax, all using WordPress. I also switched my “biker chick” website over to WordPress. (I have another website, www.yourclayproject.com, which showcases one of my unusual junk collections. That site could work on a blog platform too, but I haven’t moved it over yet because it doesn’t lend itself to frequent updates.) As the year progressed, I learned the basics of how to seek out a community of readers (THANK YOU for being here!), and I got some good traffic going on a few of the blogs.
Mid-year, I stepped back for a review. I canned the genealogy blog and folded it into this one. The pumpkin tax blog died a quick and natural death because the tax was repealed almost as soon as it came under public scrutiny. And I decided not to continue blogging about marketing as there are already so many voices doing it brilliantly. I kept this blog, the biker chick blog, the political blog, and the “clay project” site.
Most recently (January 1 to be precise), I spent some time upgrading all my blogs to the latest edition of WordPress and doing more blog-related soul-searching. I deleted the marketing blog entirely and replaced it with a lights-out page so I wouldn’t have to keep managing the comment spam. (I’m still working on making all that content available in PDF format.) I deleted the pumpkin tax blog entirely from the universe. As for the political blog, I got out of the loop when my dad got sick and have had a hard time getting back in the groove. Perhaps I’ll just incorporate future political rants here - it’ll spice things up!
So what’s my blogging resolution for 2008? I’d like to end the year with as few blogs as possible, but keep them regularly updated. I’d like to experiment more with tools like BlogTalkRadio. And I’d like to find ways to solidify the sense of community and interactivity that surrounds this blog. Your input, ideas and suggestions are always welcome, as are your links, comments, arguments, and snarky asides.
How about you - what are your blogging goals for 2008? Will you start a blog? Change your posting frequency? Change directions with your blog? Let’s hear ‘em!
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4 comments to “What’s your blogging goal for 2008? (Or: A funny thing happened on the way to the resolution)”
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First I’d have to find a purpose for blogging. Perhaps find some people who are interested in clouds and the weather?
Second, I’d have to get a copy of a manual such as “Blogging for Dummies” and use that book as a reference to help me get started. I’d want to post some of my cloud photos on my blog and possibly share them–perhaps on a statewide or nationwide basis.
Joel, don’t sell your clouds-and-weather idea short… the success of a blog is measured differently than the success of a website - it’s not necessarily the traffic numbers that matter, it’s the level of engagement with readers. Most really successful blogs are keenly focused on a single (but broad) topic, with readers who are deeply interested in that topic and are happy to talk about it. Your topic certainly falls into that category. With the goofy weather we have here in Iowa I’d think you’d be a hit! Thanks as always for your comments here! ~ Janet
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