I belong to the amazing blogging community SITS (The Secret is in The Sauce). If you have been around the blogging world for awhile you have surely heard of them and are apart of the community as well. If not then get your little butt over there because this site ROCKS! They feature a new blogger everyday and every Saturday they post great blogging tips. There is so much more so make sure to check it out. Anyway yesterday they challenged us with two questions:
What are my five blogging goals for 2010?
What are five things I want to learn about blogging this year?
Since I just started my blog these questions could not have come at a better time. But even before today I have been thinking about these questions for about 2-3 months since I decided to start this blog. Now I actually did not create my first post until last week but believe me I have been researching and studying the world of blogging.
So here are my 2010 blogging goals:
- Narrow and solidify my niche if need be. I have a lot on my mind and a lot to share and to talk about. But I don't want my blog to be all over the place. I want it to useful for my readers. So I am still trying to figure out everything that is floating around in my head and happening in my life and then decide what is the most interesting, useful, and resourceful for my readers.
- Develop content that my readers find entertaining, interesting, useful, resourceful, and supportive. Even though I want to share my experiences with my readers I do not want this blog to just be a diary of my day to day life. While some days I think my life would make a good reality show I don't think that is what I want to base my blog on. So I want to be able to take my experiences and turn them into rich content for my readers to relate to and learn from.
- Establish a loyal readership. As I stated above I want to work hard on creating strong rich content for my readers. In turn, I hope that people come back to my blog because they find it fun, useful, and resourceful. I am not sure on a number to measure this but I think 500 readers by December 31st, 2010 is a good start.
- Contribute articles to other blogs. I read a lot of blogs that I would love to contribute to. So I am hoping once I get some experience under my belt I can submit articles to other blogs or online venues.
- Sell my own product and make some extra money from my blog. Well if you ready the post on my personal resolutions you know that I have outrageous student loan debt and trying very hard to pay it down. So I would like to find ways that I could make some extra money from my blog. To date I have written 3 e-books. The topics have centered around selling on ebay. As you will see if you follow my blog one of my hobbies that I love and how I am able to dress my divas in the cutest outfits is eBay. My e-books have been pretty successful and I have received a lot of positive feedback on them. I am in the process of updating them and working on some others. Also I am researching affiliate programs. Of course I don't ever want to compromise the quality of my blog so everything that I do or that is offered on my blog to make money will always be win win for me and for my readers.
OK now what do I want to learn more about with blogging:
- What does a successful blog "look like" in terms of numbers. And what do all the numbers mean that are found in Google Analytics. And along this line what would be a good number for a new blog to strive for.
- Basic HTML knowledge. One of the things I learned very quickly as I was getting my blog set up was it would have been so useful if I knew more about HTML and CSS tables. By not knowing any I was at the mercy of a blog designer for basic changes I needed done.
- More advanced niche building and content writing tips. As I stated I want my readers to come to my blog and find it easy to read, useful, interesting, and resourceful.
- Where to find other blogging communties/forums. I think it would be very helpful to meet and talk to other moms or people like me that have the same blogging goals as me.
- Information on quality and effective ways to make money from your blog/or online. I have been doing a lot of research on this topic and have already found some great information. But I know there is so much more to learn.
So this is what I came up with and I am very excited about 2010. What about you? Did you participate in these SITS questions? If so provide a link to your post because I would love to look at what your goals are. Also, if you have any answers or advice I would love to hear that as well.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I need to set some blogging goals for 2010. Seriously. But in the meantime, I’m all about having fun…
Definitely Not a Snow Job
I have those same questions. In fact tomorrow’s post is all about helping out a “newbie” like us. I have been playing around with blogging since Sept. I have gone through so many designs so I have taught myself some of the HTML coding but know nothing about CSS. I will be checking on your comments to see what bloggers have to say today. I suppose I need to set my goals too…maybe I will have a late post today. Happy Sunday!
I think that if you comment a lot on other blogs, participate in carnivals, and even do guest post exchanges, that will help you a lot! If you ever want to do a guest post on personal finance, I’d be happy to have you guest post!
I think those are great goals. I think it takes us a bit do find our blogging goals, but we do! Good luck this year!
First, thank you for stopping by my blog! I love making new friends and hop you come back often. Second, welcome to the blogging world! What a great reason to start your blog- to help everyone who needs to figure out thus mothering thing be they working moms or stay at home moms. You are amazing. And third, what awesome goals you havr. I wish you the best of luck in accomplishing them.
I think those are some great goals! Commenting is a great way to not only build a readership, but also to build a bloggy-friend-base. It’s great to have bloggy friends, they come in handy when you have questions and such. Another way to network is to look at other blogs you like or admire to see what groups they may belong to. There’s Top Mommy Blogs and there’s BlogHer and there’s also Ning, which has lots of niche groups. I belong to a Ning group called Champions of Avoiding Housework, which is a bunch of mommy bloggers that were brought together by The Obnoxious S.A.H.M., another mommy blogger. Good luck, I’m sure you’re going to hit all of your goals in no time!
P.S. – Stopping by from SITS this morning to say hello, you commented ahead of me today in roll call. Happy Monday to you!
Great goals. I doubt I will ever learn much about the “code” but I can keep those who do in business! Recently hired a young marine momma to redo my blog. Wish you the best in accomplishing all you set out to do!
Stopping by from SITS! Great post!
Just wanted to let you know about my button swap and the chance for your blog to be featured! Check it out:
http://singing-in-the-rain24.blogspot.com/2009/12/button-swap.html
Hi! i’m new here and would like to introduce myself
I’m from Luxembourg and come to this forum from search engine.
Nice to meet you all
Hi, as you may already discovered I’m fresh here.
In first steps it’s really nice if someone supports you, so hope to meet friendly and helpful people here. Let me know if I can help you.
Thanks and good luck everyone!