10 Blogging goals for 2010

Thinking about the new year ahead, looking back on the year we’re wrapping up, I’ve mapped out some simple goals for this blog for 2010. You non-bloggers might shake your head and think, “geez, that’s awfully serious, it’s just a blog!” On the contrary, the main focus of most of these goals is to help me “keep it real” so to speak. How am I going to try to do that this year??

Ten Blogging Goals For 2010

1.) Blog more personally, more relationally. I enjoy blogging more when I share funny stories about the kids, pictures of things we’re doing here at home. I like giving tips and how-to’s also, but I felt like I let the personal side of my blog slip a little as I got caught up in trying to participate in certain carnivals, blog more like the pros and try to start making money with my blog. That may be fine for technical blogs and that sort of thing, but hey, let’s face it. This is a personal blog. I seem to get more comments on those sorts of posts, too, so I’m going to go with the hunch that y’all like those things, too.

How: That’s pretty easy. Live life, enjoy it, remember to write it down and take lots of pictures! ; )

2.) Build my community. I miss the “good ol’ days” back when I most of my commenters were repeat visitors, where whole conversations took place in the comments and where we read each other’s blogs. That’s one of the reasons I started (and kept) blogging in the first place. I still have many regular commenters and there are still some comment conversations from time to time, but I feel like that doesn’t happen as often, and I think some of that can be blamed on Twitter. If you use Twitter, you know what I mean. But then, I’ve started noticing the same thing on Twitter, too. I think we all are trying to follow and pay attention to too many people. Sorry bloggy buddies, but that’s the way I see it. =\

How: In addition to following my other nine goals, which will all be key to this one, I plan to use the Classic Housewife fan page on Facebook to help build community amongst my readers. You know, if I can just get y’all to join in from time to time. ; )

3) Read other blogs more frequently (but limitedly.) I have so many blogs in my Google Reader and spend so much of my free time working on my own blog that I rarely have time to read them.  I’ve had conversations with many other bloggers who’ve expressed the same problem. Seems like a by-product of trying to follow too many people and spending too much time on our own stuff.

How: Thin my Google Reader subscriptions a bit. Select 6 blogs to keep up with and read daily. Random read the rest. Selecting 6 specific blogs to keep up with will help me not spend too much time on it, keep my “finger on the pulse of my bloggy corner,” and help build relationships with a handful of other bloggers. One thing I’ve learned this year is that as blogging has grown and become more popular, it’s hard to get things done by yourself. You need to work together.

4.) Comment more, on other blogs and on comments on my own post. Goes hand in hand with building community, developing relationships among other bloggers, etc.

How: Obviously choosing the 6 blogs will make this easier! Otherwise, this one’s pretty straight-forward.

5.) Shorter, faster, briefer blogging. Faster to write, faster to read – it’s a win/win. Break longer posts into segments if necessary. Cutting down on the time spent on one article will also help with being able to write in advance and scheduling posts ahead of time.

How: One of my hardest goals for 2010… I can make notes and pay attention to possible stopping points on larger articles to break it into two or more segments. I can also set a timer, not multi-task and turn off Twitter!

6.) Link to more blogs in more posts. A part of building community and blog relationships… it would be particularly helpful to link more often to certain blogs that are similar to the goals of this one and that have written articles that would enhance the topics and discussions being held here.

How: On “how-to” posts, hot topic articles, homeschooling posts, etc.. link to other related articles from blog friends. On “week in review” posts, link to other blogs and posts as points of interest.

7.) Purge ad clutter & monetization junk. In attempts to figure out what does and doesn’t work for me here at this blog, I feel like I’ve got a little clutter and junk here and there. Maybe you don’t notice it, maybe you do.. but I’d hate for it to be a turn off to my readers. I’ve decided to back of those approaches anyhow and streamline down to a few main sources of revenue, as I’ve outlined in my new Disclosure statement.

How: I just need to go digging around the ol blog and purge any unsightly debris. I’m still debating on the mysavings.com ads in the right sidebar — what say you??

8.) Write and sell my first e-book (and maybe more!) I have several things I’ve started in the past but never finished. I have several ideas floating around in my head. I’d like to get them down and make them available to the world wide web. Holiday stuff, homeschooling stuff. That sort of thing.

How: Get busy! That requires it’s own set of goals and steps. When I get to that point, I think I’ll be using Payloadz.com. Any other suggestions?

9.) Start my own meme or challenge. Why? To have my own thing. I’ve already tried this a couple of times. That goes back to the “it’s hard to do anything by yourself these days.” After talking to another blogger about this, I need to partner up with some bloggy friends who will help by participating and talking about it with me.

How: I’d originally tossed a couple of other ideas around in my head, but then my husband challenged me to exercise every single day in January and blog about it, which is going to take a lot of work. I’m trying to get others to join in with me, and doing all that foot work right now (though I don’t know how well.) After that I’ll begin working on a regular weekly or monthly feature that will hopefully be around for a long while.

10.) Have fun! (And spend less time on line.) To be more specific, don’t get so caught up in any of these things so much that blogging ceases to be fun and don’t spend so much time online that I don’t have fun in real life. 2009 started off fine, but it almost became UN-fun enough for me to throw in the towel a few times. Can I blame that on my affiliate marketing husband who was trying to spoil blogging with his affiliate marketing ways? Maybe. =P This one is the main reason for many of the other goals.

How: The main thing to remember here is that there is more fun to be had OFFline than ONline- Something I’ve been working on the whole second half of 2009 and something I want to continue to remember in 2010. I’ve already taken one step by cutting back A LOT on the number of people I follow on Twitter. It’s amazing, the flow of chatter through my twitter stream is much slower now, and I find, is less addicting and has less of a pull when there’s less stuff flying through. Another thing I’ve already done is setting up and utilizing my blogging notebook. Making this list of goals will also help, as well cutting back on my Google Reader. One more thing that will help though will be to take steps in the rest of my day to get back onto a better schedule and to set certain times for blogging and getting online.

I know these goals seem a little non-specific and not so goal-oriented to some of my more ‘professional blogging’ friends. But honestly, that’s part of the point. I didn’t like where it was going when I tried to move from hobby to job. I don’t have time for a job, I lost the hobby, and that was the UN-fun part. For now, I have to stick with very low-key and low-time intensive goals. That’s my goal for 2010.

What are your blogging goals for 2010? Do we share some, and if so, what will you be doing to reach those goals? Do tell!!