Friday, July 06, 2007

setting goals for blogging and business

Note: In this article, when I refer to ‘my blog’, I am referring mostly to my motherhood blog, Adventures in Motherhood by Shaz

Back in university, I remember doing some business management courses where we discussed goals at great length, but somehow when I actually started my own blogs and business, it never occurred to me that I should actually define a quantifiable set of goals for myself.

One of the first things that Shoemoney discussed with me was my goals, or lack thereof – it was essential, he said. After that, I set about writing out some goals for my key blogs and my web development business, but still, I think I didn’t do enough. Then, yesterday, I started Wendy’s ecourse and the first assignment were to define goals!

It kind of clicked when I read her instructions –

What is the ultimate outcome you want your blog to achieve? 3 years from now, or even 10 years from now, where do you want your blog to be in terms of traffic, career opportunities created, impact on customers and readers, and/or revenue generated? Are there other results that are important for you to achieve?

I think I was struck most by this statement because it really made me look into the future and think about what I wanted to be, or what I wanted my blog to be, mostly I starting thinking about what kind of impact I wanted to have on my readers.

My motherhood blog started off because, ironically, I was looking for a way to make money at home and I bought into the whole ‘blogging=easy money’ myth. But, as it happened, about a week into it, I realized that I completely adored blogging, and about a month into it, I realized that there was no way that I was going to be making any money! I spent the next 10 months becoming friends with the most unexpected people, and being part of the most amazing communities, and although I didn’t make a $1, I still loved every moment of it!

In the past couple months, I have started getting a tiny income from my motherhood blog, thanks to Text Link Ads and now I am in a position to become a little more business-oriented with the blog – as a first step, I am going to define some of my goals, and really put a lot of thought into what I want my blog to evolve into, or what purpose I would like my blog to serve. What I know for sure is that I want it to be helpful to parents, especially moms, it’s not a place that I rant, but I try to convey my stresses and strategies as a mother, and I know that if even one mother derives some benefit from my words, then all my effort has been worth it.

What makes your blogging efforts worth it?