Jeremy has an interesting post over at Ensight where he looks at a recent downturn’ in blogging after some of the recent controversy over character blogs.
To be honest I’ve kept out of the debate and really don’t see it as a particularly useful one (maybe I’m missing the point but I find it a bit of a bore) HOWEVER while I was reading Jeremy’s blog I was drawn to the following four questions that he has for bloggers to ask themselves:
- Why did I get into blogging?
- Am I still blogging for the same reason as when I started?
- What do I want blogging to become?
- Are my current attitudes and actions the kinds of things likely to bring about my goal for blogging?
These are some questions I’m going to ponder over the next few days – particularly the last two.
I guess at the crux of it Jeremy is asking people for their blogging goals and then challenging them to ask if their current strategy is taking them closer or further away from these goals?
Warning – Tangent Ahead.
I was recently talking to a guy (in his late 40s) and the topic got around to parenting. He told me the story of finding out that his wife was pregnant with their first child. After the initial excitement wore off he and his wife were hit by the enormity of having a child – particularly the responsibility that it was. They starting thinking about the type of children that they’d like to have and over the next few days they set some goals for their kids. Not tight or controlling goals about their children’s gender, looks, future occupations or anything – but goals about the type of characteristics or values that they’d like their kids to grow up with.
They compiled an interesting list of characteristics. At this point they then decided to take a look at the way that they were living their lives at present – the way they related to each other, the way they spent their time and money, the way they communicated, the way they made decisions etc.
The conclusion that they came to was that their goals and their current reality were incompatible. If they were to raise the type of kids that they wanted to have they needed to change the way they currently lived their lives.
Ok – back to blogging..
Sorry for the tangent – but there is something about Jeremy’s four questions that triggered the memory of this conversation with my friend.
You see I have many wonderful opportunities to talk with bloggers. One of the questions I often ask is about their blogging goals – where do they want to go with their blogging? The goals are often amazing. They are big, bold, inspiring and sometimes a little lofty. There are goals of fame, fortune, influence, making a difference, sustaining a lifestyle, meeting wonderful people – goals of all shapes and sizes.
The problem for most Entrepreneurial Bloggers is not usually about goals not being big enough – rather the issues are usually that their current blogging practices are not working towards these goals being a reality.
Someone yesterday told me he had a goal of 10,000 visitors per day on his blog – only problem was that his blog only had 13 posts on it and he was updating it only twice per week.
Another person told me about their goal of being a full time blogger – only problem was that they had been blogging on a topic that just wasn’t performing (over a year of blogging) and were not willing to diversify and start a second blog on a new topic.
Last week a friend told me that they wanted to join the ranks of A-List bloggers and be known for the quality of his blogging – only problem was that he was engaging in spamming and other dubious behaviors to get his blog rank up.
My advice is simple – dream big, but be willing to adjust your behavior to reach it.
What are your Blogging Goals? What are you doing to make them a reality?
Darren Rowse is the founder of ProBlogger.net, a blog about the many ways of adding an income stream to blogs.
Darren owns and writes a variety of blogs including Digital Photography Blog and Camera Phone
Zone. He is also a co-founder of the Breaking News Blog Collective.
