Blogging 201: Three goals for my Blog

Today’s assignment: consider what you want to accomplish with your blog. Write down three concrete goals you want to achieve. 

I posted my three goals on the Blogging 201 forum earlier, but I hadn’t read the task prompt at all. So I have been advised to revisit and make my goals more specific and concrete. So here is the revised version of my three goals.

I have been out of a job since August (by choice) because I needed some rest. However, my money has now run out and I need to find a job within the next eight weeks so I can become financially independent again. I plan to get my own apartment, maybe in a rural parish once I start earning.

All of this is my way of dealing with the debilitating depression that is too often making me lethargic and not wanting to write. I want to also put my marital struggles behind me so I can rebalance and find a clean, peaceful space to write from.

If you’re wondering what is the connection between my personal problems and my blogging, the answer is this: unless I find my happy place again, my blogs are going to suffer, and I do not want to take another writing hiatus. If I can fix these conditions, then my goals for my blog will stand a better chance of coming to fruition.

That said, here is the list, with a little detail on how I may achieve them and my projected start or effect dates.

Goal 1: Publish meaningful, engaging posts on each blog at least twice a week during November, December and January.

Goal 2: Increase page views, follower engagement and follows by at least 20 percent each month using one of the marketing tools learnt in 201.

Projected start date: Dec 1, 2014

I hope to leverage all three of my blogs so that they can grow with equal force and impact. I could do this by rebranding and marketing each blog in ways I started learning in Blogging 101 and hope to learn more about in this course. I can envision using tools such as building an email list and using a newsletter to attract new followers, both bloggers and non-bloggers alike; seeking guest post opportunities; using social media more effectively, for example, starting a YouTube channel for my education blog. Again, I hope to learn how to use these media by the end of Blogging 201 and through self- education.
Goal 3: to establish myself as an expert or thought leader in the field of NVQ English and work communication student assessments.

Projected launch date: end of November 2014

3. I’m aiming to increase my authority and explore opportunities to monetize my platforms. How will I do this? Here are some ideas that I have floating in my head:.

•  curate and prepare a list of links to the most interesting of my blog posts and other online web resources of interest and share them with selected local tv and radio hosts who address similar subjects in their programmes, with the aim of becoming their go-to expert on the topic. I’ve already pinpointed two talk show hosts and will pitch them soon.
• write and submit a radio programme proposal on topics I cover in my ministry blog to a selected radio station. (end of November)
• write and pitch more researched articles and offer newspaper or magazine editors the use of these posts in exchange for byline and blog address mention. (start pitching December 2015)
• promote free training seminars to brush up my speaking skills and publicize myself as a speaker. (no later than March 2015)
• take additional courses in blog monetizing, webinar marketing and e-book publishing, and execute the first of these (hopefully by June 2015)

My greatest fear

My greatest fear in achieving these is fear itself. But I hope that the work I intend to do on me in the next couple of months will make me stronger and fearless to conquer these insecurities and malaise and drive me forward to gaining these goals.

A little cheer from my fellow bloggers along the way will definitely also help marvelously in pushing me forward to achieving this vision.