Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness has posted our first assignment in the year-long Blog Improvement Project. Her post lists ideas for goal-setting, including links to sites with checklists and brainstorming ideas.
I’ve spent several days thinking about this, looking at the sites she suggested, and reading some of the goal posts (ha! goal posts! That’s funny in football season!) listed by other bloggers. Here’s my list, as of today … subject to change, of course:
- Content:
- Participate in memes only when something meaningful to contribute. This might mean that I don’t have an entry for every week of Mailbox Monday, Tuesday Thingers, Teaser Tuesdays, Booking Through Thursday and Friday Finds. I enjoy these memes, but won’t be writing entries every week, only when I’m especially excited a book or can add to a discussion.
- keep book reviews “timeless”. That is, I’ll no longer mention a challenge they fit, run a giveaway in the same post, etc. I’ll update my challenge lists once a month or so (linking back to the review, not vice versa), and keep giveaways, interviews, etc., separate from the book review itself.
- figure out a review format that fits me best. My earlier reviews were deeper and more analytical. I think blog readers want more concise reviews, more opinion than analysis; yet I like to include a quote to illustrate a point, some author information, etc. I’m happy with the content of my reviews, but might work to make them shorter.
- continue the mix I have. I’m happy with the age/readership range of the books I review, interviews, giveaways, author events, random bookish posts.
- Technical:
- I’ve been having a technical glitch since I switched to self-hosted WordPress in October. New posts “hang” for about 5 minutes, tying up the laptop. It’s frustrating and time-consuming, I’ve got to make it a priority to fix.
- Learn more HTML. I’m finally able to add a link with looking at my “cheat sheet”. It should be straightforward to build on this with other formatting techniques (italics, bold, etc.)
- Statistics:
- This covers things like rankings in Alexa and Technorati. Alexa shows only 3 sites linking into She is Too Fond of Books, clearly not correct. Does that matter to me? Should I take steps to correct it? It’s more important to me that a user will find a fitting review or post on She is Too Fond of Books when using a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Alexa etc.) than simply having a high ranking … do these go hand-in-hand?
- other ranking/favorites sites like Fuel my Blog, Blogged. BlogHer … how many indices should I be in? How much time will it take to maintain these different profiles? Is it worth it?
- Blog appearance:
- I need a pic of me that I’m willing to post consistently online (blog, LibraryThing, the URL address bar, etc.)
- I’d like to update the header with a pic or montage that more truly reflects my interests
- Looking into a switch to a 3-column template, but I don’t want to drastically change the overall look
Some of this reads more like a “to do” list than a list of goals. I’d love to hear feedback from you who read the blog, and any technical input on my Alexa/Technorati questions.
Here’s to a great year in blogging, everyone!
Great goals. I’m not familiar with Alexa, so I need to look into that one. What are the advantages to being self-hosted?
I’ve been mulling over adapting my blog to three columns. Still ambivalent….
I think you have some great goals/ideas and will look forward to read about your progress. I have checked out many of the other participant’s goals and I think it is going to be an exciting blogging year
These are great goals Dawn! I also only participate in memes when I have something to contribute…they are also great to fall back on when you have writer’s block.
Keeping book reviews timeless is a great point. I should possibly do that.
I wrote something similar about memes. Hadn’t thought about the timeless review point–hasn’t been an issue for me since I haven’t done give-aways or challenges up until now. But I’m glad you’ve given me that to ponder since I’ll be doing some of each in 2009.
Great goals, but I think your blog looks great as is!
Dawn, I loved reading your goals. I’m constantly trying to make my reviews shorter and more concise. Being concise is not my strong point in any case!
I’m impressed by how specific your goals are!
That being said, if you enjoy writing longer reviews with excerpts, I’d say to stick with that. I write ridiculously long reviews a lot of the time (and usually add a ridiculous amount of quotes at the end too-but those are for me), and I have a pretty steady readership (I’m averaging between 300 and 400 hits a day now). I know I enjoy reading long reviews from bloggers as well as short. So only change if you want to!
I think your goals are fine & very comprehensive.
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Just a question to your plan about having three columns (have seen that on many other blogs too) – what is it you want to achieve?
It´s just that on some blogs pictures, blogrolls, gadgets etc take up so much space that it is difficult to find and read the book reviews (which are mainly what this reader is looking for
[...] Blog Blazers was a great way to start off my year-long Blog Improvement Project. I was able to pat myself on the back for things I’m doing “correctly” (one [...]
Kathy – I’ve “owned” (rented, really) my domain name http://www.sheistoofondofbooks.com since shortly after I started the blog. I went to self-hosted about 6 months later. I switched mainly so I could run ads to benefit First Book (no ads allowed on wordpress sites), plus I have more flexibility and “governance” over what I put on my blog.
sherry – I’ve given this more thought since writing this post. I think what I really need to do is prioritize/rearrange the order that things show up on my right sidebar. If I go to 3-column it would be to simply list my ever-growing blog roll down the left side (with all the other ‘stuff’ staying in the right)
Louise – I’m so glad Kim is running this. It helps me to be held accountable (reporting to the group via a blog post every few weeks).
Amy – my blogging time has been filled in quite a bit with some projects I’m doing with the kids. I’ll still participate in those memes, but not every week.
Ali – it occurred to me that, as a reader, I’d be irritated to respond to a headline that said ‘book review and giveaway’ only to find out that the giveaway was 6 months earlier. I’ll just put the giveaway in a separate post.
J. Kaye – aww! you can come over and praise my blog any time you want! thanks!
Shana – most of the “expert” bloggers in *Book Blazers* advocate for brevity; or at least breaking up blocks of texts with bullet points, etc.
Eva – thanks for your input. In the end, I’m writing for me, so I do need to satisfy my tastes. I agree with you, I plan to continue to write the way I enjoy writing, but I may spend more time editing.
Dorte – that’s a good question … I would put only the blogroll (a text list) on the left side, so I don’t think it would be a big distraction. I have the same feeling you do … ads in the middle of a text block, animations, etc … those can be distracting (and off-putting)
I never thought about keeping reviews and giveaways seperate. I have so far, and will continue to do so as this helps with the timeless part as you mentioned.
I do like my 3 column layout, but at the same time I also feel a little cluttered too.
I like your goal about memes; I’m still torn about participating in them and haven’t quite decided what I think. Great goals, and thanks for participating in the BIP!
Kim
Melissa – This year I joined several reading challenges, and started to list which challenge applied (in my book reviews). to me it looked cluttered, so I broadened my “clean up” by making the goal to keep them timeless (I may mention an author event, or some other tidbit that adds to the review, but doesn’t “date” it). I know listing Challenge books works for some people, just not for me
Kim – I participated in just one meme this past week, and felt much less pressure to write for the sake of writing (with nothing really to add to the conversation). Thank *you* for organizing the BIP and keeping us all motivated!