Goals for 2010: Blogging or Writing?

What am I trying to do here?

I have no clue. That's not entirely true. Some days I have a clue. The next days I can't find it.

What is my blogging goal for 2010? If I don't know where I want to be my chances of reaching my destination are zippo, zilch, nada. Wait, not nada. That means nothing. Not zippo either, that's a type of collectible lighter.

As is my way, I'm not going to consider what is possible, I'm going to consider what I actually want. Assuming the reality that my net achievements will fall somewhere in-between where I am now, and where I want to be, if I were to lower my brass ring to a reachable level, odds are I would achieve less in the coming year than if I were to toss it away from the carousel and onto the beach, into the waves, where it would most likely be carried out to sea by a passing crab and inevitably swallowed by a curious dolphin. This dolphin would not get sick. The ring would simply tickle the inside of its belly and make it laugh up rainbow bubbles to the surface of the water where they would burst upon the air, their gentle scent eventually wafting back to the boardwalk and infusing it with an air of lightness, hope, and possibility for not only myself, but for all creatures in my vicinity, living and undead alike.

I don't know who I am as a blogger. We need to know who we are to know what we want and what we need. As somebody who does not know who she is, I know I want and need to figure out who I am. A good place to start is by figuring out who I am not.

• I am not nor will I ever be a SEO expert.


• I am not nor will I ever be a Social Media expert.


• I am not nor will I ever be a Blog Monetization expert.


• I am not nor will I ever be a Giveaway Queen. (That takes planning, yee Gods!)


• I am not particularly technologically proficient.


• I am not a dung beetle.


• I am not comfortable networking only with other "Mommy bloggers".


• I am not competitive.


• I am not simply a humor blogger, although life and chances of success would certainly be greater if I were. (Or weren't??)


• I am not a provider of answers (as I learned via the construction of this post).


• I don't want to be tied to my computer, living on the edge of an Alexa rating, fearful that should I take a day or two away to attend to my family or my self, my blog will suffer. I don't want to live my life desperately chasing numbers.


• I am not my blog. I am myself, a wife and mother, daughter, sister, cousin, co-conspirator, buddy, and blogger. The state of my blog should have no bearing on my self-esteem and sense of self.

Where does that leave me? Things look pretty bleak. What hope do I have for success? And what does success mean to me? I need to determine this in order to determine which activities will move me further towards my goals, and which will coax me away from them.

• I wish to cultivate a variety of contacts to whom I can not only relate and find comfort with, but who amuse and fascinate me with their powerful intellects, alternate realities and their knowledge and confidence of self. For this I must look both within and outside of traditional Mommy-blogging circles.


• I would like to expand my readership and create a sense of community herein. I want my readers and commenters to eventually recognize and interact amongst themselves, as well as with me. I want them to have fun in my comments section and look forward to their visits, rather than see them as an obligation of sorts.


• I want to toughen up. It seems that people are not always willing to be kind. I need to not only be prepared for the possibility but expect that sometimes people will leave comments and send emails that are ugly, and that I shouldn't let them effect me in a negative manner. Their negativity is about them, not about me.


• I have no hope of being considered an expert at anything, so for my blogging success I am going to have to shoot for that ridiculously unattainable goal: to achieve a readership based upon who I am and my ability to express myself and connect with other human beings. That's right. I'm hoping that people will want to visit my blog and interact with me and my other readers simply based upon the fact that they like, or are entertained by me in some way. Now that I've determined this I need to make a vow to myself and my readers to always be myself. I can't hover and agonize over my keyboard before pounding out each post, worrying who I might offend if when I say the word poop. I need to be able to relate the details of my crazy, silly life without worrying that my readers will consider me vapid, or worse - ungrateful and unappreciative of the gifts that life has provided me with. I can't provide something helpful and useful in ever post. I can simply be.


• My wish, apparently, is to gain blogging success based upon being myself and providing no value whatsoever to my readership other than entertainment, commiseration, schaudenfraude and possibly pathos.


• To what end? I want to make some money. Blogging alone is a source of satisfaction, but the reality of my situation is that I need to make some money. I am not independently wealthy. I want to do what I love (blogging) and make some money from it. There, I said it. Hmm... the sun is still perched just above a frog-shaped cloud. Earth did not turn on its axis. A sea of spit did not make its way to my face, nor is it currently dripping into my bra.
  
  
  
  • Problem: I can't sell worth a darn. I've tried. I simply don't have that relentless pursuit of victory thing when it comes to separating people from their money.
  
  
  • Problem: Ads won't work on my site because my regular readers don't want to click on Google Ads that lead them to a better iPod carrying case, nor do I particularly want them to.
  
  
  • Problem: My stupid flipping Google Page Rank sits there at PR1 even though I have ten times the readership I did when my blog had a PR3. And you need PR3 or above in order to gander any type of reasonable opportunity with regards to paid blogging.
  
  
  
  

I want to learn to be a good writer. Hopefully upon achievement of that goal I can become a successful writer. Magazine articles? Books? Airport leaflets? STOP signs? Who knows.

Which leads me to this...

• Can one be a successful blogger and a successful writer? I used to assume that the two were natural bed-buddies, but now I'm not so sure. To be a successful writer I will have to do lots of back-end, behind-the-scenes exercises and activities, and submit writings to other places, taking time away from posting here at Happymaking. My posts here help to sharpen my writing skills, but, unfortunately, not the type of writing skills others are willing to pay for. I would like to be a columnist, but since the advent of blogging, I'm not sure the discipline still exists since most blogs are basically self-published columns.


• Let's say I push and squirm and make a deal with the devil and over time my name becomes well-known in the blogdom. What could possibly come of that? Advertising revenue? A book deal? Work-from-home employment opportunities? Paid writing gigs? I simply do not know.

If any of you know what one might hope for upon becoming a well-known "personality" blogger, please do share the wealth of your knowledge. This information will help me form my goals for 2010, and hopefully others as well. I do not seek to be a well-known blogger to appease my ego, but as a means of making a living that allows me to be at home with my children. Since I do not harbor net-translatable knowledge or skills for which others are willing to pay, it is simply my only hope for blogging success.

Should there be no means of procuring a little kaching-ching upon becoming a popular blogger, I'm probably going to have to step off the blogging a bit, and focus my efforts on writing. But at least I will know. Disillusionment can be a wonderful thing!

Thanks for riding alongside me on this journey. Here's to goal-setting and success for us all in the coming year!