Tuesday 7 April 2015

A Plan



As with a lot of things in life, when I decided to start blogging it was without a plan. Let's blog I thought. So I went to Wordpress and five minutes later, hey presto I was a blogger.

I created a twitter account to promote the blog and interact with other bloggers. This is easy I thought.I started reading other blogs, and the realization dawned on me. My blog could be so much better.



After reading this post from The Dad Network. This is what I need to do I said, and promptly wrote out my blogging goals. When my goals were there before me in Black and White I realised I would have difficulty achieving them with the blog I had started.

Did I sit down and construct a carefully thought out plan on what to do next? Of course not!
Did I think carefully about creating a brand? No!
Did I consider the design and layout of the new blog? I think we can sense a pattern here. No!

Of course I didn't do any of this. I did what I always do. Dived straight in and created a new blog.

Things were going smoothly. I was getting views to the blog. Some posts were being +1d on Google+. There were comments from other bloggers, re tweets on twitter. Brilliant!

Then I started to think about increasing viewers, interaction and growing the blog. Here is where the wheels well and truly fell off.

I read the following post How to be Everywhere, Grow your blog. One of Jessica's suggestions was to use Peek. This is a service where a real live person looks at your website and tells you their experience of it. I promptly went to the site and completed the form. Thank you, popped up and a message saying I would receive my video within 3 days.

Not even 24 hours later I received my email. Thankfully I am able to take criticism from a nameless, faceless, teenage sounding American. Well, the first time I stopped the video 30 seconds or so in.
The second time I had my coffee ready and sat down to hear the news.

To say it was bad was an understatement. Thankfully it is only user friendliness of the site they test and not content. I may have given up completely.

I can honestly say though, that as I was watching this unknown guy, clicking around my site and telling me what he was seeing and thinking. I was nodding my head. I was agreeing with him! Then I started to wonder how come I hadn't noticed any of this, and then, like a sledgehammer it hit me.

I had designed the blog around me. What I found easy to use. Where my mind thought things should be. Colours and  layouts I could easily navigate. Why? I don't use the site. Everything is done through the blogger dashboard.

So to cut to the chase I am now doing what I should have done to start with.

Call it my Blogging Business Plan, or if you like Jerry Maguire, my Mission Statement.

I will continue to be active on Twitter, reading and commenting on posts. I will probably still promote a couple of my better posts, and then, once I have a clear strategy and direction. some clearly defined goals and objectives, for the Blog as well as personal. Then we can go at this Blogging all guns blazing.


6 comments:

  1. Oh no! If I knew you were planning on doing this I would have stopped you.

    Yes there are a few things within the dad network post that is great tips to get into blogging and to do things to grow. That being said into have learnt and few lessons.

    I have blogged for 5 years and nd yet relaunched it 6 months and do. Like you I was going to do it properly. And in that time I have learnt and do lot. And there is masses that is still need to learn.

    The most important thing though impossible why you blog and what you blog about.

    I discovered very early on though hat I wanted to blog bout me. Hence the blog title. This coveted lots. I wasn't just going to be a parent blogger or fashion blogger etc I wanted to just blog me. Why? Because I know me. Others don't and I won't be a massive hit in certain fields because of it. But then that gets on to point 2. Why in blog. It's a hobby and and outlet. Something I enjoy and nd is and do the moment and do part time job even though I font earn from it.

    Drop me a tweet and we can have a chat if you want. Always here to help like you have for me. But please don't let some snotty review and critic your blog.
    You have followers and readers and d have and d noticeable presence on twitter. You're doing brilliantly and I would have featured you in my #40daybloggingchallenge information I didn't think so.

    So as I said if you need a chat or any help drop me a line.

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    1. Excuse the odd random word my auto predict is clearly playing up...grrr

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  2. Such kind words as always Martyn. It may have come across worse than it actually is. Most of changes I am planning are visual. The peek reviewer was right. As most of my viewing is on a smartphone it never dawned on me my choice of background etc might be stopping people reading the whole post.

    I also want to build up a nice bank of draft posts. So I can edit and post daily. Have posts ready for the linkys etc. Will give me more time to read and comment on the other Linky posts.

    Thanks as ever for your help and comments :-)

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  3. I did the same, dived in with no real planning or thought process. Learning a little more every day and trying to make some adjustments but it's a hard slog.

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  4. I did the same too. I have been blogging on and off for around 8 years and I have learnt a lot in that time. I haven't learnt everything - not by a long shot but I am a much more confident blogger. I launched a new blog just over 12 months ago and my readership is growing at a healthy rate - much better than I expected. The best advice I was ever given is to write what YOU feel passionate about, not what you think people want to read. A person would much rather read a post written with a genuine investment, then a post that is parroting on about a subject just because it is popular. I enjoyed your blog and I hope you continue to be successful.

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    1. Thank you for the kind comments Joanna. I read my first blog post from 4 months ago earlier and although the writing could be improved I've moved away from the style I was hoping for.
      I'd intended the blog to be a humourous look at raising a girl in a houseful of men.

      I think its time to get back to that.

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