Plans and Goals
I must say, I’m not very good at making either plans or goals.
I’m much too… scattered. I’m not really impulsive. I will think about something for a long time before settling down to do it. I am, however, very scattered in my approach to doing things. Sometimes, I’ll dive headlong into a project and get it done quickly… almost too quickly. Other times, I’ll slowly accomplish tasks that vaguely relate to the project at hand.
So, I have two related goals that I would like to experiment with.
First, I would like to see if I can finally get an adsense check. I have been averaging less than $1 per month for a while now, with a total balance currently just above $40. Yeah, it’s my own fault that the adsense checks aren’t rolling in, since I know that I have had more than enough time and resources to get the traffic needed.
Second, I would like to have an average of five comments on this site per day. Reader discussion is an absolute must in having a thriving, dynamic blog. Not only would people come to read the posts themselves, but there will also be gems scattered around the comments sections of each post, contributing new outlooks and further clarifications that are currently missing from each post.
In order to tell whether I have succeeded or not, I would like to set a deadline of three months. I plan to do all of this by my wedding anniversary on April 20th.
Here’s the plan. Obviously, in order to get an adsense check legitimately, I need more traffic. It’s time for a semi-passive marketing campaign. Here is how I currently plan to run this campaign:
- Find new blogs and start discussions with the owners. These will be honest discussions, on topic, and hopefully adding value to the owner’s site.
- Revisit “old” blogs and continue discussions with those owners. There is nothing better than having old friends to talk to, and while I may not get as many ‘new’ visitors, I know that these visitors are already of the highest quality.
- Increase my response rates. This means keeping conversations going with comments, both on my site and on the sites of other people.
- Feature high quality content on my site. No, I won’t steal people’s content… I’ll paraphrase it, generate interest, and link to the other person’s site.
- Continue to be myself. There’s something to be said about being open and honest… It is truly a liberating experience. The more transparent I make my own transition into a responsible, joyful person, the more helpful my advice can be to others.
And finally, I have just one step, in addition to the steps above, that is specific to my goal of generating more readers comments:
- Ask Questions inside the post, looking for honest answers and engaging conversation.
Which leads me to my question: What else can I do to meet these goals?
The Inspiration
The reason why I’m starting this experiment is because I have a third, larger goal. That goal is simply to be able to consistently and effectively achieve my goals.
Since the best way to learn is to practice, I’m putting this goal into practice immediately. I will, of course, refine the implementation of these goals as I progress, which is why I want reader feedback. I’m too close to my own life… Just as I can’t see what is right behind my back without turning around, I realize that I have blind spots in my own life, and I would appreciate it if people would tell me when I should step back and take a look at my choices.
At his new site,Advanced Life Skills, Jonathan Wells started out with some powerful posts, and I would like to give him credit for planting the idea for this post in my head. His post titledGoals Are Not Wishful Thinking reminded me to look at my own lofty goals, and set a plan of action to each of them, so that finally, eventually, they’ll get done.
I found out the easy way whether or not Jonathan was a new blogger… Indeed, he is one of the experienced ones who is making a transition to a new topic. The way that I found out was simply by asking. He has three other blogs already, which focus on health related topics, including how our mental state is necessary for good health. He also has a couple of ad-copy sites, which he uses together with unobtrusive ads on his blogs so that he can continue to focus on providing value.
His other sites are
- HEALTHeFORUM
- HEALTHeNEWS
- Weight Loss Product Review
- Progressive Realization (online book, using “mind over matter” to help live a healthier life)
- Creating Powerful Health (online book, more information on using “mind over matter” in to affect your health)
- Lose the Fat Fast (three products which supplement diet and exercise)
Personally, I’m more interested in his blogs than his products, since I really don’t have much need in reducing my body fat, and I have been taught at an early age the powers of the mind over the body. I would, however, love to see some fair and unbiased reviews of his products, if anyone were willing to try them out. Jonathan says that he has been concentrating on health for a while, and I’m guessing it is because it seems easier to earn money while helping people through health related topics. He says that his true passion is personal growth and development, and from reading his start of his new site (which is, again, Advanced Life Skills), I can tell that he has a new perspective that will help many people.
For those who have lost track (and I assure you, with my attention span sometimes, I would be guilty of losing track as well), the question for this post is “What else can I do to meet the goals of earning an adsense check, and how else can I improve the number of comments made on this site?”
I’m looking for honest opinions. Even if you can’t find the most ‘diplomatic’ way of sharing your opinion, and you just want to call me crazy and stupid, please post away… All of the feedback I get, constructive or otherwise, will be extremely helpful. If we can get a true debate going, then all the better. 
Here’s to a new year and all of the hopes and goals that go along with it.
Adam, visiting other blogs and leaving comments is how I am building the subscriptions to my blog. My numbers are slowly and steadily rising each day. Slade is the person that suggested the idea to me. It does work. Something else that I am doing is to participate in Blog Carnivals. I read most of the articles that are submitted to each carnival that I participate in and leave comments on the ones that make me think. You can find the carnivals at Blog Carnival online.
To have subscriber numbers rise each day would definitely help with my two goals here. I’m already planning on commenting on other people’s blogs, since I would like people to comment on mine.
I have been thinking about Blog Carnivals, and I have participated in group writing projects before. I would be curious to see what their actual effects are.
Patricia… Do you have links to different sites that host Blog Carnivals? I promise that if my spam filters get over-zealous, I’ll make certain that your post gets through, since such a list would help a lot of different people, not just me.
Another thing to think of would be a ‘viral’ list of Blog Carnival hosts… just as Priscilla Palmer’s viral list of personal development sites greatly helped my own exposure and the exposure of many, many other sites. (In fact, I’m still receiving a slow trickle of people from that list posted on the various sites.)
Such a list of carnival hosts would be a great undertaking with a lot of logistical management issues… but I’m up for the challenge… and the Link Love would be well worth giving out.
Adam, go to the Blog Carnival site found at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/ . You will find several hundred carnivals. I haven’t counted how many there are. You have to login and set up a password. Every once in awhile, I will go through the entire list and add some to My Favorites list. Those are the ones that I send articles to each month. Some are posted once a month, some every week, some twice a month. Most of the carnivals have more than one host. Most of them are set up to rotate the job of host among a lot of different people. The blogs that I am interested in you may or may not be interested in.
As an incest survivor and someone who wants to support other survivors and put out knowledge for everyone, I submit articles to the Carnival Against Child Abuse and Carnival Against Sexual Abuse. As a personal development blogger, I sometimes submit articles to the Personal Development & Happiness Carnival; Personal Stories of Change Carnival; Engineer Your Own Happiness Carnival; Carnival of Healing; Meditation,Yoga & Spiritual Growth Carnival; Made To Be Great Carnival; Carnival of Inspiration & Motivation; and Personal Power Carnival. A carnival for women that I sometimes participate in is called All For Women Blogging Carnival. Carnival of Creative Growth; Carnival of Lightworkers; Law of Attraction Carnival; Positive Thinking Carnival; Abundant Thinking Carnival; Carnival of Truth; and Reach For Magnificense Personal Development Carnival are some carnivals that I have done in the past but I am not currently doing these. I don’t do all of these every month. It depends upon whether I have an article written that I think will meet their needs as a carnival. I don’t write an article strictly with the idea of putting it into a specific carnival. K-L Masina is the person who suggested that I try doing carnivals.
Plans and goals are not easy to totally organize and control, I agree with you Albert! So, we need a degree of flexibility, because life can throw curve-balls at us that will force us to modify such plans. Indeed, flexibility is the key. Nice article, Albert…kudos!!!
[Edit: Keith, you got my name wrong (I’m not Albert, as is painfully obvious by the URL and title of the site, as well as the couple of places where my name actually appears… and your comment really doesn’t show that you actually read my post. I didn’t make any judgment about whether plans and goals were easy to organize or not, so how could you agree with something I didn’t say?
Because of these glaring inconsistencies, I have rendered your URL useless, and I’m preventing you from being auto-approved for future comments. If you’re a real person, you’ll respond within a couple days, and I’ll remove the edits. If not, this will be added to the spam filters. The only reason this is not being auto-spammed is because you were at least semi-close to the topic. kinda.]
Adam - you might enjoy yje work of a great aussie blogger - www.craigharper.com.au If nothing else you may smile!
Hey Adam (or should I say Albert, that’s pretty funny), I just wanted to say that I liked your post. And I also wanted to share with you some things that I found. Scott Young posted a good post on how to get obsessive results without obsessing over a goal here.
Also Tina from www.thinksimplenow.com wrote a guest post on www.problogger.net on how she went from 0 to over 2000 subscribers in 3 months, you can check it out here.
I would also like to invite you to check out my blog and comment on it as well. Thanks, and good luck with your goals.
Chris, thanks for dropping by.
I have to say, I already saw the post by Scott Young, and I currently have a long comment on that article awaiting moderation. (The short version: I took his advice as an exercise… that is, I listed some of my projects that are hard keep from reaching the burnout stage on, then listed the complementary tasks.)
For those who want to see my long version, head over to Scott Young’s blog in a few hours, once he has a chance to approve my comment.
I’ll take a few minutes right now to look over Tina’s post on ProBlogger, (I unsubscribed from his feed a couple months ago, since I needed extra time to concentrate on moving into a new house… Now’s a perfect time to resubscribe.) I’ll also definitely check out Tina’s blog as well as your own, and if I like them, they’ll probably be included in one of my future Link Love sections. I’ll respond back here as well later this evening with my first impressions.
Thank you very much for the links. From my ten second glances at each of them, they look like great resources.
Jen… I’m sorry that I haven’t responded sooner… I have to agree with you that Craig Harper’s site is also a gem among blogs. Thank you for reminding me of him, as he’s also being re-added to my feed reader.
Hey Adam, thanks for responding back. They are great resources (in my opinion). There is one other one that I forgot to add - 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. I’ve decided that I’m going to a major redesign and update of my site to follow the information that I’ve learned from Tina’s post and the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog one. Good luck in reaching all of your goals.