Blog Branding

When things come together in unexpected ways it is known as serendipity. On Wednesday I wrote Blogging Lessons and what I learned from my stats. On Friday I wrote about marketing run amuck in Creative Backlash to Disney. This morning I listened to a podcast by Michael Sutton of BeBuildHave about leveraging your experience to create your future. On top of all of this, a little WordPress course, Blogging 201,  begins today and asks me to define why I write a blog, and to set three goals.

Why do I write a blog? I am a writer in need of a voice. A friend asked me to take a beginning writing course with her. As an experienced journalist I didn’t think that was the correct outlet for me, but I did want to express my ideas and get feedback from others. After a time of grief and depression, I felt a little rusty, and lacking in creativity, so a blog seemed like the perfect place to test my writing and get my creativity flowing.

Exactly where I am going I have yet to defined, but my forays into poetry have been well received, and each post grows my followers, so I am greatly encouraged to keep writing. I’ve already learned I’m not as negative as I once believed, and more people find me funny than I ever imagined. Maybe I’ve played to the wrong audience, or I’ve hidden my best stuff. Either way, I am coming out of my writer’s closet.

My goals through the end of the year are these:

1. Post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with an occasional purely artistic post just for fun on the weekend to keep growing those skills.  Plus, post  earlier in the day.
2.  Branding drives growth and I would like to top 100 followers by the end of the year.  I would also like to see more action in my comment section.
3. Create a more detailed editorial calendar, which projects topics, rather than relying on finding inspiration from someplace each day.  This seat-of-my-pants approach to blogging is a little scary.  What if I can’t think of anything?  There goes goal one!

Planning leads to success.  If my wildest dreams came true and my blog  had thousands of readers, I would know I am ready for the next step.  That would be a book of course.