One of the most important things you can do for your business — if you want it to succeed — is to make a list of goals and make sure to write them down. It’s true, I read it somewhere. Actually, this is true for almost any endeavor, because something about the process of writing a goal down gets you to focus your mind on what you want to achieve, and the creation of a written artifact makes it that much easier for you to remind yourself of your goals as time passes. I decided to start off this year by writing down some of my goals for my business in the new year. Please feel free to chime in with goals of your own, or just make fun of my goals, as you see fit, kids.
- Convince Federated Media to add ABDPBT
to its network of authors.
The vast majority of blogs that are able to bring in enough ad revenue to rely upon direct advertising as their sole means of monetizing either sell their ads privately or are members of premium advertising networks like Federated Media or The Deck. To sell your own ads is a lucrative endeavor, but it is also time-consuming and calls on skills that I simply do not have. It does not appeal to me to dredge through the nickel and dime advertising offers that I periodically receive in my inbox from unsavory advertisers (like the one I got for a payday loan establishment last week), and I simply do not have the kind of sales acumen (or time) it requires to pursue advertisers with offers of my own. Therefore, for me, and at present, my best bet is to get the highest CPM per advertiser through a clearinghouse that knows the business and can sell my space for me. At present, I use BlogHer ads, and though they have been good to me, their rates are not as good as I can get elsewhere. Because of this, I’ve been trying to get Federated Media to represent me for awhile, and they pretty much ignore me. Admittedly, my mocking of Dooce last week that resulted in her snarky @-replies to me with a fake hugz offer is not going to help me to win over the gang at Federated Media, but how could I ignore her threatening to Maytag my preciouss Sephora on Twitter? Not on my watch, bitches ! Besides, I am sneaky and manipulative, and will wear the gatekeepers at FM down eventually, even if they find me repugnant as a person. More on this below. - Increase ABDPBT’s pageviews to an average of 500,000 per month by the end of 2010.
This goal is really more of a subheading to number one of my list of goals, because I’ve determined that 500,000 pageviews per month is the arbitrary point at which Federated Media is willing to take on a new author, even when they find their content repugnant or mind-numbingly boring. Everyone has a price, my friends, and Federated Media’s is an average of 500,000 pageviews. How do I know this? Well, I’ve been watching the new authors and that’s the pattern I’ve identified: boring content (check), overly prolific postings on topics that are, pretty much, common sense topics (check), run-of-the-mill to poor design? (check), average pageviews per month? 500,000 or more. So to 500,000 pageviews per month I must go, friends. If you’re familiar with ABDPBT’s stats, you’ll notice that this will require me to increase my pageview totals to about five times what they are today. (By the way if you ever want to check on how ABDPBT is doing, or if you want to look at other people’s stats, you can visit quantcast.com, where people actually embed counters in their sites so you know it’s giving you accurate numbers.)My page views are not too bad in terms of the total number, but the page views per person are way too low at present. This is for two reasons, as far as I can tell: 1) I have a ton of search engine and social media traffic at present due to the Lady Gaga post that people are inexplicably fascinated by; and 2) I get a lot of one-pageviewers every day because of the crossword puzzle. There are several methods I can use to increase my total number of page views, both by increasing the total number of visitors to the site and by encouraging people to visit more pages once they’re here . . . but more on that below.
- Build the ABDPBT community.
I have a nice group of regular readers that I love on ABDPBT. I would like for this group to grow even more, and to encourage the many people who read but who do not comment to participate in the community. I think that some of my posts are less welcoming than others, and I want to work on developing more content that is interesting to the community, rather than just writing whatever I feel like writing all of the time. I’m still brainstorming ways to do this, though I know that one of the major ways to encourage community growth is to branch out in my blog reading and commenting, so a big increase there is on my agenda for 2010. Look out, because I might just be trolling your comment section someday soon. - Try not to be an asshole.
My biggest goal for business this (and every) year is to try my best not to be an asshole. This is very challenging for me, but I’m giving it my best shot. I’m going to make a particular point of watching the absurd proclamations of importance and power that lead one to do things like use Twitter mobs to resolve customer service issues. I’m also going to think about what I’m giving to the community, rather than what it can give me. This is a goal I hope to keep close to my heart as the business grows, rain or shine.
What about you, internet? What are your goals for 2010?
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Regarding #2, you might want to make the “subscribe to all feeds” button in a more obvious/accessible place, or perhaps advertise it (again? for the first time?) on the main feed. I’ve been subscribed to the main feed for awhile but didn’t do the 4feed until recently simply because I didn’t know about it.
Of course, I might be half-blind/clueless/a tool, and I might be the only “regular” who didn’t know about it, but you never know.
@perpetua, that’s a good idea. I never did promote it, either: I just added it in the process of the redesign and kind of forgot about it. I should probably figure out a way to make it more prominent, and add it to the options in the drop down RSS feed that comes up on the main page in the URL address area on the browser. Thanks for pointing that out.
My goals are:
1. Complete career change
2. Get off my ass and exercise once in a while
3. Stop screwing around on the internet and do some paying work instead
In preparation for this, I’ve spent the entire morning screwing around on the internet, in my pajamas, eating leftover Christmas crap. Nobody is paying me for this, and I’m pretty sure there’s no career that involves these things. But it’s still technically 2009, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to magically transform into a new person on Thursday night.
There’s a way to subscribe to all 4 feeds? Count me in the blind/clueless/a tool camp. I found ABDPBT Personal Finance via http://badmoneyadvice.com/, and since Francis X. Curmudgeon is brilliant and includes very few bloggers on his blogroll, I figured this blog must be special and it is, though not in the way I expected! I happily tell everyone I know about ABDPBT.
My goals for 2010:
1. Post more than once a week.
2. Interact more with the blogs I read and enjoy.
3. Start new series exploring the history of American money & values.
4. Redesign blog so that series are easier to access as separate threads.
5. Stop working so much and spend more time with my sweetie.
Actually, I meant the history of American money & moral values.
Good goals. As for me, let’s see:
1. Decide if I’m staying or leaving academia
2. Develop a more consistent blogging style
3. Be more open to experiences
4. Work more on my design & photography
The first and third are the hardest for me. I’m in a different place than I thought I’d be when I got to be a 30 something.
Oops, didn’t mean to add a b to the end of my name there. Maybe I will add proofread my comments before posting them as my #5.
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