Blog Improvement Project-- Setting Goals

I really didn't have any goals for Kittling: Books in 2008. I started this blog in June 2008 basically to have a place for all my bookish thoughts. Although I really didn't want to sit here and talk to myself, my mode of transportation the first couple of months was flying by the seat of my pants. Then I began reading other book blogs and discovered what a wonderful community exists, and I wanted to become a part of it. When the first few people actually began to visit Kittling: Books, my thoughts about it all began to change.

The primary goal of my blog is to share my love of reading with as many people as I can. There are three secondary goals that I'm setting myself in 2009 that I feel will accomplish this:



DESIGN

I've already started working on this. Although I like three-column templates, it's way too easy to put up too much "stuff" and have the entire blog look cluttered and confusing. I switched back to a two-column basic template and have been learning a bit of HTML in order to modify it.

• The background is mine, from one of my photos manipulated in Paint Shop Pro.
• I learned how to compartmentalize the header, although I'm still not satisfied with it.
• I learned how to make a three-column footer.
• I learned how to make Wordpress-like "pages" on a Blogger template, and I'm still working on those.

My goal is to have a blog design that's "me". One that's simple, uncluttered, and full of content that people want to keep coming back to read.

CONTENT

This is something else I'd like to work on. The bare bones are there, but I've found that the posts that get the most comments tend to be the ones where my own "voice" comes through, whether it's tidbits about my life or just me spouting off an opinion. Yup. Gotta work on my voice. Do-re-mi-mi-mi-mi!

TRAFFIC

I've made it easy to subscribe and easy to comment, but there's more work to be done. Joining Twitter and Here Be Reviews have increased traffic to my blog. (Ringsurf didn't do much at all.) I've made sure that the URL for my blog is listed at sites that I frequent like LibraryThing and Paperback Swap. The URL is also in my email sig file. Here are other things I want to check into to increase traffic:

• Learn more about StumbleUpon.
• Learn how to make my post titles easier for search engines to pick up.
• Learn of other places like Here Be Reviews.
• Leave more comments on other blogs. I'm doing a lot of reading, but I don't always remember to comment!

Now that I've read all this over, I realize that my primary goal for blogging is wrong. Yes, I do want to share my love of reading with others, but I also want to meet other people of like mind--and enjoy myself while I'm doing it!

If you're interested in participating in the Blog Improvement Project, or if you'd like to see what other participants are saying, just click on the graphic at the top of this post!