Did you set goals for your business at the beginning of last year?
Did you set goals for your business blog?
Have you reviewed them during the year?
I have to admit that although I had my goals for my various blogs at the back of my mind during the year, I had totally forgotten about the blog post I wrote this time last year, publicly outlining the goals for my blogs, until reminded by a client during the week who had created her own goals based on my post!
Here are the goals I set for 2012:
For Wallpaper Review – I will be evaluating the effectiveness of the keyword analysis tool (the only tool I am using to attract traffic) and seeing if it results in significant increased traffic and sales over to my online shop.
For Garrendenny Lane – I recently wrote my thousandth blog post (in just under 4 years). I intend to write 3 blog posts a week – providing readers with tips and suggestions rather than simply telling them about new products and incorporating a degree of personal details/personality into most posts.
For Write on Track – I plan to write two blog posts a week. One will be focusing on blogging tips for beginners and I would like to create an e-book from those particular blog posts by the end of the year.
How Did I Get On?
With Wallpaper Review – which was an ‘experimental’ blog I set up with wordpress.com to give clients an indication of the levels of traffic they could expect with brand new blogs.
You can see my post discussing the results earlier in the year.
I stopped writing up this blog midway during the year. It definitely resulted in more traffic to the online shop and the biggest order I received as a result of that blog was an order for 6 rolls of one of our most expensive wallpaper. Other orders tended to be for one or two rolls. I stopped blogging because I was struggling for time even though the blog posts tended to be short and quick. Write on Track was getting busier and I ‘went with the flow’ with that.
With Garrendenny Lane – well, I’ve made the decision to close down the online shop as it stands at the moment. I may maintain wallpaper and add a new product in the new year but time is against me. Write on Track is getting busier and I love love love writing about, talking about and teaching social media. It is also proving to me more lucrative. I’m not sure what that says about the Garrendenny Lane blog, it has resulted in sales during the year, it helps with SEO, it has helped me to build relationships with journalists and now it feels like the end of an era for this business. I do tend to change the course of my life every 5 years or so hence the time was ripe. However, the Garrendenny Lane blog has served me well.
The Write on Track blog - I have written one or two blog posts each week, it was reduced to one per week in the run up to the blog awards. I need to get back to producing blogging tips for beginners as well as more general blogging advice and tips. We decided during the year that we would product an e-book on pinterest rather than blogging. We had planned to publish it by the autumn, however, we are now postponing it until we launch our pinterest online courses in the new year with We Teach Social.
On the plus side, the Write on Track social media platforms – be they twitter, facebook, pinterest, the blog ….. have, naturally enough, resulted in traffic. They’ve also resulted in making a difference to the bottom line – be that people booked individual mentoring sessions, came along to courses or hired us for their ghost blogging. Here’s to 2013
Business Goals for 2013
- Each of us will write a blog post once a week for Write on Track
- Increase traffic and conversions via the Write on Track blog and other social media platforms
- Teach many more courses – in collaboration with enterprise boards and independently
- We will launch We Teach Social in the early spring, using social media to promote it.
- Publish an book (ebook or PDF) on Pinterest
- Organise the Blog Awards again
Image: Free Digital Photos
Have your reviewed your blogging success for 2012? Have you set some goals as yet for 2013? We’d love to hear how you’re getting on.
