What makes a blog successful?

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I have always thought that blogging is a way to reach your career goals. It's hard to write a blog if you don't have a goal. You need to know what blogging success looks like to you, so you know what you’re aiming for.

Like most goals in life, my definition of blogging success has shifted as the circumstances of my life have shifted.

1. Post regularly without messing anything up.
My first goal was simply to understand how to get my writing onto the Internet. All the buzzwords overwhelmed me: feeds, trackbacks, SEO. I understood none of it, and it took weeks to get up the nerve to blog before I actually started. My first goal was to post regularly and avoid basic publishing mistakes like posting a draft before it was ready. (Reality check: There are much easier ways to start a blog than the method I chose.)

2. Create traffic.
I started measuring my success by traffic. But after a few months, I was totally overwhelmed and had to rethink what I was doing. Suddenly I couldn't answer all the comments, I couldn't even answer all my email at the beginning—it started coming in faster than I ever imagined. (Reality check: Traffic metrics are addictive.)

3. Grow conversations.
I started getting a handle on my email and the comments and the general influx of blog-related information from all the readers. And in the process, I realized that what I really cared about was the conversation. I wanted to meet new people and learn new things about topics I'm interested in. So I wanted the conversation to be good. I started measuring my success by the number of comments, and then, in turn, by how much I was learning from the comments. (Note: Here’s a lovely post from Problogger about encouraging comments.)

4. Make money.
I realized that I loved blogging more than any other writing I had ever done. I knew I wanted this to be my job, so I needed to be able to support my family doing it. I started measuring my success by how much income I could generate. I hit my target of $100,000 a year pretty easily (thanks to Yahoo) so I realized that I could aim higher. (Reality check: Money is not a good blog goal for most people.)

5. Build a company.
So I decided to sell equity in my blog and spin off a company. I gauged my success on how quickly I could get the company launched and funded. And, once I did that, I gauged my success on how well I could leverage my blog to drive traffic to my company, Brazen Careerist. You might be sick of hearing about my company here, but, you might also be happy to know that I've accomplished that goal, too. (Reality check: I nearly died from the stress of doing this.)

6. Regain my sanity.
So, here I am, asking myself, what is my goal with the blog now? Right now, what I want for myself is to be calm and peaceful. I have had a really wild ride in the last five years. I have gone from being nearly broke in NYC, moving to Wisconsin, starting a company, getting a divorce, traveling every week, while I'm trying to raise kids. Life has been chaotic and erratic and I'm sick of that. I want a break. I want to feel grounded, stable and I want routine.

Part of that, of course, is why I'm with a farmer. It's the farmer stereotype: grounded, stable, waking up every day to do chores. But I need to find that stuff from inside myself, as well.

On days when I post, I feel grounded and stable and connected. On days I don't post, I don't feel that. Which is why I should be posting every day. I see people who have very busy lives who are able to post every day.

So this will be a test for me. For now, my definition of successful blogging is using my blog to give myself a sense of stability and connectedness.

Each blogger starts for some reason. A good test for whether a goal is really meaningful to you is, do you keep at it? Do you keep striving to meet the goal? Sometimes I wonder, do I really want stability and a sense of being grounded, or do I just talk about it? The only way to find out is this: committing to it here, in a very public way, and seeing if it sticks.

77 replies
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  1. Sandra Bradley
    Sandra Bradley says:

    stumbled upon your site – like what I read – now I need some guidance – I have published a book with iUniverse and it won the Editor’s Choice and I have done nothing with it since. I am in an age bracket where computers just don’t ‘speak’ to me and have no ‘young’ people around to bail me out.

    The book answers to your statement “all you want now is some peace!” My wonderful little book “How to Save the World and Still be Home for Dinner/A Day in the Life of an Awakening Mind” has touched the lives of those who have read it and given them the tools they were searching for to see with new eyes. Being ‘Canadian’ I am lousy at self promoting, I have no idea where to start and who to get in touch with and do I buy a book on ‘Blogging’, take a course online or at some community college? Seeking some mentoring here…thanks…Sandra

  2. Bill Kaminski
    Bill Kaminski says:

    I love the fact that after all this self reflection you’re still searching and listening and trying to find the balance between career and personal goals. When I went through my divorce, my couselor told me I was very good at self analysis and I was pretty well grounded in what was happening. It didn’t mean I didn’t struggle, but I had a well grounded persepctive and in the long-run I would be OK. I’ve been in the HR business 30+ years and career counseling and employment is my passion, so I love what you’re doing. I will be a regular reader. Thansk. Bill

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  4. Aviva
    Aviva says:

    Very interesting points.
    I think that money should never be the goal with blogging to begin with because those who blog for money will end up very disappointed when they don’t live the blogger lifestyle.
    Traffic, on the other hand is a good indicator of whether or not your blog is good.

  5. Politics_Right
    Politics_Right says:

    I wish that you would address anonymous bloggers. What if that person wants to discuss controversial topics and doesn’t want to be shunned due to those views? Just asking…

  6. Andreas Pazer
    Andreas Pazer says:

    The internet blogosphere is a very large and sometimes very lonely place. It’s never been easier to get your own piece of internet real estate and there is always room for one more site. As a result, the number of blogs in existence has exploded in recent years and shows no sign of abating, yet how do these new bloggers find people to read their posts? Where do their visitors come from? The simple truth is that many of the blogs out there are attracting very small numbers of visitors with some attracting none at all. Some are nothing more than labors of love by their owners. Only a small handful of bloggers will ever make it to blog superstardom and attract the thousands of daily visitors needed to achieve it.

  7. jocelyn
    jocelyn says:

    This blog post really inspires me to write more. I also love writing but have a hard time finding readers to even take a single glance at my post. But I know that with persistence and hard work, my dream to become a great blogger will become a reality. Thank you so much Penelope for writing this content :)

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