Every few months I take a look at my blog and start asking the following questions:
- How do I get more readers?
- Should I figure out what my blog is about?
- Should I redesign my site?
And the list goes on and on…
See here’s what I always forget – lamiki.com is not, nor was it ever intended to be, strategic to the level that a business blog needs to be. And while I have gotten jobs and business from my blog, it is not a business.
Your First Blog is Your First Blog
As I experienced this crisis last night and wept, dramatically, to my husband, he brought up a good point – your first blog is like your first AOL screen name, dedicated to whatever you’re obsessed with at the time and once you grow out of that phase, you get a new one.
My husband is smart. And, ironically, the name lamiki was derived from my first AOL name.
Goals are Great, but Make Sure You Want Them
Five months ago I outlined my goals for the year and my blog, twice. I also outlined a very detailed plan of everything I was going to focus on with my blog for the year. Things like guest posting, a redesign, and a tighter content strategy – things that are included in that first list and much, much more. (Did you know that I’m ambitious?) And then in March I set a new goal:
Now I have one achievable, measurable goal. One that does not require the content calendars that I love to create, yet love to hate. One “must have” goal every single month when it comes to my blog and everything else has been demoted from the “required” list to the “would be nice” list of things I want to do.
My blog is not a business. It’s a passion project created to give me a place to write and share how I see the world. There is no monetization strategy and if I decide that’s something I want to do, there will be a new domain.
In the end, we all have an enormous amount of stress and responsibilities that we juggle every single day. And if something in your life that’s supposed to give you pleasure and a break from it all starts giving you stress, you need to make a change.
Photo Credit: Snapies
8 Responses
Nice to meet you on twitter. Thanks for your insights into blogging. Will check back in with you often.
Hella
Nice to meet you too, Hella! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Ah, this is great and encouraging! Our first blog is our first love, unadulterated by business seriousness. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
Welcome, Ifdy. Glad I could help 🙂
“And if something in your life that’s supposed to give you pleasure and a break from it all starts giving you stress, you need to make a change.” this is pretty much how every day of my life is haha.
I’m terrible at turning want to’s into have to’s .
This post is a pretty good reminder for me.. I mean.. I always had the intention of starting my blog as a business, from day 1. However, knowing nothing about blogging and nothing about business and nothing about the internet makes for a steep learning curve.
Like you I’ve torn out my hair 456 times trying to figure out where to go next.
Have you decided what’s next, Lamiki?
I think i’m onto two new things — another blog / project that is strictly professional (seeing as you know how I write.. hahah), and a possible rebranding of Milk the Pigeon once I have money (and keep that as my brain/lovechild). I still feel like what I started is deeply important, soulful work for a lot of 20 somethings, I just can’t figure out where to go next.
And let’s face it, It’s time to work for myself.
I like the idea of Milk the Pigeon staying as your brain/love child. We all need a place to be “ourselves” and just play, online and off. You’ve done a ton of incredible work over there, and I’d love to see it turn into more of a place to document your successes and what you’ve learned while building other things.
For me, my business site is Scrappy Face, so I already have a playground built for testing strategies, all I need is more time in my given day to dedicate to that. And while I play at SF, I’ll be taking note of what’s working as we build that business while I wait for the right time to start my own.
It’s all part of the master plan 🙂
I’ve found that when I don’t pay attention to traffic or design and just write (and write and write), I’m happier and more people notice.
I’ve found that too, as well as the posts that I just write vs. edit consistently turn out to be some of my best content that really impacts someone. It’s interesting how readers can tell, even if they don’t consciously know it.