Spit-shining Your Ego: Success in Blogging

I started blogging for two reasons. First, my friends had blogs and it seemed like I should have one. Second, I was arrogant enough to believe people might care about what I had to say. Nowadays, I blog for more pragmatic purposes: to educate my audience and reach my own professional ambitions.

But what makes a blog successful? Let’s say it right now: there’s no stat, no single number that you have to achieve before you’re considered “successful.”

What’s the point?

If you don’t know why you’re blogging, then why should we care? Think of it in terms of a mission statement or an elevator pitch: what do you hope to accomplish and how do you plan to do it?

My goals for my Non-Profit blog are to make connections with other non-profit workers, promote certain organizations for whom I work very hard, and eventually find partners for great projects that make a lasting difference in the world. I also want to get paid for something in the non-profit sector: speak at conferences, do some consulting, etc.

Money shouldn’t be the only reason, but I’ve always believed it is a factor for most people in one way or another.

How are you measuring?

Blogging to land new clients or sell a product is easy to measure: look at referrals from your blog to your product site or signup page or contact form.

If your goals are as intangible as mine, it can be hard to figure out how to measure your success. How do you measure your personal brand development?

There are the obvious ones like feed subscribers, unique visitors, or comments. Then there are tools specifically to help evaluating a blog on the whole: Technorati or PostRank, for instance. And there more contextual measurements, too. How much money are you making? How many conferences have you spoken at?

What can you do to make it better?

As John is fond of repeating (though I can?t find the original source), that which is measured improves. If you know your goals and are measuring your progress toward them, you can’t help but work harder. That’s how I ended up subscribing to dozens of great non-profit blogs, reading dozens of blogs about blogging, and eventually starting this very blog. Blog blog blawg blawg blawg. Phew.

Make it Happen

It’s all well and good to put so much time into your blog, but without a purpose you’ll run out of steam. Knowing and stating your purpose can help you beat writer’s block by giving you something to strive for.

Then, you’ll become addicted to seeing your progress. You won’t be able to resist checking your stats, looking at incoming links, and replying to comments.

See, you’ll want to get better and start realizing your goals. It keeps you on your toes. And since you’re measuring, you’ll see each incremental improvement – which builds momentum and sends you on your way.