Bone, Bark and Bite to attain Blog Goals

This may be a bit off topic in regards to small dogs; however I can’t ignore this luring writing project which Darren at Problogger has invited us to share. I didn’t participate the last writing project (highly effective bloggers) due to a number of reasons, so when the opportunity strikes twice, I’ll be nuts to miss it again.

Even Snowball wants to have his say on this project. And he summed it up in three steps.

1. Find a Bone right for your bite size! (Niche blog where you’ve some knowledge of) Mission Achieved.
2. Bark as frequently as possible to annoy humans! (Post regularly to alert engines/directories and increase readership) Mission semi-achieved but could do better.
3. Bite as hard as possible to make your mark even it takes days to carve out your signature! (Implement the goals no matter how difficult they seem to be) Working on it!

As for me, this is a scary thing since I’m putting myself on the line (not my favorite past time, btw). But what the heck, No Risk No Goals.

So here are my Blog Goals for Small Dogs Paradise

Content: Writing has always been my passion so when I decided to switch this niche (formally known as small-dogs-breed-lovers.com) from static website to blog platform, I never regretted it. I do have quite a few topics written, stored in my hard drive, and can easily whip up at least two posts a day but I shan’t do so. Oh, don’t get me wrong that I want to deprive my readers for more information. I just don’t want to spread myself too thin, just in case on those days where my brain ceases to function normally (most of time it’s below subnormal) or the day I just want to be lazy like my dogs.

And for those days when I’m totally blank out, I’ll dig deeper into the log files, and write posts that often searched for. Actually this should be my priority; however I’ve done some research via wordtracker so those search terms from my files will act as supplementary/secondary topics or vice verse.

Invite more local vets, groomers, trainers, retailers to contribute some expert advice here. I know quite a few of them but due to their busy schedules, this approach maybe harder to achieve in near future. Do y’know what? I might have to “bribe” them with some doggy treats. =)

My Product: I hope by end of 2006, I have at least one ebook for sale. Many don’t know this, but I’m actually writing my ebook now (when I’m not working on my blogs) – just a paragraph at a time. I figure slow and steady will produce richer content if not at least what my readers or searchers looking for.

Newsletters: Send out newsletters more frequently. This is one area that I’m so guilty of. Though I don’t have a huge list (lower 3 digit range), but there are some folks who favor emails to feeds (especially in this “non-geeky” niche). I’ve been struggling with this route (weekly or monthly) for quite awhile and haven’t come to a conclusion yet. Maybe I’ve to do a poll to find out.

Actually, I like to encourage more readers to subscribe my feeds or social bookmark my site (instead of adding to their favorites, not that I’m complaining but indeed it’s going quite impressively) but I don’t know how to go about implementing it. So dog lovers if you’re reading this, and find this site to be of worthy reference, please use my social bookmarking link at the end of each post. Honestly, it isn’t that overwhelming as I thought out to be. Just do it!

Traffic: 3 major search engines have been good to me (except for Y who’s a bit slow indexing this whole site, quite a surprise for me) so far since May 3rd which was officially launched. However, I need to do more and here’s how I intend to do.

• Submit my articles to article directories (one fortnightly/monthly)
• Submit to link directories (two over the weekends)
• Networking (fear and shyness which result in my procrastination)

Note: This certainly doesn’t sound too sexy to eager bloggers as the process I’m attempting is slooooooow. My reason is simple. Organic growth of traffic is far better off than one hit wonders. Furthermore, it’s easier to track and certainly more achievable in the long term. After all, my site isn’t going anywhere, so why rush and spoil my amusement.

There are a couple more goals to be listed here. For now, these goals are quite a mouthful for me since I maintain a few other niche blogs.

And if all the above goals I failed to fulfill, by all means chew my head off in the comment. Or better yet, get me a muzzle collar so I won’t bark louder/harder than I bite.