I’m all about fresh starts. New weeks, new months, new years. I think a lot of bloggers are. Many of us have an obsession, on some level anyway, with to-do lists and calendars and plans. Just stating facts here. ;)
January is a great time to make those plans a reality. As much as we dream about finally making a commitment to blog or write or kick-start our freelance careers, it’s not going to happen until we do something about it. Here’s my 3-step plan to get you thinking about 2015 and all the possibilities it brings in blogland. I’m following this myself and I hope it inspires you too!
Commit
When you reflect on 2014, you may realize that you had an on-again, off-again relationship with your blog. I did. Now is the time to do something about those commitment issues. Blogging doesn’t have to be fulltime—it’s so time consuming that it’s nearly impossible to do fulltime if you’re busy juggling other jobs—but you should know what you want out of the endeavor. Whether it’s daily blogging or posting 2-3x a week, make your commitment official!
Plan
The planning is the easy part for me. I can come up with plans for days. Depending on your blog category, you might brainstorm the month’s editorial calendar, plan your first photo shoot of 2015, start estimating how much time it will take you to follow through with your commitment, etc. There’s lots of planning to be done for any blog. But the way to make this an effective task and not a waste of time is to focus on the planning itself, not the finished product—that way you have an actual reference point when you go to execute your plans. So take time to think of what you’ll need to pull off a photo shoot, for example, or fill in the topics on your calendar, even if you may not follow them to a T. You have to start somewhere!
Execute
Okay, now for the hard part! Say you’ve committed to blogging 3x a week and you’ve come up with all your topics for the month of January. Now you have to sit down to it, which can be much more difficult than expected. Even if your design is not quite right or you’re not even sure anyone is reading (yet), the most important part of a blog is the content, so you need to kick off 2015 with that as the priority.
Which blog-related topics do you think we should tackle in 2015? Let us know.
Rose... says
Thank you for those tips.
I would like to know how to choose the best social media platform to promote my blog.
Happy New year
Rose…
Angela says
Great topic! I definitely have some ideas.
Melissa @ Hilltop Hausfrau says
Super great tips! I’d say, representing yourself as truthfully as you can is also a good one. Also: new content…originality. That’s what I’m looking for in a blog :)
Popping over from the EBT…
Angela says
So true. A lot of people tend to overlook the truthful part when trying to create an image.
Thanks for stopping by!
Alex says
I think the blog-related posts have been helpful, and I always look forward to ones that cover the basics. That’s the tedious stuff that gets overlooked, but there’s still people like me that just don’t have it down yet.
Angela says
Thanks! I agree–this stuff does get overlooked a lot.
Abbie says
Planning is definitely the way forward! Great tips x
Jae says
Realistic tips for old and new bloggers alike! Thanks for sharing!
P.S. Where’d you get your planner? The color looks refreshing!
Angela says
I got it at a small shop in Los Angeles but it’s actually Paper Source!
Lisa says
This is a great post! I started my blog in September and have had a hard time staying committed to posting regularly. I would love for you to post something about how to take your blog to the next level, and deciding what that level is. I like to always work on improving some aspect of my blog/personal brand, whether it’s design, photo quality, personal biz cards, my Etsy shop, etc etc. How does a blog grow? Would love to read your insight on this. Thanks!
Angela says
These are great ideas Lisa. I think talking about ‘what level’ that is is really important.
Leah says
Thank you so much for these tips! I’ve already started putting them into practice ❤
Leah♡Leah in La La Land