Team Blogging Goals

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger has engaged my attention with his Blogging Goals Group Writing Project. Briefly, the idea is to blog about our goals, then contact Darren with our results.

With 44 entries already posted at ProBlogger, I won’t peek until I’ve listed my own blogging goals. To start, in order to explain my blogging goals I first need to share what point I’m at.

I’m a new blogger, so my first and ongoing task has been to learn my way around blogging by using a starter blog. Although I began with Blogger.com after a stormy entry into blogging with the LogoWorks Saga, my steady blog has been this one, Designers who Blog. I also keep up the blog NO!SPEC, but I’m more of a blog manager than a blogger. NO!SPEC has been beneficial as I was able to go further than tweaking a blog theme.

With wet feet, next up is creating a serious blog.

The team: After deciding the direction of the blog, I put together a team to fill the needed knowledge base. The three of us have been working together for years via the internet, so I already know we’ll have a good chance at this going smoothly. We consist of a marketing/copywriting/design/instructor/blogging chap, a programmer/copywriter/design/trouble shooting gal, and myself, a web/graphic/blogging gal with strong project management skills. We all have print and web experience, and many, many years of giving advice to those new in the design industry. So we are set (famous last words …).

The name: After a bit of discussion, we came up with a name, bought the domain name and paid for a hosting package.

The design: DWB has been great in getting my blogging feet wet, but it has not really taught me that much about serious blog design. Sure, I designed a bit with NO!SPEC, but that was an extremely simple layout. To educate myself I’ve been lurking at ProBlogger, as well as scouting around other blogs who are freely giving advice on the ‘must haves’. After deciding on a name, I roughed out a basic blog design in PhotoShop. Each time I read applicable advice I adjust the design here and there, then explain my actions to the team who either give a thumbs up or down.

The research: In the past months I researched various subjects. My findings are focused on two goals. 1) What to offer on the blog itself, and 2) resources to help the team be better bloggers. I bought books and bookmarked those dealing with copywriting, etc, pretty much anything that will help with the actual blogging.

Money: As none of us know anything about Adsense or other avenues, following Darren’s advice, I’ve signed up for a Adsense course. I’ve also bookmarked blogs giving advice on other monetary avenues.

Finally, the blog goals:

1) Clean my plate of clients
2) Create a basic business plan (it will include who is blogging what, when, and how often, goals for the year, marketing plan, etc)
3) Sign a contractual agreement between the three of us
4) Complete basic course on Adsense and immerse myself in the resources I’ve collected dealing with the same or similar
5) Tweak blog design to include what ‘ve learned
6) Create a detained report explaining what I believe (from what I’ve researched) should be included
7) Skype between the three of us to discuss my suggestions
8) Finalise the blog design from the decisions made
9) Code it, check it, check it again, Cat breaks it, Jay fixes it, check again, etc
10) As per the agreed theme, write articles, e-book downloads, blog posts for a month, etc
11) Fill the blog with articles, resources, downloads, then tweak for SEO
13) Send URL to trusted friends to review and offer advice
14) Skype again to decide what advice is valid
15) Finalise, clean up
16) Sign up for a dedicated paypal account. Tie it in with Adsence, etc
17) Start blogging
18) Send out press releases, email alerts, share on forums, alert other bloggers, etc, etc, etc …
19) … lots of etc from this point on in as we refine and define our blogging style …