You saw this coming, didn’t you? :D

Seriously, this is what happens when you read too many posts on “blogging goals” in a very short time frame. Goals that other bloggers set for themselves get stuck in your head and you start thinking about YOUR own goals. And then you start dreaming about your own subscriber base and Technorati and Alexa rankings and the number of page views and unique hits you can get in a month and the number of posts you can churn out in a week and number of comments you can generate from those posts and all that jazz.

Then you realize that you can’t shake those thoughts off. So what do you do? You blog about them, of course! :D

So what are MY blogging goals?

I hope it doesn’t sound too superficial to say that my blogging goals do not come in a package of RSS subscribers, number of posts and comments, number of page views and unique hits or even the amount of income generated from ads on my blogs. In fact, my blogging goals do not come in numbers and they cannot be measured the way other bloggers measure theirs.

1. Continue learning

   My first blogging goal is to continue learning because there is just so much to learn from and about blogging. I have found blogging enriching in many ways, from meeting new faces to managing my time and resources to increasing my productivity.

2. More consistent blogging and more timeless articles

   I am also planning a blogging schedule so that blogging doesn’t take too much of my time and so that there is a balance between time spent blogging and networking. We all know that blogging is a very time-consuming activity, especially when it involves researching and ensuring that the facts are presented as they are, so a little more time and care should go into making sure that everything is correct when posts are published.

3. Continue spreading awareness on environment- and charity-related issues

   The way I see it, environment-related issues will be a hot topic next year because we are getting more and more aware of our environment as well as the need to conserve the place we live in. Otherwise, we will be leaving our younger generations a planet that is no longer “fit for human habitation” with the increased evidence of global warming and what-have-yous.

4. Increase involvement in social media sites

   Apart from consistent blogging, I would also like to spend a little more time in social media sites such as forums, 9rules, StumbleUpon and Digg because these are places where we can find like-minded bloggers and initiate a relationship with them (not THAT kind of relationship!).

5. Improve networking skills

   If I could afford the time, I would also like to be an active guest-blogger so that I am able to contribute articles to other blogs, and with that, reach a wider audience because I believe that guest-blogging is a very good way to exchange expertise, experience and a great way to improve one’s writing too.

   But of course, if you’d like to guest-blog on Giving Hands, you know I always leave my doors open for you :D

So if my blogging goals cannot be quantified, how do I measure my success?

I consider myself successful when somebody tells me how much he/she has learned from my blogs and how much he/she appreciates my efforts and when somebody leaves my blog knowing that he/she has not wasted his/her time reading my posts :D

Now, what are YOUR blogging goals? :vodka: