I have one goal for this blog in 2105:

Poast moar!

A post per day is unrealistic. I have other writing that takes priority. Since blogging doesn’t pay, it has to slip down a few rungs on the priority ladder.

What would qualify as more posts?

Looking back at my time in the blogging salt mine of 2104, I didn’t write much at all. I think I tried out more themes than I wrote posts. The root reason was I didn’t have a goal for the blog. No big idea. With a big idea, there’s a natural flow of topics.

Since the early 2000s, I’ve left more than a few deleted and abandoned blogs in my wake. Blogs are easy to start, and even easier to forget about. In the past I may have wanted to blog about {topic}. But once the blog is up, and a few posts made, my interest in {topic} fades. I’ve chosen areas that were too broad and became overwhelmed. Other times {topic} was too narrow, with not much to say after a few posts.

Another reason is simple selfishness. The effort to blog regularly takes away from other things that I might want to do. Simply put, it’s opportunity cost. Without a big idea there’s no reason to blog instead of doing something else.

Now I have my big idea. It’s me.

Self promotion for a writer is necessary. If a reader doesn’t hear about me, they won’t read what I’ve written. In the US alone over 500,000 books are published each year. Without promotion a reader has a ¹⁄₅₀₀,000 chance of hearing about any given book.

As I accumulate a body of work, this is where I will promote it¹. Hopefully, readers who like my work will also have a similar outlook on life. Then, by extension, they will be more likely to read (and buy) other things I have written.

Now I have skin in the game. Blogging is an essential part of my writing.

But what about the goal?

My goal is posting more. But “more” is not specific. 15 posts per month is. That averages out to every other day. I’ve learned daily production quotas only work for an assembly line. I don’t want to break this down to the weekly level yet, either.

This will be easy to measure. If I don’t have 15 posts up by the end of a month, I didn’t blog enough. I think it’s even a realistic goal. If I can’t write 200-700 words every couple of days—about something that matters to me—I should go back to fixing cars.

Now, where’s that novel outline…

1. Note to self: get that first novel out the door. ↩