Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! I love setting goals, even if I know I can’t meet them all (I mean, who am I kidding?) But goals do give me something to aim for, so here I am once more with my blogging goals for the coming year. Some of these are repeats from last year’s goals, but some are new. After blogging for three-and-a-half years, I’m anxious to shake things up a bit and try new things. So here they are, my Top Ten Blogging Goals for 2015:
1. Learn more about and do more with my self-hosted WordPress blog. So I was forced to switch over to self-hosting this year, not the way I would have liked to start my self-hosting adventure. And since then, I haven’t had any time to figure out what the hell I’m doing! Pretty much all I’ve done is add a few plug-ins and called it a day, and I know there are lots more awesome things I could be doing. I know I want to purchase the Ultimate Book Blogger Plug-in at some point, for example, so it’s just a matter of finding time to work on making my blog better.
2. Work harder to meet my Goodreads challenge. When I started reading in 2014, I didn’t have a full-time job. And so I figured I could easily read 100 books (and I’m not even a very fast reader). But sometime around October, when I found myself 10 books behind schedule and knowing it would only get worse, I lowered my goal to 85 books, and I still didn’t make it. This year I’m realistically setting my goal at 75 books, and if I go over, then yay me!
3. Introduce new book review features. I love reviewing books, but sometimes they start to feel stale and repetitive. So this year I’m going to introduce a few new formats. I don’t have all the details worked out yet, but next year you’ll see things like “Flashback Reviews” (reviews of older books that I may have missed because of too many review obligations) and “Blogger Recommendations” (reviews of books that bloggers have enthusiastically recommended). Stay tuned for more catchy names than those, of course! I’d also love to join other bloggers in doing joint reviews, where we all read the same book and then have a discussion about it. If anyone reading this is interested, let me know, and we’ll make that happen in 2015!
4. Let myself off the hook for not reading faster. This goes hand in hand with Goal #2, I guess. I would have to say the one thing that I get jealous over when I compare myself to other bloggers is the fact that I just can’t manage to read more books each year. I honestly want to cry when I see other bloggers reading 150+ books a year. I will never be able to read that much, at least not in my present situation (married with kids, own a house, full-time job, like to get eight hours of sleep a night). That graphic up there? That was a screen shot from December 27th, so you can see how far behind I fell with my GR goal. So my hope is to Let It Go (cue music!) and just enjoy the books that I can fit in.
5. Host more authors on the blog, with interviews, guest posts, etc. I love interacting with authors, and I’d love to step up those interactions this coming year. I am starting the year off with three blog tours (take that, WordPress.com!!), which gives me an opportunity to ask some authors lots of questions. But I’d like to do even more with authors, aside from blog tours.
6. Do better at answering comments and commenting on other blogs. As most bloggers know, it’s very good form to comment back on every comment you receive on your blog, as well as returning the favor and visiting each person’s blog who leaves a comment on yours. It’s not always easy to do this, and I often fail miserably at commenting when I’m really busy, but I’m going to make an effort to do better in 2015.
7. Streamline the number of blogs I follow. I tend to follow quite a few blogs, but lately I feel that I don’t have much in common with some of the blogs I started following a few years ago. If I haven’t left a comment on your blog lately, it’s probably because we seem to be drifting apart. That’s right, I might be breaking up with you soon. But don’t worry, I leave comments regularly on the blogs I love and enjoy reading. You know who you are!
8. Work harder on “behind the scenes” stuff: sidebar, review archives, and more. I SUCK at keeping my review archives up-to-date. In fact, I cannot even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve updated that page! It’s truly embarrassing. Likewise, my sidebar often goes unattended, and there are a few things I’ve been meaning to update but just haven’t made time for, like my blogroll, for example. This is the year I take control!
9. Catch up on Edelweiss and NetGalley reviews. Of course, the best way to catch up with reviews on these sites is to STOP REQUESTING NEW BOOKS! And who among us is that strong? Not me, for sure! But—I am being much more careful about requests these days, and I hope to catch up this year. I’ve even been good about NOT downloading all those tempting HarperCollins titles on Edelweiss!
10. Read more vintage/classic SF & Fantasy. I’ve started following a few bloggers this year who mostly review the old stuff (and by “stuff” I mean books), and my hands are itching to grab some classic SF/Fantasy titles that I haven’t read. I may join The Little Red Reviewer’s annual event (above) just to jump-start this goal.
Do you set blogging goals each year? Do we have any goals in common? I’d love to hear what you want to do in 2015!
” Of course, the best way to catch up with reviews on these sites is to STOP REQUESTING NEW BOOKS!” Oooh but it is so hard! Haha. Luckily, I get denied almost all of my requests on there, because I am not in the location they want their bloggers to be in. I have to admit, I don’t really understand that move, asa blogs’ readership does not necessarily correlate with their personal location. But ah well.
I am excited for 2015’s reading and blogging already myself. All the end of the year posts and new challenges and whatnot get me all fired up. Good luck with the self hosted stuff. I’ve been self hosted always, and I’ve been forced to learn to do some annoying things because of it, but in the end it is all pretty awesome, and it is nice to have that control.
nikki @ book punks recently posted…news from dystopia, dispatch 11.2014
Yeah, I don’t really get that whole location thing. Don’t publishers realize that most bloggers have readers ALL OVER THE WORLD??? Weird. Oh well!
PS Hope to see you around the vintage SF discussions. I’m participating in that one myself.
nikki @ book punks recently posted…news from dystopia, dispatch 11.2014
Cool! Thanks for visiting, Nikki!
I bet I can guess two of the blog tours you are starting the year with =) I have physic powers that way.
I would like to do more interviews like things as well.
OK smarty pants, which two blog tours??
I am impressed by how much you are planning to do next year. Good luck!
Although I want to become “better” at blogging in 2015, I only have a small list:
-Read more books. (I barely managed to succeed at my GR challenge: 25 books. But that’s a lot more than I read in 2013, so blogging has pushed up my reading 🙂 I’ll be brave and put 30 books as my goal for 2015.)
– Write better reviews.
readingsff recently posted…New Books and Reading Progress: 12-16-2014
number 4 ALL THE WAY. I always feel like I’m rushing through my reading, and that i need to post as often as other people, and it’s just not going to happen, and i need to be ok with that.
number 6: I suck at this. i’m lazy and easily distracted.
number 10? YAY!! and even better? lots of ancient books are less than 200 pages, so you can zip through them in a few days. Doorstopper books were a rarity.
Andrea J recently posted…End of Year stats (boring!)
I really need to get caught up on my Netgalley and EW reviews, hopefully 2015 will be the year I do that. I’ve already started being more selective in the books that I request and download so hopefully I can get caught up 🙂
Christy @ Novel Ink recently posted…Trivia Tuesday (5)
I had a similar issue when reading other people’s blog: 100 books a year? Really?!
When I first started my Goodreads challenge, I figured one book a week was a good goal. I ended up reading 71 books. It made me quite happy… But then I try to remember that I want to give each book enough attention. I love thought-provoking sci-fi for instance, so I usually stop and think when reading a book (and I take forever to write reviews). I couldn’t do that reading 100 pages a day (as long as I work too!), so I try to be content with my 70 books. It’s already so much more than I thought!
Angélique recently posted…Review: The Deep by Nick Cutter
This is a GREAT list!! I really love numbers 3 and 4! Best of luck for 2015 🙂
Lisa @TenaciousReader recently posted…The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
Hey the UBB plugin takes care of the review archives for you, just buy it for yourself as a late xmas learnt you will love it seriously.
Tabitha (Not Yet Read) recently posted…2015 Reading, Blogging and Art Goals
I like your idea of adding a feature of “Blogger Recommendations.” I’ve been trying to think of way to share (and remind myself) of the great books other people have blogged about. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been excited about a book someone else read, only to forget about it later. Great idea!
couchtomoon recently posted…The Space Merchants (1953) by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
This is a very well thought out list that totally hit home for me with a number of your points. I probably used to read about 120/130 books in a year but that number has reduced and I just make my 100 – but I don’t have as much time these days – and blogging does take a bit of thought and prep! I like your no.3 and I think having a discussion with other bloggers about the same book is a really cool idea.
As to Netgalley – well it’s just so damned tempting. I usually try and have my ration up to about 65% and I’m working on getting it higher but I want all the books – I can’t deny it!
Lynn 😀
Lynn recently posted…My best reads for 2014
I’m going to have to steal your idea for the Flashback reviews or Backlist reviews thing, because one of my goals is to read more of my personal books (mostly releases I never got to because I was too busy reading for-review books).
And don’t feel bad for not reading that many books! Like I tell others, audiobooks are also key. I honestly don’t think I would have read that many if it weren’t for them. They made up for almost a third of my books this year. Thing is, I hate doing house work and chores and running errands, but having something to listen makes the time and work go by so fast! And I love being able to “read” while I’m doing other things. That’s how I knock out a lot of my backlist. If you do get to try one this year, I’d like to know how the experiment goes. I was skeptical of them at first, but after getting a few audiobooks under my belt, now I don’t think I can stop.
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum recently posted…2015 Audiobook Challenge
I am going to try some audio books for sure. Everyone says that they really increase your yearly “books read” goals. I do hear they are quite addictive!
Wow, this is an awesome comprehensive list of goals Tammy and I wish you luck in all of them! It’s quite difficult keeping up with commenting, but I’ve really loosened up on pressuring myself to read more, comment on everything straight away and reviewing everything. I hope you get to achieve some of these amazing goals, and I can say UBB plugin is definitely worth it.
Jeann @ Happy Indulgence recently posted…2014 Recap & Blogging Highlights
Yey, I love these goals! I didn’t want to say it out loud, but I need to unfollow some blogs too :-/. When I find myself skipping over so many posts, it just doesn’t make sense anymore to try to find common ground I guess, sigh. It’s better for me (ie more fun and fulfilling) to have fewer blogs that I really bond with *hugs*
Anya @ On Starships and Dragonwings recently posted…Updates from the Lair 01/04/15
*hugs* back Anya!
I love the resolutions I am seeing here! And yes, I do think it is important to have things in common with the blogs you are constantly commenting on. I try my hardest to reply to all my comments and visit them back as well 😀 I also think it is a good idea to include review features to mix things up and to keep on track of your to be reviewed list. Hope you can withhold all of these.