2012 Blogger Goals

Happy New Year's Day, everybody!

Wow.. 2011 was kind of crazy, wasn't it? I can't believe how fast it flew by! At the beginning of last year, I had a lot of goals that I wanted to accomplish as a book blogger. Some things I accomplished, some things I did not. Obviously, this biggest curve ball for me last year was my cervical cancer debacle. Thanks to the surgery, recovery and so many other things that followed.. I got really behind on this blog. I don't want to do that again. Ever.

Since it's the beginning of a new year, I thought I would go ahead and write down things I'd like to accomplish and goals I'd like to achieve as a book blogger in 2012. Hopefully these plans will help to improve not only myself, but the quality of content found on this blog.

1. Download my blog weekly. I've heard too many horror stories of blogs disappearing and people losing all of their hard work. I invest entirely too much of my life in this blog to have it all go missing on a whim.
2. Schedule posts 2+ weeks in advance. This was going well for me last year until Blogger decided to mess things up. I think (and hope) I have it fixed. Unfortunately, I have to start from scratch.
3. Bring Before & After feature back permanently. This was one of those things that worked out marvelously, then life happened and I couldn't keep up. I have a back-up plan in preparation just in case something comes up, so I'm positive this will stay around.
4. Post author profiles frequently. The best way for people to discover new authors is to have a source of information on them at hand. I plan on making it a habit to post about new, old and favorite authors as much as possible.
5. Update all information on this blog. New navigation, updated links, new tagging system, etc.. all in hopes to succeed where I failed last year.
6. Be more available. Last year's phone debacles (yes, plural - I went through a few Blackberry Curves) and the fact that I was out of town a lot really hindered my communication relating to this blog. I just put a nice chunk of money into a better phone that seems up to par for all of my needs, so I'm hoping this is already fixed.
7. Post more reviews. Upon reviewing my 'read' list on Goodreads, I discovered that I have not posted nearly as many reviews as I have read books.. and this makes me sad. This year, I not only need to review books as I read them, but also review books I've already read to post on the blog. The more information out there, the better.
8. Find a more efficient template for review posts and utilize it. I want more information in a very organized way. I need to find a happy medium soon and possibly re-work all of my past reviews with the same template.
9. Purge my Gmail account. Since August, my inbox has been a hot mess. I need to clean it up, then go through and get rid of e-mails in folders that are not longer needed.
10. Update contacts. I have a whole lot of contacts and a not-so-very-organized way of listing them. This needs to change ASAP.
11. Try a more polished layout. I absolutely LOVE my header and color scheme for this blog, but sometimes I feel as though it needs to be a little more professional looking. I plan on making a few tweaks to help settle that unease.
12. Be more social. I don't reply to comments, tweet or interact with all of you lovely people much at all. This makes me sad. It's definitely one of my priorities to change in 2012.
13. Just be happy! Sometimes, life happens and things come up. I need to stop stressing over this.

Well, that's it for my blog. I also have a few goals for my blogging life outside of Missy's Reads & Reviews. They include:

1. Be more active on Young Adult Books Central. I help review for this site and it's quite possibly the BEST site I've seen for YA books. Helping to make it one of the best sources of YA information is a big goal of mine.
2. Write 3-5 articles per week for Examiner. I've finally decided to hop on the Examiner bandwagon to get more exposure for my blog, books I love to review, and awesome authors. I want to make sure I utilize this opportunity to its maximum potential.
3. Be more efficient. I want to get my name out there as much as possible and be one of the many voices of books that people recognize. Obviously, this takes work. I'm more than willing to put my blood, sweat and tears into that work.