Blogger Confidential: Blogging Goals

Have you ever been faced with an issue while reading or blogging and thought: I wonder what other bloggers think about this?  No matter what genre or audience you blog for, we all face the same problems.  Are you a publisher or author wondering what goes on in a blogger's (and by extension a reader's) head?

Blogger confidential is a series of 9 questions asked to 10 bloggers about the nitty gritty details of blogging. Everything from what prompts a blogger to pick up a book, to what happens when a book doesn't live up to its hype.  This series was inspired by Wastepaper Prose's Author Insight series.

What are your blogging goals? How have they evolved since you started blogging?

"That's a great question. YES! I feel like I've surpassed the goals I set for myself when I first started out. Each time I hit my goals I set new ones, and that's one of the things that drives me with my blog. My goals grow and change as my blog continues to grow and change. My over all goal for the blog has been to promote books. I can't tell you how happy I get when I hear someone picked up a book, because they read my review for it, or they loved a book they picked up and read based on my recommendation. Every time I hear that I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do. I think it's rewarding and extremely beneficial to have goals no matter how big or little your blog is." Katie from Mundie Moms

"I feel like I'm failing this. I don't have any goals per se. I just want to keep reading and discussing the books I love and promoting stuff I like and encouraging people to read. When I started blogging I just wanted to get my thoughts out there, so yeah, I guess they've somewhat evolved."  Sabrina at YA Bliss

"When I began blogging, my main goals were to gain a lot of followers, and to have the best review blog EVER. Now that I’ve seen the error of my thinking, my main goal is to create a community around The Reading Fever. I want people to look at my blog as a source of information for their reading, and a place to visit frequently to talk to other bookish people (through the comments section, Twitter, etc.). I’ve seen other blogs do this successfully, and that’s where I’d like to be. I’m in the process of changing the way I blog, so that I’m headed in that direction." Penelope from The Reading Fever

"I don't have blogging goals. I work in a bubble so I do what I do because I feel like it. This is how I've been working from the beginning. This is what keeps it fun for me; it keeps blogging from being a chore. The second I start focusing on stats and getting myself out there more and who I can have on and what book tours can I be apart of it starts getting away from me and what I want to do and turns into something that maybe I should be doing. I don't give a rat's ass what I should be doing. I'm going to function how I want to function because I don't answer to anyone else but me and that's how it's going to stay. It makes me pretty noncompliant but I'm okay with that. I still sleep soundly at night knowing I'm not considered for tours or promotions or whatever. I talk about what I want, when I want, how I want and it's worked for me all this time." Donna from Bites

"Our main goal is to just have fun with the blog! That was the intention when we first started blogging and we've tried to maintain that!" Sash and Em from Sash and Em a Tale of Two Bookies

"My goal is to take over the blogging world… ;) Ok, maybe not that drastic, but I get a high when I meet an author, or a publishing professional at a convention or signing and when I say, I'm Rachel from Parajunkee's View and they go, "Oh, I've been to your site, its ----". It's the best feeling in the world, so, I'm not going to stop until everyone does that. I'm going to be the Best Buy of Book Blogs. Is that too big of a goal?? When I first started I just wanted to get one review request from an author published by one of the big five." Rachel from Parajunkee

"During my first year of blogging, I paid a lot of attention to my stats and follower counts. I loved books so much, and I really wanted as many people as possible to drop by my little website so I could share my bookish thoughts with them. Now that I'm approaching nearly three years as a book blogger, my priorities have changed a bit. Yes, it's ALWAYS nice to have followers, but the ones that matter the most to me are the ones who keep coming back. And the ones who keep coming back tend to be the ones I've developed a relationship with. Blogging is not a one-way street. A large majority of the audience in the book blogging community is, let's face it: other book bloggers. The best blogging goal I've set for myself over the last year was to become more active in the community, and not only on my own blog. I value my developing relationships with a smaller number of readers and other book bloggers more than I'll ever value that follower count." Natalie from Mindful Musings

"I started blogging because I wanted to talk about the books that I read, recommend the ones that I love, get recommendations from fellow bloggers and be part of a community of readers who are just as passionate as I am about books. I feel like that hasn’t changed, I still blog for the same reasons." Chachic from Chachic's Book Nook

"Our main goal is, and has always been, to provide a community for people to talk about YA literature without shame. We want to celebrate the genre and its many talented authors, and because of this, we've expanded our spectrum of topics over time. We don't just write book reports, we do author interviews, make book-inspired mix tapes, discuss upcoming film adaptations, create drinking games, parody YA classics and on and on." Sarah from Forever Young Adult