Looking ahead: Challenges and growth

I enjoy reading Problogger Blog Tips. I'm an amateur, not a professional, but Darren's advice is applicable to creating and maintaining a quality blog of any kind or size. Lately he's been taking the New Year's Resolution approach, looking ahead and asking questions. Questions are valuable: they inspire thought, creativity, and help focus goals in any field, not just blogging.

In a recent post he asked: "As you look at your blog and the year ahead:

• What is it that you feel is holding you back?
• What problems do you face?
• What questions do you have that you can’t get passed (sic)?
• What issues do you keep coming up against that just hold you back?"

Here are the answers (the questions?), tentative though they might be, in terms of Compost Happens.

Holding me back: Time, reluctance to network in person Problems? Time, lack of HTML knowledge

Questions I can't get past: I have a vision for a new edition of Compost Happens. It includes the main blog and the poetry site (A Mother's Garden of Verses), and would expand to include a review (and potentially affiliate) page. The roadblocks (questions and issues, together) are as follows.

1. I envision these not as separate blogs, but separate pages within one blog. This means major changes.
2. Chuck is considering buying his own domain name and setting up his page on a new hosting provider. Right now he's established his page as a guest on a friend's site. Moving to his own space and combining with Compost Happens would potentially help increase the visibility of his site and mine.
3. Would I lose the visibility I have now? I'd have to change the link in any directories that include me. That's a lot of work, and a lot of (gasp) time.
4. I've blogged under the pseudonym Daisy for years. Will the change identify me, causing potential risk to the family in any way?
5. Do I need to attend blogging conferences? I keep wishing Blissdom would be held outside the school year (I'm a public school teacher). It sounds like an excellent conference for a blogger of my (smaller) stature, where BlogHer remains somewhat intimidating in cost and in size.

These questions have no simple answers. If I want to expand the Compost Happens world, I need to make an investment in time and money. If I plan it well, though, it will happen. One step at a time, I can focus my sites on my site and clarify my insights. Meanwhile, I think I'll pour a cup of coffee and have a leftover Christmas cookie or two.

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