As every serious blogger knows, the key objective behind regular blogging is the acquisition of wealth. It may be cool to earn the respect and adoration of one's online peers, but at the end of the day it's the financial rewards which make blogging worthwhile. So today, with the need to monetize always uppermost, I'm going to be asking myself the crucial question "What's my blog's Mission Statement?". I'm sure you'll all learn something profitable from my expert analysis and perceptive musings. And then I hope you'll all link to today's post on your own blogs, and Digg it so that my thoughts are broadcast to the global audience they so clearly deserve.
A Mission Statement, as we all know, is a summary description of an entity's purpose. All businesses have a mission statement, and employees always find them to be motivating and inspirational. So why doesn't your blog have one? Without a Mission Statement your blog will surely continue to blunder blindly down some online cul-de-sac, unfocused and unable to meet key financial targets. What every professional blog requires is a single brief statement of intent, preferably scribbled on a Post-It note and affixed to the edge of a computer screen where it can't be overlooked. You know it makes sense.
I'm certainly keen to climb aboard the brand-marketing bandwagon myself, because this can only help to facilitate value-added empowerment through the accumulation of high-yield click-through ad-wealth. But there'll be no meaningless buzzwords in my Mission Statement, oh no. Here's my first attempt at generating a succinct summary to describe why my blog exists.
"The diamond geezer mission is to enjoy writing stuff about life in London and other places and things, and to publish my views and opinions."
It's a good first effort, but there's no mention of money. I mean, come on, it's surely the sole reason for any blog's existence, and it needs to be at the heart of any core statement of intent. Let's try again.
"The diamond geezer mission is to enjoy writing stuff about life in London and other places and things, to publish my views and opinions, and to make lots of money."
That's better, but it's still all a bit sprawling and unfocused. The opening phrase needs tightening up to concentrate on just one key area. To make it big in the blogosphere, only a narrow topic focus is permissible. I need to write only about London, and to abandon everything else I currently waffle on about. How otherwise will first-time visitors instantly understand my blog's intrinsic professional focus?
"The diamond geezer mission is to enjoy writing stuff about life in London, to publish my views and opinions, and to make lots of money."
But whether or not I enjoy writing about London should be totally irrelevant. What really matters is that my readers keep coming back for more, like greedy text-whores, because every pageload is a potential ad click. Audience is everything, so the publication of quality linkbait is essential.
"The diamond geezer mission is to write entertaining stuff about life in London, to publish my views and opinions, and to make lots of money."
As yet I've not mentioned one of my key blog characteristics, namely that I publish daily. My regular and predictable posting format means that customers can make diamond geezer part of their regular surfing routine. Make it a habit, keep them hooked.
"The diamond geezer mission is to write entertaining stuff about life in London, to publish my views and opinions every day, and to make lots of money."
Nearly there, but it needs to be snappier. Why waste several words on an important concept if that idea could be summarised in one or two? Shorter means more memorable, and my blog's Mission Statement needs to be simple enough to be at the heart of everything I write. Like so.
"My views on life in London: Entertaining, Exploiting, Every day."
That's great. See how the core values of my blog are now summarised in three alliterative keywords - the 3 Es. One last tidy-up should do it.
"life viewed from London E3"
Perfect. Now all I need do is publish my new Mission Statement somewhere prominent - say at the top of my sidebar - and every visitor will know exactly what I stand for. Why don't you follow suit?
