My blog is ONE year old today, I have come a long way since my first post
Teaching X-Factor. I wrote my
blog/life/learning/social media plan, and I am relieved to say I have met most of the objectives.
G'wa-on and have a read of them. Honestly this blog helped me to write it out...it being my life objectives, I made some serious connections and learnt so much on the way.
My objective are written in the blog/life/learning/social media plan and below are the results.
1. Gain more IT knowledge – Yeap, by reading blogs, writing my blog and tweeting I have certainly learnt a lot. And yes, having the latest technology also helps! As one computer programmer said to me a year ago, ‘seriously if you want to do well in this world you need to, at the very least, have a smart phone!’
2. Share more IT knowledge – read the blog, I have a good bit of IT stuff here.
3. Read more teacher blogs – Yeap – done and done. I find #edchatie (on twitter) really really really helps in gaining more IT/teaching knowledge.
4. Teach IT to Teachers – I am now a tutor for NCTE and Lero.
5. Read more writer/editor and publisher blogs – Oh boy have I fulfilled this!
6. Get published on other blogs or websites – I sure have! I have been asked to guest post on several blogs; I interviewed writers and I have even wrote book launch reports for the writing.ie
7. Use the blog to get published on traditional media – Yup! Yup! I was on the Tipperary Star and even interviewed on Tipp Mid West Radio.
8. To get over 35,000 hits – To date I have 45,890 hits *BOOM!*
9. Study the hits to cater even more for the readership - Yes, I have studied the referring URLs, bounce rate, search terms and I have most deffo taken advantage of this.
10. Study the hits to grab new readers – Mhhh; I wanted a larger readership from more non-writers and non-bloggers so I went to them. Won’t tell ya how, yet!
11. Grab the non-bloggers – Yes, this is tricky. It took a year of constant content creation and slowly readers telling other readers and a few more tactics and I’m getting more hits from the very market I wanted to expand in.
12. To be included in a print newsletter – Yeap! If school newsletters count! The aould blog has been featured on two!
13. To be seen as a ‘go to gal,’ – I was asked to give a presentation at the CESI Conference Feb 2012 and the ICT in Education Conference on May 19th, so I guess this means that I am half way there.
14. To learn more about the areas above – The reading never stops, but when you have smart devices, it is never a problem!
15. To guest lecture somewhere (anywhere) - Yup! I was asked to guest lecturer in LIT Tipperary at their Clonmel campus. I lectured in digital media, social media, measuring stats....and I loved it!
16. To write book reviews - The fantastic Louise Kennedy has asked me to do a book review on a psychological crime book, out of my comfort zone, but I cannot wait. I will be writing a book review for the amazing and fabulous Inis Magazine, children's books magazine. I am over the moon about this opportunity.
17. To do some instructional writing in relation to IT – Yes! I can’t say anymore on this, but yes...I am in talks to do some pretty cool instructional writing in relation to IT and education. I will leave it at that.
18. Become more efficient at curating the best information – After talking with Bernie ( @topgold ) , I downloaded Readability. On my Twitter TL or in my Twitter lists I go to the people that I know have the best content and click on read later. Then I go to my browser and open Instapaper.com. All the links are there. If I see anything I like on the browser I will copy and add the URL to my instapaper. Once finished, I download the paper to Kindle and read it off line later. Tis all so handy!
19. Write a book – I have written two *Boom!* Writing is difficult, the characters take over your story (and your mind), you have to constantly rewrite, change POV, edit, cut....but having written something is pretty amazing! I have to do so much redrafting on the children’s book and the YA book that it makes my head spin. But what else are Easter holidays for, eh?
20. Make connections with published writer and publishers – I have met publishers and editors from Hachette, O’Brien, Mercier and some even follow me on Twitter. I follow, and am followed back by, the coolest published writers on Twitter. They are an inspiring bunch.
If If I keep going at this pace then, I will, (I hope! I hope!), be lecturing, (Bish!), teaching, (Bash!) and writing, (Bosh!)
My job won’t be traditional, it will be different. I will teach in primary schools, teach for Lero and the NCTE, I will write books for my publishers, and lecturing in digital media. Oh and will complete masters....now all I need to do is find the perfect masters...
Editor’s note: Can you see how having goals can help you study and realign your content thus aiding you to reach these goals. It is imperative to plan, research, study, and plan again. If I can achieve all of this that so can you. We are all IT-capable.
How has your blog helped you achieve your goals?
Has Twitter helped you in any way, either personally or business wise?
