Setting Goals!

Today, we've been asked to think about our blogs and setting some goals for ourselves.

Write in 50 words or less…what do you like best about your blog right now and where would you like your blog to be a year from now?

This is probably the most difficult post for me to write, and I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be in 50 words or less! My short answer is that I actually have no idea. On some days, I'm pretty happy with my blog. I mean I have the opportunity to read a lot of wonderful books and talk about them with friends. Really, that was all I ever wanted from Booking Mama.

But recently, I have been feeling a little insecure about my blog. I can't put my finger on exactly what my issues are, but I think I feel like it's just not "good enough." I honestly don't think that I can read more books or write more reviews -- I feel like I'm already tapped out -- but I do think maybe my reviews could be improved. I would also love to increase the number of comments I receive on non-giveaway related posts. I realize that I need to leave more comments to get more comments; and I have been actively working on this one the past few months.

I think my real concern is that I need to more for/with the blogging community. I assisted with BBAW in a few small ways, and I try to participate in various reading challenges; however, I still don't think it's enough. The book blogging community is a terrific bunch of people, and I feel like I am only scratching the surface with all the amazing blogs out there. I would love to host a regular meme or feature, or even host a reading challenge; and I have been trying to come up with a good idea for one. The problem is that there are so many fabulous ones out there, and I'm not exactly the most creative person.

I have been trying to come up with an interesting feature for Booking Mama. Because I am a member of three book clubs, I love to hear about other people's book clubs. I thought a Weekly (or Bi-weekly) feature on book clubs might be interesting. I was thinking that other readers, bloggers and authors could write guest posts about their book clubs. The posts could be on how they got started, what books they have read/enjoyed, or even about one of their meetings -- really any subject having to do with their book club.

Another idea I've been toying with (that I think I really like) is having a feature called Booking Back to School (or something like that.) My husband actually gave me this idea when he read the Penn State alumni magazine the other day, and there was a list of new books written by Penn Staters. He thought I should start writing about Penn State authors and their books, but I thought why not extend that to all schools? Basically, we could feature a different book or author as well as their college or university each week on Booking Mama. The feature could be a book review, a book spotlight, an author interview or an author guest post. You wouldn't have to write about your particular school -- you could choose to write about a local school (high school, college, university, etc.) or even one you root for.

So in the meantime, I will continue to stew over and work on the things I mentioned above; however, if you have any ideas for how I can improve Booking Mama, I'd love for you to leave a comment. I'm also very interested to hear if either of my feature ideas sound like something you'd like to see (or participate in!)