Goal Setting Success

Today’s Featured Blogger: Ellesse Chow of Goal Setting College

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Next 30 Blogging Heroes series. Inspired by the book Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers by Michael A. Banks, this series will feature the next group of exceptional bloggers who are making an impact in the blogosphere.

These bloggers are getting their messages out there and having their voices heard. They have long-term goals and are working very each day to reach them. Blogging heroes create quality content and build a loyal, and very large, base of readers. This series will center on their best blogging practices as well as tips and advice.

The Next 45 Years is proud to welcome Ellesse Chow of Goal Setting College. Chow’s site is for any one interested in goal setting, motivation and success. Ellesse Chow has used setbacks from her own life as the inspiration to be an encourager for others – and for herself. One outcome of her success is a blog that contains useful tools and outstanding content.

What prompted you to start Goal Setting College

In 2002, a business associate introduced me to Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. Reading that literally changed my life perspective. I was totally sold on the idea that life is more than just slogging on a job and began reading and putting more personal development and goal setting concepts into practice than I ever did. Goal Setting College was a baby conceived from that evolution.

It started off solely as a resource site in mid 2005. And eventually evolved to be the place where I share my personal development learnings and experiences with others.

Is this blog a part-time or full-time occupation for you?

In mid 2007, I’ve quit my job to write full-time for Goal Setting College. Taking the plunge even before my blog took off seemed like a pretty wild idea, isn’t it? But it was a conscious decision made years ago even when I was holding a rather enjoyable job as an implementation consultant. So far, it has been an exhilarating ride! No regrets whatsoever!

Are you achieving what you set out to do with the site?

Yes, definitely! One of the main reasons I started this site is to share my personal learnings and experiences. And I’m glad that has worked out to a modest readership for Goal Setting College - which is growing by the day. Some of the readers even became my good friends, even though I’ve never met them in person. I’m really grateful for that!

Where do you get your ideas for content?

Most of the ideas come from my observations of my friends and family and predominant news events. Even via memes sometimes. For example, one of my article How to Start Living The Life You’ve Always Wanted is a combination of many idea sources. It was written in memory of a good friend’s ex-boyfriend’s demise in a national disaster while responding to a meme at the same time.

I also get the occasional inspiration from keywords that people search via WordTracker’s FreeKeyword. Some of my popular list posts like the 50 Inspirational Quotes that Make You Think were compiled because of that. And yes, it certainly helps with SEO too. Though that’s really secondary.

What do you find to be the more difficult aspects of blogging?

Perhaps maintaining a balance between expectations and reality maybe. It’s easy to fall into the trap of the comparison game when one first get started. Like getting obsessed over the number of RSS subscribers, the traffic and even the amount of comments one gets. I admit I was slightly affected initially. But at the end of the day, you’ll realize it’s just a numbers game. Nothing matters more than being accountable to your readers by providing useful, valuable content that they’ve subscribed for in the first place.

And when you take care of that – with a moderate amount of marketing and promotion - the rest will take care of itself.

What do you find gratifying about blogging?

The heartfelt response from my readers. It never fails to warm my heart to know that something I’ve written is helpful to another person, no matter how small it may be. And also, in getting to know and network with a bunch of generous, like-minded blogging comrades! These people have not only made my blogging career a less lonely one, they’ve also taught me a lot about generosity and selflessness.

And yes Alex, you’re certainly one of them! Thank you

Do you do anything special to increase your readership?

Perhaps by being more active in social media marketing? That has kind of helped promote some of my articles. And getting more eyeballs on the Goal Setting College brand. In Dec 2007, I did a blog redesign. The layout and easy navigation actually increase the site’s bookmarking ratios and RSS subscription rates. Something I really didn’t expect.

But no matter what, content is still the king. An area I’m constantly learning to improve too!

What are your future plans for Goal Setting College?

Goal Setting College has indeed come a long way. And though it’s growth has been pretty modest, every reader means a lot to me. I’ve plans to continue to write more useful articles to further encourage their engagement. And perhaps introduce some projects which address some of the issues that they’re concerned with.

What advice can you offer other bloggers?

 Be Passionate When you’re passionate about your readers and what you’re writing, you’ll inevitably put in more effort to create content that’s useful and valuable to them. Something that comes inherently natural. Not every passionate blogger will become successful. But behind every successful blog is definitely a passionate blogger.

 Be Patient Don’t fret if you’re not moving as fast as you thought. Give your blog some time to grow and constantly review your existing strategies and test out new ones as you go along. Quoting Dale Carnegie, remember “Most of the important things in the world have been accompanied by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

Next week Andrew Galasetti of Lyved.com is the next blogging hero.

Previous bloggers featured in this series:

• Tina Su of Think Simple Now

• John Wesley of PickTheBrain

• Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

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Helpful Blogging Resources

• Unique Blog Designs: As many of you know, I just completed a blog redesign. Matt and his team were excellent. They provided expert design advice as well as much need technical support. If you are ready to take your blog to the next level, I high recommend Unique Blog Designs.

• ProBlogger is an outstanding online resource for learning effective blogging tips. The site has many useful and relevant articles to help you build a better blog and to earn money, too.

• Michael A. Bank’s book Blogging Heroes is as informative as it is inspirational – a must-have reference book for serious bloggers.