Writing Goals for 2017

The day before New Year’s Eve, I sat down and started writing out my resolutions for 2017. I came up with a list of 16 (yes sixteen!) goals which included everything from running, reading and writing more to less shouting at the kids, drinking less wine and spending less time on my phone. After a good five minutes, I decided to scrap the lot and save myself from the depression of never being able to live up to such high expectations.

But I did decide to set myself some writing goals for both my freelance work and for my blog which I hope are a little bit more achievable.

Freelance Copywriting Business

My copywriting business seemed to ramp up a notch last year as I landed several new clients some of which were big and I was also lucky enough to gain a lot of repeat business with others. I hope I can keep the momentum going now for 2017! Here’s a few things I’d like to do this year:

1. Contact past clients. I’ve just taken a look back through my files and found that there’s quite a lot of people who I’ve worked with on odd occasions and an easy win would be to contact them to see if they need anymore work for the coming year.

2. Visit all existing clients. Like the first goal, this isn’t really writing as such, but I think it’s really important to nurture relationships especially as it’s easier to gain repeat business rather than finding new people to work with.

3.Pitch to new clients. I’m loathe to put a number on how many pitches I should make a week as this will depend on just how busy I am with other work. Now that I’ve worked with some bigger brands, I would like to draw up a wish list of who to approach.

4. Freshen up my website. I’ve neglected this a bit, but I need to review imagery, my services and the testimonial section.

The Blog

Unlike other professional bloggers who make their money from blogging, my blog tends to tick along and has its ups and downs depending on how busy I am and what else is going on in my life. I go through periods of really enjoying it and finding lots of inspiration to other days where I leave it alone for weeks and find it a real struggle to manage.

1.Post at least one blog a week. More if possible and get better at planning in advance!

2. Learn lessons from 2016. I recently blogged about my top blogs from 2016 and was surprised by some of the results. It gave me some inspiration on what works best, and why some posts might be more popular than others

3. Attempt to self-host the blog and freshen up the design. I’ve got to admit, this one could well have been on the list from last year. I’ve been procrastinating about going self-hosted for ages but the technical side of things and the fear of losing everything still scares me! I need to bite the bullet and do it.

4. Blog once a month for other people. Find some new angles to blog monthly for The Huffington Post and / or Selfish Mother Blogzine.

Other Stuff

1. Attempt more fiction. I’ve dabbled with this in the past and managed a runner’s up mention in a short story competition but it’s not something I’m overly confident with. I’d like to try again.

2. Pitch again to newspaper / magazines. I really enjoy writing articles for magazines and newspapers but I find it really hard to get my foot in the door with certain places.  Last year I got a good response from a few contacts about one particular feature pitch but for various reasons couldn’t accept it at the time. So I really need to try this out again.

3. Read more! Not a writing goal, but I do find reading helps with writing in many ways. Last year I only read a few books as I always seemed to be so tired. This year I’d like to read at least 1 book a month.

Errr… So not quite 16 goals, but 11 still seems like a lot to do!  I know some of these will get done, not so sure about certain others. Like most things, I  guess it all comes down to priorities. I will always put the freelance writing work and chasing up new work first as it’s my main source of income.

How about you? Do you have any writing or blogging goals for 2017? I’d love to hear them! Let’s hope it’s a productive one for all of us!