Lost your way blogging? I do not feel like I lost my way blogging. By the way, Hi everybody! It 's me, Charles Lamson, editor and chief writer of The Rant with Charles Lamson. I'm taking a more personal style with today's post, as you can probably tell if you're a regular reader. Goin' gonzo! Yee haw!
But seriously, been looking to extend the reach of my blog lately. And since my target audience for this blog is people with an interest in business administration and communications with an emphasis in promotions, I figured it is time to get a bit more serious and grow up and work on creating a real mission statement that business administration and communications professionals, students of business administration and communications, and people who simply want to apply sound business administration and communication principles in their everyday life will take seriously, instead of my old mission statement "This is the greatest blog of all time," which I obviously just made up on a whim.
Those of you who are die-hard fans of The Rant may remember that I played around with creating a real mission statement for my blog three years ago in my analysis of Stephen R. Covey's awesome work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which I called "The Thirty Day Proactive Test." It's in the archives on the right-hand side of the page if you want to check it out, starting on April Fool's Day in 2016. But anyway, I didn't really make a serious effort at it and I just kept the old jokey mission statement.
So this just hit me the other day that if I want to be taken seriously, I better come up with another mission statement. So I asked google by typing "How to create a mission statement for my blog" in the search field (This is where I give props where props are due.), and went with the first link in the search results:
Search Results
Featured snippet from the web
So I borrow heavily from Julie Neidlinger's fine article How To Write A Mission Statement For Your Blog in this post. I hope you find it useful. So here goes.
Mission statements are simple maps that keep you on track without getting you bogged down in details. Mission statements are not just for huge corporations, either. They are for anyone---even individuals---who better want to understand who they are and what they intend to do.
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In other words, they are perfect for your blog.
A mission statement keeps your photography blog from turning into a political blog. It is what keeps you writing when traffic is low and you think you should quit.
How to Write a Mission Statement
A blog mission statement reminds you why you are blogging in the first place. It helps you, your team, and even your audience understand what you are doing. Before you start writing the actual statement, though, you need to lay a foundation first. The first two steps of that foundation are very important.
The answers to these questions might not be used verbatim in your mission statement, but they help you get there. Most of us operate on default setting, it seems, and we are not very mindful of why we do what we do.
Please note that #4 and #5 are not the same question. Some bloggers write on topics they do not necessarily enjoy. That's fine. It's a lot of work. It can be done. It takes discipline. You might get burnt out. But it is completely viable. Writing about what you enjoy will certainly be easier.
Now that I've done that, it's your turn. Go ahead. Answer the questions right now. (I'll wait for you here until you're done.).
Once you have your answers to those questions, we'll need to winnow them down to what they are really telling you.
2. Extract your mission.
Take a look at the answers to those questions. You are looking for the following key themes:
If you answered the questions truthfully (and fully), you should have plenty to flesh out these four parts of your mission statement. What did I find out for this blog?
3. Keep it short.
When it comes to mission statements, One to three sentences ought to do it.
Yes, that's correct. It should be about that short. Long mission statements are easier to ignore than read.
A mission statement is not a comprehensive plan. This is not where you lay out your social media strategy, or create a detailed inbound marketing plan. It is best when it is succinct and easily remembered. It is not a multi-page guide to refer to.
So, how might my mission statement look for this blog?
"The mission of my blog is to offer information that is useful in business administration, communications with an emphasis in promotion, and everyday life."
Yours might be completely different. It might include a specific amount of money you want your blog to bring as income each year. It might be a specific niche that you wish to speak to, and would identify in your mission statement.
 
4. Be specific.
Not once in my mission statement did I try to leverage anything. There was no paradigm shift. There were no funnels, no permission marketing, no narrative advertising. No jargon.
Buzz words and jargon come about in an industry because insiders understand the terms. They seem appropriate, because they seem fit. But those words are ridiculous to anyone else, and they prevent even those who understand the jargon from really thinking clearly.
No ridiculous language in your mission statement. Try really, really, really, really hard to keep it out. Try to find another way of putting into as few words as possible what you want to happen with your blog. When you cannot use jargon, you are forced to face the big ugly monster that you've been hesitant to put into words.
Instead of saying "I am going to leverage my blog for financial independence" you should be more specific and say "my blog will bring in $40,000 a year" because that is the amount necessary for you to be financially independent.
A mission statement is the time to write plainly, clearly, directly. You are not trying to impress anyone. You are trying to be clear. If your blog mission statement is not understandable by the average Joe, you did it wrong.
 
5. Aspire.
Aim high. Have a lofty and noble goal in mind for your blog, one that may not be overtly tangible.
Your lofty goal might be bringing in that $40,000 a year, it might be getting two million hits, or it might be giving readers a sense of hope.
Mission statements should direct you upwards to the stars, and not down to the dirt.
Mission Statement Done. Now What?
Congratulations. You have a clear, blunt mission statement. Are you writing things that fit the mission? Is your audience who you believe it should be? Is your true mission statement reflected on your blog right now? You can either keep blogging, and make changes, or stop blogging if that $40,000 is nowhere near and you have bills to pay.
For example, I look at my mission statement and I see that I want to offer information to people who are interested in business administration and communications with an emphasis promotion. So if I want to write about other topics sometimes, maybe I should start another blog just for those off-mission kinds of writing.
An honest mission statement is a powerful thing. It will keep your blog from becoming unclear. Mission statements are the bull's eye in the target for which you aim. They are the heart of the prey in your hunt for clear ideals.
*SOURCE: https://coschedule.com/blog/mission-statement/, Julie Neidlinger*
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