A few weeks ago, in New Directions: Which Path Should My Blog Wander Down?, I actively started seeking out a permanent place for this blog in the blogosphere. Although I was a little unsure of what direction to go at that moment, I had at least started actually answering questions that I’ve had for a while (e.g. What’s my topic? Do I want to make money?).

Now, I know where my blog is going. I know what my topics are (at least to some degree). The official blog name and description is now Justin Tadlock: Life, Blogging, and WordPress.

Mostly, I’m writing about WordPress, but just in case I want to write about some other stuff, my readers will know that I might venture out into life and more general blogging topics on occasion.

I think that narrows it down from a previous description that ended with “other random stuff.”

Now that I know what my topics are, what do I do with them? Simple. Enjoy blogging. Enjoy knowing that there are countless things I can blog about without having to ask myself, “So, okay, what do I blog about today?” I know I have content that someone will need in some way.

Why WordPress?

Sure, there are countless others blogging about this wonderful content management system, but I think I have a few things to offer. I’ve been using WordPress since May 13, 2005 and I want to push my coding / designing skills to the limit with it. There’s still lots to be done. In part, this is my way of giving back to the WordPress community.

WordPress custom fields:

The first thing I wanted to tackle was custom fields. I’d been using some basic custom field scripts I coded for a while, but wanted to take them a step farther. Now, I’m writing a WordPress custom fields tutorial series. So far, I think it’s going well. I hope my readers are enjoying it because I’m enjoying learning new things.

This should be an interesting series to watch. I would always appreciate feedback on what anyone would like to see done with custom fields. They’re such a powerful, but rarely used, feature of WordPress. My goal is to release at least one (possibly two, if I have the time to do all the testing) post in the series each week until the topic is pretty much exhausted. Afterward, I plan to release a free e-book compiling all of the information in one spot.

WordPress themes:

Another goal I wanted to accomplish was creating more WordPress themes. It’s tough to continually put out quality themes on a regular basis. Right now, I have my goal set to design at least two WordPress themes a month. This is a reasonable amount, and it gives me time to focus more on the quality of the theme instead of just putting them out there as quickly as possible.

I think my two latest themes, Magtastic and Newspaperize, have offered loads more quality and functionality than any of my previous themes, and I want to continue this process.

WordPress plugins:

I’m not a hardcore PHP coder, and this makes it fairly difficult for me to code plugins. However, I occasionally come up with ideas that I want to use on this blog that I can’t find anywhere else. The problem is that I haven’t been sharing these with the community. My goal has always been simplicity when it comes to blogging, especially with plugins. I plan on releasing at least one WordPress plugin per month.

Mostly, I want to continue learning PHP and pushing my limits by using it to code plugins. My most recent plugin is Themes List. It give WordPress theme designers a simple way of listing their themes on one convenient page. There’s still a lot that can be done with it, and I look forward to continuing its development.

Weekly Roundup:

Another feature I’ve been hosting here is the Weekly Roundup. Weeks 1, 2, and 3 have went well so far. I haven’t gotten much feedback from regular readers on whether they like this feature though. At the very least, I may have brightened another blogger’s day by thanking him on my blog.

Basically, I wanted to just give a list of things I’ve found interesting throughout the week and pile it all in one post.

Google PageRank:

If you take a quick look at my Google PageRank, you’ll notice that this blog’s index page is ranked 4. While many other bloggers took a hit and are complaining about the system, I’m thanking Google for their recognition of my site’s content and boosting me up the ladder another three spots.

This may not be a big deal to some of you, and it’s not really as big a deal to me as my subscriber count, but it still makes me feel pretty good about my efforts. It’s like someone out there is recognizing them.

October’s goals:

Did I reach my October goals? Yes, but my goals were very general. When laying out a gameplan, I still didn’t have all the details, but now my path is becoming clearer. October has been an eye-opener. I’ve seen what a little effort, narrowing down my blog topics, and planning can do for my blog.

I’ve been amazed at my subscriber count’s increase. My daily subscribers have multiplied by 21. That’s enough to keep me happy for a while. Site visitor and page count have been a little erratic (mostly because of some days with loads of traffic), but has seen an gradual increase over the month.

Setting goals for November:

Now that October is finally at an end, I have to come up with some new goals. I listed most of these in the previous sections of this post.

• Continue the WordPress custom fields tutorial series.
  There’s still a lot of ground to cover in this series, and I have a few ideas ready to share in the coming weeks.
• Write a series called “How to create a photoblog.”
  This is something I started on a few weeks ago, but haven’t pieced it all together yet. The idea behind it was that I wanted to easily share daily pictures with my family over the next year (I’m currently living in South Korea). I’ve put together some neat concepts for this tutorial and can’t wait to finish the work on it.
• Double my current subscriber count.
  This will be tougher than it was in October because I now have fair amount of regular subscribers. But, I’m up for the challenge.
• Triple my average daily visitors and pages visited counts.
  This is a fairly lofty goal for me. I think it’s still within reason though.
• Make more money.
  I don’t want to set a price tag or percentage increase on this yet because I’m at a point where I don’t want to set definite earnings goals. I want to release quality content first, then see what kind of money I can make.
• Implement an Advertising program.
  Right now, I’m in the early stages of building a business model for this blog and am thinking about putting together some advertising packages. If you’re interested in advertising on this site, feel free to contact me.

November goals set. I’m ready to see how well I do with concrete monthly goals.

Why set goals? The simple answer is that it challenges me. It not only challenges me as a blogger, designer, and coder, but as a person. I strongly believe that we can only become successful if we push ourselves to success, and well thought-out planning always helps.

What would you like to see more of on this site? What kinds of things are you doing to push your business model, become a better blogger, or challenge yourself? Do you have a plan in place?

Don’t let the title fool you. I have a few specific things in mind that I want to accomplish with this blog. I have, however, been constantly asking myself this question lately.

I want to do something new with this site. It’s felt a little stale to me for some time now, and I’ve been thinking about what direction I want to take with it. I still want it to be my personal blog, a place where I can unleash on the world once in a while or rant or ponder over random musings, but I want to have a more defined direction for the blog overall.

Some things I want to do:

• Offer more WordPress themes.
• Offer more WordPress plugins.
• Write more WordPress and web design tutorials.
• Catch up on my book reviews.
• Offer monthly and/or weekly breakdowns of what I’ve blogged about and some things that I’ve found interesting online.
• Narrow down my topics (categories) a little more, which would help with putting this site in a more specific direction.
• Use tags to create a better taxonomy system in which users can find related articles. This would help users better find things they are looking for if the topics are too broad.
• Piece together a design that fits with this site, that I like, and offers content to users in a more useful way and stick with it for a while.

Goals:

• Get more subscribers to my feed.
• Blog daily, or at least write a few quality articles each week.
• Double my daily unique visitor and returning visitor counts.
• Generate more discussion of my posts. What’s a blog without a few comments once in a while.
• Make a few more dollars.

Mostly, I want to focus on getting better content out into the web by offering users, as well as the occasional family member that drops in, something of substance. I want to focus more on the things I love, namely web design and programming.

Now, that I have a few goals written down, I’ll have to follow through with them, won’t I? If you have any suggestions or want to tell me what you do or don’t like about JustinTadlock.com, feel free to do so.

“You shouldn’t waste your time on stuff like that,” he said. (Although, he later claimed that he used the phrase, “Waste all your time.”)

I was taken aback by his utter lack of sensitivity toward one of my favorite pastimes. It would be like him saying, “Don’t waste your time writing.” My passion for web design is as strong as my passion for writing.

Basically, he was telling me, which he tried to explain through the rest of our conversation, is that I need to start focusing on my career ahead. Not web design. As if that could actually be a career.

I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to make me understand that I will one day have to provide for myself (actually, that’s pretty soon), provide for a family, and have a good retirement plan set up.

But, what I don’t think he realizes is that he is trying to turn me into a Cookie-Cutter American. Answers.com defines cookie-cutter as “Appearing to be mass-produced; identical in appearance.”

So that’s it. I’m expected to fit into this traditional mold of what it means to be American. Work the 9 to 5. Marry a great woman (which wouldn’t be so bad one day I suppose). Raise two or three kids. Own a two-car garage and a white-picket fence down a street perfectly aligned with three-bedroomed homes ending in a cul-de-sac. Nurture a dog named Fluffy. Cheer at football games. Applaud at school plays.

My generation isn’t set up to be a part of this conventional America from a 1950s sitcom that our parents play out in their heads. Our conventional America will be different than theirs.

I was always told as a youngster that I could be anything I wanted to be, do anything that I wanted to do. However, that’s not the reality when you grow up. People stop telling you those things. They tell you that you must take this job because it has dental. You must take this job because it has a better retirement plan.

No one tells you that you can be a rock star any more. You’re not good enough to play in the NFL. You can’t be a renowned author. And, you most certainly can’t blog for a living; you must remember, it doesn’t offer a life insurance policy.

I’ve been exposed to this degrading of dreams for a few years now. I’m out of high school, about to finish college, and I must embark upon the cruel reality of the job market. I’m no longer allowed to have dreams, at least not openly because it’s simply not supposed to happen. Only the lucky few get to live out their dreams. And time has passed me over. I’m 22 now. I’m too old to become the next pop star.

To hell with that, I say. Why can’t I live out the dreams I was told were possible as a kid? Why can’t I win the Nobel Prize? Why can’t I take home the Oscar for Best Director or Best Screenplay? Why can’t I put in 80-hour weeks to become the next millionaire blogger? That last one may be tough since I hardly have readership as it is. Nevertheless, why can’t I accomplish all these things in my lifetime?

The harsh pill to swallow is that my dad is, in part, right. And I agree with him. After I receive my diploma next May, I will have to join in with the millions of Americans in the work force. Maybe I’ll do something I’ll fall passionately in love with. Maybe I’ll become content with the life of the Cookie-Cutter American.

I know I’ll never be content though. I dream too much. My head wanders, and it takes me to places that I can’t remove myself from.

I did make some summer plans, or goals, whichever you prefer.

• Read a book every week starting May 8. Continue for at least 12 weeks. So, I’ll have read 12 books by summer’s end.
• Write 1000 words toward a novel every day or at least 5000 a week for 12 weeks, which is 60,000 words.
• Blog every day, or at least 5 times a week. Now, that’ll be a feat with the way things have been going.
• Finish Literacy Website Project.
• Shoot/Edit/Produce at least 3 episodes of A Day In The Life: The Justin Tadlock Story.
• Finish documentary-type music project for my dad by June 29, his birthday.
• Finish my first 12 weeks of Body For Life. Then I would like to start on a new challenge. (Each challenge has its own subset of goals that I’m not going to take the time to list right now.)

There they are, my summer plans. I hope I can find it somewhere deep inside myself, the power or motivation or whatever, to finish these goals. I think they’re all reasonable enough to complete, especially since I don’t think I’m getting that internship with Channel 2 Public Broadcasting in Montgomery.

One final note: I’m down to 232 pounds. That’s an 8 pound loss so far. Now it’s time for bed.