Have your own goals

This post isn't about politics, it's about personal responsibility. It's from a personal perspective about the growth of my blog and my focus and the lessons that can be taken from my mistakes and used for anyone's personal journeys. For that matter it can be applied to politics and to the recovery of the American economy and the recovery of conservatism as well.

I started blogging on Nonsensible Shoes back in November 2008, after spending much of the primary season in 2008 updating and educating friends on the American electoral process. The blog had been set up for months but I never used it until I started thinking about codifying my beliefs. Of course when I started doing it, it wasn't even for my friends, it was just a place for me to write down my thoughts and link to the sites I frequently visit - Right Wing News, National Review, Hot Air etc. I didn't really have any goals associated with it other than to use it as a sort of personal home page.

But two of my friends whom I was keeping updated during the election cycle, independently suggested I should teach politics or write about it. It got me thinking about rather than writing for myself I should write for a slightly broader audience. I still didn't have any goals for this blog.

Of course I started playing with widgets and layouts after I realized other people might be looking at my blog. Few were, but within a week I had 62 unique visits in one day. I'm no artist, and my blog is still fairly ugly today, but at least I had a goal - get it prettier.

The I discovered Google AdSense. I figured if I had visitors, it wouldn't hurt to make a few bucks while I blogged. And visitorship was growing, so it might turn out well. But I hadn't established a real goal yet, and by default the goal became about getting revenue. Revenue is a good thing. But it's not the reason to blog. I wanted to make a difference - explain political workings to those who were curious, and perhaps capture some hearts and minds for the conservative cause along the way. Revenue as a goal is at best a distraction.

I've always been interested in American politics and history. As far back as I remember I've been a conservative. I've been interested in economics since high school. My real goal was to add insight into the debate around America's politics, it's economy, it's role in the world, it's history and it's future. Hopefully it would contribute to an overall dialogue about these topics and not end up being a monologue.

But as my site visits slowly grew, and I discovered Twitter and #tcot my goals changed and started to develop. I read about SEO (search engine optimization) and articles and books on how to grow your blog. Many of them indicated that you should state your goals up front. Of course it's pretty easy to state a goal about spreading conservatism, but if it's merely a platitude then it's a meaningless goal.

Of course with the lost focus my blog readership started to slide a bit. It is now half of what it was in April. Some of that may be due in part to reports that overall blog readership has fallen 40% since the November election. But I view that as an excuse. I preach taking ownership of your own situation. It's a core value of conservatism and of liberty. So I can't blame others and wait for a fix from someone else.

The Lesson

Therein lies the twofold lesson for me - clear, specific objectives are crucially important and personal responsibility is the biggest key to achieving them. You need to understand where you want to go, and you need to stay focused on getting there or you won't get there. Everyone probably knows this to be true in a theoretical sense, but it really does apply to achieving something. It's true whether it's a personal blog or as big as achieving victory in Afghanistan and versus Al Qaida.

I've established a new goal. It's pretty aggressive. According to my web counter I now have had over 13,800 visitors in 9 months. It's far more than what I'd have expected 8 months ago, but far less than what I could have achieved if I'd been focused on writing quality instead of where to put the gadgets and how to squeeze my ad revenues as best I could. For the record, 13,800 visits has translated to not $30 in revenue so far.

So what's my new goal? Well it's specific, and measurable. I want that counter over 20,000 visits by the end of my first full year of blogging. That's 6,200 visits over 88 days. It's about 70 visits per day, which is roughly double where it's been for the last couple of months. The obvious question is why have I taken a goal like that instead of creating conservative value?

Because the latter goal is too ethereal. You can't quantify that so you can't claim to have achieved it at any point. Ever. Most blog advice has as it's number one rule, CREATE QUALITY CONTENT. In order to get to 20,000 visits, I have to create conservative value anyways.

And instead of being discouraged by a slow day next week, it will cause me to double my efforts the following day. Blogging isn't my day job, it's a hobby. For now. I do have a longer term goal to make it my day job, but that requires the small steps and the focus to be there every single day. That focus has to be on articulating conservatism in well written posts every day.

Getting distracted over the past couple of months was pretty easy. Admitting that was a little tougher. But I never considered blaming overall Internet traffic levels for it. I just took a while to realize that I had to soldier on, but in a smarter way.

The GOP has faced numerous distractions (think Rush's 'I want him to fail' quote). The GOP has been busy focusing on the moderate RINOs versus conservative wing of the party. Libertarians versus social conservatives.

These are distractions, the GOP needs to be soldiering on too. They need to remember their original goals as espoused by Goldwater and Reagan for example. It needs to be prepared for daily setbacks, but it needs to remember to be relentless just like the Alinsky-inspired leftists who never give up and are willing to win the battle inch by inch, year by year with slow, dripping, liberal attrition of the center. If they can do it, so can the right. Perhaps in a far less sinister fashion, but with equal fervor.

The final point - if you don't have your own goals, they will be defined for you by someone else or by circumstances. If that were a ship you'd be considered adrift. And if your goals are vague you are pretty much adrift anyway, which is no better.

May you live in interesting times America

I'm back from vacation today, blogging from the subway on my way into work. Aside from tweeting on Twitter a bit, and a couple of hasty blog posts, I didn't do much political reflection. Of course I caught the big stories (cash for clunkers apparently isn't a way to bribe Nancy Pelosi to leave Congress) and big fake stories (Palin getting divorced makes about as much sense as pushing through a Cap and Trade bill during a recession... Wait, what?)

But having not been as exposed to it all as normally I would be, I was able to do some big picture reflection on things. President Obama is now 6 months into his four year term - hopefully his only 4 year term. That is 1/8th of the way into his current tenure. Would you believe how much damage could be done in 12.5% of his run? Barring a first term lame duck status, that means there's potential to do again another 7 times the damage to the country.

Thankfully, even Obama cannot be that ambitious. Can he? Okay maybe he can be but there's always the consideration that, Presidential activity tends to be front-end loaded. Hence the whole first 100 days thing for every President.

And maybe, just maybe, Obama wants to save his powder for a second term. Think about it - if he can't pass health care reform before his term expires, it makes a great unfinished business narrative for him for 2012. If he accomplishes everything in 4 years, why run again? I know you're thinking 'to tilt the playing field even further leftward', but with what? The remotely palatable stuff to a still center-right country will have been all used up by then.

Then there's the fact that President Obama may be damaged in 2010 by Americans suffering from the sticker shock of his first two years in office. Given conservative outrage at the country's recent direction, at least a filibuster capability in the Senate has to be in the cards. There's no guarantee, but it seems quite plausible.

The point is straight-lining the damage done to America by the Democrats since January, over the next 3.5 years is pointless. Nobody knows for sure what will happen.

There's an ancient Chinese saying that's been interpreted to be a curse, for good reason: May you live in interesting times.

That curse holds true for America today. Interesting means changing. It does not mean good or bad changes, it means simply 'unsettling'. Unfortunately the results of the change can be for the bad and that certainly seems to be the case now.

One year ago who would have predicted a popular uprising in Iran? Or an anemic American response? Who would have predicted a new multi-trillion dollar debt burden for future generations of Americans? Or Mark Sanford disgraced? Or the Blagojevich-Buriss scandal? Or Government Motors? Or any one of a myriad of other events of the last year?

These are indeed interesting times, and indeed and sadly, proving to be a curse for America.

The good news is that while times are interesting, the current trajectory is not set in stone. The reactions to the problems are in your hands as Americans. Tea Parties have shown Washington you will not sit by complacently and allow your country to be co-opted by socialists. That too is interesting - and inspiring.

You are not stuck with a one way ticket to doom. You have a voice. Talk to those who are fence-sitting and explain the conservative side of the story. It's your duty as an American to protect your country. Not with arms in this case, but from bad ideas with good ideas. Get involved winning over those who are unsure.

After all, your country has so done much for so many, including you. You owe it to America to pay the country back a little (not the government, and not by your taxes, your country). And if ever there was an opportune moment in your lifetime to pay your country back, it's surely during these interesting times.

Meme du jour fun - Obama = The Joker

"You have all these rules, and you think they'll save you. "

[H/T for the picture to Pamela Gellar at Atlas Shrugs.]

Cool that the posters are turning up in L.A. of all places. But is that the best movie to compare to the President? Suggestions anyone? Here's a few.

-De Niro's Capone in The Untouchables ("part...of...a...team.")

-Darth Maul from the Star Wars series (if only I could photoshop that one!)

-Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs ("I operated on his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.")

The possibilities are endless.

The Hispanic Female Vote

Don't ever think Hispanic voters are a lost cause for conservatism - no voting block is a block, everyone is an individual and everyone is reachable. With conservative truths, this should be an easier demographic than it is.

Remember, there is hope.



Every supposedly solid liberal group is reachable with the truth - African Americans, Hispanics, women, unions, every one of them. Not by pandering but by talking, listening and educating them on what conservatism really is and what it means for them.

Nonsensible Quote

Spending to get rich makes about as much sense as over-eating to get thin. Somebody in government has to realize that.

~Nonsensible Shoes

Saturday Learning Series - Free To Choose Part 4

Milton Friedman's Free To Choose video series part 4 - From Cradle to Grave.

For every ardent Obama supporter - please watch this.

For more economics and history, Nonsensible Shoes for "Saturday Learning Series".

It explains a lot.