I have been online consistently now for more than two years. I have read blogs and ebooks and articles and white papers and listened to webinars and watched videos and …. well you get the picture! I have done everything that I know how to do to create a valuable blog for people who want to design a successful life/business plan.

strategy (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Since re-focusing the Doulos Group in January my readership and other analytics have gone up and I am grateful. However, I have discovered something that I hadn’t seen before that I want to put into practice here and to share with you as well. I have been studying my blogging heroes (Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Nancy Duarte, Mark Schaefer, and Scott Stratten, to mention a few) and have discovered that they have something that I don’t have. They have a visible strategy for their posts and the direction that they want their blog and business to go. Nothing seems to be “hit and miss” about their writings. They have a plan (strategy) and they execute it with precision.

I, on the other hand, have written about things that I thought were important for the moment. (Or things that other people said were important to business professionals.) At the end of 2011 I looked back and tried to decide what I had accomplished. I enjoyed getting better at writing, but I didn’t really take my readers anyplace specific. I didn’t have a strategy or plan for what my writing should do or what story I might tell.

I read a lot of blogs and find many like mine. Lots of information that is good, but no real direction/strategy. My goal in the re-focusing of my online venture is to establish and work my developing strategy. I would challenge every entrepreneur and new business start-up to really consider the strategy and direction of your business and create a focused plan for 2012. With a definite strategy and a direction for your business online as well as offline, you can’t help but create something special for your customers/clients.

What is your strategy for the new year? What direction is your business heading? Would you be willing to share some of your ideas about focus, planning, and direction?