June 7, 2008

The Ultimate Guide to a Blog Status Report

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:00 am

A Status Report for a Blog?

Working Plans logo

This week Chris Brogan wrote about whether our personal networks would be of value to companies that hire us. He used Twitter to choose an example of someone with a strong personal network. The example he used was me.

The thoughts Chris wrote dovetailed with some thoughts I’d been having, so I put them together in a post of my own. I set out three questions with an offer of free consulting time to the most insightful comments. Joanna Young offered this idea that I’ve shortened some here . . .

. . . But what might be more interesting is the frame that needs to go round that, the parameters if you like, that come from *your* wants and needs: they might be things like wanting to blog less (or more!) frequently; to spend more time off line (or online); to experiment with a different style or topic; to focus on one dimension or get more creative by sending out streams with many…
How to deliver the material that’s working for our readers at the same time as achieving the things that need to work for us.

That got me thinking about accountability, communication, and managing projects in all of the past publishing jobs I’ve ever known. One tool I always insisted upon was a status report.

So I’m starting a Status Report for this blog. It seems like a fine way to answer the question of what keeps this blog running and what choices I make to ensure the bills are paid.

What Makes a Great Status Report

A status report is a snapshot of how finished something is at a specific point in time and next steps in the process. With a well-written status report, everyone knows what the news, issues, problems, and great new ideas are. A great status report is written to be

  1. brief,
  2. relevant,
  3. and easy to scan

just like a great blog.

My form for a status report has four headings:

  1. News – Changes in the atmosphere, market, strategy, or agreed plan, as well as important people we’ve met, events we’ve attended, and publications that have taken notice of what we’re doing. New initiatives will get announced.

  2. Issues and Requests — Information about actions, requests, and ways of doing things that make work harder or are inappropriately handled in some way. Requests for help and volunteers might be here. Think of these as business problems that need talking about.

  3. Progress — an update of what’s going on and what’s starting up

  4. Short Term Goals — dates by which certain things will be done.

When it’s shared, the status report keeps a community / team involved in the ongoing work and how it’s getting done. People can offer help. People can spot future problems. People can generally participate more because they can see where they might fit and how busy things are.

The routine of “publishing” a status report also keeps everyone aware when priorities when changing and where stresses might be coming in. Status reports also keep us aware of how we’re doing on reaching our goals.

Joanna’s comment is perfectly tuned advice for a community blog like this one. It nudges me to be more transparent about the business of blogging. I’ll be posting the first Successful-Blog Status Report tomorrow. Hope you’ll look for it then.

Have you worked with status reports before?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

Share This


Filed under Business Life, Successful Blog |



C'mon. Let's talk!

11 Comments to “The Ultimate Guide to a Blog Status Report”

  1. June 7th, 2008 at 9:17 am
    Stephen Hopson said

    Should be interesting! I can see this as being a useful application for bloggers who are in the process of writing a book or on a 30 day weight loss program or involved in some kind of project where readers want to be informed of its progress.

    Hmmm..interesting possibilities?

  2. June 7th, 2008 at 9:24 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Stephen!
    I find status reports keep centered in reality far more than the traditional “to do” lists do. In this case, I hope it will also add some transparency to the time I spend when you don’t see me on my blog. :)

  3. June 7th, 2008 at 9:37 am
    Michael Martine said

    Liz, great thoughts on status reports. I’ve been looking for an online project and work management environment, and I’ve tried out a few, but only Central Desktop has project reports you can generate automatically based on the activity taking place.

    I know you’re probably talking more about a hand-written style of status report, but for what it’s worth, I thought I would try to contribute a little something to the disucssion. :)

  4. June 7th, 2008 at 10:06 am
    Karin H. said

    In two minds about status reports really. It is a proper tool to structure your work, goals etc and I do use it for our business - of course I do otherwise my good friend the ‘companydoctor‘ gets cross with me ;-)

    But on blogs? Wish I could, at the moment I manage 7 of them - all with their own goals. But…. and this is a large BUT: our first business always takes first rank so I’m always ‘navigating’ between main goal and second goals.

    Keeping status reports on all would be a status report on its own ;-)

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  5. June 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin,
    I’m not suggesting that you use a status report on your blog. I thought it might ba a good idea on this one, because of it’s community nature. I want folks to have closer look at what the inner workings of this blog really are.

    I agree with your dilemma of scope. When used to do just that when we did full-blown reading programs/schemes for kids ages 5-13. Took pages and pages of status reports to keep track of everything.

  6. June 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
    Mother Earth said

    I think it’s an awesome idea -I look forward to the example it provides.

    I think it’s a bit like you thinking outloud

    we do this monthly, and yearly for our work, our company is hugely accountable for where we are, where we are going, how far we’ve come

    status reports to me are insightful

    since sobcon I have been observing patterns and being more on purpose about my postings, planning vs rambling

    how do you say it - you live in my computer??

  7. June 7th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
    Joanna Young said

    Hi Liz, I’m interested in the idea too, as like Karen I’m thinking more about blogging on purpose post sobcon (and because I’m focused on ‘purpose’ at my blog this month).

    Funny how comments we leave on other people’s blogs are actually quiet notes to the self! (Although we only realise it afterwards)

    I look forward to seeing where you take this. Glad my comment was of some value to you

    Joanna

  8. June 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Joanna!
    It is an interesting idea for sure and I don’t know how long it will work. But I’m going to see where it leads, it could be a way to make some commitments and to get some buy-in to what we’re doing here.

    It is funny how we’re often commenting with ideas to ourselves.

  9. June 8th, 2008 at 3:04 am
    Coffee Break said

    [...] Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Blog has outlined how to make a status report for a blog. As corporations become more and more comfortable with blogging I can see a need for this type of [...]

  10. June 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
    Status Report: 06 - 06 - 08 - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] I posted the Ultimate Guide to Status Reports. My goal was to explain how I found that The routine of “publishing” a status report also keeps [...]

  11. June 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am
    Women’s Words Weekly - June 1-7, 2008 at Women On Business said

    [...] Strauss at A Successful Blog gives us The Ultimate Guide to a Blog Status Report where she shares tips for creating a blog status report that can be applied to any business [...]

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

C'mon Let's Talk!