My Goals at Yahoo! Contributor Network

My main goal is to write good, tightly focused articles that educate and inspire people. Another goal is to become more prolific. At this time, I have a relatively small library of articles, mainly because I value quality over quantity.

Despite my achievements, I am still virtually unknown here at Y!CN. One major goal is to gain more exposure, pages views and fans. To further this, I would like to begin breaking out of my niche and writing on more diverse topics. Hopefully, this will lead to another goal - being invited to write for some of the Yahoo! sites.

A serious goal for me will be to learn SEO. Try as I may, I cannot wrap my head around the concept, yet it is vital that I learn it.

One cool goal is to become more active in the forums, actively participating rather than lurking.

My dream goal is to become a Featured Contributor for two categories that doesn't even exist at Y!CN - Disability Issues and Social Justice. I have been involved in the Social Justice movement for 29 years and have been a disability rights activist for 24 years. I don't want to write in the Diseases and Conditions Category for two reasons - there are already many Contributors who are very good at writing about those topics who are featured in that category, and I feel that people with disabilities are far more than just their medical conditions. I don't see Yahoo! Contributor Network adding the Social Justice or Disability Issues Categories for many years, if ever, but I can dream.

My ultimate goal is to make writing a full time career using Y!CN as a starting point. My rapidly declining health and the fact that due to budget issues, my company was forced to terminate my position, has served as a strong motivator to follow my dream. Although I am struggling with a number of things, I would like to use this time to find out what I can do to advance my writing career since I'll now have to rely on it to survive.