How To Set Effective Blogging Goals For The New Year
Setting goals for your blog isn’t rocket science.
In fact, setting effective blogging goals really boils down to two things:
- Knowing what you want
- Figuring out how to get it
Of course, this is much easier said than done. If setting effective blogging goals were this easy, everyone who started a blog would have a successful blog.
I know this to be the case. I started my previous blog 5+ years ago and although I had big goals for my blog, most of them resulted in…. Well.. dead ends.
- “I want to grow my blog”
- “I want more subscribers”
- “I want to feel like I am making a difference”
These are things that I hear people talk about all the time. I uses to say the same things too.
While there is nothing wrong with any of these statements, the truth is they lack a clear focs.
Some people go through life with ‘vision’ but no clear plan on how to get there. Others, just feel their way through hoping that things will work out.
The problem with the latter method is that when you aim for nothing, you get it every single time.
Without clear goals, you will feel lost.
The fact that you are reading this indicates a longing and a desire to:
- Set effective goals
- Take the necessary steps (do the work) required to achieve those goals.
That is why I created this guide for you. My goal with this post is to help you:
- Map out the big vision for your blog and content strategy
- Know what goals you should focus on
- Create a framework for setting clear and effective goals for your blog
- Define actionable steps to help you meet those goals
Are you ready to learn how you can set goals and make this year your most profitable blogging year yet?
Let’s start with the end…
Begin With The End In Mind
I first heard the term- begin with the end in mind when I was reading 10 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
In the book, Covey says to imagine yourself at your own funeral. He says that you should try writing your own eulogy. What would it say? How would it describe you and the legacy that you will be leaving behind?
I know that sounds grim, but the idea behind this is to start with the end in mind.
Once you know what you would like the end to look like, you can start to work backwards to achieve those things.
One of my favourite quotes from Covey is:
“Before you start climbing the ladder of success, make sure it’s leaning against the right wall.”
Stephen Covey
Again, he is referring to the fact that you need to know where you are headed before you start your journey.
When setting your blogging goals, I am not asking you to necessarily think about the end of your life. Instead look 2-3 years ahead. This is long enough that you can still dream without needing to have a clear plan for how you can get there.
Ask yourself:
- What would it look like if everything worked out the way that you would like it?
- What would your blog look like?
- How often would you post?
- How much revenue would you bring in from your blog?
When you do this exercise, do not be afraid to think big.
Simply put, you need to have a vision otherwise you will have no idea what direction to take.
Refine Refine Refine
Once you have a good idea of your vision, you need to refine your goals by setting smaller, more specific and realistic goals.
I am sure you have heard of the SMART acronym. The same applies for your blogging goals. You need to make your goals SMART!
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
This means that saying things like “ I want to grow my blog” simply will not cut it anymore.
Be specific about what you want and decide on the metrics or the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you would like to achieve. Doing this helps to keep yourself accountable. It also helps you to track your journey to meeting your blogging goals.
Remember when I said it was ok to dream when it comes to setting your vision?
When you make your SMART goals, you need to make them realistic. Slightly out of your reach, but realistic nonetheless.
Set A Deadline For Your Blog Goals
When it comes to setting goals for your blog this new year, I would also recommend giving yourself a reasonable time frame to achieve your goals.
3 months is a great time frame to work with. It is long enough that you can actually achieve a sizeable goal but not too long that it seems out of reach.
After every 3 months, set aside time to check in with yourself and track your progress.
Understand Your Why
One big reason that people do not accomplish their goals, is that they do not have an understanding of why they are going after the goal.
We might think we do… but do we really tho?
Your why is important as it will serve as a point of reference and help you stay focused on your goals.
In order to set effective goals, you need to have a clear understanding of your why.
Create A Plan
Setting goals is easy. Sticking to it? Not so much!
You need to create an actionable plan for how you are going to achieve each of your goals.
A goal is nothing without a plan.
In order to create a plan, you simply have to work backwards.
For instance, if one of your goals is to get 1000 subscribers, you will need to create a plan to help you get there.
- Do you need to choose an email marketing platform?
- Do you need to create a lead magnet?
- How will you advertise your lead magnet?
These are all things that you need to consider when you are creating your plan.
Your plan should be as detailed as possible.
This is something that a lot of people forget when creating their goals. It is important to plan down to the last detail and block out time in your schedule for completing each task.
Celebrate Small Wins
What happens when we meet one goal is that we quickly start working to accomplish the next goal.
It is important that you take time to pause and celebrate your successes. Celebrating your wins no matter how small, releases feel good chemicals in our brains and increases our motivation to go even further towards success.
Now that you have an idea of how to set goals for your blog, you might be wondering what type of blogging goals to set.
Blogging Goals Examples- The Do’s and Don’ts of Goal Setting
The goals that you decide to set for your blog are entirely up to you and dependent on the stage of your journey you are currently in.
The blogging goals that you decide to go for will also depend on your blogging niche.
It is important to consider these factors instead of letting the comparison rear its head.
You may want to look at other successful bloggers, read all of their income reports and try to mimic their results and success.
The truth is that everyone’s journey is different and when you start comparing yourself to other bloggers, you are sure to experience disappointment.
If you are stuck, Here are some examples of blogging goals that you can consider:
Blogging Goal #1- Audience Goals
This is often the first type of goal that new bloggers make.
You want to build an audience and increase traffic to your site.
When you make the traffic goals for your blog, always remember to be realistic.
The goals that you set should depend on where you currently are.
This means that if you are at zero pageviews, first focus your efforts on getting to 100. If you are at 100, focus on 1000. Do not aim for 10,000 in your first quarter of blogging, simply because you saw that someone else was able to achieve that.
Of course, this is entirely possible- you may have a blog post that goes viral, but there is no guarantee and no way for you to plan for this.
Once you set your realistic traffic goals, work on making is SMART.
You should also think about how you plan to get traffic to your site?
Some ways that you can increase the traffic to your site is by:
- Implementing Effective SEO strategies
- Pinterest & Social Media Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- Guest blogging
- Networking
Consider these factors when you are creating your audience or traffic goals.
Blogging Goals # 2 – Content Goals
These set of goals relate to the type of content that you create and how often you will be able to create content.
New bloggers often make the mistake of trying to publish daily blog posts.
When you are new to blogging, this is simply unrealistic.
You have no baseline for what you can handle.
Blogging has changed a great deal over the last few years. The trend of posting short witty content is dead. Instead focus on creating in depth and valuable pieces of content. This content should help your target audience answer questions or solve some sort of problem.
At the bare minimum, I would recommend setting a goal for 1 blog post a week.
The number of posts that you create is important because it affects the traffic to your site. The more pages you have, the more pageviews are possible. But do not over do the content for the sake of traffic. Quality content wins, Every. Single. Time.
Sit down and come up with a reasonable goal for how often you can post based on your current lifestyle and all the tasks you have to balance.
Once you have your goal, draw out a schedule of day to day activities to help you map out exactly how you will achieve your goal.
Blogging Goals # 3 – Marketing Goals
Another blog goal category that you may want to consider would be relating to your marketing efforts.
How do you intend to market you blog?
Are you using social media? If so, how od you intend to show up on those platforms to help you acheive your goals.
If you decide to use email marketing (you should), how many subscribers do you want to have?
As you set your goals, plan out how you will implement this and where you will have your opt ins for the lead magnet or freebie.
Blogging Goals # 4 – Revenue Goals
The last type of blogging goal that I will discuss relate to your revenue.
This is one of the blogging goals that people typically rush to.
If we are being honest, most of us started blogging in order to make money through our blogs. (Not everyone, but if you are looking to set blogging goals, chances are you also want to make money).
There is nothing wrong with talking baout money or setting goals around money.
However, I would caution new bloggers not to rush to set revenue goals.
Remember that 3 month time frame I spoke about earlier?
Chances are that even with the best strategies in place, you will not be able to make money in your first quarter blogging.
Of course there are exceptions to this rule. I applaud you if you were able to achieve this goal in your first 3 months as a complete beginner.
When you set revenue goals without ever making money before, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. You have no baseline of how much you can make and you are essentially guessing.
If you are going to set revenue goals, consider also how you will earn this revenue.
E.g. If you sell digital products, how many would you have to sell to meet your goal?
How would you market your product to help you sell to that number of people?
Now that you know how to set goals and what goals you should set, leave a comment and let me know what goals you are working on in your blog and business?
