It’s the end of the year (FINALLY) and everyone around the world is thrilled to say goodbye to 2020.
Although much of our troubles are likely to carry over to next year, it’s always great to look forward to a new year and the possibilities it holds for all of us!
Whether you’re a new blogger or your years into it like myself, blog goals are a must for every blog.
A blog is your creative expression and (hopefully) a source of income for you!
I have BIG blog goals for Pitter Patter of Baby Feet! How about your goals?
Let’s look toward the future and let me help you create effective and smart blog goals to turn your blog into a money making machine!
Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you click on them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
Writing goals for your blog is honestly difficult! Many people struggle with writing life goals let along writing goals for their business.
So how exactly do you sit down and write business oriented blog goals?
First off, let’s agree on one thing: Your goal for your blog is to increase!
Whether that be traffic, followers, backlinks, guest posting, and income.
You want to move forward with your blog, not stay the same. Even blogs receiving over 500,000 pageviews per month want to increase more pageviews for the next year!
With a blog it never seems like it’s enough. You always have a deep desire to do better than you did the previous year.
Which leaves us with… How do you write blog goals to set yourself and your blog up for success?
How To Write Blog Goals
Be Realistic
You need to be realistic when writing blog goals. If you shoot too high, than you can crash and burn and only end up disappointed.
This leads to the downfall of many new bloggers. They’re overzealous!
There’s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic or passionate about your blog.
But your blog goals need to be realistic because blogging is a slow building business.
No one starts a blog and receives over 100,000 pageviews the first month.
We all wish that could happen, but it won’t! A blog needs time to build itself. When you train for a marathon you don’t start running five miles a day.
You build up to five miles a day over time.
Instead of setting blogging goals that are unattainable, set more realistic goals! You don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment.
Write Specific Goals
Niche down and get specific with your goals. You can’t simply write a goal stating “I’m going to write more this year.”
That’s not going to work for you! Why? Because a less specific goal does not make you more accountable.
If you are wanting to “write more,” then set an attainable goal like…
-“I will write one long-form article a week of 1,500 or more words”
-“I will write three articles a week”
-“I will write 5 guest posts next year”
All of these blog goals will hold you accountable with a specific amount of words, articles and more tangible things you can work toward and measure.
Now with these two pieces of advice, I’m going to give you a new way of writing your blog goals and making them happen!
To write effective blog goals…
Related Articles: 12 Reasons To Start A Blog Today
6 Things You Need To Know Before You Start Blogging
Write Goals For Every Section/Area Of Your Blog
You’re probably thinking, “What do you mean by sections of my blog?” Well, blogging is more than just pageviews and money making.
You need to focus on how to go about getting pageviews and increasing revenue.
While not all of the sections below may apply to you, pick and choose which areas you would like to set goals for.
Areas of a blog:
-Traffic (pageviews/analytics)
-Writing
-Social Media
-Networking
-Guest Posting
-Generated Income
-Mailing List/Subscribers
-Affiliate Marketing Brands
Now simply take this list and write down blog goals associated with each section or area of blogging!
Like I said, some areas may not apply to your blog because they simply are not something you want to focus on at all.
Many bloggers may choose not to guest post that particular year because of their own time restraints and other new bloggers may not want to dive into affiliate marketing till after their first year of blogging.
But since you’re reading this to get help with writing goals, let’s look at each of these areas one at a time and questions to ask and ideas to set those specific and realistic blog goals.
Traffic- Pageviews you want to attain per month or year; bounce rate percentage; percentage of traffic attained through SEO (search engine optimization)
Writing- Words per blog post; articles you want to write per week; new category you want to tackle on your blog
Social Media- Social media outlets you want to join; increase to x amount of followers for a specific outlet; how many times you want to post per day or week
Networking- Joining niche specific Pinterest group boards; joining blogging specific groups on Facebook; following other bloggers in your niche
Guest Posting- How many articles you want to contribute to other blogs per month or year; a list of blogs you want to guest post for
Generated Income- Where your income comes from (products you’ve created; ads; affiliate marketing, etc.); how much you want to make per month or gross income you want to earn next year
Mailing List/Subscribers- Creating 1 or more opt in’s for your subscribers; x amount of subscribers you want to reach
Affiliate Marketing Brands- List of brands or companies you would like to work with to earn commissions from
My Blog Goals For 2021
I have huge blog goals for 2021! In April of 2021 my blog will be three years old.
I am now consistently making between $1,600 to $1,700 at the end of 2020.
I want to increase my revenue to $3,000 or above! That’s literally doubling my income each month.
Here are my other goals associated with some of the sections above:
Traffic- Reaching over 70,000 pageviews per month by the end of the year. Through 2020 I’ve been bringing in between 40,000 to 50,000 pageviews a month.
I also want to increase the amount of traffic I get from search engines to 15% or more. Right now I’m sitting at under 10% from search engines.
Writing- Increasing the frequency of blog posts by two per week. I’ll be doing this by opening up my blog to guest contributors. I am hoping to have a guest post every week (fingers crossed).
Social Media- Increase Pinterest following to 10,000 followers. I’m sitting at just under 5,000 now so this is a big leap!
Networking- Reaching out and emailing bloggers whose content fits with Pitter Patter and asking them if they would like to guest post.
Guest Posting- This is an area I have covered because I’m a regular contributor to the Speech Blubs Blog. I write on average 3 blogs per week for them, plus my own article for the week.
I wish I had time to guest post on more websites, but I just don’t have the time to squeeze more articles in.
Related Articles: 6 Discoveries I Made My First Year Of Blogging
Final Thoughts
While my blog goals are ambitions, I feel that they are realistic and can happen!
It will take more hard work, but everything with blogging does.
I’ve spent the last two years outlining my blog goals with the format of setting goals by blog sections or area and I highly recommend it!
Setting goals by sections allows you to…
-Dig deep into want you truly want for your blog
-See which areas matter most to you
-Set specific goals instead of broad one’s
Creating effective blog goals sets the tone for your blog for the next year.
Now take pen to paper write down the goals that matter most to you and make sure to display them somewhere you can see them each day!
What are your blog goals for this next year?
Works Cited
Effective Blog Goals: Ultimate Guide to Setting, Measuring, and Reaching Goals (codeinwp.com)