How to Set Realistic Blogging Goals

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Just like anything in life, you need to set goals if you want to achieve your dreams. For solopreneurs who blog as a business, it's vital to set blogging goals to take your content to the next level. But don't just set goals without thinking. You need to be as realistic as possible; otherwise, you're setting yourself to failure. 

The thing is, a successful business should have a yearly goal and objectives. You should develop a well-rounded marketing strategy to spread awareness while measuring key performance indicators to improve promotions even more. 

If your website is generating relatively low traffic, if you're experiencing a backward trend in social media engagements or email subscribers, perhaps it's time to go back to the drawing board and plan your blogging content to turn things around.

But where to even start? Here are ways to help you set realistic blogging goals for better results: 

Get SMART

SMART is an acronym for:

Specific: Your goal should be clear, never vague. If you want to grow your blog site, you have to be specific by how much – like generate 100 subscribers in a month, increase your blog traffic by 300%, or publish 20 posts in a month. 

Measurable: You won’t know if your blogging strategies work if you’re not measuring the metrics. Know your average or baseline, then monitor the analytics to see if you are reaching the desired engagements such as page views, clicks, subscriber numbers, etc. Use the data you’ve gathered to set goals.

Achievable: When you’re setting goals, you need to set small goals that you can achieve within the specified timeframe so you don’t end up being disheartened for failing to reach the impossible. Also, your goals should be based on actual metrics. If you are getting 100 pageviews in a day, for example, you can shoot for 200 pageviews and see if that’s something you can achieve within the timeframe you’ve set for yourself. Don’t go for 100,000 pageviews in a month when you know you can’t reach it.

Relevant: Your goals should be based on the reason why you have a blog in the first place. If you’re blogging for business, the goal should be to generate profits. Everything you do should be for the sole reason of earning more. Your goals should never stray away from the reason why you’re blogging. 

Time: Giving yourself a deadline helps you stay on track to achieving a goal. Monitoring the metrics and fine-tuning your marketing strategies will help you accomplish your goals within the given timeframe. Of course, the timeframes should be reasonable. Be firm with the deadlines!

Setting Blogging Goals

Blogging goals should be divided into different critical areas of the business. You should have goals for the following:

• Blogsite Traffic
• Number of Subscribers
• Collaborations
• Authority
• Revenues

Blogsite Traffic

This should be at the top of your blogging goals because traffic is the lifeblood of a website. Depending on your niche, you should shoot for aim for achievable page views every month. For example, you can aim for 2,000 pageviews in a month and then 4,000 pageviews the next month. Set up Google Analytics and other analytics tools to measure the metrics. 

Work on your SEO because it helps widen your reach by improving your online presence. Growing your email list, hosting a giveaway, guest posting, and providing valuable content is also key to boosting blog site traffic. 

Number of Subscribers

You want to collect as many subscribers as quickly as possible for future promotions. If your blog site is new, aim for 20 subscribers in a month. If your blog is over 1 year old, go for 500 to 1,000 if you can. You won't have trouble getting subscribers if you reach your traffic goals. It helps if you offer incentives to get people to subscribe, like a mini email course, a free digital product, some discounts, etc. Creating an attractive opt-in page certainly helps, along with promoting your blog wisely!

Collabs

We live in the age of influencers – personalities and market leaders respected in their niche. Their recos and insights are blogging gold. Unless you are blogging for fun, you can’t grow your blogging biz on your own. You need influential friends to help you reach audiences you might otherwise not reach on your own. And this goes both ways! You could help an influencer or a partner brand to access your target audience to expand their own network.

Part of your job as a solopreneur is networking. You want to cultivate relationships, nurture partnerships, and develop a tribe of promoters to grow your business and their own. Don’t be afraid to reach out to influencers, highlighting their work on your blog site to get their attention, retweet their tweets, and/or leave useful/meaningful comments on their blogs. You can also email these personalities to present a collab proposal. 

Authority

Build and maintain an authority website to boost your influence and traffic. The more useful, valuable, and high-quality your content is, the more people will trust your brand. One of your most important goals should be to maintain the highest content quality. Readers love a problem solver; if you can provide solutions to their problems, people will come for your content.

It’s equally important to focus on relevant and sometimes controversial topics. Users actively search for interesting blogs, and there’s absolutely no reason to focus on topics your audience isn’t interested in reading. Finally, write evergreen content that adds value to the readers. Your readers have to learn something from your content to keep them coming back for more. 

Other ways to boost blog authority include:

• Improving on-page and off-page SEO
• Link building
• Guest posting
• Collabs
• Guest spots for interviews

Revenues

If you blog for profit, the end goal should always be to earn money. But realistically, how much should you make in your first blogging year? It really depends on many things, mainly:

• Niche
• Marketing strategy
• Monetization strategy
• Audience reach

Ways to earn money on blogging include:

• Selling ad spaces
• Joining affiliate programs
• Selling your own products and services
• Sponsored posts

Set a modest income range if you’re new to blogging and keep the amount reasonable if you’ve been blogging for a while. It’s normal to earn zero pounds on your first month, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not meeting your revenue goal. Also, no matter how long you've been blogging, your income will fluctuate all the time. What you need is a working plan to stabilize your income and track your progress!

Setting goals is exciting indeed and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming big for your business. But to get the best start (and stay motivated), keep your blogging goals as realistic as possible. Try the tips we’ve mentioned above and enjoy your journey!

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