Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Setting a New Year’s resolution usually isn’t all that difficult for me. Probably because I don’t focus on massive, unobtainable goals. Instead, I work on things that inspire self-improvement. So, what kind of new blogging goals am I setting for the coming year?
Well, it all comes down to what I’ve done this year.
It’s OK to aim your sights a bit high to challenge yourself. However, creating something more realistic and obtainable can help you build confidence and pride in your accomplishments.
For instance, I set a “goal” to write one million words this year. At the moment, that is a pretty lofty goal for me. However, my ultimate goal was just to write more this year than I did last, which I completely shattered, by the way.
What New Blogging Goals Do I Set for Myself?
Perhaps the most important part of setting new goals for yourself is making them realistic. You want them to be something you can manage while still pushing yourself to put in more effort.
After all, that’s what goals are supposed to do: inspire personal and professional growth.
For the most part, the goals I set are primarily for the long term. Then, I’ll break them down into what I need per week or per day.
Let me explain…
Surpassing Words Written Per Year
Because I keep track of every single thing I create, I know exactly how many words I write per year for my blogs, books, and clients. Luckily, there are a number of ways I can do this on a blog without hand-writing every entry.
Plugins like WP Word Count in WordPress can keep track of all this information for you.
Anyway, I take the total number of words I had written this year, divide it by 365, and then make that my daily goal for the next year. So, if I wrote 468,580 words for the entire year of 2020, my goal for 2021 is 1,284 words per day.
The point is to aim for a big goal for the entire year, but see what you can do to break it down by week or by day. Instead of worrying about some huge number, your focus is on something that appears much easier.
Publish More Posts This Year Than Last
Another productivity goal that can help you along is publishing more content this coming year. If you want people to visit your blog, you gotta give ’em something to read.
This is another goal that is fairly easy to track, especially if you use WordPress and Jetpack.
By using the WordPress.com stat tracking that comes with Jetpack, I can hover my mouse over the year and see how many posts were published. Then, I would divide that by 51 (the number of actual workweeks in 2022 as I don’t count weekends in most of my data).
Of course, I can’t get this number until January 1st of the next year. Who knows what I’ll write in the last few weeks.
Get an idea of how much you published to set new blogging goals for next year. You don’t need to match what I produce, just what you produced.
You’re only in competition with yourself.
Maintaining a Set Publishing Schedule
Not all blogging goals need to center around productivity and number-crunching or coming up with new ways to type. Something as simple as keeping yourself on schedule works to your advantage.
Can you maintain one blog post per week throughout the entire year? Maybe you want to crank out three per week for the next six months.
The schedule you set as a goal is dependent upon your own level of productivity and motivation. I mean, not everyone has enough time in the week to crank out a new blog post Monday through Friday.
I know I don’t. I just have too much going on.
In my case, I am going to aim for the Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule I had planned in the beginning. I’ve never done it for an entire year before, so that is one of my goals.
Maintaining this goal will help me surpass the previous one for the number of articles I publish as it would result in publishing 153 posts in 2022.
Try a New Keyword Tool Every Month
Most people who get into blogging are looking to replace a full-time income or at least make a few bucks on the side while having fun. And if you’re one of those people, you need the best keyword tools to help you write content people want to read.
The Internet is full of keyword tools that work exceptionally well. The hardest part is finding one that works perfectly for your specific needs without breaking the bank.
Set some new goals that include finding tools to help your progress for blogging. In this case, take an entire month to try a keyword tool to see if it fits your content strategies.
The reason I say a “month” is so that you have adequate time to explore the different functions a tool has built into it.
Unfortunately, not every one of the best keyword tools offers a free, month-long trial or a free version of itself. In those cases, take advantage of what trial is available.
My point in this goal is to keep looking for new tools that can help you build some amazing content.
Now, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a keyword tool. Try a few social sharing apps, graphic programs, or other software for a month to see if they can help you publish better blog posts.
New Blogging Goals You Should Never Use
I know, the list above isn’t extravagant. But, it’s all I really need to keep the blogs progressing upward in terms of traffic. However, there are several things you should never intently focus on.
Creating new goals for blogging needs to center around things you have control over.
So, you wouldn’t want to set goals for something like…
Increasing Your Traffic Numbers
Goals that center around traffic while blogging are poor and should never be considered a new addition. This is because you can’t force people to read your blog posts.
Now, you can use strategies such as search intent to entice people to click and visit. But saying you want X number of visitors this month isn’t a very good goal because you still need to write something they want to read.
Instead, focus on the goals I mentioned earlier and include using searchable keyphrases, article length, and the number of posts published.
These elements work to improve traffic numbers over time anyway.
Increasing Your Income
Like traffic, you can’t force people to spend money on your site or click on any ads you show in your posts. Making money is merely a byproduct of creating quality content.
The more you write about stuff people want to read, the more likely you’ll make money, but it’s never a guarantee.
Instead, you could create goals that center around the type of content you write or perhaps experiment with different ways to monetize your website.
The bottom line is that it’s your content itself that will directly affect how much money you make.
More productivity leads to writing better articles. More engaging articles equals more visitors. And more visitors leads to more money.
Do You Need a Spreadsheet for New Blogging Goals?
It’s no secret that I am heavily into spreadsheets and collecting data. In fact, I have some pretty elaborate formulas that predict everything from the amount of money I make in a year to how long it takes me to create a YouTube video.
I even have one that estimates my weight loss journey.
However, you don’t need to go to such lengths to create some worthwhile goals for yourself. I just simply love collecting actionable data.
I should have been a scientist.
You probably have a pretty good idea about what kind of blogging goals you need to set for the new year. Perhaps you’re just getting started and want to publish one per week for the next few months to get a feel for it.
Spreadsheets simply give me a platform on which I can track everything from keyphrases to impressions in Google’s Search Console.
Start with doing more this week than you did last. So, if you wrote a 600-word blog post last week, see if you can do 601 words or maybe publish two blog posts this week.
Any progress you make that is above what you did before is beneficial. Remember that any victory is still a victory…regardless of its size.
Not All Blogging Goals Need to be New
When setting up some blogging objectives for yourself, realize they don’t technically need to be new. What I mean by this is that you can use old goals to keep yourself productive.
Case in point, every year I aspire to write one million words across everything I do throughout the year. This, by itself, is what I call a “secondary” goal. Sure, I’d love to hit one million words, but the primary focus is simply doing more than I did last year.
Perhaps you have a set schedule for publishing content. One of your goals could simply be maintaining that schedule. I know for me, maintaining a prolonged schedule outlook is difficult some weeks.
It’s a challenge that only works to boost the website.
Another example would be how I intend to change the theme and appearance of WriterSanctuary’s website. I’ve been trying to accomplish this one for the last couple of years.
What New Blogging Goals Are You Creating for the New Year?
As I said, the purpose of goals is to improve yourself personally or professionally. It’s all about becoming more than you were yesterday. Even if you wrote one extra word than before, it’s still an improvement.
For myself, I’m looking forward to seeing if I can maintain a three-post-per-week schedule. I’ve come close a couple of times, but we’ll have to see what I can do in the new year.
Especially since I plan on publishing a few books.
- How to Write, Edit, and Publish a Decent Book for Free - December 2, 2024
- Breaking My Record of 95,393 Words in a Single Month - November 29, 2024
- How Long Does It Realy Take to Write a Good Book? - November 27, 2024