How to Define Your Blogging Goals and Accomplish Them This Year

Wanna know how to define your blogging goals and accomplish them this year? Then this article is FOR YOU!

The truth is, everybody and their mama wants to start a blog and make money, but very few people actually realize what they are getting themselves into.

It’s so much more than just writing blog posts and sharing pictures on Instagram.

If you want to build a profitable blog that aligns with your lifestyle, your goals, and your values, then you’ll need to get a few things into place first.

It all starts with defining your own blogging goals. This is something you should consider before you even decide what you want to write about.

If you already have your blogging goals in mind and you’re ready to start blogging, move onto the second step in this 10-step guide: Choosing Your Blogging Niche…

Now, let’s talk blogging goals.

Think about it: if you just start writing without any direction or planning, a lot of that time will be wasted doing the wrong things and listening to the wrong people.

Call me Type A, if you must. But planning is so important when it comes to blogging the right way.

If you jump into this thing without any specific goals or planning in place, you’re gonna waste a lot of time, and you might even give up before you accomplish what you wanted.

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HOW TO DEFINE YOUR BLOGGING GOALS

Everyone’s end goal for their blogging career is different, and figuring out what the end goal is will be an important part of this process.

I like to start this exercise with two end goals in mind: an annual goal and an ultimate goal.

Your annual goals should be the main things you want to accomplish in the next 12 months. And your ultimate goal, of course, should be the biggest final accomplishments that you achieve in your entire blogging career. 

The best way to define your blogging goals is to follow these 3 steps.

1. Brain dump
2. Sort + strategize
3. Think S.M.A.R.T.

BRAINDUMP YOUR BLOG GOALS

We all have a million things running through our minds every day.

Things we want, things we don’t want, dreams we have, future plans etc. 

Without giving too much deep thought to this, just put your pen to paper and let out all of your thoughts. Your blogging thoughts, career thoughts, fears and concerns, plans for the future. 

Anything and everything that can possibly be affected by your career choice and your daily work schedule.

SORT AND STRATEGIZE

You’ll probably have a page or two of long messy notes, and that’s good. 

Now it’s time to sort and strategize the main points from our notes so that we can establish our annual and ultimate blogging goals. 

Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left side, write ‘annual blogging goals’ and on the right side, write ‘ultimate blogging goals’. 

Start pulling some themes and ideas from your notes and organizing them into one of these two categories. If you have NOTHING related to blogging in your brain dump notes, that can mean one of two things: 

You really have no desire to blog, or you didn’t really understand the exercise.  

If it’s the latter, go back and make some brain dump notes related only to blogging, business, and career thoughts. 

Now, hopefully you have a few general goals under your annual blog goals and your ultimate blog goals.  

Let’s get smart about defining these goals.

S.M.A.R.T GOALS

S.M.A.R.T goals are what you want to set! It stands for:

-Specific
-Measurable
-Achievable
-Relevant
-Time-based (or time-bound).

Ultimately, we want to set reachable, realistic goals that we can weave into  our every day actions in order to accomplish those goals. 

Some examples of S.M.A.R.T goals you could aim for in the next 12 months: 

-Set up my blog
-Design a logo
-Write 20 blog posts
-Learn SEO basics
-Make $200

These are just examples, but they are very specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. 

Once we have our annual goals in mind, we can break our tasks down into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals … so that we know what the heck do do with ourselves every day!

ANNUAL VS. ULTIMATE GOALS

Your annual goals are usually more specific and measurable than your ultimate goals. 

Your ultimate blogging goals have to do with what all of your hard work is going to bring you through your career. It might be something related to your blog, or something related to the legacy your hard work leaves behind.

Some examples:

-Selling your blog for six figures
-Leaving a sustainable business for your children
-Fulfilling your creative side
-Serving underprivileged communities
-Collaborating with your favorite entrepreneur  

Annual goals help us to stay focused, put our head down, and do the work. But ultimate goals motivate and inspire us to keep moving forward! 

What is YOUR ultimate goal when it comes to blogging? 

Do you want a creative outlet, a profitable business, or just a place to share your random thoughts and experiences? 

If you are not planning to monetize (make money from your blog), then you have a little more freedom. Seriously, you can just close this page right now and go do whatever floats your boat! 

But if you’re trying to build a profitable blog, you’ll need a business plan, S.M.A.R.T goals, and you’ll need to take consistent and strategic action. 

Don’t let that scare you – I’m here to help you out every step of the way! 

It’s just important to manage expectations and make decisions based on your end goal. 

So, take a moment today to follow the 3 steps mentioned above: 

Brain dump or brainstorm to get all of those thoughts unscrambled. Then sort your notes to find a general outline for your annual and ultimate goals. Then break those general goals down into smaller smart, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based goals. 

These will look a little different for everyone and that’s okay! 

If we can start at the end and work backwards, we’ll be able to do this blogging thing much more efficiently.

Remember: to start a money-making blog, you need to make decisions and take action based on your own unique goals.

Alright now. 

We’ve defined your blogging goals, and now it’s time to make them happen! 

How the heck do we do that? 

Here’s the secret: daily strategic action. 

Yup, that’s it. 

Simply figure out what needs to be done, and set small, reachable daily goals in order to get those things done. It starts with setting up your blog the right way, which is what this guide is all about! 

Pro tip: don’t get caught up in listening to too many different leaders. The noise becomes overwhelming and conflicting advice makes your job harder. Choose 2-3 mentors to learn from, and ignore everything else! 

After you get your blog set up the right way, you can start working toward your other monthly goals… and I’m here for you every step of the way.

Next section of our 10-step guide: Choosing the Right Niche For Your Blog >>>

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