In the last few months I have been thinking a lot about what I want out of my blog and how I can see more growth. One of the biggest things I've learned while blogging is that you have to put a lot of work into it- I mean you really have to put your heart and soul into your blog if you want to see results. Blogs should be constantly evolving, not only because the world around us is ever-changing but because dynamic blogs tend to be the most successful ones.
Thinking back to this time last year, I didn't really create any specific goals that I wanted to accomplish and now I wish I would have. I remember thinking that I wanted to see growth... but I didn't pinpoint where and how. Without a doubt, I did see growth... I worked hard and 2014 is when I became really serious about posting more regularly and turning my blog into a business. So it was a successful year, but I think it would have been even more successful had I set specific goals for myself.
However, I've learned from this experience. After thinking about how I approached my goals last year (or lack thereof) I have decided to do things differently this year. This is the start of a series on Afternoon Style that will focus on why creating goals for your blog is important and the positive outcome you will see from doing so!
1. Setting goals will help your blog grow. This point probably sounds like basic common sense... but it's true. I think I speak for all bloggers when I say that we all want to be successful, gain more followers... we all want to GROW. But if we just write, "GROW BLOG" on our to-do list, that doesn't really give us much to work with. Sure, we can hope it happens, but unless we know how we are going to create growth, it probably won't just happen. I broke down all of my blogging goals into 7 categories that I can work on in the next year and I broke those categories into specific things I can do each day/week/month in order to help me accomplish my goals. For example, some of my goals fall into networking, while others fall into organization or advertising. Each goal that I make is a part of my main goal- to grow my blog, but they contribute to the main idea in a different way. I'll get more into these categories in a later post.
2. Goals will help you measure results. It's great to have goals and to watch the growth of our blogs, but if we aren't measuring our results, how do we really know how much we are growing?
For example, in the social media goal category, I pinpointed exactly what results I want to see and what I need to do to achieve them. Say you have 1,000 followers on Instagram and you want to triple that by the end of 2015. That is totally feasible, but how are you going to do it? First you need to figure out what you need to accomplish, in numbers. That's an increase of 2,000 followers in 12 months, which equates to 166 followers a month and about 41 followers a week. Obviously this isn't going to be consistent every single week, but that at least gives you something to strive for and measure. Measuring your results will allow you to visibly watch the growth occur and evaluate what your current strategies and practices are. I recommend creating a spread sheet with these tangible goals and recording your progress each month so that you can watch your results and see how you're doing!
3. Goals will help you evaluate your progress, which will allow you to make effective changes, when necessary. Essentially, running a blog is like running a business. Marketing=growth. As someone with a degree in marketing (although I wouldn't consider myself an expert just yet) the biggest thing I've learned is that any marketing plan has to be constantly tweaked and edited. There is no complete marketing formula that will work for any business plan. There ARE marketing strategies that are proven successful among many mediums and niche markets, but these usually need to be altered in order to fit the needs of your business. Similarly, each blog has its own niche, audience, branding, etc. and every blogger needs to figure out which strategies are going to work best for their particular blog. This is why creating, measuring, and then evaluating your goals is so vital. If you have a goal and you are measuring your results, but you aren't seeing the results you want, then something needs to be changed. Take the Instagram example again. If in 3 months you notice that you aren't on track with the number of followers you want to gain, you should re-evaluate your marketing strategies for this particular platform. Then you can continue to track your progress and see if the new strategies provide better results. Of course, this will differ based on your goal and the strategies you are following, which I will get into more in future posts.
4. Creating goals is rewarding. Honestly, there is nothing better than seeing your hard work pay off. It is one of the best feelings in the world! Over time, as you work to grow your blog, you will hit milestones and accomplish your goals. Whether it's something small that you've accomplished or a large goal that you've been working on for an extended period of time, accomplishing a goal calls for rewards and excitement! But how can you reward yourself or even acknowledge an accomplishment if a goal was never in place? Well, you can't and you probably won't. I love nothing more than being able to 'check-off' the boxes of the things I've accomplished. And believe me, you will too!
5. Creating Goals is FUN. Okay, I'm really not trying to sound like your mom when you were 12 and she told you that homework and cleaning your room was fun. (It never was). But think about it... why did you start your blog? Because you wanted to! No one forced you to start your blog. As mentioned earlier, you have to put a lot of work into a blog but we do it because we want to and because it's something we are passionate about. Blogging has turned into my main hobby and I absolutely love it! There are some days when it may seem like more work and sometimes it can be frustrating, but at the end of the day it should be fun! Do you know what isn't fun? When you aren't seeing growth in your blog and you don't know WHY. No, that is incredibly frustrating, actually. I assure you that if you create goals for your blog and follow these steps, it will be loads of fun and it will feel like a party!
I hope you've enjoyed this first post on blogging goals! This is something that I think is so vital, but more importantly I think it's great to create a discussion around it! Some of the biggest things I've learned about blogging are from talking to other bloggers. In the dynamic world of blogging, it never hurts to see what other people are doing and learn from their mistakes/success.
I want to know what YOU think. Have you set any goals for your blog this year? If so, what are they and what are your tips with goal setting? Feel free to leave a comment below, email me, or tweet me!
disclaimer: I am not a blog marketing expert, but I do LOVE blogging and I've learned a lot along the way. Although I am still learning and will continue to do so, I want to take you along on this journey with me and watch our blogs grow together!
Read Part 2 of the Blogging Goals series here.