Ah, the life of a blogger. Writing witty posts that are both informative and entertaining while hoping to strike gold with each new piece. It’s a tough gig, but someone’s gotta do it! And blogging goals for beginners, your number one goal is to write good posts and get all the praise, validation, and monetary compensation.
But let me tell you something writing good posts is just the beginning. You need goals if you want to succeed in this game. Goals include getting more traffic to your site or building an engaged community of readers who love what you say (and maybe even buying some of those affiliate products you’re pushing).
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If your number one goal is to become the next big thing in the blogosphere and rake in a ton of cash. Well, slow down there, champ. Before you start envisioning yourself living off of your blog earnings on a private island, let’s talk about some realistic goals.
First off, nobody is perfect. Not even Beyoncé (yes, I said it). So why put so much pressure on yourself to achieve beginner blogging greatness right off the bat? Setting goals is important, but trying to be perfect will only lead to frustration and burnout.
Instead, focus on taking small steps toward your blogging goals each day. Maybe it’s writing one new post a week or increasing your social media following by 10%. Don’t compare yourself to others in the blogosphere who seem like they have it all figured out. Remember that everyone starts somewhere, and success takes time and effort.
Blogging Goals for Beginners
If you want to ensure that your blog goals result in real success, then it’s a good idea to start with smart blogging goals you can track and understand. This is why setting smart goals and having SMART objectives for a blog works better than having some nebulous future aims. Here’s what SMART stands for and what it means for the goals you set:
- Specific – We’re going to cover some general goals throughout this guide, but you want to make sure that you have specifics for each goal. Be specific in the methods by which you’re going to attain your goal and what success in that goal looks like.
- Measurable – Of course, to get specific about your goals, it’s a good idea to be able to tell how far you are to reach them. Being able to gauge your goals allows you to measure your progress and adjust those goals based on how realistic they seem within your time frame.
- Attainable – It’s important to create your goals with a healthy dose of reality. Setting goals that are unattainable can be a demoralizing factor when you don’t reach them. Try to consider how much time and effort is necessary to reach each goal.
- Relevant – Make sure your goals are relevant to your overall motivations. Why are you setting this goal, and how is it relevant to your bigger objectives?
- Time-Based – A measurable and attainable goal is good, but you want to make sure that you have a time frame for reaching it. Otherwise, it becomes easy to lag a little and let the goal drag on, reducing your overall productivity.
What Kind Of Blogging Goals Do You Set?
Having a good set of blogging goals for beginners to start with, at least in your first year, all starts with some achievable actions. Beginner blogs take time to rank, but If you’re a beginner blogger, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content out there and wondering how on earth you’ll ever rank higher than your grandma’s cooking blog. Fear not! With these tips for reaching success, you’ll be well on your way to being a mediocre blogger in no time.
First things first – patience is key. Unlike a microwave burrito, success in the blogosphere takes time. Don’t expect to hit the top of Google rankings overnight (or even over-month) unless you have some sort of supernatural powers that we don’t know about yet. Keep churning out quality content, and eventually, people will start noticing.
Get Ten Posts Out There
Let’s start with a relatively simple one. You have to populate your blog with posts, right? Make sure that you get off on the right foot by getting some content up on the site relatively quickly.
You don’t have to go for a mad dash to get these ten blog posts all out at once. Take the time to think of some high-quality posts that you can use to kickstart things. One blog post at a time.
Set a per month amount of posts goal you’d like to publish each month without burning yourself out. This is smart blogging.
Think about the topics that interest you and why they interest you. Chances are, if they pique your curiosity, then other people will be interested too!
So choose wisely when deciding what content to put out there. If you’re struggling for inspiration, then take a look at other blogs in your area of interest and see what works (or doesn’t work!) for them
Blogging, where you only need to worry about what kind of posts you want on your site. No pressure, right? Blogging goals for beginners and trying to figure out what content will bring value to your audience can be overwhelming. But fear not! With a little bit of effort and a lot of caffeine, you can create blog posts that will leave your readers wanting more.
Firstly, think about why you started blogging in the first place. Was it because you wanted to share your thoughts with the world? Or was it because you wanted to become an overnight millionaire? Whatever your blogging goals may be, make sure that every post you publish aligns with those goals. If one day you’re writing about pet care and then suddenly switch gears and write about building birdhouses, well…that’s just confusing.
Do your research. It’s important to know what kind of content is out there already so you don’t end up duplicating someone else’s work (unless, of course, you’re doing it on purpose as a tribute). You also want to ensure that you’re writing about something people care about – otherwise, what’s the point? And while we’re on the subject of caring… think about who your audience is going to be. Are they young and hip? Old and judgy?
Start Marketing your Blog
You want to start getting your blog out there for others to see as soon as you can. To that end, you have to begin marketing it as soon as you get posts up.
Content marketing is the fastest way to bring others to your website so they can find you. Hey, beginner bloggers, It’s also okay to do this with less than a year blog. Here are a few ways to do that:
Create social media accounts and reshare blog content
The first thing you should do is think about which social media platforms are going to be best for your website. Everyone should be on Twitter; it’s the most widely used platform across demographics.
If your content skews a little older in its audience, Facebook is great, too, while Instagram is good for those covering topics with great visual content.
Repurpose your blogging content for other posts
When you’re sharing your posts on social media, think of ways that you can repurpose them.
This can include boiling them down to key facts and figures to create an infographic, making quotes out of some of the ideas behind them, or even recording a video of you narrating it to make it more engaging. People will be more likely to click that read more button if you can hook them with your invisible fishing pole.
Consider paid marketing
Not everyone is going to have the budget for paid promotional tactics, but if your organic reach isn’t working, it’s a good way to reach demographics.
This can include things like ads on Facebook and Instagram, promoted tweets on Twitter, and more. You need to consider the costs per post properly and how much you’re willing to budget for it.
Reach Some Blogging Traffic Goals
You can start trying to market your traffic with the methods mentioned above, but you want to make sure you have a goal you can track and achieve.
One of the major goals relevant to the success and health of any growing sight is blog traffic, aka, how many people are visiting your blog. Here are some simple traffic goals that you can track during the course of running the blog:
Blogging Goal Examples
- Reaching 6% traffic growth each month
- Getting 45,000 page views for the year
- Get up to 10% of your overall traffic from organic search
Depending on how much time and work you’re willing to put in, you might want to adjust these goals some. You might see results faster if you are a full-time blogger.
You can track your traffic goals with tools like Google Analytics. Aside from the marketing methods mentioned above, learning more about search engine optimization can greatly increase the traffic you see.
Search engines like Google only want to show the very best answers to a question or query. Therefore it’s essential to understand your blog goal.
Blogging Goals for Beginners and Leveraging Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of optimizing your website’s content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s no secret that search engines are the primary source of traffic for most websites. If you want to get more organic traffic and grow your blog audience, then SEO should be a top priority.
The first step in leveraging SEO for your blog is keyword research. You’ll need to identify the phrases and words that people are searching for related to your topic.
Plenty of free and low-cost keyword research tools are available online that can help you with this process. Once you’ve identified your target keywords, it’s time to optimize your content around them. This includes adding them to your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and throughout the body of your content.
Another important aspect of leveraging SEO for your blog is link building.
Link building is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy for your blog. The process involves getting other websites to link back to your content, which can increase the authority and relevance of your site in the eyes of search engines like Google. Link building is not just about quantity but also quality, so it’s important to focus on obtaining links from high-quality, relevant websites.
One way to build links is through guest blogging, where you create content for another website that includes a link back to your own site. This can help establish yourself as an expert in your field and drive traffic back to your blog.
Another effective method is creating shareable content, such as infographics or videos that others are more likely to link back to.
I’ll be the first to tell you this will not be as easy as everyone makes it sound. It’s almost like a secret code that others don’t want to link to beginner bloggers. They need to know whether you’ll continue to produce good content over time.
It’s important to note that while link building can improve SEO rankings, it should be done ethically and organically.
Related: Lifestyle Blogging Ideas for Beginners: 13 Topics to Get Started
Get a Content Pipeline Created
One of the most important things about running a new blog is the consistency with which you are able to post. As a new blogger, you might have plenty of post ideas right now, but are they going to run out eventually? If so, then you need to figure out how to get more post ideas.
If you cover news in a certain field or industry, it might be easy enough to always have new content to work on. If you’re looking to provide insight or write pieces that require more work, then you should start creating the process by which you do that.
You can create a content pipeline, ensuring that you always have at least one piece in each phase of the pipeline. Those phases can include the following:
- The idea phase, where you’re just thinking about new topics
- The research phase, where you’re getting all of your ideas together to flesh out the idea of the post
- The writing phase is the phase in which you’re sitting down, writing it out, taking what time you need
- The editing phase, the final phase, where you’re finishing up the post to get them scheduled to publish
Some people work better by starting one post and working on it alone from start to finish. Even if that’s the case with you, you should make sure that you have an idea board or document where you’re consistently putting up new post ideas.
Build an Email List
You want to make sure that you’re building a readership that will come back time and time again to keep up with your blog. One way to do that is to make sure that they’re getting their content directly to the email inbox. Building a mailing list requires a few steps.
Sign up for an email marketing service
Email marketing tools allow you to quickly create good-looking emails, usually using little more than drag-and-drop tools to design them and manage your mailing list.
Create sign-up forms
Whether they be in the form of popups, calls to action at the end of or in the middle of your post, or a constantly present offer in the sidebar or footer, you want to make sure people can access the manner by which they join your mailing list easily.
Think of incentives for joining
It’s a good idea to have some reason for people to join your mailing list in the first place. It might include a free course or seminar, exclusive content, or upgrades to your existing content.
Create worthwhile emails
Once you get people signing up, you have to deliver the content that you’re sending, of course. Try to keep the very best posts and extras for your email marketing, and determine which formats work best at getting your readers to click.
Manage your mailing list
Keep an eye on your mailing list. At least once a month, you might want to take the time to prune those cold emails that aren’t clicking or even seeing a single email that you send. Otherwise, it can throw off your analytics, making it look like your emails are working less effectively than they are.
If you’re wondering why you would spend so much time working on emails, it’s worth realizing that they consistently show the best returns for getting people to spend more time on blogs across all methods.
Next up – networking like a boss. This doesn’t mean sending creepy DMs to other bloggers begging for followers (please don’t do this).
Follow and Interact With Other Bloggers
Don’t underestimate the importance of a network when you’re trying to build your blog. Endorsements, cross-posting opportunities, and the simple benefits of finding your peers and talking to them about running a blog can be a huge blogging goal and a blessing to anyone new in the space.
Find and follow bloggers you admire or who are doing similar or complementary things in the same space as you.
Take time to explore some personal blog examples. Don’t aim to be the next big thing overnight. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day – but hey, it’s a pretty cool city now! Take inspiration from successful bloggers but don’t copy their style or content. Find your own voice and stick with it like glue.
Comment on their blogs and show some support. You can even reach out directly through social media or email to those who are engaging with you. Just make sure that you keep working on your relationships. Don’t look for favors, and then don’t contact them when you get them. It doesn’t look good for your reputation.
Start Building your Blogging Community
Of course, aside from other bloggers, you also want to foster a community with your own readership. To that end, you should be responding to the people who are commenting on your posts, engaging with them on social media, asking for feedback, and implementing it when it fits your goals.
Be constantly involved with your community, and more people are likely to join it if it looks like a good place to be.
Find Some Money-Making Avenues
If you’re looking for a little financial compensation from your blog, it’s a good idea to research first-year earning goals and set some targets to hit. There are a few different ways to make money blogging, such as the following:
- Using advertisements on your space letting companies market their products and services on your site.
- Becoming an affiliate, posting sponsored or paid posts for brands that are relevant to your content and audience.
- Creating your own products, such as merchandise, eBooks, and seminars, and selling them directly.
Monetizing your blog is a whole big topic on its own, but there are plenty of avenues that you can use to make it a reality. You need the readership before you can get the rewards, however.
Beginner Blogging Mistakes to Avoid
One of the biggest mistakes that blog beginners make is not having a clear niche or focus for their content.
It’s essential to have clear blog goals for beginners and know what topics you want to cover in your blog right from the start to build an audience around those topics. Another mistake is not writing for your target audience.
What Blog Niches to Avoid?
Not all blogging niches are created equal! Some are just plain bad ideas. Here are some categories of blogs you should probably steer clear of if you’re just starting out.
First up is the “I’m an expert on everything” blog. Look, we get it – you know a lot about a lot. But unless you were born with an encyclopedic brain and the ability never to sleep, there’s no way you can be an expert in every single topic under the sun.
And: the “Me Too!” blogs. These are the ones where every post feels like a carbon copy of something else that’s already out there in internet land.
I’ve seen countless articles about blogging for beginners. And let me tell you; it’s a saturated niche. Everyone and their mother seems to have a blog these days. But don’t let that deter you from starting your own! You can still make it in the wild world of blogging – just know what you’re up against.
How Will You Work On Your BloggGoals?
Whichever goals you decide to adopt, or however you decide to adapt them to your eventual vision, or how much time or energy you can put into your blog, it’s a good idea to write them down. There are plenty of to-do list apps as well as task managers that can help you track your goals and plot out your progress towards them.
Setting goals can be vital for your blog’s growth and ensuring that you’re always investing in moving it forward. Without them, you may find yourself aimlessly creating content without any real direction or purpose.
Setting goals allows you to clearly define what you want to achieve with your blog and creates a roadmap for how to get there.
Whether your goal is to increase website traffic, grow your email list, or monetize your blog, having a clear plan in place will help ensure that you are always investing in moving your blog forward. By breaking down larger goals into smaller actionable steps, you can make progress toward achieving them each day.
Setting blogging goals, especially for a beginner, helps to keep you accountable and motivated. When the going gets tough and obstacles arise (as they often do), having clear objectives in mind can help give you the drive and determination needed to push through challenges and continue making progress toward success.
It can be easy for that passion to fizzle if you don’t know exactly where to direct it. With these goals, you can make sure you know what direction to run in.
Treat your blog just like a business that has a business plan because that’s exactly what you are trying to do. You may also want to check out my free resource guide for new bloggers, where I share lots of good tips!
