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How to set your blogging goals? [2022]


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The fifth step to starting a blog is about setting your blogging goals right.


If you haven't read the previous steps on how to begin, you can find them below.

In order to take your blog to the next level, you will need to have real blogging goals.

Jump to:

If you're looking for more than a part-time income and are tired of low traffic, you need to look at this with a well designed plan.

Are you ready for a change?

If you are ready to take things further, SMART blog goals will help you get there.

Blogger goals can help you determine which steps you should take to succeed, regardless of whether you are creating your first blog or upgrading an existing one.

If you are unsure what SMART blogging goals look like we'll spend some time breaking them down. We will give you practical, actionable steps (including blog goals examples) that you can use to take your blog to new heights.



How to set blogging goals? 5 steps to goal planning for bloggers



Blog Goals: what's the point?

Without having goals for your blog, it's like a captain setting sail without knowing where they are going.


They might have a beautiful ship and be able to navigate by the stars. But without a destination, they will be lost at sea forever.

You might have a passion for writing and work in a niche blog, but you don't have goals.

You will learn email marketing and social media. Write a few blog posts, then scan a few SEO articles. These are important aspects of blogging. But without direction, it can be a lot of fluff with no results.

It takes a lot of time to make the transition from a part-time job to a full-time blogger.


SMART Blogging for effective goal planning

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Are you ready to set your blogging goals? We will walk you through the steps of SMART goals so that you can implement them for your blog.

What are the SMART blog goals?

The S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for:

  • Specific goals

  • Measurable Goals

  • Achievable goals

  • Relevant goals

  • Timebound goals

Using the SMART framework to guide your goal-setting exercises will help you position yourself for long-term success.



How to set blogging goals in five easy steps (+ examples)


Without any further delay, let's now discuss the why and how of setting blogging goals that will help you achieve meaningful growth for your blog over the coming months.



Step 1: Establish Specific Goals for Your Blog (Real Examples)

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What are your specific goals?


What are you most eager to improve?

These are some examples of blogging goals:

  • What amount of money would you like to make with your blog?

  • What are your traffic goals?

  • How often would you like to post to your blog?

  • What are your goals for growing your social media presence?

  • How would you like to see your email subscribers list look?

  • What is your SEO strategy today? What are your SEO results today?

  • How many backlinks can you get to your blog from other sites?

Don't just say "I would like to make more money" or "I want more visitors," but be specific about your blog goals.

What amount of daily or monthly traffic are you looking to attract? Do you want to attract 100 people per day? 1000 people per day? Or even 10,000 people per day?

What are your goals for blog income? What is the minimum amount you should make to become a full-time blogger?

What's the difference between what your blog is earning and what you need/want to make?

Are your blog posts published on a regular basis? How often do you want to publish new content on your blog each week?

Let's look at some hypothetical examples of blog goals one might use.

  • Grow to 20,000 visitors per month

  • Once per week, publish new blog content.

  • Blog income of $50,000 per year

  • 5,000 email subscribers

  • Double your social media followers

  • All content should be improved in SEO rankings

  • Increase domain authority

These might not be your blog goals, but they will serve as a guideline to see the SMART blogging goals in action.



Step 2: Set Measurable Goals

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Another essential step in SMART blogging involves choosing measurable goals.

Many of the goals mentioned above are simple to measure.

It will tell you if you are posting new content, how many people read your blog, and whether your income is increasing. This should be broken down into smaller segments to make measuring easier.


For measuring success, break down your blogging goals


Let's take a look at your income goal. To get a better idea of how much money you will need, you can break down the goal of 50,000 per year.

  • This is $4,166 per month

  • Or $137 per day

You may not reach your daily income goals immediately after you start. It is possible to make $20 per day and $200 by the end of the year.

To reach $50,000, you may incrementally increase your income goal by increasing it daily or monthly.

You might want your blogging goal to be:

  • September: $20 per day

  • In October, $30 per day

  • $60 per day in November.

This is also true for visitors to your blog.

Let's suppose you get 5,000 visitors per month. Because your traffic goals are likely to not increase from 5,000 to 20,000. It makes sense to set them by the month. Perhaps you'd like to say:

  • March - 7,000 visitors

  • April - 9,000 visitors

  • May - 12,000 visitors

Continue to do this until you reach that 20,000 mark.

Another thing to remember about blogging is that you will gain momentum as you go.

It can be difficult to overcome the initial hurdle of low income and few visitors in the beginning.

It will likely be more challenging to get from 0 to 5,000 visitors per month than it is to get from 10,000 - 20,000 visitors per month.


Use the right tools to measure your blogging goals


Blogging tools are a great way to keep track of your goals, and measure how successful you are. Here's some of our favorite blogging tools for these metrics:

  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics tracks various metrics, including visits, content viewed, traffic sources, and new vs. returning visitors.

  • Website Kit by Google - This plugin let's you to connect your WordPress blog to Google's suite of web tools. It includes Analytics, Search Console, and AdSense. You can see all the essential data about your blog's performance without leaving the WordPress dashboard.

  • Yoast: SEO (SEO is an essential part of a great blogging strategy) can help you to determine if your blog posts have the right SEO. Yoast is a WordPress plugin that will help you do this. This tool will help you to write better titles and meta descriptions. It will also provide advice on how to lengthen your posts, how often you should use keywords (or keyword phrases), and how many hyperlinks you should use.

  • Ahrefs: Another great tool to help you achieve your SEO goals is Ahrefs. This tool is packed with powerful features, including detailed information on your niche's competitors, site optimization and keyword research analysis, and tips and tricks for optimizing your website. You can also try to use the free backlink checker to see how your website ranks in terms of domain authority.

  • ActiveCampaign or Mailerlite are email marketing tools that will help you grow your email list. These tools allow you to keep track of your subscribers and provide detailed analytics about how you perform. ActiveCampaign is our personal recommendation for bloggers at all stages of their growth.


Step 3: Pick Achievable Blogging Goals

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We all love the idea of reaching for the stars, there must be some reality in your goals when it comes to blogging.

If you fail to achieve unattainable goals, you will be the first to feel disappointed.

Blogging takes time and effort. This is the hard truth. You may not see the real rewards of your hard work until months or even years later.

The first time you publish an article, you don't automatically rank #1 in Google search.

Your first, second, and twentieth posts won't likely get you a million social media followers.

Affiliate marketing will not bring you thousands of dollars if you only post two or three blog posts.

A successful blog requires you to work every day, month after month, and year after year. You should also set achievable goals.

You want to increase traffic to your blog. It's unlikely that you will reach 500,000 visitors quickly if you currently get 1,000 visitors per month to your blog. You won't have 10,000 subscribers if you have 50 subscribers in your email list.

You won't become a millionaire if you make $10 daily.


How to find out if your blog goals are achievable


How can you tell if your blogging goals will be achieved?

This is a great question. The answer will not be the same for everyone.

When setting SMART achievable goals, the first step is to evaluate where you are right now.

Use the blogging goals we have already outlined in this guide to ask yourself questions such as:

  • How many visitors per month do you attract?

  • How much do you earn each year?

  • How many people have you added to your email list?

  • How many social media fans do you have?

  • How many backlinks do you currently have?

  • How often do you post content?

  • How many pages/posts do you need to update for SEO purposes?

Another question you should ask is: How far have you come since your first blog post?


Analyze the data you have on your blog over time.

What trends are you seeing? Do you see a steady increase in traffic, profits, and email subscribers?

Are there ever times when you saw more traffic than you do now? If so, when were you more successful? Did you post more? Promote more?

Imagine what you can do with this information once you have it all.

  • Are you capable of publishing four blog posts per month if you only post one blog post per month right now?

  • Can you realistically dedicate the time, energy, and resources necessary to do this more often?

  • Are you willing to sacrifice something else if your schedule doesn't allow you to post more often?

If you have a goal to make $50,000 per year, but your blogging income is very low, this goal may not be achievable unless you drastically change how you blog.

You might be able to identify the reasons you aren't making money.

Are you getting many visitors but little in the way of profit? You could have a high volume of visitors but little profit.

You might not have enough income sources for your blog, or your content doesn't convert to sales.

This is the best time to honestly tell yourself what's working and what's not. This is also a time to evaluate how much time and effort you are willing to put into your blog.

You won't see much improvement if you can only spend one to two hours per month blogging. If you do not have the ability or time to work hard, your blog won't gain momentum.



Step 4: Set Relevant Goals for Your Blog

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The fourth component of the SMART blog acronym is R. This stands for relevant.

What does it mean for you to choose relevant blogging goals? This means that you choose goals that are relevant to your blog.

Do not judge other people's goals. Instead, focus on your own goals and what is most effective for your blog.

One example is the desire to double our social media followers.

Social media could be an extremely useful way to drive traffic and engagement to your blog. However, it can also be frustrating.

Remember, having followers on social media does not mean that you are increasing your blog traffic, it all depends on whether those followers visit your website and engage with your content.

Many social media platforms limit access to links from outside. You may post links to your blog via Twitter or Facebook only to find that only a small number of people are viewing it.

You can make it a point to increase your social media presence if you are a social media expert and have the ability to take advantage of those algorithms.

BUT...

It's time to stop wasting your time and energy on social media platforms that aren't driving traffic to your blogs.



Step 5: Set Time-bound Goals to Keep on Track

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T is the last SMART blogging goal, which stands for Time-bound.

You have a lot to choose from when you own a blog.

You have the freedom to choose when you blog, what topic you write about, and where you work.

You can blog from your home, at your local coffee shop, or in the park.

You can travel around the globe and keep blogging.

You must also be your own boss when you start a blogging business.

You should set your deadlines the same way you would if you worked under a boss. Your boss would not say, "Go ahead, get me that report whenever it's convenient for you."

Instead, they would say, "Your deadline for Friday is 3:00 pm."

Bloggers must have the same discipline to be successful. You will not be forced to blog. Only you are the one who can take this initiative forward.


To achieve your goals effectively, adopt successful habits


Smart habits are essential to achieving SMART goals.

What will you do to get 20,000 people to your blog each month?

You may have great goals, but how can you reach them?

Smart habits will take you to your destination, while goals are the routes.

You know that you must create and promote content to get traffic.

Are you really setting aside time for this purpose? Is it possible to organize your week, so you have enough time to blog, or do you even try to fit it into your busy schedule?

You won't see the success you desire if you don't blog for at least a few hours per week.

While you may be successful in the short term, you won't see the consistent, ongoing success needed to become a full-time blogger.


Setting the right blogging goals right now

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What are you feeling right now? Do you feel energized? Are you feeling ready to conquer the world with your blog and take it to the next level?

This guide to setting SMART blogging goals should inspire you to develop new (meaningful) goals for your blog.

It doesn't matter if you're just starting out blogging or have been doing it for years. The decision to go full-time blogging can be both exciting and scary.

While setting goals for your blog is an essential step toward becoming a full-time blogger, it's also really important to remember that each person will have their own results.

A blogger might achieve greater success than another even if they both use SMART goals and work hard.

You don't need to be a new blogger to learn new ways to boost your blog business.

How about you?

What have been your most memorable successes and failures as a blogger?

What has stopped you from blogging full-time? Are you ready to go full-time as a blogger?

Are you ready to start SMART blogging goals for your blog?


We have covered the steps for creating smart blogging goals. Now let's dive deeper into the writing part.


This article is part of a series on how to start a blog.


The next chapter is about how to write your first blog post.

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