Set Blogging Goals, And Stick With Them

Over the past year I’ve seen many start blogs, and give up after a couple of months, if not weeks, because of the lack of daily visitors and traffic streaming through the tubes.

My advice for the first 6 months of running your blog, is to forget about the readership statistics, and focus on creating and posting stacks of quality content to help build up your archives.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set goals, if you haven’t already, now’s the time to set some goals and be prepared to review them at the end of the year.

To begin this process, goal setting is in order. I personally like to set goals at the start of every year, and look them over each month to track current progress. Whatever date you read this post, make it a task to check over them each month for the next 12 months - the goals you will be setting are over a one year period.

Here are a few goals you should set, along with a few of your own.

  • Posts Made
  • RSS Readers
  • Daily Page Views
  • Technorati Rank
  • Blog Comments
  • New relationships made

    • Set a value for each of these goals, and make a comment on this article so you have a little push and drive to achieve these goals. In 12 months time, I’ll follow up to this article so you can see if you achieved your goals.

    Goals are important. Without goals you are just going with the flow, with goals, you have something to work towards, something lying up ahead in the future to aim at.

    What are your blogging goals for this year?

    Comments

    1. #1

      Michael Yurechko → michaelyurechko.com

      My goals are secret for my new blog, but I had already thought about exactly the things you listed.

      But a couple include:
      - Where I want my Alexa rank to be
      - Technorati rank
      - Income amount
      - Don’t be evil (following google’s approach)

    2. #2

      wphj → www.wphj.wordpress.com

      Good idea, I’m just going with the flow with my blog. I love getting comments and readers, but if my only goal is becoming a superstar A-List Blogger, then there’s no way I’d keep going.

    3. #3

      alej744

      :/ Don’t blog.

    4. #4

      Kate → cholulared.blogspot.com

      OK, I realize this is a stupid question, but I can’t seem to find the answer. I’ve put my blog on blogspot.com, is there a way to add counters?

      Sorry for such a dumb question, I’ve looked all over and just can’t seem to figure it out.

      Kate

    5. #5

      Indraneel → indraneel.thepurohits.net

      -quality content
      -daily page views (i have 47 visits in about 1 and 1/2 weeks, is that good or bad?)
      -rss readers (i have ten :(
      -learn php to code a theme

      and finally
      -generating revenue somehow (i need help on this, as i’m not sure if i have enough of a reader base to do so)

    6. #6

      Paul Stamatiou → paulstamatiou.com

      I think I would rely more on quality content and # of comments/reader interaction than pure traffic. Traffic is good, but great reader interaction is even better. And technorati rankings don’t mean annnything - they’re so skewed.

    7. #7

      Blog Mirrors » links for 2007-02-22 → www.blogmirrors.com/1969/12/31/links-for-2007-02-22

      [...] Glenn Wolsey : Blog Archive : Blogging 202: Set Goals, And Stick To Them “For the first 6 months of running your blog… forget about the readership statistics, and focus on creating and posting stacks of quality content to help build up your archives.” Amen! (tags: Blogs Tips) [...]

    8. #8

      Josh → blog.twelvehorses.com

      One of the hardest things for my clients to understand is that it’s going to take a good six months before you start to see significant readers to your blog. They all want to give up within a few months. Good post.

    9. #9

      Drainedge Link Tank · Today’s Links → www.dannyraines.com/weblog/?p=890

      [...] Blogging 202: Set Goals, And Stick To Them - Glenn Wolsey [...]

    10. #10

      wphj → www.wphj.wordpress.com

      Kate, I’m not sure, but WordPress is great.
      http://www.wordpress.com

    11. #11

      GoalPosting → www.goalposting.net

      I just launched http://www.goalposting.net yesterday, and, as you might expect, I’ve posted my goals on there.

      Justin

    12. #12

      Amanda → thetimemastery.com/blog

      Thank you the information. That will really help to set blog goals this year.

      Amanda

      http://thetimemastery.com/blog

    13. #13

      Rory → hamelife.com

      This is good, sound advice for me. I like the suggestion to not worry about readership, and so on, but to concentrate on building up content.

      I have posted my blogging goals, and I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far.

    14. #14

      Lost in Cyberspace » Blog Archive » Setting Blog Goals → www.ukstevieb.com/2007/02/25/setting-blog-goals

      [...] myself for the next month or so, there are some good ideas that I saw in an article posted over on Glenn Wolsey’s blog that may help me set some long term goals. Of the six ideas that Glenn posted in his article I [...]

    15. #15

      Reader Tips: 25 February 2007 → www.dailyblogtips.com/reader-tips-25-february-2007

      [...] Setting Blog Goals - Glenn Wolsey’s view on this very important topic. [...]

    16. #16

      Blogger Lounge | Money Making Strategies for Successful Bloggers → bloggerlounge.net/2007/02/26/the-importance-about-setting-blogging-goals

      [...] order to be successful with your site. Glen Wolsey has a great post about htis, it is called “Set blogging goals and stick with them” here is a fragment of his [...]

    17. #17

      Laura → www.mcnabs.co.za/enery/blog

      Thank you for this advice. I have recently started blogging and feel daunted by the task of trying to attract readers.

      Do you think it’s best to keep the content very specific and focused on a particular subject and look towards a niche readership or try find a broader appeal.

      What works better???

    18. #18

      Laura → www.mcnabs.co.za/energy/blog

      Sorry- the link to the blog was incorrect (:

    19. #19

      Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com

      Laura, it really depends on how you feel about it. Are you happy to write about a broad range of subjects? If so, then go for it, all the power to you. However if you want to build yourself up in once niche and become the go-to place, focus on one topic.

      I myself follow the first suggestion. Broad topics.

    20. #20

      Laura → www.mcnabs.co.za/energy/blog

      Thanks.
      I will just keep on going and hopefully after 6 months will have some good results!

    21. #21

      Shawn Blanc → thefightspot.com

      I really agree with what Paul said about focusing on reader interaction. Building faithful readership was my primary goal for this first year of writing.

      Now my focus is on building RSS subscribers and increasing incoming traffic. I’d like to hit 1,000 RSS by the end of the ‘07.

    22. #22

      Looking to Take Your Blog to the Next Level? | SponsoredReviews Blog → blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=62

      [...] Set Blogging Goals, And Stick With Them [...]

    23. #23

      Idetrorce

      very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
      Idetrorce

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