This guest post is by Aman Basanti of ageofmarketing.com.
Ask any success guru out there and they will tell you that the most important part of becoming a successful blogger is to set clear goals.
And that is good advice for people who know how they want to tackle problogging. It is good advice for bloggers who know how they want to create content, generate traffic and monetize their blog.
But for the rest of us, who are on a journey where we start somewhere, try things and then respond to the result of our actions, slowly tweaking our strategy and tactics, it is not useful. How do we set clear goals? How do we define exactly where want to be in 12 months when we don’t have clarity on what we want to achieve?
Goal setting for new bloggers
The answer comes down to shifting your focus from end-state goal setting to activity-based goal setting.
On my consumer psychology blog, for example, I don’t know how I want to monetize it. Am I going to make money from ads? Am I going to make money by selling affiliate products? Am I going to make money from consulting? Do I even want to monetize it? I do not know. It all depends on what I discover about my market.
What I do know, however, is that no matter what I want to achieve in the end, I am still going to have to create content and promote my blog. So rather than setting goals around what I want to achieve in the end, I set goals around what I want to do weekly/monthly/yearly.
Accordingly, here are my top three goals:
- Write two blog posts every week.
- Submit one guest post every week.
- Read one non-fiction book a month.
This way if I have a bad week, as I do from time to time, I can make up for it in another week.
Goal setting for new or confused bloggers
So if you are a new blogger or an old timer who does not know what they really want out of their blog yet, but still wants to maximize their chances of success, set activity based goals. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Posting goals
I will write _____ post(s) a week equaling _____ posts a year.
I will read _____ book(s) a month equaling ______ books a year.
Blog promotion goals
I will submit _____ guests a month equaling _____ guest posts a year.
I will comment on ______ blogs posts a week equaling ______ comments a year.
I will network with ______ people on Facebook/Twitter/StumbleUpon a month.
This is a far easier way to set goals when you are new to the world of problogging.
Aman Basanti writes about the psychology of buying and teaches you how you can use the principles of consumer psychology to boost your sales. Visit www.Ageofmarketing.com/free-ebook to get his new e-book – Marketing to the Pre-Historic Mind: How the Hot New Science of Behavioural Economics Can Help You Boost Your Sales – for FREE.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Easy Goal Setting for Your New Blog
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