THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING GOALS:
It is important for bloggers to understand the importance of goal setting.
A lot of bloggers start a blog with big dreams:
They want more traffic.. They want to make money.. They would like to quit their jobs and work from home.. build a successful business.. or at least create enough passive income to give themselves more freedom.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having big dreams. In fact.. dreams are often what motivate us to get started in the first place.
But.. there is a big difference between having a dream and having a goal.
Saying, “I want my blog to be successful” is a dream.
Saying, “I want my blog to generate $5,000 per month within the next 18 months” is a goal.
The difference is important because a goal gives you something specific to work toward. It gives your efforts direction and makes it possible to determine whether the things you are doing every day are actually moving you closer to achieving your goals.
Without having goals.. blogging can very easily turn into nothing more than a collection of random thoughts and activities.
You write a post because you think you should publish something. You spend an afternoon working on Pinterest because someone said Pinterest is great for bloggers. The next day you watch a video about SEO and you decide you need to focus on Google. Then you hear that everyone needs an email list, so you start working on that as well.
Before long.. you are incredibly busy, but you may have no idea whether all that activity is actually accomplishing anything.
That is one of the biggest reasons that goal setting is so important.
WHY IS GOAL SETTING SO IMPORTANT?
There are hundreds of things you could potentially do to grow your blog.
Publish more content.. Build an email list.. Build more backlinks.. Improve your SEO.. Promote more affiliate products.. Improve your conversion rates.. Create a few digital products.. Work on your social media.. Update older posts.. Run paid advertising.. Improve your website design.
The problem is that you cannot effectively focus on all of these things at once.
Setting goals helps you determine which activities deserve your attention right now.
Suppose your primary goal for the next six months is to increase your email list from 2,000 subscribers to 5,000.
Suddenly.. your priorities become much clearer.
Creating a better lead magnet might make sense. Improving the signup forms on your website might make sense. Writing more content that attracts your ideal subscriber might make sense.
However.. spending three days redesigning your logo probably does NOT make sense.
That doesn’t mean your logo is unimportant. It simply means it may not be the activity most likely to move you closer to your current goal.
Setting goals helps you separate actual productive work from busy work.
And, there can be a tremendous difference between the two.
GOALS MAKE SUCCESS MEASUREABLE:
Another problem with vague ambitions is that you never really know whether you have achieved them.
When you say “I want more traffic”? That is basically a wish that you have for your blog.
If your blog receives 20 additional visitors next month.. technically you got more traffic. But, I am thinking that may not be what you had in mind.
It might be a much better idea to set a measurable goal for yourself.. as in:
“I want to increase organic search traffic from 10,000 visitors per month to 15,000 visitors per month by September 30″.
Now you have a goal you can work towards.. and something you wil be able to measure.
At the end of each month.. you can look at your traffic stats and see whether you are getting closer to achieving your goal.
Maybe you went from 10,000 visitors to 11,200. Great. You are making progress.
Maybe three months pass and your traffic hasn’t changed much at all. That tells you something as well. You may need to examine your strategy.. figure out what it is that isn’t working.. and make a few adjustments.
Without a measurable goal.. it is very easy to continue doing the same things month after month without ever stopping to ask whether they are actually producing results.
SETTING GOALS MEANS CREATING PLANS AND PUTTING THEM INTO ACTION:
Of course.. writing down a goal doesn’t magically make it happen. There is no special power in writing a goal on a piece of paper.. other than you are making a commitment to yourself!
Goals only become valuable when they are connected to a plan and followed by consistent action.
I like to think of success this way:
A DREAM tells you where you would like to go.
A GOAL gives you a destination to aim toward.
A PLAN gives you the route to reach that destination.
And, consistent ACTION is what ultimately gets you to your destination.
You need all four to achieve success!
Dreaming without goals can leave you wishing. Goals without a plan can leave you wondering what to do next. A plan without action accomplishes nothing.
But, when you combine a meaningful goal with a realistic plan and consistent effort.. you give yourself a much greater chance of accomplishing what you set out to do.
SETTING GOALS TURNS THOSE BIG DREAMS INTO SMALLER STEPS:
Large goals can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Suppose your goal is to build a blog that produces $100,000 per year. When you are currently making only $500 a month, $100,000 a year might seem impossibly far away.
That is where smaller goals become important. Instead of constantly staring at your $100,000 target.. you can break it down.
Perhaps your first goal is $1,000 per month. Then $2,500. Then $5,000. Then $8,500.
The same approach works with any blogging goal. If you would like to get 50 high-quality posts published this year.. you don’t need to start every morning thinking about the daunting task of writing 50 posts.
You will need to write approximately one new blog post per week to accomplish your goal. Suddenly, the goal becomes much more manageable.
Big goals tell you where you are headed. Smaller goals tell you what you need to concentrate on next.
GOAL SETTING CREATES ACCOUNTABILITY:
There is a tremendous difference between saying:
“I would like to create an online course someday.” and: “My goal is to have my first course completed and available for sale by October 1.”
The first statement gives you unlimited permission to procrastinate. The second gives you a deadline. Once you establish a deadline, you can work backwards.
If the course is set to launch October 1, perhaps the sales page needs to be completed by September 15. The lessons may need to be recorded by September 1. The outline may need to be finished by August 1.
Now that vague dream has become a project with very specific milestones. This is where goals become particularly powerful.
They transform “someday” into a schedule.. and an actual plan of action.
GOALS HELP YOU DECIDE WHAT TO SAY NO TO:
This may be one of the most overlooked benefits of goal setting.
Successful bloggers don’t just need to decide what they are going to do. They also need to decide what they are not going to do.
There will always be another opportunity.. Another strategy.. Another course.. Another social media platform.. Another plugin.. Another expert telling you about the one thing you absolutely must be doing.
If you chase every new idea that comes along.. you can spend years starting things without ever giving any one strategy enough time to work.
Goals give you a filter. When a new opportunity appears, you can ask yourself:
Will this help me accomplish the goal I have already decided is most important?
If the answer is no.. you don’t necessarily have to abandon the idea forever. You can simply say, “Not right now.” That little distinction can save an enormous amount of time.
SETTING GOALS KEEPS YOU MOVING EVEN WHEN MOTIVATION DISAPPEARS:
One of the realities of running a blog is that you will not feel motivated every single day. There will be days when you are excited about your business and days when you would rather do just about anything else.
There may also be long stretches when the results don’t seem to justify the amount of work you are putting in.
Traffic may be growing slowly. A product may not be selling as quickly as you had hoped. Google rankings may take months to show improvement.
This is where having clear goals becomes especially valuable. Motivation is emotional. It changes constantly. Goals provide structure even when your enthusiasm temporarily wanes.
You know what you are working toward. You know what needs to be done. And, you can continue taking the next step even on those days when you are not particularly inspired.
Consistency usually accomplishes far more than occasional bursts of motivation.
MAKE SURE THE GOALS YOU ARE SETTING ARE YOUR GOALS:
There is another side to goal setting that bloggers need to understand. Don’t choose goals simply because someone else tells you that these are the goals you should strive to attain.
Not every blogger aspires to reach a million pageviews.
Not every blogger wants to build a huge company and become a millionaire.
Not every blogger wants employees, a giant social media following, or a seven-figure business.
Success means different things to different people.
One blogger may want to replace a full-time salary. Another may simply want to earn an extra $2,000 each month. Someone else may want a blog that allows them to travel more, while another blogger may be hoping to build their physical business by creating a blog that makes more people aware of their business.
There is no universal definition of blogging success. Your goals should reflect the lifestyle and business you are trying to create.
Otherwise.. you can spend years climbing to the top only to discover that what was at the top was not what you wanted at all.
REVIEW YOUR GOALS REGULARLY:
Setting goals once and forgetting about them isn’t particularly useful.
Your goals should become part of the way you run your business. Sit down and review each of your goals regularly.
Ask Yourself:
Am I making progress?
Are my current activities helping me reach these goals?
Is this goal still important to me?
Do I need to change my strategy?
Has something changed in my business that makes this goal less relevant?
Changing a goal does not automatically mean you failed. Sometimes circumstances change. Sometimes you learn something that causes you to slightly alter your direction.
The important thing is that the change is intentional. You are in charge! YOU should be making the decisions as to where your business is going rather than allowing circumstances to decide for you.
DON’T BE GUILTY OF BLOGGING WITHOUT A GOAL IN SIGHT:
It is very easy to spend years working on a blog without ever deciding exactly what you want that blog to become.
Don’t make that mistake. Decide what success means to you. Write down what you want to accomplish. Give yourself a measurable target and a reasonable time frame.
Then break that goal into smaller steps and start working on them one at a time.
Because ultimately.. there is an important difference between simply maintaining a blog and deliberately building a business.
Without goals.. you tend to work on whatever feels important today. With goals.. you work on what is important for tomorrow.
And that sense of direction can make all the difference.
About the Author: Sherry Bennett
Ms. Bennett is a Professional Blogger, who has been earning a living online with niche websites for 25+ years.
Through hard work and dedication, she has turned her passion for blogging into a 7-figure business.. and you can do the same.
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