What Are Your Blogging Goals
Monday, December 29th, 2008I just read a post on ChurchCrunch that talked about 50 great examples of blogging goals. I have to say that agree with a lot, but I also disagree with a lot of them as well. Here are a few of John’s examples.
Bloggers who I believe set great goals. These bloggers…
- want to increase their consistency and/or frequency of writing posts (Devakishor, Hardgainer Transformation).
- set a goal to write a certain number of posts per week (Slavi, Hardgainer Transformation, Daily SEO Blog).
- set a goal to learn more about their specific subject matter (Slavi).
- increase the amount of original content they publish (Devakishor).
- increase visibility through various social media websites (Devakishor).
- set a goal to start video blogging (Hardgainer Transformation) or write an eBook (Geek Entrepreneur).
- get more involved with other projects (Daily SEO Blog).
- write a guest post for three blogs (Geek Entrepreneur).
- I would love to see some more sustained conversation going on (Sean P. Aune).
- set goals to put more effort and time to become a successful blogger (MayUOnline).
Bloggers who might have set problematic goals because they seem to focus solely on the numbers. These bloggers set goals such as
- daily unique hit: 4000.
- daily hit: 6000.
- page views: 5,000 a month by November 2009.
- unique visitors: 1,000 a month by November 2009.
- increase subscriber base to 10,000.
- I am hoping to increase my average over this year, and though I am still seeing slight growth, it won’t be easy. I will again shoot for a 50% increase, and hope to do this through writing more general appeal posts that result in better search engine traffic.
My Disclaimer
Before I continue, let me provide a disclaimer. Most of these blogs probably have a higher following than this blog. They probably have a larger amount of traffic than this blog. Therefore, they could be considered more successful than this blog, so I provide these thoughts with a huge level of humility.
Are You In the Circle of Trust Influence?
Stephen Covey provides us with a great concept in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. According to Covey, you have a Circle of Concern (CoC) and a Circle of Influence. Our Circle of Concern contains our “wide range of concerns – our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war.” (pg. 81). In contrast to this is our Circle of Influence, which is a smaller circle inside the CoC. The Circle of Influence contains those concerns that we can actually do something about. (pg. 82). Where you end up putting most of your time and energy determines how proactive (and eventually effective) you are.
That was a long set up, but it is important to help explain why I liked the first set of goals and disliked the second set of goals. The former list shows bloggers who are focusing on their Circle of Influence. They are working to blog more consistently and with better quality. They desire to increase their knowledge in order to be better thought leaders. These bloggers are setting their goals on what they can really change (or influence).
The latter list concerns me because their goals deal mostly with items outside of the Circle of Influence. These bloggers are looking to the numbers game, which they really cannot change. How many hits are they getting? How many unique hits are they receiving? How many subscribers do they have? The problem is that the bloggers cannot really change these numbers no matter how hard they try. Their focus is on things outside of the bloggers’ ability to control.
One risk of setting these types of goals is that they can cause the blogger to become too generic for their own niche market. Another risk is perceiving their work as a failure if they do not meet those specific numbers. What if your blog had a huge impact on a small number of people. What if that small group of subscribers are truly devoted followers that are part of a community you lead? According to these goals, your impact on others and your community is strong; however, since you only achieved 3,000 unique visitors instead of 4,000, your efforts appear to be a failure.
2¢’s – Your Two Cents
So, I leave you with these questions. What are your blogging goals for 2009? Are your goals focused on the numbers or are they focused on what you can do to make your blog better? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts, and why? Do you have any thoughts or experiences that support or disprove this post? How do you live your non-blogging life? Inside the Circle of Influence or outside of it? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear your two cents.
