How To Set SMART Goals For Beginning Bloggers In 2021 (The Easy Way)
How to set smart goals for bloggers for beginners that you’ll actually achieve
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
Do you love the beginning of a new year as much as I do?
I used to dread Christmas being over but there’s something about the new year that is akin to freshly fallen snow.
It’s so fresh and clean. It’s like all of our past mistakes can be washed away and we can all start the year with hope and anticipation.
And who can forget all of the New Year’s resolutions and goals that everyone sets at the start of another year?
If you’re reading this, (and you are), then I’m guessing you too are either trying to set some smart goals for your blog or you already have but want to know if you’re on the right track.
Well don’t worry ya’ll. Today I’m sharing some brilliant blogging goal setting tips especially for beginners.
I’ll draw some inspiration from the goals that I’ve set on my own blog and I’ll also point out why my first set of goals were like facepalm wrong.
How To Set SMART Goals For Beginner Bloggers The Right (& Wrong) Way
Oh yeah, and this post contains affiliate links to great products that will help you in your blogging journey. I will get a commission if you decide to buy from these links but I’m only recommending products that I feel confident about and from companies that I trust like Amazon and others. Please let me know if you have any questions.
This Rule Is Super Important… Only Have Blogging Goals You Can Control
You know the Serenity Prayer? If not then allow me to refresh your memory:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
So what does this have to do with setting goals for our blogs? Well, sometimes we set blogging goals that are beyond our control.
What do I mean by this? Let me explain further…
Your blogging goals should be something that is controlled by you and not by Google, Pinterest, or Facebook… hopefully you see where I’m going with this.
Here’s An Example of A Blogging Goal Outside Of Your Control (AKA Goals That Don’t Depend On You)
This is an example of a goal controlled by Pinterest (or Pinterest users to be more precise).
Let’s say it’s really important to you to gain more followers on Pitnerest so you set the following goal:
I want to gain 1,000 followers every month.
Besides this goal not having much real value for you as a blogger, it’s also something that you literally can not control.
You can hope to gain that many subscribers but you can’t really force anyone to follow you.
You can work day and night to make this goal happen but you really can’t control or change it.
Why? Because this kind of goal depends on the behavior of others. Other people have to decide whether or not to follow you on Pinterest.
You can do following threads in Facebook groups but even then you may not reach your goal.
When your blogging goals are outside of your control, you feel like a failure when you don’t reach them.
But it’s not actually your fault. The problem is the goal you set, not you.
Here’s An Example of A Blogging Goal You Can Control
A blogging goal that is inside of your control:
“I will post 10 fresh pins a day on Pinterest for the first quarter.”
Now, this goal is totally dependent on you.
And in accomplishing this goal, the outcome might be that you gain 1,000 followers per month. Maybe maybe not.
But it’s a possibility. The key thing is that you aren’t trying to accomplish something that isn’t up to you.
Make sense?
So this is where I messed up my blogging goals.
I set a goal of reaching 50,000 page views in 6 months to qualify for the ad network Mediavine.
And while I fully believe I can do that, this is a goal that isn’t completely in my power to control.
A better goal is to write at least 4 SEOed blog posts per month for keywords I can (potentially) rank on the first page of google for.
Can I completely control this?
Mostly.
So it’s good enough for me.
I can’t control if the blog posts rank on google but I can control if I write 4 SEOed blog posts per month (or more).
I hope you see where I’m going with this.
Goals that depend on others (except God of course)…bad.
Goals that depend on you…good (sometimes…I’ll explain why in a minute).
Here Are Some Even SMARTer Goal Ideas For New Bloggers
Now the goals that we’ve discussed are okay but we can make them even better, trust me.
How might you ask?
Well, we can make the goals SMART and make them ones that depend on us taking action (and God blessing those actions, of course).
SMART stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timely
Now let’s go over briefly, how to use these words to make smart blog goals that you will actually achieve.
Specific: When you make a goal specific, you are answering questions like what exactly you plan to do or what you are striving to accomplish.
For instance, having a goal like “I want to be a successful blogger” is not specific.
However, if your goal is more like “ I want to be a profitable blogger” that is specific. Why?
Because profit has a definite meaning.
You will know you’re a profitable blogger when you make more money from your blog than you spend on it…in other words your income is higher than your expenses.
Measurable: A goal that is measurable is one that you will absolutely know when you’ve crossed over that threshold of success.
You can make the above goal of being a profitable blogger more specific by saying “I want to be a 6-figure blogger”.
That is even more specific than just being profitable and you will know without a doubt that you have become a 6-figure blogger because the amount is measurable or countable.
Achievable: This is saying that you want to set a goal that you can actually achieve.
One may want to be a 6-figure blogger but there’s a lot of knowledge and skill needed in order to reach this level.
Unless you want to learn the hard way, you’ll have to invest in courses, read a lot of articles, watch a lot of videos and obtain knowledge that you probably don’t possess.
So you have to be honest and ask yourself if you even have the time to learn as much as you need to learn to be a 6 figure blogger.
Do you have the money to invest in courses and mastermind groups?
If not, this goal is not achievable and should be paired down into something more realistic like earning $2,000 a month blogging.
Relevant: When creating goals for your blog, they need to be goals that make sense.
Your goal for being a 6-figure blogger doesn’t make sense if you only have an Etsy shop and don’t plan to start a blog.
I know I know…it would be silly to make a goal like that if you don’t plan on being a blogger but I can’t tell you how many rabbit trails I’ve gone on since I’ve decided to be in this online space.
And I thought all the rabbit trails were logical at the time and now I just want to facepalm every time I reflect back on my earlier naivete.
Timely: I mean maybe we want to become 6-figure bloggers and its of course possible. But let’s not get crazy and say we want to accomplish that goal in a month. For the vast majority, that ain’t happening.
I mean if we were already some famous starlet and we just started a blog, maybe we could earn 6 figures in a month.
But for us in the real world, this isn’t realistic. A more realistic goal would be:
“I want to be a 6-figure blogger in 2 years”.
That is more achievable. It might take longer or it may be sooner but it’s a goal that you could for sure strive for.
By now we have learned that setting blogging goals should have two main traits: They should be goals where we have control over the outcome and they should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely).
If you are struggling coming up with some blogging goals, then please download my FREE Beginner Blogger Roadmap/Checklist.
This Beginning Bloggers Checklist will guide you step by step through the beginning stages of your blogging journey.
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Check out these other Christian Blogging Academy posts on Blogging For Beginners
3 Subtle Signs God Is Calling You To Be A Blogger (That You Shouldn’t Ignore)
How To Stop Procrastinating & Start Your Christian Blogging Journey (Even If It Scares You) Part 1
How To Stop Procrastinating & Start Your Christian Blogging Journey (Even If It Scares You) Part 2
3 Powerful Steps To Finding The Perfect Christian Blog Niche
How To Buy A Domain Name In 8 Easy Steps
5 Brilliant Ideas For Choosing A Christian Blog Name (With Picture Examples)
How To Purchase Your Web Hosting Service In 3 Simple Steps
