The new year has begun, and I’m ready to start working towards my blogging goals for the year. I have created two blog posts in an effort to help help new bloggers (or bloggers who want to see their blogs grow) work through and achieve their goals in the upcoming year!
Post #1 walks you through how to tackle the following goals/tasks:
- How to Get Started
- How to Create Actionable To-Do Lists
- How to Believe in Yourself
These three goals help you to establish better habits for blogging and life. In the post below, we’ll walk through simple goals/steps to help set your blog up for success.
Blogging Goal #4: Invest in Your Blog
Self-Host Your Blog
- Free? Who doesn’t like getting things for free? Unfortunately, free isn’t always a good thing when it comes to blogging. You don’t have access to customize your blog or add additional plugins to help grow your email list, etc. But with self-hosting, you have different customization options. If you want to learn more about the benefits of self-hosting your blog, you can read my blog post(s) here:
Purchase a Responsive Theme from a Company that Offers Support
Actionable To-Do: Self host your blog and purchase a responsive theme.
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Blogging Goal #5: Create an Editorial Calendar
Blogging on a consistent basis can be overwhelming. You know you have the right ideas, but you don’t believe you have enough time to execute them. Where do you begin? Hint: Create an editorial calendar.
This calendar will help you schedule out blog content for the upcoming week, month or year. Plus, it will allow you to establish a detailed to-do list for each week. Which, in return, you will become more focused, get more done and be less overwhelmed! Now, who doesn’t want that?!
Actionable To-Do: Create an editorial calendar
Need help getting started? I’m here! I created a blogging course, which includes blogging tips, a complete guide to keyword research and how to create a successful editorial calendar. These tools have proven to be successful for my blog and for clients and businesses I have worked with over the years!
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Blogging Goal #6: Get Social and Use Pinterest
If you’re a new blogger and are not using Pinterest, you’re making a big mistake. Why is Pinterest a great tool for new bloggers? This tool allows you to share your images and blog posts on a platform that encourages users to save information! Users will then save and share your pins, which in return will get more views to your site!
Start thinking of Pinterest as a tool to grow your blog. Organize your profile to feature boards that are relevant to your blog and begin pinning images that are related. Yes, you can still pin recipes, but that should only be a focus is your blog is about food or diet.
Actionable To-Do: Get Social on Pinterest
- Join group boards that are related to your niche. Pin the pins from your blog to those boards and re-pin to help other members out
- Test out tailwind. This tool helps save you time and get your pins in front of thousands of more people. Are you interested in trying it out? You can! Click here to redeem a FREE month.
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Blogging Goal #7: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular, and an easy way to make money blogging. How does it work? It’s simple. You write about (and promote) products and services you love. Throughout the post, you’ll include links with tracking codes attached to them. When visitors click on those links, you will make a small commission from their click or purchase. The amount you make each month will vary depending on how much traffic and content marketing you do each month.
Popular Affiliate Blogging Programs
Actionable To-Do: Research and sign up for affiliate programs that make sense for your niche.
Want to learn more about affiliate marketing? Read my blog post here.
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Blogging Goal #8: Network
It’s time to get social! Networking with other blogger is such a powerful tool in your blogging carrier.
Networking can help you build friendships/connections, learn from others, and help grow your blog!
Actionable To-Do: Get Social & Connect with Others
There are so many ways to connect with bloggers online.
- Join a Facebook Group! Facebook groups are a fantastic way to connect with other bloggers. There you can share your content, ask questions, connect with other bloggers and learn! Join my group today! Here you’ll learn about blogging and more!
- Reach out to bloggers in your niche on social!
- Collab with bloggers – write blog posts for other sites and host other bloggers on your site from connecting and talking with others.
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Blogging Goal #9: Privacy + Disclosure Policies + Make sure you’re GDPR compliant
Setting up privacy and disclosure policies is so important when it comes to blogging. Plus, it’s required if you plan to use Google Analytics, affiliate links, sell products or collect email addresses. Why are they important? These disclosure policies provide your readers with an opportunity to opt-out of programs and learn more about what data you’re collecting on your site.
There are a lot of resources for privacy policies online. Take your time and do some research and when in doubt, contact a lawyer to help you out.
Actionable To-do: Add a privacy + disclosure policy to your website.
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Blogging Goal 10: Set up an SSL (Make sure your site starts with HTTPS vs. HTTP)
In 2019, it’s crucial that your website is secured. (HTTP vs. HTTPS) If your site is not secure, your visitors might not be able to access your site without being warned that the content might not be safe!
That is one way to encourage visitors to leave your site and never come back! A secured site will help protect visitor data, and it’s also part of Google’s overall ranking algorithm – which helps with SEO.
Need help setting up a secured site? Read my blog post here or reach out to your hosting provider. Hosts like SiteGround include a free SSL option for all hosting plans.
Actionable to do: Contact your hosting provider and ask how to switch to HTTPS
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Bonus Goal: Revisit and Update Old Content
As you grow as a blogger, your knowledge expands and trends and information changes. It’s important to go back and update old content with newer information to ensure your content stays fresh.
- Fix SEO (headers, alt/image text, add anchor links, internal links to your site)
- Add or update affiliate links
- Update Images
- Add opt-in forms to grow your email list
- Add information to sell products
If you want to learn more about SEO, and blogging tips you can read my SEO post here or purchase my beginners blogging course.
Actionable to Do: Revisit high performing blog posts and update 1 per month
Now that you’ve read through my top 10 blogging goals and tips for this year, it’s time to get started! There is no better time than now. 🙂 If you have any questions about blogging, you can contact me or leave a comment below!
Finally, remember to:
- Join my Facebook Group
- Read my SEO blog post
- Purchase my blogging course
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