Setting goals is easy. Being held accountable for them is another story. Last year I set some serious blogging objectives for myself. And while I am pleased with the results, I recognize that I could have performed even better. All I needed was a cheerleader.
No, not the pom-pom wielding, short-skirt wearing type. (Though I wouldn’t complain!) But the fellow blogger who understands how important these items are to achieving my goal of going into business for myself.
Here were my 2009 blogging goals:
– Earn an additional $5k from freelance blogging
(I fell short by 35%; darn economy)
– Grow blog traffic by 10%
(Traffic grew by over 30%)
– Write and sell an eBook
(Mission accomplished!)
– Get 5 press mentions
(Fell flat on my face)
– Post 250 entries
(Success!)
– Tweet at least 250 times
(Over 500 tweets)
I will now put forth my 2010 goals and encourage you to do the same in the comments section below. Maybe together, we can cheer each other all the way to the finish line.
– Earn an additional $5k from freelance blogging
(The opportunity is currently there. I will need to have a greater commitment to providing content to other blogs. The catch is that I need to do this without sacrificing the quality of my primary blog. By hiring several new writers, I believe this goal is achievable.)
– Grow blog traffic by 15%
(Compelling content is the biggest draw, but will only take you so far. I need to spend more time developing contests and making other bloggers aware of the articles I write, thus generating more incoming links.)
– Promote eBook and sell 100 copies
(I’m open to ideas on this one. I went the free press release/Google AdWords route and experienced minimal results. I might try changing up the cover and pushing it towards a more niche audience rather than “everyone.” If I don’t see results after the first half of the year, I would consider making it free and hope that it will drive traffic to my site.)
– Get 5 press mentions
(I have compiled a nice list of reporters who cover the beat my primary blog follows. However, my approach of sending a very short/polite e-mail promoting my goods has not worked. I will try press releases and put more effort into presenting them with a more “complete” story. This should increase the odds of my stories gaining traction.
– Post 300 entries
(I normally post one blog entry every business day. Some days, I plan to post two or three times.)
– Tweet at least 250 times
(Twitter has become part of my “life,” therefore I’m not even sure I can still call this a “goal.” I can certainly do a better job of trying to get my articles retweeted. I also need to up the number of people following me by making my Twitter presence more obvious.
Now let’s hear it! What are your 2010 blogging goals?
