Here’s a fun fact: I love being goal-oriented with a clear path forward. But when it comes to my blogging goals, I have a long history of setting the wrong ones. And by wrong, I mean too vague. I only had big-picture dreams that would overwhelm me whenever I tried to think of what I could do to make them happen.
Unsurprisingly, this led me to have the kind of negative relationship with goals a lot of people have. I felt guilty when outside circumstances forced me to change my timeline. Not meeting my goals made me feel worse. Then I stopped making them altogether. What was the point if I never seemed to go anywhere with them?
Needless to say, it was a cycle that was bad for my mental health.
Thankfully, I spent a lot of time last year addressing my mindset issues. Doing so made it a lot easier to sit down and figure out my goals for this year. Now, I’m a firm believer that your goals are your business and you shouldn’t feel pressured to share anything you don’t want to with anyone. But I also think some goals are easier to stick to when you share them with people who can help hold you accountable.
Related read: 5 Simple Ways to Recharge Positive Mindset Energy
So I found a compromise.
This list does not reflect my full list of blogging goals for the year. It does, however, reflect goals I think others might want to adopt and adapt for themselves.
My Top Blogging Goals for 2023
Create and Organize My Blog Content Idea Bank for the Year
Last year, I tried a couple of different formats for my content idea bank. Both had sad results. The physical notebook I wrote them in frequently got attacked by one of the cats. The Google Sheet I built quickly got buried beneath other files until I forgot about it. I honestly didn’t even remember it until I found it last week.
To protect my plans from my cat, I went looking for a new virtual planner option. The one I’m trying out now is OneNote, and I love it so far! I’m also experimenting with using it to create my content calendar. Once I’ve finished getting it filled out and organized, I look forward to sharing my process.
Digitally Declutter
My phone and Google Drive are bursting with photos, documents, spreadsheets, and videos. It’s no wonder my old idea bank got lost! One of my goals this year is to expand my routine email cleanup days to include clearing out my digital storage spaces. It’s not the most exciting task, but I do enjoy sorting things into clearly named folders and renaming files for easier reference.
Learn to Use Pinterest Intentionally
For years, Pinterest was my least favorite platform. I didn’t like the user interface, didn’t find it intuitive, and largely ignored it. But somewhere between my previous attempts to use it and the last couple of years, all the issues I had with it became irrelevant. Now I use it almost every day!
Also while I wasn’t looking, it became one of the top platforms to generate blog traffic. That truly amazes me because it wasn’t always like that. So, as a blogger, it’s in my best interest to learn Pinterest strategies and use them. That’s the other part of this goal: put what I learn into action.
Get Serious With my Blog & Make it Part of my Career
This is the big one. Since its inception over a decade ago, this blog has been one of my hobbies. I dedicated a lot of time to studying the industry, but I let things here slide while putting that knowledge to use for the companies I’ve worked for. Starting last year, I’ve been making small shifts here and there to prepare for the new direction I have planned. 2023 is the year for the big steps.
Since this is my big goal, I have a few smaller goals to help me make progress:
- Publish at least two blog posts every week for the remainder of the year
- Establish an LLC and officially go into business
- Finish updating old content
- Have three guest posts published on other sites by the end of the year
Final Thoughts on my Blogging Goals
It’s a lot of work to run a blog, especially one you want to turn into something successful and profitable. But setting goals and milestones along the way makes it more realistic than just wishful thinking.
Are any of these on your list of goals for the year?
