All You Need To Know About Blogging

My Blogging Goals For July

Posted by Tom | June 27, 2008 | Posted in: Blog Goals |

blogging goals

Goal setting is so important, especially for an unorganized person like myself. Goals keep you on track, they keep you focused, and are just good things to have. Which is why I am pleased to announce that I have finally set up a page just for my blogging goals.

Check out my new goals page!

I have created SMART goals, because general goals just do not work. The have to be:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevant

T - Time Bound

To make sure that my goals are time bound, I have separated them into 3 categories.

1 Month Goals
3 Month Goals
6 Month Goals

My Goals For July

I want to take some time to look at each of my 1 month goals separately, and talk a little bit about how I see myself meeting them by the end of July.

Increase RSS Feed Subscribers to over 100 (Currently 30)
To be honest, I think this goal should be quite easy. I have a lot of things planned to make sure that I meet this goal. As I have mentioned I will not be holding a contest, but instead I will be focusing on providing benefits for my readers and subscribers - making them want to subscribe because they like StandOutBlogger, not because they want to win some contest.
Write At Least One Ebook
My sole focus in wanting to create a series of ebooks, is to increase my profile as a blogger, and branding StandOPutBlogger as an authority blogger. I have just started writing the first part of my ebook series (and I have already made a killer front cover!) - so I see this goal being met within the first week of July.
Finish In The Top 20% Of Blogging Idol
This goal is a hard one to judge, because all I know is that there are approximately 90 bloggers that are registered for Blogging Idol at last count. That means that I have to be in about the top 15 to meet my goal. The thing I don’t know is who I am competing against. The rules state that a blog can have up to 1,000 rss readers to enter - and it will be much easier for someone with a higher count to get more readers.

To make sure that I meet this goal, I already have 4 strategies that when combined will hopefully create awareness of StandOutBlogger, drive traffic, and the convert that traffic to subscribers. I will be announcing these strategies in the first couple of days of July (because I am still finalizing a few of these).
Make At Least 25 Posts
This one should be simple, but usually is the one that most bloggers don’t hit. I was going to have the number at 30, but that does not allow for the odd weekend post that you miss. All I have to do to meet this goal is to post consistently.
Guest Blog On At Least 5 Blogs
Ok, so I have announced one of my strategies I wasn’t going to mention until July. All Im can say is “Guest Posts Work!” I have had the opportunity to guest post on a couple of blogs in the last month, namely CarlOcab.com, and TylerCurz.com, and I was very happy with the traffic that I generated from these posts.

I have already organized for a guest post of mine to be on MixedMarketArts.com (as Colin will be at the Top Affiliate Challenge), so that leaves me with 4 more to find, hopefully I will be able to get another one on both Tyler’s and Carl’s blogs.

Finding blogs to guest post on are quite easy, if you can’t find any just send a couple of your favourite bloggers a quick email asking if they will accept one from you.
Participate In At Least 1 Blog Carnival
I have seen a couple of these going around, and a lot of people have said it is a great way to pick up back links and new traffic, so I have decided to participate in at least one blog carnival and I will decide based on its success whether to continue doing them. This one should help with my Technorati goal as well!
Decrease Alexa Rating To Under 200,000 (Currently 267,978)
This morning my Alexa rating was sitting at 307,000, and as I was writing this goal out I went down to my tool bar to check my rating and noticed it had changed already. Hopefully this will make this goal easy to attain also.
Have A Technorati Rank Of Under 100,000 (Currently 150,025)
Technorati and Alexa are key factors that affect your placement on lists like 45n5’s Top100 bloggers. Although I have not set a goal in relation to my placement on that list, I still want to make the top100 - I guess it’s an ego thing. To increase my Technorati rank I need to get people linking to my blog. This will be done through the blog carnival, creating content that makes people want to link to me, and blog commenting.

So there they are. My blogging goals for July in a fair bit of depth. What do you think about these goals? Do you think I set them to easy or too hard?

Make sure that I meet my goals by subscribing to our rss feed, or email updates.

Rate this:

2.5

Subscribe To Feed

28 Responses

narendra.s.v (Who am I?) June 27th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
wow thats too inspiring!! so its now my turn to make goals but i almost going to do the most you said
Rate this:

2.9
John Guanzon (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Hey Thomas I wish you the best of luck with your goals for July! I helped you out by subscribing today.

Also if you ever want to guest post at The Profit Hustler just contact me.

Take care!
Rate this:

2.5
Siddharth (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Your goals are nice one and of good and attainable level

but I think you should also have goals regarding your traffic
Rate this:

2.9
David Shaw (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Nice Goals

I think that you should have a good chance in Blogging Idol.

My aim is to finish in the top 10.

Out of all the peeople that have entered, some will lose focus. Some will give up near the begining, some will just struggle to get subscribers.

The ones at the top will be the ones that post everyday, and activlely seek new subscribers!
Rate this:

2.5
David Shaw (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Just thought I would help you out with your goals.

You are welcome to guest post on ProTycoon.com
Rate this:

2.5
Kay Martin (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Tom, I needed these goals. My goals could never come up to your level, but your strategy is excellent. I’m new to blogging so I believe your blog is exactly what I need to stay on task. Well done.
Rate this:

2.5
Tom (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 10:10 am
thanks for the encouragement guys!

Siddarth - I forgot about traffic. I guess if I were to do a traffic goal I would be 5,000 uniques for the month of July!

David - I agree. I think a lot will lose focus from the start. We both have a great chance of doing well in the contest. Thanks for the offer of a guest post spot. I have a couple of other options at the moment, but I will keep your blog in mind.

Kay - I am glad my goals could help you. My goals are at that level because I put a lot of effort into this blog, you goals should be attainable. I visited your blog, and am looking forward to seeing some of your content!
Rate this:

2.5
goblogging (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Nice goal your explain it clearly.
Hope you’ll get your goal!
Rate this:

2.9
Nathaniel (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
These are some very nice goals. I do not write a post of my goals, but I set goals for myself to try to complete. I don’t work hard enough on all of them though. Btw, you are welcome to guestpost on green-flamingo.com if you want.
Rate this:

2.9
Melvin (Who am I?) June 28th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
These goals are realistic.. for me the hardest part of goals is to be able to write more posts on a blog. I find it very hard and it adds pressure to me.. that’s why it’s never always my goal…
Rate this:

2.8
Mr. Javo (Who am I?) June 29th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I want to congratulate you for setting all those goals, I hope you can reach them in the next month. Specially, I like the fact that you want to write some guest posts, this is a great way to increase your traffic, attract new readers and expand your brand.

Nice choice
Rate this:

2.0
Carnival Of Making Money Online June 29th, 2008 at 6:12 am

Story added…

Your story was featured in Carnival Of Making Money Online! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://www.carnivalofmakingmoneyonline.com/Blogging/My-Blogging-Goals-For-July...
bloggingzoom.com June 29th, 2008 at 8:13 am

My Blogging Goals For July | Stand Out Blogger…

Goal setting is so important, especially for an unorganized person like myself. Goals keep you on track, they keep you focused, and are just good things to have. Which is why I am pleased to announce that I have finally set up a page just for my bloggi…
IronBlogger (Who am I?) June 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Nice goals Tom. I set a list of goals for July as well.

I hope you get to achieve them. I know I’m going to try my best in order too.

Good luck!

IronBloggers last blog post..What’s Going On In The Blogosphere
Rate this:

2.9
paid for blogging (Who am I?) June 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hope you can reach your goals..
Rate this:

2.5
The Wealthy Blogger (Who am I?) June 29th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Good for you for setting some goals and writing them out!

You might also want to consider some long term goals as well, that your short term goals are part of the process in reaching the long term one.

This is a great article on basic goal setting and I like your SMART acronym.

The Wealthy Bloggers last blog post..It Was Gorgeous!
Rate this:

2.5
Tom (Who am I?) June 29th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
thanks. If you check my goals page in my top navigation you will notice that I have also set 3month and 6 month goals for this blog.
Rate this:

2.5
Nick (Who am I?) June 30th, 2008 at 1:45 am
You’re probably already swamped, but I would gladly welcome a guest post.

As far as your ebook, is it going to be something you are giving away or are we going to have to purchase it? If it’s going to be a paid type of thing, what is the cost going to be?

I have heard the SMART goal idea before and agree that it is definitely worth keeping in mind, kinda like “you get what you measure”
Rate this:

2.9
Google Nemesis (Who am I?) June 30th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Those are some great goals. If you manage to do all those you’ll have done really well, good luck.
Rate this:

2.9
June Links Roundup June 30th, 2008 at 4:54 am

[...] My Blogging Goals For July [...]
Tom (Who am I?) June 30th, 2008 at 7:05 am
nick - thanks for the offer, If you visit http://www.carlocab.com you will notice a guest post of mine just got published (a bit early but ill count it) and have one going up on http://www.tylercruz.com the 2nd of July and another at http://www.mixedmarketarts.com
with a new more still to come, but I will definately keep you offer in mind.

In regards to the ebook it will definately be free, and even something that you can offer your visitors or subscribers as well. I am planning a series as the content I have already mapped out is already 2 pages in dot points - so I am cutting it down to more bite size pieces and will hopefully at least have one to give away each month.
Rate this:

2.5
Ganesh (Who am I?) June 30th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed. So one more subscriber to you. It would be so nice if you subscribed to my feed to.
Rate this:

2.5
Its Linkbombing Time! — TeenBlogger.net June 30th, 2008 at 9:05 am

[...] a month ago and he is already making a big splash in the blogosphere. I really liked his post - My Blogging goals for July. I have a feeling that Tom is going to be the next big blogging sensation. Tom, if you are [...]
Tom (Who am I?) June 30th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
thank ganesh! I have just subscribed to yours also!
Rate this:

2.5
Rome (Who am I?) July 6th, 2008 at 8:29 am
SMART seems to be a familiar. Are you a nurse? lol This is what we use as goals in our nursing care plans.
Rate this:

3.0
Tom (Who am I?) July 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Rome - no, im not in nursing. I actually learnt smart goals from one of the pastors at my church, when we were planning stuff.
Rate this:

2.5
Rich Hill (Who am I?) July 17th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Tom,

You were kind enough to post a comment on my Blog at LinkMoney.org and I usually take a quick look at my commenters sites. Well that was about an hour ago since I got here. \grin/

Your ideas are excellent, you are very brave to wear your goals on your sleeve and it looks like you will achieve just about all of them.

For what it is worth, I subscribed, Tecnoratied, Delicioused, Stumbled and Dugg various articles from this excellent Blog.

Looking forward to more of your great posts.
Rich Hill

Rich Hills last blog post..Do you Dare to put Hyphens in your Domain Name?
Rate this:

3.6 (1 person)
Ben Moreno (Who am I?) September 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Tom, do you have any tips on how to increase your Alexa and Technorati rank?

Ben Morenos last blog post..10,000 Word Post Contest Turned Out to Be a Disaster
Rate this:

2.6