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Are You Really Sure About What You Want? The Importance of Setting Blogging Goals

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setting blogging goals

I usually get lots of flak when writing posts about growing traffic and making money from blogs. Some audiences usually respond with that ‘not all bloggers want that fame, that money’ thing. Actually it’s a great point. So great that I usually respond to them saying “you’re right” and just don’t bother with them anymore.

That being said it actually lead me to an idea for this post.

Whether you are a newbie blogger, an intermediate one like me (semi-newbie, lols) or an expert, it may be worth asking ourselves, what do we really want out of this? What’s our main ending goal? Actually I may need to remove the words ‘may’ and ‘be’ in the questions.

Yes it’s corny, but AdSense literally revolutionized me the ironic way

A long time ago I had a couple of friends who is as enthusiastic as I in starting blogging with high hopes of killing it financially using Google Adsense. So energetic we don’t mind paying computer shops to surf whole day just blogging and doing our crappy stuff. Months have passed by and we made less than $1 and were like ‘holy crap’.

Those two friends approached me and said, “We’re not anymore in for this thing, we just can’t imagine doing this and not getting any rewards”. I continued doing my thing, eventually started reading, learning and implementing stuffs. I realized “hey this is ton of work more than I thought it should be”. Fortunately for me, I continued pursuing. Yes it’s corny but AdSense literally revolutionized me the ironic way.

That was like the turning point for me. Most bloggers want to make money but very few can really keep up with the work load. I mean I always hear people say that they want to make money and they will work hard and unfortunately it just ends as a statement itself.

The Truth about Blogging Success

The truth about this is that most bloggers will never really succeed nor they will make money. To squeeze something in any field, you need to dive in and do sweat work. You need to go out and hit the mud, get a sore finger typing stuffs and etc. And that doesn’t even guarantee you anything! Are you ready then?

I’m usually asked by my friends on how the hell these people comment on my sites, why I receive this amount of traffic and how I do it. After telling them a thing or two they usually reply “what? You do all those things? That must be a ton of workload? Do take note that the traffic I get from my blog isn’t ever massive but still that’s traffic better than 95% of the blogs!

Why Setting Blogging Goals is Important?!

As I end this article, I’d like to re-emphasize again the point of having goals at the start and sticking to that. I’m sure a lot of other writers and bloggers have covered the wide topic of goal-setting and to be honest each and everytime I learn a lot. If you’re still unsure here are three more specific questions I’d like you to answer.

  • Do I really want to make money? – Pretty obvious but it’s kinda surprising that a lot of people really don’t. We are always thrilled when talking about money but sometimes it’s really not just what we want. I talked to several other people when I attend to conference and most of them told me that they just want to have a place to stick their notes. They just want to get into the friendly blogosphere, just want to interact and get somehow famous. As you see, it’s a crucial question. Do you really need this thing to milk money for you? If yes then it leads to the next question
  • Can I keep up with the workload? – Blogging is very challenging and to reap the financial rewards requires ton of work. I don’t know but due to the nature of internet marketing piped into blogging, we are psyched to think that making money from blogging is easy cheesy when in fact it’s not! I gotta tell you this, I work more than any person who has a day job to maintain my online business, the difference though is I’m enjoying and I’m getting paid for my efforts. So again it’s worth asking yourself, can I keep up with this? For how long?
  • How do I make this work? – Now that you have decided for yourself about two psychological questions, it’s time to jump into more details. How do you make this work now? What are the main methods I need to use in this? How’s the step by step process of it?

The Blogging Battle

As strange as it seems but you really don’t need to focus too much on strategizing. I’m an advocate of doing things more than planning it and so many people get stucked with reading stuffs, strategizing but never really doing anything. Make sure you don’t make those same mistakes. It’s good to have strategies, tactics and whatever but that’s not even half of the battle. The real challenge always is sitting down and doing it.

So what do you guys think? The phrase ‘setting goals’ is so broad that if asked, people usually respond with unrealistic and false answers. I mean my if you ask me what’s my goal I’d usually tell you confidently that my main goal is to have an MBA degree w/c is a weird answer. So there you go, we need to evaluate ourselves and our goals now, not later, and not tomorrow.

Image credit: Chess Master

About

This post is written by Melvin Dichoso who blogs at MelvinBlog Dot Com where he shares all his thoughts in the industry. He is currently running a huge contest as well with over $2000 of prizes at stake

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{ 39 Responses }

  1. EricMiller says:
    So true! Before I was living day by day without any real direction until one day I finally decided to map things out. I realize now that you can’t monitor how well things are going without first setting goals.
  2. John Allen says:
    Failing to plan is planning to fail and that is where setting goals come in. If you do not set your goals then it is like living without proper purpose. Setting goals also help one to be more organized as he or she climbs up the ladder of success. Planning and setting goals really benefits us in the long term.
  3. Biodun says:
    Nice post, really if you want to be successful you should start by setting goals, however the most important thing about goal setting is to know what you want to accomplish. If you truly desire to attain anything, a goal setting strategy is necessary!
  4. ravi says:
    Every blogger sets goals but only few succeed!
  5. Menandro says:
    Yup, you said it! Generating income from blogs is just like sifting dirt and mud for gold. But then, we are doing it for gold. What can be more sweeter than being substantially rewarded after hard labor. Thank you Melvin for the facts that you disclosed...
  6. Justin Germino says:
    I couldn't agree with you more that sitting down and setting blog goals both before you start blogging and re-evaluating those goals at intervals is key.
  7. ZK says:
    Melvin there is no doubt that many bloggers started their blogging journey through adsense. Jeremy is also one of them (remember his most famous photo with huge amount of adsense cheque) Its nice to see that you never gave up and hence now we have nice and down to earth blogger friend. This post is simply for newbie who are about to leave this field ...
  8. Julius Kuhn-Regnier says:
    Great article Melvin. I totally agree with you. I have so many people around me that tell me to get a real job, one that will earn me money. What they don't see is that I love blogging. I love having to manage everything myself. If I don't do anything I won't make any money or won't get any traffic.
    • Melvin says:
      Hey thanks for the feedback Julius. I think we kinda have the similiarities. I love blogging too..
  9. Jason Jumat says:
    Basically this all comes off at planning. And indeed planning ahead online is vital. Planning on what you want to do online and stick with it is the most critical thing to do if you want to succeed online. When people don't follow this and stick to their ideas and be constant and persistent - they simply fail.
    • Melvin says:
      Yep. and unfortunately, planning is not as easy as what we all think. And also its all about sticking to that plan and trying to innovate and improve it more.
  10. Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
    Grammatical errors aside, it is a good post! The post rightly points out the general weakness about getting ourselves to "sitting down and doing it" as Ryan rightly put it in an earlier comment. I am facing the toughest ordeal trying to figure out when to get the time to post to my blogs. I think this is where most of us stumble, whether we are newbies like me or the seasoned blogger who rakes in the dollars and gets thousands of hits per day.
    • Melvin says:
      hehehe right. maybe you can point out some grammatical mistakes. ;-)
  11. Lindsay Blogs says:
    Sometimes it seems like there isn't enough time in the day to meet all of my goals that I have set for myself and my blog. I think that, on top of your goals, you must also have priorities. If you don't prioritize, you are destined to meet the dreaded "Blogger Burnout" rather quickly.
  12. Nasrul Hanis says:
    Agree. To be a successful blogger, we have to set what we want and what we are looking for or achieve through our sites. And from our goals we know what we have to do and what strategy that we'll use to achieve the goal. And the next thing is to implement the strategies. I always believe there is no coincidence in getting success so setting blogging goals is essential to be a successful blogger.
  13. Dana says:
    Yup, blogging is about working, working, and working. However, since I like it, I can keep moving even though the work load is high.
    • Melvin says:
      Im glad to hear that from you Danna. But sometimes being too enthusiastic has some bad effects as well..
  14. Bogdan says:
    I totally agree with setting goals, however...Setting goals that you'll never manage to reach vs setting reachable goals is a really hard task. Most of the times people say "hey, I can do those things and will definitely do its", and in the end they don't, resulting a failure, resulting low morale etc. Carefully choose your goals, not only when blogging. :)
    • Melvin says:
      It's true and in fact that is one thing that I was working on last year. I think David Risley has written a great post on how he get things done and its one of the best posts I've read on that topic. Here's the link: http://www.davidrisley.com/2009/12/31/getting-things-done/
  15. vector graphics says:
    Goals are very important for blogger. when i was new starter i had no idea of blogging. I even bought several useless products like e-books, ready to start earning with Adsense, etc. from ebay and several other website but it didnt help me at all. I also started going through different tutorials and SEO courses like you and then later relished that the way i was doing was not the right way. Every new and old bloggers should go through this post. Thanks for awesome post.
    • Melvin says:
      Hey Annanta, I'm glad you like this post. Hope to see you around on my blog as well. :)
  16. Colleen says:
    I think part of our problem is the goals are set, but we need to systematically implement them day by day. Getting what we do into a system is what our next step is.
    • Melvin says:
      Yep. Its pretty much like business. To attain a big goal there has to have some set of strategies that must be implemented.
  17. Dev says:
    Hey Melvin, Awesome Post man. Very Inspirational. Goals are really important. As Ryan said "I had a series of goals for the day and more important a vision which helps me to blast through fatigue, frustration and fear. " There are many times I think i should go to bed now or go watch tv.. !! But i never do, because i have goals. In my earlier i do more playing, watching movies.. instead blogging :D !! Thanks for sharing this great post. ~Dev
    • Melvin says:
      Hahah, kinda exactly reminds me of myself when I was getting started too. Nice to hear that Dev. :)
  18. Ryan says:
    Hi Melvin, "The real challenge always is sitting down and doing it." That is the #1 takeaway for me, you hit the nail on the head my friend! Both for setting goals and blogging. Without a goal in mind you won't know where you're headed. All of the toil and hard work will seem for naught, and that's why most people throw in the towel. If you have a goal or goals in mind it's easier to put in the hours because you can see the finish line rushing toward you. Yesterday I worked from 8 - 4......8 AM to 4 AM. 20 hour days are not the norm for me but I had a series of goals for the day and more important a vision which helps me to blast through fatigue, frustration and fear. Hold your goals in front of you at all times. Write them down. Wallpaper them. Repeat a goal statement to yourself over and over, like you already have it. This creates the drive which creates champions. Thanks for sharing your insight Melvin :) Ryan
    • Melvin says:
      Wow that's a lot of time Ryan. You're right,if you have a goal, that would almost be enough to keep you determined to do things. You will always have a drive to do something even if you're tired. But either way, make sure you don't neglect you're health. heheh. :)
  19. ashok says:
    Your point above needs to be repeated throughout the blogosphere: "The truth about this is that most bloggers will never really succeed nor they will make money. To squeeze something in any field, you need to dive in and do sweat work. You need to go out and hit the mud, get a sore finger typing stuffs and etc. And that doesn’t even guarantee you anything" That's exactly right. The success stories online cover how exploitative the environment here is. I'll go further and say this: if you don't want to make money online, things can be even tougher. The audience that reads blogs is not as large as one would think, and they have certain habits that make it hard to increase one's reputation unless one says exactly what they want to hear. To take one example: the political blogosphere is an echo chamber, and because it is an echo chamber, it isn't hard to find an audience as a newer blogger. So yeah. The goal setting is important, as is figuring out the feasibility of one's goals.
    • Melvin says:
      That's another great point Ashok and its true. I like your example with the political blogopshere.
  20. Karan Singhal says:
    By far the most inspirational blog post I've ever read, hands down. I try to work had with my blog and write an article each day, either for my blog or as a guest post. A lot of the time, I don't use my time effectively and this doesn't get done. Setting both long-term and short-term goals does help, though, and this post just redefined my way of thinking about the entire process.
    • Melvin says:
      Hey Karan, I'm really flattered that this post has inspired you. ;-) Those good comments are the things that make me want to pursue helping out people more. If you have any questions feel free to hit me up personally. ;-)
  21. Murlu says:
    Setting goals is one of the most important things about blogging in my opinion. It's just like any business or project you're working on. Yes, blogging is very fun and has the potential to earn you an online income but when you don't have plans set, you'll never realize your true potential. Most bloggers will only plan as far as writing a blog post but there's so much more than that. After a post goes live, you have to have a plan to promote your posts. Then, you need to figure how to repeat this process if it's well accepted. All of these are goals for driving more traffic and building subscribers. If you're trying to make money, I think every blogger needs to have a goal to define what their idea of success is. If you want to make passive income, make a goal about setting up projects and products to earn you this. If you want to network and eventually coach people, you need to make a goal of seeking out people and building your references. In all, I think you should at least have an idea of where you want to go with your blog. If it helps, write it down on a sheet of paper and hang it over your computer. Whenever you falter from reaching your goal, just remind yourself and get to it!