Know when it’s time to re-work your blog goals

We’ve said it countless times before, and you’ve no doubt heard it infinite times before, but setting goals is important. Yawn. We all know this – but the real trick is learning what goals YOU need to be setting, and to know when you’re about to achieve your goals, or if you’ve veered off in a slightly different direction. Sometimes your goals need some re-working when this happens. It happens to bloggers quite often: your readers may give you clear indications that they want to be reading about slightly different things than you originally wanted to write about; or brands come knocking with opportunities that bring on a change in blogging direction.

So, setting realistic goals, and knowing when to evaluate and change them is important too. If your goals are accurate and aligned with what you believe you are able to achieve, it will be easier to track your progress and therefore complete those goals.

Top level goals & monthly check-ins

You should have over-arching goals that determine where you want your blog to be. Then, make a monthly point of assessing your metrics, your opportunities, your writing and general direction to see if they align with these goals. Every month make a record of what you’re achieving, and of what you’re missing – then measure these against your goals. If you’re consistently monitoring what’s going on, you can almost track your progress against where you want to be on a graph. Are any of these successes and failures holding you back from these goals, or even pointing you in a different direction? Is this new direction somewhere you want to be?

If some things need more work, use your monthly data to add smaller sub-goals or targets that will ensure you meet these top-level goals. If there’s a misalignment in your monthly sub-targets and your top level targets, it’s showing you that your actions are not working towards these overarching goals. Have a good think about where you want your blog to be, and adjust and re-work your goals and blogging actions to align with this new objective.

Re-working goals is not something that should get you down. It does not mean that you aren’t good enough to achieve the things you originally wanted to – tracking your progress, paying attention to it, and most importantly learning from it, is a common trait of successful people.

Have you had any experience with adjusting your objectives? We love to hear your stories, and they help your fellow bloggers out too!