Analyzing Your Blogging Goals
I have posted previously about ‘Setting Blogging Goals‘ and have also outlined some of my goals for ProTycoon.com, such as ‘My Technorati Targets‘. This post is all about analyzing your progress in meeting those goals.
Setting your goals is the easy part, achieving them is where the hard work is. Many bloggers will set ambitious goals, this is not a bad thing as long as you are prepared to work hard and focus on achieving them. I promote ambitious goals, but not unrealistic goals, always make your goals achievable. What is the difference between an ambitious goals and an unrealistic goal?
An ambitious goal would be to increase your RSS subscriber count from 50 to 500, it is not impossible, but requires hard work and dedication to achieve.
An unrealistic goal would be to increase your RSS subscriber count from 50 to 1000 in one day, it simply will not happen, unless a miricle occurs.
Once you have set your goals, you then need to plan how and when you are going to achieve them. By planning out how you are going to achieve your goals you are making them easier to achieve. Lets look at an example from my Blogging Goals page where I stated that I wanted to take my RSS feed count to the 150 mark. I now need to plan my way to achieving this, so instead of saying that I am going to reach this goal by the end of July, I break it down into smaller goals. This could be by saying I will aim for 75 RSS subscribers by the end of July then for 150 by the end of August. This makes my goals more achievable and helps to keep me motivated.
In order to keep track of your goals you need to be analyzing them, this is not an easy process, but it has now become a whole lot easier thanks to Vandelay Website Design and ProTycoon.com. I came across a spreadsheet designed by Vandelay which helps to track your progress per month to help you achieve your blogging goals. I have adapted the spreadsheet slightly from the original to focus it more towards blogs.
The spreadsheet allows you to track your blogs Unique Visitors, Page Views, Subscriber Count, Technorati Rank, Technorati Authority, Blog Revenue and Post Count every month so that you can view your growth. This spreadsheet should cover many of your blogging goals that you have, you can also add any extra ones onto the end.
By using the spreadsheet you can see which areas of your blog are improving well and which need a little more work.
You can download the spreadsheet here: Blogging Goal Tracker.
I have used the spreadsheet to help me track ‘My Technorati Targets‘ over recent weeks and have achieved one of them, as I have dramatically improved my Technorati Rank, I still have two more left to achieve. In order to help me achieve another of my Technorati Targets, please add ProTycoon.com to your Technorati favourites. I will be writing a post dedicated to how I achieved my Technorati Goals, so if you want to learn how to increase your technorati stats, I suggest you subscribe to my feed, so you don’t miss my future posts.
I want to know, how do you analyze your blogging goals? Have you recently achieved a goal?
Help me reach 150 RSS subscribers by Subscribing to my Feed via a Reader, or Via Email!
Ganesh | July 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm #
You’ve given the right advice. When I wrote a post about my blog goals for July, I said that I had a goal to get atleast 250 subscribers by the end of July. I guess that is pretty much impossible. I didn’t think of how I was going to get 250 subscribers then. Although with your help, I might
.
David Shaw | July 10th, 2008 at 3:05 pm #
@Ganesh
Many people set ambitious targets, I know, I have some targets in my head.
I hope I can help you make the most of your blog.
Hendry Lee | July 10th, 2008 at 4:52 pm #
Just yesterday, I was posting about the importance of having a goal and direction in blogging. Thanks for your blog post. It certainly is helpful.
@Ganesh: Don’t give up!
David Shaw | July 10th, 2008 at 5:18 pm #
@Hendry Lee
Goal setting helps bloggers get throught the hard first 6 months.
You could always link to the post
an example of how to help with their goals!
Winning Startups | July 10th, 2008 at 6:14 pm #
Writing down my goals is the only way to get anything accomplished. The goals must be quantitative though and have a specific date to achieve them. Otherwise its difficult to measure the success.
Larry | July 10th, 2008 at 6:31 pm #
Achieving my goals are hard, But I know if I do nothing
I will not reach them.
Tom - StandOutBlogger.com | July 10th, 2008 at 7:16 pm #
Setting goals is great, but analyzing them to make sure you are on track is so important. I have almost hit my goal for this month already
salwa | July 10th, 2008 at 8:29 pm #
@ Tom, Congratulations on almost achieving your goal for this month.
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
David Shaw | July 10th, 2008 at 8:41 pm #
@Winning Startups
You need to have some end time on your goals, just so long as they are resonalble
@Larry
All goals usually require some hard work in order to achieve them or they are not really goals.
@Tom
Well done on almost reaching your goals for the month.
@Salwa
First Comment? Welcome to the blog!
Jacob from Group Writing Projects | July 10th, 2008 at 9:10 pm #
David, you should consider entering this tip in my Building RSS Group Writing Project:
http://groupwritingprojects.com/blog/building-rss-group-writing-project/
All you would need to qualify for over $350 in prizes is to add a link to the announcement post at the above link. Although additional tips before Sunday night’s deadline would increase your chances of winning even more.
David Shaw | July 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm #
Thanks Jacob.
I have added links in two of my posts!
I will give it all a proper read through in the morning.. Looks like a nice project!
The MAGIC WORDS to Use in Goal Setting | Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco | July 10th, 2008 at 10:44 pm #
[...] I’d like to send you over to see my friend David at ProTycoon where he is offering an awesome Blogging Goal Tracker spreadsheet for [...]
Suzanne | July 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm #
Hey David ~ The spreadsheet is awesome!
I was just polishing a post on goal setting and this ties in perfectly so I referenced it here on my blog goal setting post. *SmiLes* Suzanne
David Shaw | July 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm #
Cheers Suzanne
Have commented on your post..
I would recommend everyone read it!
Halim-Belajar SEO | July 11th, 2008 at 9:20 am #
I’m using Google Analytic for analyze my blogging goals. I use it to find which keyword bring most visitor to my blog.
For the first step, my keyword “Belajar SEO” is on first page. Next maybe I will target “Ilmu Internet” (Internet Knowledge). My visitor target is Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and SIngapore.
David Shaw | July 11th, 2008 at 9:37 am #
@Halim-Belajar SEO
Sounds like you have some good targets, sticking to certain countries.
dimaks | July 11th, 2008 at 2:00 pm #
for any successful venture, i think goal setting is a must to have the sense of direction. setting a bench mark along the way is also equally important.
David Shaw | July 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm #
@dimaks
You cant acheive anything, if you are not heading towards anything.
JK Swopes | July 27th, 2008 at 10:46 pm #
I love to set goals, I also think that keeping track is important. Rather than just checking them periodically, I like the idea of writing them down. I have downloaded the spreadsheet and will adapt them to my blogs.
Thank you.
David Shaw | July 27th, 2008 at 10:51 pm #
Good Luck JK.
Feel free to share your goals!
Acusiassy | August 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm #
Thank you
Stand Out Blogger » Stand Out Bloggers #2 + A Blog Design… | October 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 pm #
[...] If you have been reading this blog for more than a week you would know that setting and keeping track of your goals is one of my favourite topics. Well ProTycoon has a great post about 'Analysing Your Blogging Goals.' [...]
Moreno19Annabelle | June 17th, 2010 at 12:27 pm #
Don’t you understand that it’s high time to get the personal loans, which will make your dreams come true.