10 Realistic Blogging Goals for the New Year

It’s that time of the year again when we ramp up to the New Year and start envisioning what changes we can make in our lives. Since I would imagine that your blog is an important part of your life, I’m sure many of you are looking for ways to add value to your blog. You want to make some positive enhancements to your blog as the New Year comes ringing in.

As a fellow blogger, I too am always looking for ways to improve my blog site and my blogging, for that matter. But I want to set some realistic goals that can be met. Not attaining unrealistic goals can be disheartening. For example, at my present place of employment, we had a VP of Sales who, every month, would project an unrealistic pie-in-the-sky revenue number. It was so unrealistic that the monthly revenue number was never met and eventually his words fell on deaf ears. He wasn’t taken seriously and the sales reps became disenchanted because they could never reach the goals that the VP was spouting.

So, this year, try to set some goals that are attainable. Don’t go into the New Year with the goal of hitting a Page Rank of 6 if that is unrealistic. Don’t strive for a subscriber number of 10,000 if it’s clearly not attainable. Take baby steps and try to take positive steps and maybe you’ll build some momentum in the coming year.

1. Tweak your Theme
I purchased a fully functional WordPress theme for my blog a while back and I really like it. The thing is, I’m probably utilizing a fraction of its functionality. This year I am hoping to learn more about all of the bells and whistles that my theme can do for my blog site. I’m hoping to tweak my theme in an effort to present my visitors with a new look and feel. Try not to stay stagnant with the look of your blog. Take advantage of what your theme can do for you. If you’re not happy with your current theme, there are plenty out there that you can purchase for a reasonable amount.

2. Become SEO-savvy
I am guilty of being an SEO novice. I understand the concept but I have yet to truly implement it on my blog site. We all want to rank high in the search engines and, in order to do so, we must become SEO-savvy. You could outsource and use a consultant or you could buy one of the many books out there that speak to SEO. I’m planning on buying a book and boning up on the subject.

3. Collaborate
There are many other bloggers out there in your niche. Consider a joint venture or a collaborative effort with one or many bloggers in your niche space. It may be mutually beneficial. Chances are you are already commenting on their posts. Get to talking and you might find that there could be a project you could work on together that could boost your blogs’ visibility.

4. Advertise
One of the best ways to advertise that your blog actually exists in the blogosphere is to guest post. I know that you’ve probably heard over and over that guest posting helps your blog become noticed. The reason you have heard this is because it is true. Daniel, the owner of this illustrious blog, is letting me do so with this post. I simply could not reach as large an audience without Daniel allowing me this opportunity. Seek out the larger blogs in your space and request to guest post. Don’t be intimidated. They can only say “No”. But if you are persistent and write a quality post, chances are your name and your blog link will be in lights in front of a whole new audience.

5. Outsource
I learned quickly that there are technical aspects of the blogging world of which I may not have the expertise. Instead of trying to do everything, it may behoove you to seek out a consultant who really knows what they are doing. There are many WordPress consultants who charge a reasonable fee if you want to move from one theme to another or if you just need some technical expertise. And when it comes to graphic artists, I found one to create banners for my sites and will use her to create some more images that I hope to use for marketing my online business. Outsourcing may save you a lot of time and aggravation at a nominal cost.

6. Take the time
Time management is always an issue for us blog owners. If you are not a full-time blogger and have a 9-5 job, you must take the time for your blogging. Set aside your lunch hour at your day job and devote it to your blog. Even if you are just writing your blog post in a notepad, you can then transfer it to your WordPress blog at your convenience. Writing the content is the hard part and if you can get it done on your lunch break, you’ll be way ahead of the game.

7. Take back your blog
If your blog has had some type of popularity, chances are there are other blog owners who want to guest post on your blog. This past year I got into a bad habit of publishing too many guest posts on my blog. The problem is that anyone who subscribed to your blog did so because they liked your writing. If you are constantly publishing others’ work then your regular subscribers will become disenchanted. Make it a point to keep the guest posts on your blog to a minimum. Even if you can’t post as many articles, it will be well received by your regular readers.

8. Take a break
This past year I was forced to take a break in my blogging due to a loss in my family. What I actually learned from this experience was that the break helped me revitalize my feelings toward blogging. When I eventually got back into it, I had a whole new sense of exhilaration toward writing. It is definitely worthwhile to take a break in your blogging if you feel you have become stagnant. You may find that it will really help you approach your blog in a new light when you get back into it.

9. Join a forum
I belong to a couple of forums on blogging. What I have found is that it gives me a connection to other bloggers and it also gives me an outlet to ask questions and, more importantly, to get answers. A forum will typically charge a reasonable monthly fee but it will definitely be worth it if you make it a point to participate.

10. Relax
Blogging is supposed to be fun. Hopefully this is the reason you got into blogging in the first place. So, if you can’t post on a regular posting interval, don’t let it consume you. Enjoy the experience and enjoy the process of writing. If you can only post once a month, make it a quality article. Quality over quantity should reign supreme when it comes to posting. Remember, your blog is your brand so don’t diminish what that brand means.

Try to make some positive strides in your blogging in the coming year. Enjoy the process and make the coming year a great one for you and your blog.

7 Tips to Keep the Blogging Fires Burning!

You know how in the beginning of a relationship everybody’s interested and interesting? How we keep up our appearance? How we interact, engage and put forth our best effort?

Then with some time and familiarity we tend to take things for granted. The fun factor fizzles, or we simply lose steam. Or perhaps our attention is diverted by some other “new and shiny object.”

Well, the same thing happens with blogging.

Here’s the scenario.

In the beginning you work hard to create posts to bring people to your spot. You appear at the popular social media sites in hopes of “making friends and influencing people.” You’re consistent in your blog updates.
After awhile, you find you’ve hit your stride!

Your followers increase, you have repeat visitors, and your amount of comments are encouraging. Eureka, you’ve found success!

That’s the honeymoon stage.

Fast forward.

It’s a year later, or two, or five. And your blog has the excitement factor of a tax audit.

It’s like a ghost town. The activity level has dwindled and so has your motivation. In the words of singer Roberta Flack, “Where is the love?”

Don’t despair. It happens. But you can resurrect a dying blog and get back that lovin’ feelin’ with a few creative, strategic steps. Here’s how.

1. Take a break. That’s right—put up your “gone fishing” sign on your site, and disconnect. Take time to cultivate new ideas, to relax and rejuvenate. Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder.
2. Survey or poll your readers to assess their interests and to determine your future direction.
3. Schedule guest bloggers to bring a different perspective and new energy to your site. Which bloggers do you admire? Start there.
4. Study and analyze your most popular previous posts. What was the common denominator? Were they posted on Tuesdays? Were they technical in nature? Rev up that traffic by doing a repeat performance!
5. Post interviews with prominent people in your niche. A good rule of thumb is to diversify your content so readers won’t get bored.
6. Don’t be afraid to court controversy. (Remember the Dixie Chicks and President Bush)? Sometimes “stirring the pot” can have hot results!
7. Respond to comments. To cultivate an active blog community, it’s crucial to be responsive to readers’ questions and comments. There’s great truth to the expression, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” .

Follow these seven tips to keep the blog fires burning, and most importantly to avoid burn out!

Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Blogger

Have you ever thought about what it actually takes to become a successful blogger? Well, there are certainly a lot of successes out there and we can all learn from the best of the best. So I got to thinking about what it actually takes to run a successful blog and here is a list that I came up with.

1. Loves to write
You must admit that in order to blog successfully then loving to write must be #1. You really shouldn’t be blogging if writing to you is a chore. Your own writing style is what endears you to your readers.

2. Knows his grammar
Maybe you didn’t expect to see this one on the list but it is very difficult for me to read anyone’s blog who isn’t very particular about proper grammar. A case in point is Daniel Scocco, the owner of this extremely successful blog. If you didn’t know, he also runs a blog called DailyWritingTips. It is my guess that Daniel also feels that writing properly is very important to a successful blogger.

3. Hard Worker
If you’ve run a blog for a while, as I have, you certainly know that you must work hard. If you don’t, then it will show in your writing and your blog will not be well read. You can’t fool people and put your blog on auto-pilot. If you do then you will lose readership.

4. Entrepreneurial
After a while you will want to make some money from the online presence and brand that you have established with your blog. A lot of people get into blogging for this sole reason. Whatever your situation entails, chances are you want to supplement your income. I plead guilty to this as well. It’s hard to be in the blogging world and hear about how others are making money online and not want to have a piece of the pie.

5. Creative
You can make a blog anything you want it to be. You have the choice of a myriad of themes and plugins that you can tweak to make your blog site unique. This is what makes the world of blogging great. No blog is the same and it’s simply up to the creativity of the blogger to make it that way.

6. Life Lover
This is one of the most positive aspects of the blogging world. Have you run across a blogger who doesn’t love life? This is why I added this attribute to my list. And since I started my blog I have come across the most engaging, pleasant, and helpful people I have ever met.

7. Personal Developer
Personal Development is a huge niche when it comes to the blogging world. Well, I’m here to say that all bloggers want to develop personally. We all have this in common. Without this trait would we really be doing what we are doing? I don’t think so. I try to learn and grow as a person every day but I don’t think I’m unique.

8. Communicator
This one is no big surprise is it? A blog is basically a means by which we can communicate with our readers. Communication is not only good for the blogger but also hopefully for the reader. A successful blogger wants to connect the audience. Replying to comments is very important and that is why I respond to every comment on my blog.

9. Helps Others
This was one attribute that blew me away. When I started blogging I emailed some fairly high profile blog owners and they actually responded to my email. I wanted an opinion on the design of my blog and I also asked to interview them for my blog. They helped me out and it got me off on a very positive note when it came to blogging. It showed me how compassionate and helpful even high profile bloggers can be.

10. Efficient
We all have a certain amount of time in our lives. And unless you are blogging full-time, you are trying to squeeze in the time to create new blog posts or to guest post on other blogs. Successful bloggers are very efficient with their time because they know that their time is limited. A successful blogger will work in high quality guest posts at certain times which allow them to maintain content but not at the expense of publishing subpar posts.

I think that this is a pretty comprehensive list of the top attributes of a successful blogger. Please feel free to share any more traits or characteristics that you think I left out.

The 10 Commandments to Successful Blogging

I’ll start off by saying that blogging is absolutely fantastic to do if you are passionate about a certain topic.

If you can write dozens or hundreds of articles related to the same topic without seeing it as a chore, then a blog is a great medium to build up an audience and establish yourself as an authority in a certain niche.

If you want to blog to make a full-time income, I can tell you that it’s possible but it’s not easy and it won’t happen overnight.

Let me share with you what I’ve learned since starting my blog

It’s been just over 2 years since I bought my blog domain. When I started Upgrade Reality, I had zero knowledge about websites, blogging or WordPress.

It took me an entire year of having a horrible theme, spending hours playing with code and tweaking my blog, and writing dozens of (in retrospect) terrible articles before I had a decent understanding of what a respectable blog should look like and what content it should have.

Looking back at some of my older screenshots and articles, it was so bad I can’t imagine how anyone ever read that I had to say.

I truly wish that I had spent money on a mentor or found a blog post like this one, because it would have saved me months of discovering things by trial and error. I can tell you that there is no point in re-inventing the wheel. There are proven methods and tactics that work, and until you know better…copy.

Here are 10 ‘Commandments’ you need to follow if you want to have a successful blog and dominate your industry.

1-Invest In Your Blog

With millions of blogs and websites to compete with, you need to set yourself apart from the rest in order to gain a big audience.

The first thing that a new visitor sees when he lands on your blog is the design.

I’m a big fan of a simple and clean, yet gorgeous design and pretty logo. Your blog should be easy to navigate and it should be 100% clear what you want the visitor to do (I.e. subscribe or click on your latest article).

Unless you have web-designing experience, don’t try to design your own blog layout. Find a web designer who will create a custom theme for your WordPress blog, and be prepared to spend $250-$500 on that. It may seem like a lot of money if you are just starting, but it’s the best investment you can make. Trust me!

2-Have A Specific Direction

Your blog needs to have a clear purpose.

What do you write about? (e.g. Self Improvement)
What are you trying to achieve? (e.g. Helping people gain confidence and get the life they want)

This direction that you have with your blog needs to be overly evident to anyone landing on your page. Every article you write should be related to the purpose of your blog (trying to help people) and it should be clear to anyone who lands on your blog for the first time (i.e. your logo or slogan should state what your blog is about).

3-Learn To Format Your Articles

One thing that took me a long time to realize is that articles on a blog are formatted in a completely different way to a book you buy in the store or an essay that you write in the office.

Articles on blogs are broken down into lots of small paragraphs, many sub-headings, list points and they often contain images.

The reason for this is that people don’t read massive chunks of text on their computer screens. In fact, the majority of people scan through an article, reading only the subheadings or bullet-points, and they will read the entire article properly if you managed to get their attention when they scanned the article.

For an excellent resource about writing and text-formatting, head over to Copyblogger.com.

4-Study The Writing of Successful Bloggers

There’s no better way to learn than by studying and copying successful people.

Take time to read and study the articles and writing styles of some of the top bloggers in the world like: Leo Babauta, Darren Rowse, Steve Pavlina and Jay White.

5-Start Building A List From Day 1

This is probably the biggest mistake I made with my blog and it is one that I regret.

If you do not have an email list, start today. The money is in the list. Not only will you be able to make much more money when you have an email list, you will be able to build a much better relationship with your readers and help a lot more people than when you only write articles on your blog.

I don’t mean a Feedburner email list, I mean using a professional mailing-list system like Aweber or Mailchimp.

6-Have a Free Report

Have a free report, a video or an ebook that you can offer to new visitors. People love free stuff, especially if the free stuff contains awesome content and information.

Offer your freebie as an incentive for people to sign up to your mailing list. It will increase the number of people who sign up to your updates dramatically!

7-Guest Post

Do you want more exposure and more readers to your blog?

Then you need to get your name out there. The easiest way to do this is to write great quality, useful articles as guest posts for other blogs in your niche.

Take a month or two and write 30-50 awesome articles that you are going to send to related blogs in your niche. You will see a massive increase in readers from a guest-posting campaign like that.

For a great resource about guest posting, check out this article on Viperchill.com

8-Network

It’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.

This is such an old but such a true statement. Knowing the right people could result in massive growth and awareness of your blog.

Go out and find the top 10 blogs in your niche. Then go out and find another 20 medium-sized blogs in your niche. Then go out and find 10 smaller blogs than your own blog.

Leave a few comments on their posts and send the owner of each of those blogs an email. Follow them on Twitter.

Note: Don’t network for the sake of personal gain. This is very important. Be genuine, make real connections and make friends with these people without asking anything of them. Over time they will happily help you out if you have shown that you are trustworthy and shown them that you help them out too.

9-Create Your Own Products

Creating and selling your own products is by far the most profitable business model.

You can make some money with advertising space on your blog, and you can make decent money by promoting products and using affiliate links.

However, the most profitable is if you create your own products (ebooks, guides, videos, membership sites etc.) and you sell them to your readers.

Creating a product is hard work, but you don’t have to do everything yourself. You can outsource many parts, like the design, the sales page and even the content. If you know the problem you want to create a product (solution) for, you can give guidelines or a skeleton to an experienced writer and pay him to create the ebook for you.

Start with a small product, but start with it. Create your own products and keep creating them. Henri does it, hundreds of other bloggers do it, I do it and now you need to do it too!

10-Provide Value

This is the most important thing that I can tell you about blogging. You need to always provide value.

Whether you are making someone laugh, or helping them live a healthy lifestyle, or giving them information how to blog like a pro…make sure that your content is always useful.

If you are providing value, visitors will become loyal readers. They will return, and a percentage of them will turn into regular buyers of the products you create and recommend to them.

Parting Words

Before I end this article off I want to leave you with some final blogging advice.

If you are blogging to build up an online income, then you need to treat your blog as a business. A blog does not make money, a business does.

The blog is just the medium that you use to connect with the hundreds or thousands of people that could become buying customers. If you do not have the mindset that your blog is an actual business, I can tell you that you are doomed to make little money until you change that mindset.

Work your way through all the points in this list and you should notice a big difference in your blog’s traffic, readers and in the amount of money you make from it. (But it will not happen overnight).

How Planning Helps Your Blogging

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Do you plan? How important is planning in regards to blogging?

You probably know that having a plan is crucial to your success in everything in life including blogging. When it comes to blogging, you have to know what you are doing and where you are going.

Anyone nowadays can make a blog, put on some posts and starts to work on getting more traffic and make the blog popular. However, if you goal is to have your own e-business online then it is very imperative to have a plan and a vision to where you are going.

1. Plan your posts

Planning your posts is crucial. You should try to have posts that are ready for publishing for a minimum of one week. You never know what could happen in a week as you might get sick, go on a vacation, or get busy with family, among other things. This is why planning your posts in advance is a crucial part if you want your blog and e-business to flourish.

2. Plan to create products

If you want to succeed in your blog and e-business, then you probably want to create your own products. You would earn way more than marketing someone else’s products if your goal is to make money. It is crucial to know what products you are going to release this year and how much time it takes you to complete each product.

Personally, I know the products that I’m going to be releasing this year including how long it will take me to finish each product. Having a written plan is half the work.

3. Plan your time

One of the major excuses I hear is that bloggers say they don’t have enough time to write posts more frequently, find time to write their own products. The truth is you do have time. For instance, if you spend one hour a day writing content for your product, that is around 30 hours a month. You would be surprised what you can accomplish with those hours.
If you don’t manage your time correctly, then you will not be able to work on creating posts and products in a timely manner, which could harm your blog and e-business. Time management is crucial to the success of every business.

4. Plan how to market strategically

Are you going to use social media to market your blog and e-business? If so, how often? Are you going to work on writing guest posts? Are you going on building relationships with other bloggers? These are all questions that have to be taken into consideration.

Having a strategic plan is crucial to your success online. Many seem to create blogs without having a clear marketing plan. Think about it, if you don’t have a specific plan, how can you succeed at your blog or e-business? The more you spend time marketing, the more traffic you will get.

How to Get Yourself Moving Again After a Knock Back

We’ve all been there at one time or another. You’ve had a bad comment or you’ve put loads of work into a project only to find that it really didn’t get the response you were hoping for. Sometimes after these events you can let yourself slip into the mindset that it be easier simply to give up or just surf the web and not try again. I’m going to share with you a few things that I do to get myself back in the mood and back on the road to building your blog again.

Ease Yourself Back Into It

If you have had that bad reaction to a project that you have put a lot of effort into then often I take a day and simply do research for my next post or project. The beauty part about blogging and why I’m sure a lot of you got into it is that you can set your own schedule. The only pressure is the pressure you put on yourself. If you spend a day researching for your next post or project then you can take things easy and get your confidence up that this is going to be some of the best work you have ever done.

Set Easily Achievable Goals

Instead of doing research and starting a big project again sometimes I decide that the best way to move forward is to do things that will get you results today and will last for a lifetime online. Things like blog commenting and forum posting are nice goals to set yourself for the short term. There is no pressure on you to complete any set goals and they will both give you an extension to your online presence and occasionally a do follow backlink to your site. While looking through the forum topics and blog posts inspiration could come to you for your next post and before you know it you are back on the road again.

Ask For Feed Back From Your Readers

This tip I have found is a great way of lifting my spirits after a set back. It will take some confidence on your part to ask for an opinion on your work but for the most part your readers enjoy what you have got to say and wouldn’t want you to change your direction or style. You could simply post a couple of tweets or a short post directly asking your visitors for their honest opinion on your site. I am betting that you will get more positive feedback than negative and you will hopefully walk away with more information about what your blog could do with changing to help improve it. It doesn’t hurt to ask!

Set Your Self A To Do List For The Next Week

After having said all of those things about taking it easy and getting back to your projects gradually sometimes the best thing to do is to plunge yourself straight back into work. Adding structure and order to what you plan to do over the coming days will help you to feel like you are achieving every step of the way. The very physical aspect of actually writing things on paper and then being able to cross them off when you have completed them can be very satisfying. This way you know you are moving forward and you know that you are succeeding in the goals that you have set for yourself (which are the only ones that really matter!). This can be combined with the other strategies I have mentioned in this article so for example write your plan for today as doing the easily achievable goals and thinking of a blog post idea and then plan in for tomorrow writing up that blog post.

I have used all of these ideas to help me at some point or another and they have all worked for me. It is simply a matter of picking the tip that best fits your mood at the time and ignoring the mood that is telling you to give up. If you give up you won’t get anywhere but if you keep going with your blogging journey there’s no knowing where it might take you.

Are there any other methods that you use to get yourself motivated after a set back? Have you used these methods yourself? We would love to hear your thoughts.