GET BLOGING GOALS FOR BLOG SUCCESS

In order to have a successful blog, it's important to have blogging goals.

What are your goals with blogging? If you don't have any goals, how can you know if you're succeeding, if your blog is working?

Ask yourself where do you want to end up with blogging? You are never going to get there if there isn't any "there." How do you know you've achieved your goals if you don't have them?

I suggest going beyond merely listing goals and choosing a primary goal. Your primary goal may certainly shift over time, as may all your goals.

Goals for a business blog might include establishing thought leadership, engaging customers in dialogue -- Microsoft has been extremely effective in that with their 4,000 plus bloggers, increasing awareness of your company and its offerings, or perhaps just becoming a better writer -- writing is a critical business skill.

For example, my primary goal with my first blog was simply to experiment and become familiar with blogs and blogging. Once that was accomplished, my primary goal became to reposition myself as a consultant. Traditionally, I was a technical guy and many of my older clients used me for my technical acumen only. However I'd been in business for myself for a good 15 years including a number of startups and a lot of consulting, and I learned quite a bit about business. Some of my newer clients used me for my business acumen. I used my blog to help position myself as a consultant with a lot of business experience and a strong technical background.

I strongly suggest you write down your blogging goals, preferably on paper! Schedule a review date on your calendar a few months out and revisit your blog goals then.

Have you made progress towards achieving them? Has your primary goal shifted?

Just the simple practice of documenting your blogging goals and periodically reviewing them can have an enormous impact on the success of your blog.