2016… a new year has started. I still can’t believe how quick 2015 has passed. I hope 2016 will slow down a bit.
For this year I have set some serious blog goals for myself. My little blog did really good in 2015 compared to 2014 but I want to get it out there even more. It’s hard work, that is for, sure and it will take a while to get it to the level I want it at but I like a bit of a challenge. It is a hobby I enjoy and sometimes even get a bit of money out of which I am really grateful for.
Now let me bring you through my blog goals of 2016.
Reach 1000 Likes on Facebook
It’s a bit of a tricky one. Facebook pages are hard to interact on in my opinion. I heard from many bloggers now in the last few weeks that it is not a big deal if you don’t get much interaction on it because it is hard in general. I would like to reach 1000 Likes by the end of this year which is a huge goal to reach as I am only close to 500 now.
Receive more sponsored posts
I got to work with a few great brands in 2015 and I was able to review their products. It is a nice thing to do and a great promotion for them. This year I would like to focus more on paid opportunities, for example sponsored posts about safety of your children walking to school, or home decor themed posts, anything that is parenting or lifestyle related. Mixing up the content with my personal posts, I am hoping to get more readers.
Fix/Tweak Old posts
I noticed a few of my old popular posts have changed the layout when I originally published them. Also when I had problems with my blog last year, I thought it could be the size of the images I am using, so used a shrink tool which upset some of my images. My plan is to go through the posts that I think are popular and rearrange them a bit.
Improve SEO
I am useless when it comes to stats and making sure you use the right keywords. I still don’t quite understand how SEO works. Sometimes I have good keywords and have a green light but other times I only get an orange light. If any of you have some blog posts how SEO works, I’d be more than grateful if you post them in the comments below.
Write more about local businesses
I haven’t focused on any local businesses in Ireland or the town I live in. I started following more Irish bloggers so this might be quite helpful for some who live nearby or for UK bloggers who are planning on coming over to Ireland for a trip. Things like restaurants, accommodations or parks.
Improve Blog photography
Every blogger seems to have this on their list this year. I started taking photos more and more with my Sony camera but then I got carried away and got lazy and used my phone again. I got a tripod for Christmas which will make life a lot easier. It is one that can be twisted. I have found myself in many situations where I could have needed one.
Publish post in magazing
Recently I started reading more magazines. Easy Parenting is a very popular magazine in Ireland. Some day I am hoping to be featured. No rush on it, whenever the time is right. Her.ie is a very popular website in Ireland where bloggers are frequently featured on it, too.
Attend Blog Events
I went to the Irish Parenting Blog Awards last year in Dublin. It was a good night out. Something different and I was finally able to put some faces on each and everyone’s blog. There is another community called Into the West Bloggers Network. They have some events over the year mainly in Galway which is handy for me to travel to. But on top of that I am thinking of attending one of the blog events in the UK. Britmums live seems to be a popular one.
Plan/ Organise/ Interact
I got a blogger planner around October to write in all my ideas and reviews I have to do. I became quite lazy lately using it. My goal for the new year is to try using it properly again and take it with me wherever I go. Interacting is quite hard because there are so many different blogs out there. I am planning to keep on top of all my favourite blogs on Bloglovin’ and comment where possible.
Do you have some blog goals set for yourself in 2016?
Oh I love a good list of goals to achieve. Best of luck this year for all that is to come. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me blog hop. #sharewithme
Great blog goals. I’m useless at SEO. Perhaps that should be one of my goals this year…learn SEO! Good luck in this new year!
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Ha very good Fi.
Ireland is such a small country compared to the UK that I think they deserve some support. xx
Great goals here! I want to improve old posts as well.
I like that you want to feature and work with local businesses more, it’s always great to support Irish jobs. Luckily my blog has very good SEO and the majority of my traffic comes from Google but I actually have no idea how!
My goals are very similar to yours….but I have no clue about SEO either! xx
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Thanks for the advice.
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It’s good for the local businesses you know. Attracts more people.
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Yeah we’ll see how it goes 🙂
This is such a wonderful organised plan for 2016 and for blogs too. I still need to improve my SEO too. Thank you for reminding me. I am sure you will meet your target
Really hoping to improve my blog this year too. I really feel like I’ve let it fall far below my high standard. Love how you’ve shared these publicly too – no pressure 😛
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I would just like to get some proper keywords in place. It’s so hard really but I am happy that people are actually reading my blog. xxx
These are great goals and I definitely share many of these with you. I still don’t really understand SEO either. I am not sure that anyone does. Ha ha! If you do understand it then I would love to hear about it. Hugs Lucy xxxx
I am currently going through old posts to fix broken links and it is a bit of a chore but a job that definitely has to be done x
These are some fabulous goals to have. I worked on my SEO over NOV/Dec and it made a difference all ready in the number of posts coming through via google. Good Luck getting published in a magazine. It’s a great goal to have 🙂
This is a great list! I’m trying to connect with local businesses and charities this year as well.
These are some brilliant goals, i wish you all the best in succeeding them x
Great plans. SEO is deliberately complicated and difficult to understand so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. Write good quality content and work on email subscription/following – that will really boost your returning visitor rate which will help your SEO too. Also the more time people mooch about on different pages on your site, the more it helps too, so make sure to cross link some posts and some related posts to read after. 🙂
Great set of blogging goals one of mine is to be more organised when it comes to blogging and have got a planner. So far so good.