First Year Blogging Goals

It’s smart to set goals, but it’s often hard to know where to start. You know you need to be focusing on SEO and marketing, but when does that happen? Should you just start writing and see where it goes?

Overall, this guide contains tons of blog goals, and we break everything down into monthly targets. If you follow it all, you’ll have a growth strategy in place and will simply have to write and market yourself well. Let’s learn more!

First Month Blog Goals

When starting out with your blog, these are the things you should focus on:

1. Learn About Your Niche

Whether you’re an expert or simply passionate about something, it’s crucial to know your niche. You must determine what readers want before creating original and compelling content.

2. Learn the SEO Basics

Search engine optimization is used to help your blogs rank on search engines. This is often your primary traffic source, so it’s crucial to learn the basics, and it’s not that hard!

3. Build Your Site

Blogging isn’t just about what you have to say; your website should be easy to navigate and follow. It’s a different creative, but it’s still important. When you build your site, think about:

• Choosing your platform
• Connecting the website to Google Search Console
• Choosing a design aesthetic and theme (branding)
• Adding appropriate pages (privacy policy, contact/about pages, homepage, etc.)

4. Create a List of 100 Keywords

Keywords are your site’s backbone, and it takes keyword research to know what you need to have. This is ongoing, but starting a list early can help you get ideas and determine what to write about quickly.

Here’s a tip: Keep your keywords in one location, such as in a Google Doc, for better organization. Categorize things by topic clusters and audience subsets.

5. Publish the First Post

When you have your website set up and your keywords ready, start writing. You will be writing as long as the blog is active, though it’s possible to outsource as you grow and earn money.

Second Month Blog Goals

The second month should be about forming habits and setting yourself up for success. Here are some pointers:

6. Create Your Workflow

A workflow is simply a repeatable system that you follow. It includes the steps for researching, the processes you use, and everything else. Overall, it helps you form habits, keeps you accountable, and boosts productivity.

7. Create a Posting Schedule

You need a posting schedule that fits your blog goals and lifestyle. Consistency is essential here, so it can help to create a content calendar. Start with about one post a week and build up from there.

Third Month Blog Goals

In the third month, you’re focusing on your blog’s foundation and brand image. Here are some ideas to help:

8. Fine-tune the Brand and UVP

When you initially start writing your blog, you might not be fully clear on your brand image. However, in your third month, you will understand better how you fit into the niche and who you are.

It’s time for a quick audit. Does your current writing and image reflect the long-term goals for who you wish to be? Define your unique value proposition (UVP) and brand voice, creating guidelines to follow in the future.

9. Submit a Sitemap to Google Search Console

Though all blogging platforms have different protocols, they work quite similarly. You can also Google “Google Search Console” and “your blog’s platform” to get the steps needed.

Once you connect with Google Search Console, you should submit a sitemap. This helps Google crawl your blog and understand what your pages offer.

10. Publish 30 Posts

At the end of the third month, you should have roughly 30 published posts. This seems like too much, but you want to be diligent when starting your blog.

Fourth Month Blog Goals

The fourth month focuses more on unlocking opportunities and promotional efforts. Here are some ideas:

11. Get Outside Feedback

You’ll have a fresh perspective and more objectivity when you get outside feedback for the blog. Ask friends what they think of it; they’ll tell you which topics they liked most and all the rest. Be sure to get information from someone in your target audience for the best results.

12. Search for Guest Posting Chances

Guest posting opens up many opportunities for bloggers. You will network with others in your space, reach new audiences, and build more inbound links that point to your site. This is crucial for authority and site ranking.

13. Engage with the Niche

To engage more with the niche you’re in, you should post helpful threads, join relevant communities, and comment. Being part of the conversion can help build authority and promote your blog. Consider Facebook groups, community forums (Quora and Reddit), and social media.

14. Start Considering Monetization

Though you probably won’t be making much money in the fourth month, it’s smart and encouraging to get the ball rolling now. Here are a few tips:

• Apply for affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates
• Offer services, such as a hire button on the main menu for people to buy blogs
• Put ads on the blog through Ezoic and Google Adsense

Fifth Month Blog Goals

In the fifth month, you’re focusing on exploring alternate traffic channels and building your infrastructure. These will help you boost authority, clarity, and traffic.

15. Create a Social Media Strategy

People often use Google to find answers and solutions, but there are tons of other content types. Younger generations prefer Instagram and TikTok over a traditional search engine, so you need a social media strategy.

For example, you can:

• Summarize blogs into tweets
• Turn posts into an Instagram carousel
• Transform posts into short YouTube and TikTok videos

16. Consider Content Syndication

Many bloggers aren’t familiar with it, but content syndication can increase your blog’s exposure. It means that you republish the content you create on other websites that have more authority and a bigger following. Finding an appropriate strategy is crucial here.

Sixth Month Blog Goals

Things should be heating up now, so you’ll be reaching many growth milestones. Here are some tips:

17. Invest in the Blog

Adaption and learning are part of the blogging journey, and it never stops. Therefore, you should brush up on your skills to level up and improve.

Overall, you wear many hats as a blogger. Invest your time in YouTube videos and take paid courses. Here are some options:

• Blog automation
• AI integration
• Learning to build digital courses
• Writing and copywriting skills
• Digital marketing and sales tactics
• Advanced SEO tactics
• Data analytics

18. Create a Freebie

By now, you have a sufficient amount of knowledge, data, and expertise to know what your audience craves and what works for you. Now, think about creating an eBook or a digital download to offer for free.

19. Have 50 Posts

A great goal to shoot for is publishing 50 posts at the end of the sixth month.

Seventh Month Blog Goals

In the seventh month, you should be focused on housekeeping and creating assets. These will help you improve the scope and quality of your brand and posts.

20. Build a Newsletter

If you do create a freebie, such as an eBook, you can put it to work in a newsletter. Growing your email list is crucial for entrepreneurs and bloggers because it’s an excellent way to reach the audience.

When you have their email, you enjoy a more direct way to communicate with them!

21. Review and Update Previous Articles

In most cases, your first round of articles need TLC. Though some are evergreen, which means they stand the test of time, others will have to be updated for new information. Likewise, you’ve gotten better at blogging, so a revamp might be in order. This also updates the dates for older articles, so everything on your website looks current.

22. Have 5,000 Monthly Visitors

At the end of the seventh month, you should try to have 5,000 visitors to the blog. If you’ve followed along so far, you have implemented good SEO tactics and keyword research, and there’s consistency. Therefore, it’s definitely an achievable goal at this point. Still, don’t get discouraged if you’re not there.

Eighth Month Blog Goals

The eighth month is about becoming a productivity and data wizard to increase efficiency and performance.

23. Data Analytics

This is often a weakness for most bloggers, but it’s crucial. By the eighth month, you should have some data to go through, such as which blogs perform well and why. It’s also good to check your average clickthrough rates and bounce rates for each month.

These KPIs are essential because understanding the data will help you improve optimization and performance rates.

24. Get Original Data

Original data is great because it helps you stand out. Here are some ways to gather it:

• Conduct polls and surveys
• Do case studies
• Interview leaders

Compile your findings into a white paper to help drive traffic to your site.

Ninth Month Blog Goals

This month is focused on money, which will boost your blog’s income.

25. Start a Store

Having a store on your website can help you sell personally branded products. These items can be art prints, templates, eBooks, and more. Just ensure they align with your brand and niche.

26. Create a Consistent Income

There are tons of ways to monetize your blog. Therefore, you have to know when, where, and how to sell and be patient. Consistent income happens from good copywriting, traffic, and relevancy. Here are some popular monetization channels:

• Sponsored posts
• Paid memberships
• Directly selling ad space

Tenth Month Blog Goals

In month 10, you should focus on functionality to improve trust and quality.

27. Perform a User Experience Overhaul

UX (User Experience) is crucial because it means readers can navigate the site easily and find what they want. You’re probably doing this already, but here are a few more tips:

• Add a chatbot
• Mobile optimization
• Use dynamic features for interactivity
• Improve interaction and engagement with calculators, quizzes, and gamification

28. Boost Retention and Conversion Rates

Though a good UX will boost conversions and retention rates, there are other things you can do, such as:

• Draw the reader in with emotion
• Use social proofing (showing social shares for a post and recent activity popups)
• Add value and write clearly
• Add email popups as readers exit
• Create excellent offers and add CTAs in appropriate places
• Use push notifications to tell people about new posts

Eleventh Month Blog Goals

Month 11 should focus on plugging holes in the blog. These technical issues can hurt you!

29. Audit for Broken Pages and Links

As your blog grows, it’s normal to have broken links and pages. You may have changed URLs or taken down a post, which is upsetting for readers when they can’t get what they need. Find those issues and fix them!

30. Review Your Underperforming Blogs

Every blog won’t perform well and rank high. Therefore, it’s wise to analyze your keywords regularly. You should have a large collection of posts, and some won’t rank or even be indexed by Google. Find these posts and re-optimize or rewrite them.

Twelfth Month Blog Goals

In month 12, your blog should look like a business. You’ve hit your key milestones and have a brand. Reflect on those with these goals:

31. Publish 100 Blog Posts and Have 10,000 Monthly Visitors

At the end of the first year, you should have at least 100 blog posts published. This is a huge milestone, and it’s time to celebrate.

Likewise, you should shoot for 10,000 monthly visitors by now.

32. Plan Your Next Year

Self-reflection is essential, but you should also look ahead and determine what your next moves should be. This is a way to determine what worked and what didn’t, which will help you in your second year.

Spend this time researching sub-niches, setting goals, and planning new batches of content!

Final Thoughts

Understanding what your first-year blogging goals should be takes a lot of the pressure off you. Now, you have a quick guide you can fall back on and know what to do and when. Ultimately, you want to monetize your blog to earn a passive income, and it’s definitely possible. Happy blogging!