After a recent post on “setting your blog’s goals“, I received numerous emails from readers asking all the same question: “What are your blog’s goals?”

Since you all appear to be more concerned with my own goals instead of your own, I figured that I would share them with you.

If you have never run your own blog, assessing the potential outcome of your blog will prove difficult.  In all likelihood, its performance will grossly miss your predictions.  There is a lot to learn in the first six months of your blogging career - lessons you will not properly comprehend until you have blogged yourself.

Having previously undertaken the blogging experience with PlayerBites (see ‘About‘ page), I’m in a slightly better position to evaluate the probable outcome.

With that said, there are a number of things that I would like to do differently the second time around.  Even if I say so myself, my past blogging career consisted of some horrible mistakes.  As a result, gauging the site’s outcome has proved a little harder than some of you may realize.

Short-term Goals (6 months):

1. Acquire 200 RSS Subscribers
2. Receive 300 unique visitors on average per day
3. Attain a PageRank of at least 3/10

Long-term Goals (1 year):

1. Acquire 700+ RSS Subscribers
2. Receive around 900 unique visitors on average per day
3. Attain a PageRank of at least 5/10
4. Monetize the site will maintaining visitor growth.

Remember I talked about ’sticking to your guns’?  Well, I have taken the strategy to heart.  Although I have earned 50 active RSS subscribers (after a mere two weeks of the site’s promotion), I am not about to move the goal posts.

Since there is increased probability that the first of my three short-term goals will be met, I am provided with the opportunity to ensure that the other two requirements are met.

Yup, it might only be a mere two weeks since I properly started promoting BlogaPro; nonetheless, I am proud to announce that we have been able to attract 50 RSS subscribers to the feed.  Please, please, no need to laugh.  In fact, I’m quite proud of my success.

I failed to initially consider my achievement, but after reading a recent article at natewhitehill.com it dawned on me just how fast the site is growing. Nate writes,

“It took me 3 months to grow my RSS subscribers to 100, but only 1 month to hit 200, 2 weeks to hit 300, 3 weeks to hit 400, and 4 weeks to hit 500.”

If we base BlogaPro’s growth on the growth experienced by Nate, BlogaPro should have roughly 100 subscribers in another 4 days.  Yup, rather unlikely, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe about the RSS feed.

Unlike an ordinary blogger, a professional blogger’s motivation is to make money blogging. The path you take to reach your ultimate goal will differ from person to person.

What are Goals?

Before we continue, it’s important to define a goal and the types of goals. The Oxford Dictionary defines a goal as “Point marking end of race; object of effort or ambition; destination;”

I would define a goal as the objectives that you want to achieve or obtain in the future. One where you develop a plan to take you to where you want in the future. Essentially, it’s a statement of intent.

There are two types of goals:

• Short-term goals: A short-term goal considers the time period from the immediate future to 6 months ahead from the present.
• Long-term goals: A long-term goal considers the time frame of at least 6 months and beyond.

Bloggers should be more concerned with setting short-term goals.  While it’s good advice to set both a short-term and long-term goal, blogs/bloggers will often deviate in direction from the originally chosen path due to arising situations in our environment.

Why Should I Set Goals for my Blog?

Those of you who have studied psychology will be well aware that the human psyche is driven by goals. Bottom line: People with goals achieve more than those without goals.

Take the time to ponder about at least one successful business man or women, politician, or sports personality that has become successful as a result of setting a goal.

Actually, the professional blogging world is no different.  For example, take a look at Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net.  His story is no different.  In fact, his published article discussing his blogging career clearly outlines the goals that he set to become a full-time professional blogger.

Holding on that previous thought, do you think that any of these individuals could have been as successful with out a clear plan of intent?  Doubtful.

1. As mentioned and for more emphasis, those with goals are more likely to achieve their goals than those without clear-cut goals.
2. It goes without saying that if you know exactly what it is that you want to achieve, it is far easier to achieve it than if you are vague.
3. Remember I defined a goal as “developing a plan”? Well, those with a clear action plan will find it easier to achieve their goals.
4. A few studies have shown that those with set goals have better health and relationships.

Setting Realistic Goals

At a convocation speech during Fresher’s “Welcome Week” at University (many years ago), I learned a great technique/methodology for setting my own goals.

The SMART model:

• Specific: Your goals should outline specifically what it is what you want to achieve.  Your goal’s outline should be in-depth and detailed.  If you told a friend or family member about your goals, would they understand your intent without asking any further questions?  A goal of “I would like to receive 1000 page views to my blog in 6 months” is more specific than, “I would like to rake in more visitors.”
• Measurable: Are your goals quantifiable?  Is there a metric by which you can measure them?  Will you be able to determine when it is that you have achieved your goal?
• Achievable: Determining if a goal is achievable can be quite difficult - it’s easy with hindsight. A blogger should ask, “What is the cost in attaining the goal?”  This cost could be in terms of money, effort, or time.  Then ask yourself, “Do I have the resources available to complete the goal?”
• Relevant: Is the goal relevant to you and what you are trying to achieve?  Can you see yourself finding the motivation to complete your goal?
• Timed: All goals need a start and end date.  Are these goals Achievable within the set time-span?

Review your Goals

Review your goals on a consistent basis; this could be every week, or every month.  Reviewing your goals will not only allow you to track your progress, but it will motivate you too.

Stick to your guns - keep to your goals even if you feel further on down the line that your goal cannot be achieved within the set time-span.  Some might recommend otherwise, yet I have found that I lose focus once I start performing alterations.

Setting your own goals

Regardless of whether you are new to the blogging world or are an established blogger.  I encourage you to take the time to set your own goals.

Some ideas for setting your own goals:

1. Achieving a certain number of page views.
2. Acquiring a higher ratio of pages/visit.
3. Earning a certain monetary amount per month.

I was slightly surprised when I arrived back from work this evening.  Waiting for me was a parcel that had arrived earlier in the morning.  It was not supposed to arrive for another couple of days.

Enough of the suspense already. The parcel contained an order of Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s co-authored book titled “Problogger”.

As you would expect, I haven’t managed to properly bury my head in the book just yet, but that is what the weekend is for.  However, I did take the time to read the “Introduction” section of the book which introduces both authors including how they entered the world of blogging.  If you’re needing some inspiration, I suggest you give the Intro section a good read. It’s simply awe-inspiring.

I’ll give the book a bit more of a review once I have completed reading all 211 pages.  The book is available through select retailers including Amazon.com.

So you’ve published your first blog post, but you have noticed that you aren’t getting any visitors?  Think links!

In order to receive visitors to your new blog, you are going to require links, and lots of them.  For blogs which have only recently been established, this proves rather difficult.

Why is it difficult to acquire visitors?

1. New blogs are often bland and lack a sense of interactivity or community.  Have you ever noticed how a blog undergoes immense change within the first couple of months?  Understanding what does/doesn’t work on your blog is not a one-month process.
2. With the few visitors that you do receive, they will find it difficult to form an opinion on a blog that has only a few posts.  Let’s not forget that opinions are formed over time; although, first impressions do count.
3. That brings us smoothly into our third point - return visitors.  These sorts of visitors are the ones who will contribute the most to your blog either in terms of links, interactivity, or money.  If your blog is established, return visitors will comprise a large percentage of the visitors to your blog.
4. A lack of incoming links will undermine your blogs reach.  Referring sites and search engines are very pivotal in increasing the number of visitors to your site. Search engines will determine your site’s placement based on the number of links that point to your site. Around 62% of the visitors to BlogaPro are from search engines.

Don’t become disheartened

Blogging is a commitment. It’s easy to throw in the towel after a couple of weeks but don’t become disheartened.

Sites grow in popularity gradually.  My last blog wasn’t reaching 100 visitors on a daily basis until about 6 months after its inception when it suddenly sky rocketed in popularity.

If you publish content on a regular basis and shown enthusiasm for your niche, the number of visitors to your site will increase.

Stick in there…

In a previous article, I mentioned that the most effective way of quickly getting listed/cached by Google’s bot was to publish a press release through a third party.

Last night, I took the time to write an official press release.  The short article was published last night (at midnight pacific-time) through prweb.com.

I decided to release the article for two main reasons:

1. To use the press release as a vehicle to promote BlogaPro
2. As an experiment in determining the effect the press release would have not only on my traffic but on my search engine rankings.

In about two weeks from now, I’ll discuss the effects that the PR had on BlogaPro.

If you would like to get in on the experiment, I suggest joining BlueHost (if you don’t already have a hosting account).  A new hosting account with BlueHost will entitle you to a free press release on prweb.com (a $40+ value).

After having a quick look at Roger Johansson’s 456 Berea Street, I felt slightly despondent once my eyes gazed over towards the number of RSS subscribers to his site.  Wouldn’t it be nice having 26,000 RSS readers?  I presume that the number of subscribers has in fact decreased slightly because Roger has been on “parental leave and vacation” for nearly 2 months.

Well, Roger’s success got me wondering how I could increase the number of RSS subscribers to my blog.  Short of being dugg, there are not many ways of attaining over 5,000 visitors in a relatively short amount of time.

A large number of RSS subscribers is usually attributed to interesting content which has been published regularly over a lengthy period of time.

Boost your subscribers

But wait!  There are ways to jump-start your feed’s activity.  Have you ever thought about submitting your RSS feed to different RSS readers and directories?

Instead of feeling dispondent, I decided to do something about it.  I found a great guide on rss-specifications.com.  The guide contains numerous links to RSS directories, catalogs, and readers.  After spending some time searching the web and submitting my RSS feed, I sat back and watched what happened.

It paid off.  BlogaPro’s reach has almost doubled over night as is depicted in the graph above.  While much of the activity is attributed to bots, I did notice that three times as many human visitors clicked on items within my feed compared with previous days.

Any of you have any other tips to share on how you have increased the number of RSS subscribers to your site?

Last but not least

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

There are two key tips you ought to follow if you anticipate being a successful blogger.

1. Separate yourself (along with your blog, of course) from the rest of the pack.
2. Publish quality content that is unique and well-written.

Addressing recommendation number one is often difficult - it’s not always that clear on just how far you should try and “separate” your blog.  Nonetheless, it’s always best to be yourself and let your blog reflect your personality.

Here is a suggestion.  Have you ever thought about including a short video in the “About” section of your blog?  There is only so much you can learn about a person sitting behind a blog.

Benefits of including video

Videos tend to more effective in conveying your personality.  Sure you might publish terrific blog posts, but there’s something engaging about a video that even a well-written blog post can’t rival. Videos provide the opportunity for your readers to bond/relate with the you on another level.

What are some other benefits of including video?

1. A good value often portrays a feeling of interactivity.
2. It’s eye catching not to mention stimulating.
3. You can use it with different forms of advertising.
4. You readers are more likely to return on another visit.

Don’t forget the text

While I have encouraged the use of video, I would not suggest removing any text that is already present. Why?

1. Text is easier to scan
2. It consumes less bandwidth.  Not everybody has access to DSL/Cable.
3. Text is more beneficial in terms of SEO.

You’re probably wondering what you should include in your video?  Well, I wouldn’t make it too long - one minute tops.  Introduce yourself, explain what your blog is about and leave it that.

If you’re looking to jump on the bandwagon, sign up with Viddler and get those videos rolling.  If you’re looking for inspiration, check out iJustine’s page.

Check out my own video

I recently published a video to supplement my autobiography.  All in all, the response has been rather positive.  In fact, visitors are now more willing to follow me through different social media in addition to subscribing to my RSS feed.

If any of you have included videos in your autobiography, please do share.  I am thinking about reworking the video since it lacks some quality; some inspiration is needed - I am a programmer not a video editor…

Navigating through the search results of a search engine, you soon realize the importance of the title tag of an HTML document.

What is the title tag meant for?  Essentially, the title tag should identify the content of the document in a fairly wide context.

Why is the title tag so important?

Search engines, especially Google, emphasize the importance of the title tag.  This is extremely evident when you examine “relevant” search results.  Almost always, the top result of a search query has some form of the original query embedded in the title tag.  Ultimately, the title is used by the major search engines as the most important piece of information available to determine the ranking of your page.

In addition, the title of a page is displayed at the top of the browser window. The title acts as a guide to users allowing them to distinguish between different browser windows.

We’ve demonstrated the importance of the title tag, but does that mean we ought to stuff the title tag with as many keywords as we can think of?  No!  Don’t be tempted by falling into the trap of stuffing your title tag with keywords.

In fact, the majority of search engines will truncate the title of your page after x amount of characters.  Andy Beal of Search Engine Guide suggests that pages with long titles might even receive a penalty for stuffing the title tag unnecessarily.

How long should a title be?  An optimum title is less than 67 characters.

1. Google ignores any character(s) after the 66th character
2. Yahoo! ignores any character(s) after the 68th character
3. Live (MSN) ignores any character(s) after the 66th character

The statistics don’t go without saying that title tags should be filled with those keywords that are relevant to your site.  Don’t stuff the title tag for the sake of stuffing it.

One truth that is evident in blogging is that it does not require vasts amount of money. Everybody is provided with the opportunity to start their own blog.

Outline of Required Tools

Before venturing into an analysis of the tools required to get you moving right along, let us briefly list the mandatory tools required for professional blogging.

1. A software platform or content management system
2. A web hosting account
3. A domain name
4. Access to a PC
5. A little knowledge of HTML

Blogging Platform

The blog you are currently reading from uses a piece of software known as a “blogging platform” which runs on a web server just like it would on any ordinary home computer.

The blogging platform is the back-bone of any blog. The software allows authors to concentrate on the heart of the content instead of having to waste silly time organizing, developing, and editing page contents. Blogging platforms provide many functionalities not limited to:

1. A common, themed template which exists for all pages of a blog.
2. Functionality allowing visitors to leave comments.
3. Page/post organization based on categories, dates and/or even authors.
4. Access to up-to-date RSS feeds

If you’re keen, you can always write your own blogging platform, but I would completely advise against the idea. The are some terrific open source options available which are “free” of charge. They are secure, up-to-date, and provide every feature under the sun. The two most common blogging platforms are WordPress and Drupal (amongst others). Take your pick…

Webhosting Account

Web sites are hosted on a server PC, a PC which is usually more powerful than your average desktop computer.   All your web content (images, pages, videos, and even flash) is “hosted” on a machine referred to as a web server. Most organizations, companies and “regular joe’s” outsource hosting to a third party meaning they rent the server .

For further information, I recommend that you visit W3C schools.  They have a comprehensive guide on web hosting.

It’s always best to use a web host which has been recommended to you by friends or family.  The differences in service can differ drastically from provider to provider.  It’s worth giving BlueHost a try - it’s the host of choice for BlogaPro and it only costs $6.95 a month.

Domain Name

A domain name is the name that identifies a computer on the Internet (eg. google.com).  How exactly do you get a domain name? Well, domain names can be bought from registrars for a very small annual fee.

Choosing the RIGHT domain name involves more than just plucking the first name that enters your mind.  In fact, domain names often make or break sites.

A few considerations in choosing the correct domain name:

1. Long or short domain name
2. Hyphenated names
3. Plural or singular names
4. Which top-level domain (eg. .com, .org, .net, .co.uk )

Christopher Heng at sitewizard.com has written a comprehensive article on choosing the best domain name.  I recommend that you give it a read; it will be worth the time spent.

Access to a PC

Blogs do require some regular attention, so having access to a PC is mandatory.  If your blog becomes popular, you might eventually receive emails on a consistent basis.   It’s always worth responding to your fans.

No, this does mean that you have to have your own personal computer.  In fact, I know of two bloggers who regularly visit the library to update/alter their blogs. Utilizing a friend’s computer or one at the library is a great way to save money without having to invest in a purchase.

A little understanding of HTML

HTML or “HyperText Markup Language” is the markup language for web pages.

What exactly is HTML?  Wikipedia describes HTML as, “…a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document — by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on — and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.”

If you are currently using either FireFox or the IE web browser, you can view the markup language of any web page by right clicking in a blank area of a page and selecting “View Page Source” from the pop-up menu.

How exactly are you going to learn HTML?  Not too worry, there are plenty of online tutorials available.  Three great sites I would recommend would be W3C Schools, HTML Quick, and David Raggett’s Intro to HTML.  Give them a try!