1. Clarify the business goals for your blog
2. Commit to blogging goals for long-term success
3. Why create an “ideal reader”?
4. How to identify your ideal reader

Beyond goals about what you want to get out of blogging, it’s a good idea to set goals for what you’re going to put into your blog.

You can’t force readers to come, or to subscribe, or to buy your product, or to call you for an interview. Those are areas you can influence but ultimately, they’re out of your control.

What you can control, though, are the actions you take to create an online environment that increases the probability of success and influences your readers, potential and existing clients, and the media.

The big benefit your “blogging input goals” will provide is a structure for the consistent small actions that will build a solid base for long-term success. Blogging is like any other type of marketing: if you put serious effort into it only when you’re not getting results, but abandon it when you get busy, you’ll create a feast-or-famine situation, a roller coaster of unpredictable results.

Steady actions result in steady growth, and that’s the goal—steady doesn’t have to mean “plodding.” Everything is accelerated online. You can see results quickly and experience continued success by having a plan and following it.

So what kind of goals should you set? Consider things like:

• How many posts you will write each week
• What day(s) you will write them
• How many blogs you will read (more is not always better!)
• What other kinds of topical information you will consume (magazines, books, etc.) and how often
• How many comments you will leave on other blogs
• How much time you will spend per week on other kinds of promotion (be specific!)

You’ll probably develop a better idea of what these tasks will require when you read my book, but I encourage you to write down your initial goals.

Start on the conservative side; you can always increase later if you want, and it’s much better to consistently meet less-ambitious goals than to be overwhelmed and do nothing. Your goals need to be sustainable to make any difference.

My other advice for input goals: raise your goal only after a couple weeks of exceeding the goal you already have. It’s very common for new bloggers to get caught up in the excitement of blogging and be very prolific—the normal result of thinking about something regularly. But as blogging becomes more routine and other duties press in, it can be surprisingly difficult to maintain the initial pace.

Before you move on to something else, write down your starting goals. It will probably take less than five minutes, so do it now.

1. Clarify the business goals for your blog
2. Commit to blogging goals for long-term success
3. Why create an “ideal reader”?
4. How to identify your ideal reader

Like most things in life, blogging is most effective when you have a target to shoot for. People write blogs for many reasons: passion about a subject; fame; direct income; getting leads for their existing businesses; even just killing time. Often it’s a mix. At first, the goal is usually more a vague feeling than a concrete set of criteria.

For consultants, business goals for blogging need to be specific and focused, and typically might include demonstrating expertise, creating a national platform, educating existing and/or potential clients, gathering leads, and getting early feedback about new ideas.

Most bloggers pick two or three goals like these to focus on. One financial advisor I’ve worked with is using his blog to test-drive ideas, prove he’s an expert on his topic, and make a little direct income from advertising.

Another financial adviser (referred by the first) is using his blog to educate his existing clients with in-depth reports. His blog makes it easier to distribute the information, and that’s its sole purpose.

Your specific goals will determine what kind of progress indicators you monitor, and will also affect your expectations. For instance, the first advisor might be thrilled when he starts to see a thousand visitors a week. The second advisor would be equally thrilled with 30 visitors a week, if they’re the right ones.

Your turn: Business goals for your blog

Take a moment to think about what you want your blog to do for you. Start out with the vague concepts, for example:

• “Make me famous”
• “Get more clients”
• “Launch a national platform”

Then move to how you would know if you reached your goals:

• “Have 1000 regular readers”
• “Get three inquiries a week through the blog”
• “Be contacted at least twice a month for an interview”

Your goals may be very different from the ones above. The key is to find the core thing(s) you want your blog to accomplish, and then define the concrete results you’ll be aiming for.

This post is a draft excerpt of the blogging book I’m writing for consultants and other experts. Click on the link to find out more and sign up for updates.