We are pleased to have Pilar Galiana as a guest blogger. She is a digital marketing strategist who has worked with brands like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Nokia Canada and TD Bank to mention a few. These days she runs her own small business, you can find her mobile site here, www.ellasays.ca.

The most successful blogs tend to have narrowly defined goals. So why are you blogging? Is it cause I said you should in an earlier post? Yes, you should blog but let’s make sure you are doing it for the right reasons.

What a blog can do for your business:

• help you get found
• enhance your reputation
• establish your brand
• build credibility
• establish thought leadership
• increase site traffic
• build your email marketing list
• generate leads 
• build a community
• humanize your company
• promote products
• dispel misinformation

That is a great list, but honestly no blog will ever do all of these things. Blogs about everything rarely work, you need to focus and if you can find a niche, even better.

Last weeks homework had you looking at other sites in your sector in part to learn what they were doing, but also to get you thinking about what you could do differently.

Setting Goals the SMART way

Achievement experts tell us that goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. This methodology works well for blogs too.

Specific

People (and define who these people are) will read my blog because it will help them: _____________.

After reading my blog, I want people to ________ and ____________.

Measurable

How will you tell if your blog is successful? Will it be by the number of people who sign up for your newsletter or download your e-book. Or will it be by the number of comments on your posts or the number of daily visitors. Will it be the number of people that link back or reference your content?

Attainable

Let’s not set ourselves up for failure. Blogs with more posts are more successful, but realistically what can your team achieve within your current work load? Start small and work up as you get the hang of things. And let your measure of success grow as you grow. One thousand daily readers may not attainable in your first month or even in your first year, but it doesn’t mean you won’t get there. In the short term, pick attainable goals to help keep you motivated.

Relevant

Your blog goals and content should reinforce your business objectives. And the more closely aligned your business and blogging objectives, the more likely that  there will be business content you can repurpose for your blob. If you have a duct cleaning company, it is unlikely that your blog will help you achieve your business goals if  you blog about making cookies. 

Timely

The timely here really refers to putting a time limit on your goals  - your goals need to have deadlines. But timely means even more with blogs, with blogs consistent regular content is essential. In addition to deciding what you will blog about and who you want to reach, you need to make a commitment to how often you will blog. 

Developing blog goals isn’t easy and sometimes going through the process of planning out what content you could create can help you refine and even define your goals. So join me the next couple of weeks as I share more tips and techniques for creating a successful blog.

Your Guide to Starting a Blog the right way:

Week 1 - learning from those who have gone before you
Week 3 - Content planning
Week 4 - Types of blog posts
Week 5 - Writing for the web
Week 6 - Building traffic through Blogs
Week 7 - Never stop learning

The Blog tool is included with YWD’s “Small Biz” and “The Works” packages. It can also be added to the “Basic” package as a separate tool for just $10/month.
Learn more about YWD Blog

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We are pleased to have Pilar Galiana as a guest blogger. She is a digital marketing strategist who has worked with brands like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Nokia Canada and TD Bank to mention a few. These days she runs her own small business, you can find her mobile site here, www.ellasays.ca.