My Goals for 2014

I have been working on this post for most of the day.  I know that I have thought of a few goals the last few days, but once I sat down and did a bit of research on setting blog goals, it became evident that this was not going to be one of those posts that take an hour to prepare.

Some of my goals are time sensitive, and others are an accumulation of things throughout the year to make up a bigger goal.  I have also added a few of my more personal goals to this list as well.

One of the things I am really struggling with as I prepare my list is if that goal is truly attainable.  Especially with my health always changing.  I am trying so hard to be realistic while still giving myself a push to attain new levels for myself.  I suppose this is a dilemma with a lot of people that write out a set of goals to attain.  Where do you draw the line, what is too much?

Another thing I have noticed while doing my research is that a lot of blog goals are based around the numbers game.  Goals such as 1000 followers a day, 1500 pins of one of your pins etc.  While I would love to be a number goal kinda blog, I just have not been consistent with it and cannot even fathom what type of number goals I should attain.  I think that this year will be the true test.  Where I frequently post quality content.  Then I can give the numbers game a try.  By all means, I am not saying anything against those with number goals, I just am unable to calculate effectively what are reasonable goals as it is like I have completely restarted my blog and am back to square one with some extra traffic being brought in by my 31 day series from 2012.

I am also going to keep my goal list evolving this year if I feel there is another goal I want to meet, or one I want to amend.  I think that as the year progresses I will have other goals that may be important to include.  Okay, I think I have rambled on enough.  Here is a vague sample of my goals for 2014.

Long Term Goals:

• Decorate my bedroom/craft area
• Begin decorating my living room
• Go out at least 2 times a month to a local area to take pictures and learn my camera and more about photography
• Read at least 25 books this year.
• Quit smoking (I quit last year for 3 months with Chantix/Champix)
• Get a blog sponsor
• Complete 10 projects and/or tutorials and post on blog
• Learn more about managing and using social media like twitter, google + and Pinterest to maximize my blog exposure

Short Term Goals:

• End of January
• Have Facebook and business twitter accounts set up
• Look into newsletters
• Learn more about customizing my WordPress template
• Move blog to new domain
• Organize pantry
• End of March
• Completed template customization
• Create a media kit
• Learning about ads and sponsorships
• Write up a newsletter and create a template
• End of June
• Test placement of mail list forms to find out which brings in the most subscribers and keep that one up indefinitely
• Create 1 free e-product
• Learn more about SEO techniques
• Review a product on the blog
• Sell something I have created
• End of Year One
• Create 2 downloadable products

Below I have listed some of the blog goal posts that I used to help me create this list.  Hopefully you can gain some more inspiration for the year ahead like I did.

Five Key Areas To Set Goals For Your Blog - Tribe Bloggers

Blogging - Dreams and Goals for 2013 - The Thinking Closet

Setting Blog Goals & A Free Printable - Snap Creativity

Set Mom Blogging Goals - For Dummies

Evaluate Your Blog Goals For 2013 - Business2Blogger

Blogging Goals (And Why We Need Them) - Essentially Eclectic

Do you keep track of your goals for the year?   Do you write them down and place them somewhere you can see them often?  How do you decide what goals you want to work on?  Please let me know more in the comments below.  I would love to see what you all have planned for 2014.