With next week being 2008 I figured it was about time to start talking about setting goals for next year.

There are two type of goals you can set:

• SMART goals
• Dumb goals

Here is an example of some dumb goals!

1. I will make more money than last year from my blog
2. I will regularly post on my blog
3. I will make a million dollars online next year
4. I want to grow the traffic to my blog
5. I will spend time working on the SEO of my blog

Why are these goals dumb?

Before I can show you why these goals are dumb (if you haven\’t worked it out already), I have to show you exactly what makes up a smart goal. As you may have guessed SMART is an acronym that shows you the integral parts of a smart goal.

SMART Goals

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R - Relevan

T - Time Bound

Lets take a look at each of these essential building blocks individually:

1. Specific

To make a goal specific we have to look at the 5 ‘W\’s

Why?

What?

Where?

When?

Why?

There is more chance of you being motivated by a goal that is specific as it gives you steps to achieve them not just a pie in the sky statement.

Lets look at the first of our dumb goals:

I will make more money than last year from my blog

A SMART version of this goal would be:

I will make an extra $100 a month from my blog through direct sales, affiliate promotion and Google Adsense

Now you have set a specific amount you will make which allows you to track your progress as well as the way you aim to achieve it.

2. Measurable

You have to make sure that you can measure your goals to make sure that you have reached them, or just to keep tabs on how you are traveling with them.

If you cannot measure your goal, you cannot manage your goal

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

3. Attainable

The reason I threw in the following dumb goal:

I will make a million dollars online next year

Is because I see a lot of new bloggers make statements like this - maybe not as big, but that is just it. They just pluck a number out of the air that they would like to make but we all know there is no chance that they will make it. Not because they can’t, but because of they way they have set their goal.

If you can explain how you will make the million dollars they maybe I will give you the benefit of the doubt. If you can make it specific and measurable, then maybeI will think you have a small chance of making it. Just don’t set goals that just pluck a figure out of the air just for the sake of having a goal.

4. Relevant

When you are looking at planning your long and short term goals is there a link between the two? Do your goals parallel each other? Make sure each goal is consistent with other goals you have established and fits with your immediate and long-term range plans.

5. Time Bound

It is no use having a specific and attainable goals if you do not give yourself a time frame to complete them within.

I will spend time working on the SEO of my blog

Looking at this goal it doesn’t really motivate you at all. I would change it to something similar to this:

I will write 1 keyword targeted articles and comment at least 2 new blogs each day for the next 30 days

This type of goal is so much easier to attain because each day you can go ‘Ok, I need to write one article and comment at least 2 new blogs each day’ and it gives you something to do to complete your goal. Instead of just an airy statement about spending time on working on your SEO.

So when you start looking at setting goals for 2008, make the SMART choice and set SMART goals!

Starting a blog from scratch is hard, you not only have to worry about what you will write, but you also have to worry about where you will get your readers from!

Here are a few things I have learn’t in the start up of my new blog on entrepreneurship.

1. Write Posts That People Will Want to Read

If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly. This isn’t just about the subject matter either, a blog is an online journal and should be written in a conversational way - and only one topic per post.

2. Ping Your Blog

By automatically pinging your blog, you are making sure that each new post is being made available to broadest range of readers. There are a heap of pinging services out there such as:

3. Commenting Other Blogs

Who is your target readers? Blog readers in your topic, right?  Then the best place to find them is on other blogs websites. By providing quality comments (not SPAM) on similar blogs to yours you are giving their viewers an opportunity to find out about your website, and you might even build some connections with the blog owner.

* Becoming one of the top commentors of influencial blogs is a great way to build traffic, expecially when they display a list of their top commentors (it on’t hurt your page rank either!).

4. Invite Guest Bloggers

A great way to add value to your blog is to find a popular blogger in your niche and invite them to do a small post on your website. This will flatter the guest blogger, and you are almost guaranteed a link back from their blog - helping promote your website.

5. Add Multimedia to Your Blog

Nothing is more boring that reading article after article of plain text. Spice up your blog with pictures, charts, podcasts, and videos. A lot of people are ‘visual people’ and need to see things to understand them, so pictures are very important. And with the growth in popularity of podcasts, why not see if you can implement one into your blog!

6.  Build Your Blog Into a Brand 

People associate themselves with brands!

When you are building your brand think about your readers and what they are looking for.

Don’t chop and change, if your blog is changing topic and direction ever month you are going to lose readers quicker than you can post!

And Be yourself, you will most likely be your brand - you can only pretend for so long, and if you get caught pretending the good luck!