My 2015 Blogging Goals

Yesterday I looked back at my 2014 blogging goals post and was happy to discover that I actually achieved most of what I set out to do.  In part due to luck, but also due to hard work and the fact that I set realistic, measurable goals.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about goals is that they have to be measurable so you can plan toward them or you’ll never actually get things done.

So here are the things I want to achieve in 2015:

1.  Reach 2,000 followers.

I started the year with 1,156 followers so I don’t see this as an unreasonable goal.  Once I get my posting back to a consistent pace I’ll of course attract more people (and get fewer unfollows) but I’d also like to dabble in social media a little more.  Maybe start a Pinterest or Instragram account; I still refuse to use Facebook.  Being more active on social media can’t hurt, that’s for sure.

2.  Get back to posting every day.

I fell short on the ‘post every day’ motto that I lived by for nearly two years and I think it’s time to get back on that.  It’s not a difficult thing; I’m still reading just as many books as I used to but I got lazy about reviewing them.  There’s really no excuse for this and so my goal for 2015 is to post something every day and not just have huge blank spaces on my calendar where I keep track of posts.  I’m not going to do reviews on the weekend just to make my goal but I will do more discussion posts, Lazy Sunday posts and keep on doing more articles.  Hopefully that greater variety will motivate me a little more.

3.  Hit the 750 reviews mark.

Right now I have written and published 595 reviews over the nearly 3 years of my blog being active.  By the time January 13 (my blog anniversary) rolls around I should hit 600, which means that I’ve averaged 200 books read and reviewed for three years now.  I’m hoping to keep that streak up but I also realize that I’m going to be way busier this year than I usually am in my personal life.  So I think 150 books reviewed in one year is a reasonable goal.

4.  Write more and a better variety of articles.

I’ve already started on this resolution with my Forgotten Figures series, but I’d also like to take things up a notch.  I want to publish a variety of articles on topics like blogging advice, the challenges of being a book reviewer, industry news and such.  Heck, maybe I’ll sneak in a Game of Thrones article or two in time for Season 5 so I can get a monster spike in my statistics just like last year.  Who knows?  All I know is that my goal is to write at least one well-researched article per month, preferably two.

5.  Clear my review requests and open up submissions again.

I’m actually doing pretty well on this one so far, having reviewed four of the 14 books I said I would from my last round of submissions.  I think this is in part because I’ve been pickier about what I’ll accept.  I really only accept requests that I really think I will like so it hasn’t really been hard to motivate myself to make time to read the submissions.  So my goal this year is to read and review those last ten books and open up limited submissions once again.  I can’t say yes to everyone, so I will dependably say yes to a few people.

Well, these are my blogging goals for 2015 and I hope to look back in January 2016 and say “I achieved all 5 of my goals”.  None of these are unreasonable so I think with the right amount of motivation and effort I can actually do all of them barring any unforeseen catastrophic events in my life.

But what I want to know now is this: What are some of your blogging goals for 2015 (yes, you are more than welcome to link to your posts!)?  What do you think of my goals?

 

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