Blogging Goals for the New Year

Can you believe 2020 is almost here? I’ve had some great blog highlights this year like the True Shelf series of reading interviews, my most-commented post asking Do you read the classics? and having a couple of Pins go viral. My blog views also reached a new peak at 23,000 views for the year.

My goals are mostly writing-related:

• Attend the world Science Fiction Convention
• Write 5 new short stories and 10 flash fiction pieces
• Get at least 5 of these published in paying markets
• Blog 4 times per month
• Get 4 guest posts on the blog from experts
• Publish the #@* book!
• Write 40k of my next novel
• Keep building my freelance editing / copywriting business

When it comes to my blog, I’d like to be able to reach more readers of the sorts of books I like, since a lot of my blog visitors seem to be writers. I haven’t quite figured out how to do that as yet!

In 2020, I will keep on reading all the books, providing candid author interviews and writing book reviews. I am planning on bringing lots of content for smart, fierce females in the ’20’s (that sounds very Great Gatsby)! Happy blogging everyone!

Please get in touch if you want to collaborate!

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Here are the answers from the other bloggers in the Bookish Blog Hops group. It looks like it is going to be very busy in the next twelve months.

I’ve only been blogging for a few months. I started it just as something fun to do one day with no real clue as to what I was doing. I’m really enjoying it though so I’ve re-launched my blog this month with more of a purpose: to help parents find time to read. I feel passionately that parents should read for pleasure. We try to encourage our children that reading is fun but they won’t believe us unless they see us enjoying reading too. Plus reading is such a great way to relax! I’ve got loads of great content planned, including a 2020 Parent Reading Challenge, memes, parent-friendly book reviews, and tips on how to fit reading into busy lives. So my blogging goal for the new year is to actually deliver this content!

Our biggest blogging goal for 2020 is to at least become part-time bloggers. We’d love to be able to transition to full-time, but we’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot of work to put in. Our AtoZ Reading Challenge will play a big part in that, as we really want to build it up into a challenge that runs for years to come. We’ll also be expanding our new Blogging Resource Library, doing what we can to help bloggers who are just starting out. 

Well, as I discussed yesterday, a lot of my “resolutions” could really be termed as “goals”: cleaning up my blog and creating consistency between all the posts, figuring out what to write next, etc. I’m seeing that the Reader’s Reviews page could become quite the resource for indie author visibility, so I want that page in particular to be as accessible as possible! 

My goal is to become consistent in publishing new and worthwhile content, so that there aren’t long stretches where I have nothing, or I’m only updating my Facebook Author Page with current shenanigans, while the community who reads my blog posts get almost nothing except the odd update when the mood strikes… Hardly fair, isn’t it?

Maybe another goal is to broaden my reader base. I talk about how I want to increase my posting, do this-that-and-the-other to be consistent… but in eight hundred posts, there’s not a lot that gets shared around. How to change that? Who knows?

All I know is that my brain never stops, and I’m absolutely grateful for the opportunity to vent it, in the hopes that it resonates with somebody at some point! I am happy to say, as well, that the whole reason The Upstream Writer exists is to support the independent writing and authoring community, and that hasn’t, nor will it ever, change!

One of my big goals for the new year is to read more. I don’t feel like I read enough in 2019. Reading is something that I love, but this year life got hectic and I found I didn’t have as much time to sit down and read as I would have liked. This goal is strongly connected with some of my other goals too.

I want to get my Net Galley score to 100%… and keep it at 100%. I’m going to be much more disciplined about the books I request in 2020 so I don’t get a back log build up on my TBR there. 

I also want to post consistently to my blog. Reading more will mean I’ll have more books I can review, and therefore help when it comes to creating content for my blog. 

Other blog related goals are to create more evergreen posts, update older blog posts, and to leverage my content better. I get quite good traffic to my site but know that with a few simple changes I could be getting a lot more. 

I want to begin adding interviews to some of the Blog Tours that I do. Also, with regard to Blog Tours, maybe limit them to 15 per month, as some months they number even higher than that.

I would like to add other content to my blog in order to talk more about books other than simply posting review after review.

I want more followers!!! There, said it, lol.  Seriously, some of the bigger publishers on NetGalley and Edelweiss want to see traffic my blog in order for me to be approved their books. My traffic is great, at thousands of views monthly, but more followers would be nice. 

Although I have changed the appearance of my blog, I would like to personalize it even more, especially by trying to figure out how to use more than the standard fonts. I would also love to drop down to two columns, but haven’t decided on a layout I am happy with.

I would also like to get my NetGalley ratio to at least 85%, and am quite eager to get my 500 reviews badge before my two-year NetGalley anniversary of April 2. 

My blogging goals are pretty simple. I’m trying to stick to just three:

1. Use a calendar to be more organized with my post schedule.
2. I’d like to take part in at least one blogging event and one in-person bookish event again this year.
3. Continue adding to my testimonial page.

I’ve already begun prepping my 2020 calendar, so fingers crossed I hit all of my goals this year.

Valerie, Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews https://catsluvcoffeez.blogspot.com

Keep Blogging! 

No, seriously! It’s so easy to let life get so busy that it’s hard to make time for blogging. I did so well at the beginning of the year and kind of petered out towards the end. I want to start the year strong and be more consistent with reviewing.

I’d also like to review as I go instead of reading ahead and getting behind on reviews. While my Netgalley ratio hovers around 80%, I need a bit more restraint when it comes to requesting!

Eline – lovelyaudiobooks.info

To be more serious about blogging!

When it comes down to it, I’m really just winging it all. I buy the blogging courses and then don’t do them. I’m writing and promoting but always think to myself: “Ah well, that’s good enough, publish”. I think maybe I’m a perfectionist who has just given up?! 😀 I have learned my lesson that you don’t get anything done if you always try to do everything perfectly. But now I think the standards I have for my work are too low. And I should expect more of myself and make more of an effort. So instead of scrolling through my Twitter feed for the 5th time, I want to use the limited blogging time I have to work on good and useful blog posts and generally improve my website. Do better what I actually can do better.

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There we have it! Another year of blogging.

What are your reading and writing goals for 2020? Let me know in the comments.