2020 Blogging Goals: Inspiration for the New Year

Who’s ready for the new year?

Since I’m a list kind of girl, you can bet I love setting New Year’s Resolutions. Not just for my personal life, but for my blog as well. 

At the beginning of each year, I like to look back at my blogging journey and then look ahead to set new 2020 blogging goals. Normally, I combine these two topics into one post. However, this year I have too much to say.

Instead, I’m going to split my year in review and my blogging goals into two posts. Today I’m covering a look ahead at my nine 2020 blogging goals. If you want to get a look at all the numbers, be sure to check out my 2019 Year in Review post.

Looking back at 2019, my posting schedule seemed to be on a cycle. I would work hard, often for 2 months, and then I wouldn’t touch the blog at all. Every time my blog hit a new high, I would get complacent and stop working on it. Probably not the best strategy for a small business.

This year, my number one goal is to remain consistent. I plan to post every single week in 2020. Even better, I would like to try to post 2-3 times each week.

This will only be possible if I finally get ahead on my posting schedule. I also need to write more efficiently – batching topics together so I’m not switching gears as often.

As any blogger knows, there are a million things you can do to help your blog. However, in 2020 my goal is to ignore the other 999,998 things and concentrate my focus on two areas: content and Pinterest.For starters, content is king. If I am not putting out stellar content, my blog is useless. I want to continue with my book lists but also write about book life. There are so many topics I’ve been meaning to write about – and 2020 is the time to do it.

This year, I’m going to focus my attention on Pinterest. Last year, I figured out my winning Pinterest strategy, but I’ve gotten lazy implementing it. In December, I refocused my attention on Pinterest, returning my strategy and improving my images. The results have been excellent, and if I can stay consistent, 2020 will be a great year for me.

As a consequence, in 2002 I will not be actively working on any of my other social media accounts. Yes, I’ll still have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but I am not going to put much energy into them. They will be just for fun, and I won’t worry about how many followers or likes I get.

In my two years of blogging, I haven’t paid myself a penny. 

Time for that to change.

Now that the blog is drawing a profit, albeit a small one, I need to start paying myself. And not just in books.

Every month in 2020, I will set aside some money I earn from the blog to pay myself. I have no idea what I’ll do with my earnings, but I imagine I can think of something.

I have this thing about self-improvement books, especially goal-oriented ones. I feel as if I just need to find the right system to push myself to achieve my goals.

Not that I am particularly good at following through with their advice Basically every self-help book I read last year has left me with the same prompting – I need to write every day.

So for 2020, I committing myself to write for 30 minutes every day. I’ve done it before, and I know that it works. When I write consistently, my ideas seem to flow better. And I create a heck of a lot more content for my readers.

Now that I’ve been blogging for two years, I starting to build up quite a library of posts. Sadly, that means that some of my posts are showing their age.

This year, I pan to go through all my old lists. I’ll get rid of typos, add more content and improve each post to ensure everything I have is of top-notch quality.

In a related vein, one of my 2020 blogging goals is to invest in an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) course. Now that I have my Pinterest strategy down, I think it’s time to work on my SEO game. 

Search engines can bring so much traffic – and it’s generally nice and steady I have one post that brings in thousands of views a month, and honestly, I would love to have more of that.

My eventual goal is for my organic traffic to be higher than my Pinterest traffic. 

For my blog in 2020, I simply have one goal. I want to reach 100K monthly page views. And not just once. I want it month after month after month. 

I know this was my 2019 goal, but I didn’t reach it. I peaked at 70K page views in December, which was excellent. If I had been consistent, I know 100K would have been possible.

I know I said, I only have one goal, but I lied. Since it’s great to have stretch goals, I also want to hit 200K page views in December 2020. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I might as well try.

Who doesn’t love free books?

Every year, I like to try something new on the blog. Last year I experimented with running a book club, which eventually died due to my lack of consistency. This year, I’m going to start running giveaways on the blog.

One thing you should know about me is that I’m a minimalist. While I adore reading all the books, I don’t feel the need to own many.

Which means it’s your lucky day. Now that I’m a book blogger, I have a steady stream of books coming into my house. Now, it’s time to have a steady stream of books leaving my house. 

More details coming soon!

Lastly, my own reading goal in 2020 is to read every book I own that I haven’t read yet. While this might sound daunting to some, this is quite an achievable goal for me. I only own seven books I haven’t read.

No more excuses. In the following year, I plan to finish all of them.

In case you are curious, here’s my list. The first two I purchased for myself. The third is actually my husband’s book, not mine. My sister lent me the fourth, and my Dad lent me the last four, which are each pretty massive volumes.

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
• Hunter Killer by Lt. Col T. Mark McCurley
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane De Hart Sharron
• The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
• SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos In Vietnam by John L. Plaster
• War Through the Ages by Lynn Montross
• The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan