Q2 2020 Blog Goals – Achieved or Not?

Whoa, can you believe how fast this year is flying by? And can we just stop for a minute and acknowledge that it has been a wild and crazy one for sure. But hey, we’ve made it mid-year so that’s something to be proud of. It also means it’s time to evaluate our previous quarter blog goals.

Yup, because we’ve reached the end of the quarter, it’s time we find out what we have accomplished and what changes need to happen for the next months to come.

And boy, I went through a LOT of changes this past quarter. So many that I can’t even do a solid comparison to last quarter. It’s as if I’m starting completely over. Yup, I was busyyyyy. But a promise is a promise, and I promised to publicly review the blog goals I set for myself for Q2, so let’s do this!

Related Post: Q1 Blog Report – How I Earned $1,651 in My First Fours Months – What Worked?

Disclaimer: Please note this post may contain affiliate links. This means I may receive a commission if clicked at no extra cost to you. Though the opinions remain my own

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Goal #1: Launch my Facebook Group for Bloggers

One thing I have learned throughout this blogging journey is that it’s good to have your own community. And no, it doesn’t have to be a community of bloggers. In fact, your community should be a place where your target readers can come and spend some time. But because I do blog about blogging, I wanted to create a unique community for bloggers at all levels.

Did I achieve it?

YESSS! I launched my Facebook group for bloggers towards the end of April and OMG this community has grown so quickly in this short amount of time. It’s called Newbie & Expert Bloggers Unite as shown in the banner below. As of now, the group has been alive for a little over two months and has already reached over 700 amazing members! 🎉 So yup, this goal was definitely achieved and exceeded.

Why or why not?

Well, this part is pretty simple. I had already been working on the details for my Facebook group for quite some time before launching. The main thing holding me back was the fear. You can say I’m a bit of a perfectionist so of course, I wanted to make sure that the group would provide extreme value to everyone who joins it. So the fear of not being able to do this was what had been holding me back for a while.

However, in April, I took Cate’s Blog Traffic Challenge where she and a few other experts talked about the importance of creating your own community. I was so inspired by this challenge that I decided to finally take the leap and I am so happy I did! If you want to catch the replays of this inspiring challenge, click here for details.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this achievement and strongly recommend you look into starting your own Facebook group as well. However, I will advise that you take some time to plan it and figure out what will make your group unique. So even if it’s not right away, try to see where you can add this to your blog goals list.

Goal #2: Finalize my free eBook

So you’ve probably heard it but I’ll say it again LOL. Email lists are super important and you should start one from the get go as it helps create a more personal relationship with your target audience. Plus, when they sign up to your mailing list, they are literally telling you that they want to hear from you. But to get email subscribers, you have to have a super awesome lead magnet. That’s where finalizing my free eBook comes in.

Did I achieve it?

Yup, I sure did! I created a free 20-pg Blogging Resources Toolkit eBook aimed at helping beginner bloggers find some free and cheap valuable resources. In addition, this toolkit provides special blogging tips to help you start your journey while blogging on a budget.

Why or why not?

Last quarter I had already started brainstorming and putting together my free Blogging Resources Toolkit. However, I reallyyy wanted to have it ready before I launched my Facebook group so I really pushed myself to finish it early in the quarter. And the reason why I wanted to finish it before launching is so I could offer it to my Facebook members at the time of request.

Final Thoughts

Although an eBook can take some time to create and put together, it makes a solid lead magnet. The more valuable you can make your lead magnet, the more likely it is your email subscribers will stick around upon receiving it. And no, you don’t have to create a 20-pg eBook. Even just a few pages with valuable information will do just fine. And if an eBook is not your thing, find another high converting lead magnet to drive more subscribers to your list.

Related Post: Writing an eBook Simplified With This Bootcamp

Goal #3: Create a Resource Library for my email subscribers

Once again, I was really trying to focus on building up my email list, for all of my niches. And for my mom blog, Cheers to Life Blogging, I realized that there were so many posts where it made sense to add a freebie. So instead of having a separate form or landing page for each freebie, I would lump them into a Free Resource Library where only my subscribers would have access. And that’s exactly why I added this one to my blog goals list.

Did I achieve it?

Haha now this is a bit tricky, but YES. I did create my free Resource Library… for my mom blog only. You see, this past quarter I also decided to separate out my primary three niches into their own websites. So I’m kinda the owner to three different blogs now 😅. I’ll go over this part in a bit more detail below. But regardless, I did create the Resource Library for the niche I wanted and have been able to consistently add more freebies to it.

If you’re a busy mama, click here to join the busy mama club and gain access to a library full of freebies.

Why or why not?

Well, deciding on moving forward with this library was easy. But at first, I had no idea how to do it. So it did involve some research on my end on how to create a library that only email subscribers could access. Thankfully, the process was not hard at all as it was a simple password protected WordPress feature that needed to be checked off.

Final Thoughts

Free Resource Libraries are a great way to attract email subscribers and is a very common practice. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you cannot simply exchange a freebie for an email address without a reader knowing that they are signing up to your mailing list. It must be explicitly clear that by signing up to your mailing list, they will also gain access to your Resource Library and freebies.

This is to comply with the GDPR requirements which you can learn about in this Free Legally Blog Course here.

Goal #4: Increase blog traffic by 1,500 views per month

Okay so this one is more of a common goal that many bloggers have. You’ll see what your traffic was like in the previous months and then use that to define a new blog traffic goal. Simple enough right? Well, not for me.

Did I achieve it?

To be honest, I couldn’t even do an even comparison on this one. Why? Well because around mid-May, I decided to separate out my three niches from a single blog (Cheers to Life Blogging) into three separate websites. So this pretty much caused me to “start over” as far as comparing my traffic results.

However, I will say that the total combined traffic from all three blogs compared to what I achieved last quarter with my one blog… more than doubled. Yup, this was a complete shocker as I was actually expecting my traffic to completely tank.

But then again, last quarter I had also incorrectly installed Google Analytics and didn’t realize it until two weeks after. So yeah, I’m pretty sure those numbers are a bit skewed and not truly comparable. But hey, at least it went in the right direction and my new Cheers to Blogging (aka this site) reached over 2K in its first month.

Why or why not?

The biggest reason for this quick improvement is SEO. Again, in Cate’s Blog Traffic Challenge, she heavily advised that niches needed to be separated in order for Google to better understand what your site is about. So last quarter, my one website had it all – Parenting, Blogging, Travel, Wedding and Lifestyle. So yeah, I could totally see how Google could get confused.

So I decided to take the leap in mid-May and create new domains for my primary three niches which you can read about here. I also focused on keyword research to help me improve my original site’s SEO and start off my new sites right.

Final Thoughts

SEO is extremely important. And like I said, even though I can’t do an even comparison quarter to quarter, I was still pleasantly impressed with my results. I hands down believe it’s because I began implementing proper SEO strategies. But remember, SEO is long term game. I know that there is still sooo much for me to learn with SEO and will continue to make this a priority this upcoming quarter, as I highly recommend you do so as well.

Related Post: Instantly Increase Blog Traffic Using This Keyword Tool

Goal #5: Post at least 2 quality blog posts per week

This one is also very closely related to SEO as the more content you have on your site, the better Google will understand what your site is about. However, your content must still be quality content. Don’t think that by adding a lot of “fluff” posts, it will help improve your SEO. It doesn’t work that way. But regardless, two posts per week is a common starting goal for many including myself.

Did I achieve it?

Well, I achieved my average LOL! I know for a fact there were a few weeks where I either posted once or none at all. However, by the end of the quarter I should have posted 24 new articles all across my sites. But instead, I was able to publish 29 new articles. Yippeee!

Now keep in mind that these 29 articles were split across my three blogs (mainly two of them). So in a way, yes… I was still able to achieve my posting goal but for this next quarter, it will very likely be a much different approach as I try to add new content to all of my sites.

Why or why not?

I got on a blogging schedule. Working full-time and caring for my family definitely does not let me “wing it” with my blog. I have to be very specific with which blogging tasks I want to accomplish and when. Now I know this can be difficult for many bloggers because look, getting on a schedule can be hard. Trust me, I know.

For that reason, I created the EBMS Bundle which includes four products focused on helping you blog smarter by creating a unique blogging schedule that actually works for you. The Exclusive Blogging Myths and Strategy Secrets Revealed eBook, Blog Strategy Workbook, Sample Strategy Weekly Schedules and Full-Year Weekly Calendar all work together to help you achieve blogging success in a shorter amount of time.

Final Thoughts

Getting quality posts up on your blog is extremely important and should be one of your key focuses each and every time. The more quality content you have on your site, the greater your chances are at ranking and gaining more organic traffic. So I challenge you to step it up a notch and add one additional blog post per week to your blogging schedule. Then, make this one a priority on your blog goals for the upcoming quarter.

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And remember, there is always something to be happy for… Cheers to blogging! What are you cheering to today?

Lucy