How To Set A Smart Goal For Writing – And Earn Income Too!

How to Set a SMART Goal for WritingWe are now half-way through the first month of the New Year, 2021.

Have you set a smart goal for writing success this year?

If you have not yet done so, it is important for you to set some deal-breaker goals for your online business. At the end of the day, it does not matter how much promotion you do for your business unless you have a good inventory of quality content on your website.

As a blogger, Affiliate Marketer, Content Producer – whatever you choose to call yourself – once you are building an online business, you need to be producing content.

What is a SMART Goal?


To be SMART, a goal must be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic and,
  • Time-bound

If you are trying to achieve success with your writing and you have not moved your dreams into goals that can be aligned with these descriptors, they will remain just that, dreams.

So let’s look at what these buckets mean.

Specific:

What is it EXACTLY that you want to achieve with your writing?

Simply saying that you want to be a better writer is not at all clear and concise. It also does not speak to you personally and directly.

Using what, who, when, where and why questions will help you to be more specific.

For example, How To Set A SMART Goal For Writing

Measurable:

When you set a measurable goal, there must be a way for you to gauge your progress. In the example given above, It will be easy to measure my achievements against what I write currently.

The two key areas for measurement will be the length of my blog posts (currently, averaging 1,000 words) and the amount I am able to publish each week, (currently, 1 or 2, depending).

Attainable:

Next, you need to be sure that the goal is attainable – for you. This means being sure that you have the skills, money and time that is needed to achieve your goal.

If you are a full-time employee, with a family to care for when you are at home, you may have the skills and money to write but finding the time may be a challenge.

As a young student, now learning the ropes about writing, all of these factors may play a part in determining whether you can attain your goals.

Realistic:

If you are now starting out and learning how to write blog posts, setting a goal to earn $1,000,000. in your first year may be very unrealistic.

You have to invest in yourself and learn the ropes, not just about how to write blogs about also how to gain visitors to your site and build sufficient traffic to begin converting visitors to buying customers.

Again, breaking down your goal into fragments will be the most effective thing to do.

You may well be able to earn $1,000,000. but not in your first year.

Time-Bound:

And finally, there is time.

How To Set A SMART Goal For Writing.

Far too often, in the push for instant success and gratification, there is the tendency to create undue distress for yourself by setting timelines that are not achievable.

As I shared before, if you are employed full-time and also have other obligations, such as a family, that will require your time and attention, you may not have as much time, on a daily basis, to devote to your writing and learning.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this but when setting your goals, take it into consideration.

Find ways to make more time available to you or, enlist some help from the people around you so you can devote more time to your writing.

Then, when you are certain that the time you want is available to you, plan that into your goal-setting.


In this video, Joanne from projectsmart gives you a quick video overview about setting SMART goals.

Keyword Research Goals


Once you have understood what you are required to do to set your SMART goals, it is time to begin accessing the resources that you will need to help you achieve those goals.

As a writer, most of my writing goals are connected to producing more quality content for my 3 websites. They are in 3 different niches and I have set myself some very rigorous goals for this year.

The first is to improve the quality of my content and to do that, I rely on 2 types of writing tools, a keyword research tool and a grammar and spelling tool.

Keyword research tools are very common online. Some of the best ones available are:

  • Ahrefs
  • SEMRush
  • Google Keyword Planner
  • Jaaxy
  • Moz
  • Keywords Everywhere
  • Google Trends

Jaaxy is my absolute favourite, although I do go to Google’s tools quite often.

As a Blogger, your toolbox should always hold a high inventory of keywords for writing. They spark ideas and help you to determine where you should direct your writing for maximum visibility and traffic.

How Jaax Supports My Writing Goals


I used quite a few keyword search tools before I settled on Jaaxy. One thing I really enjoy when using it is the number of related keywords that I can tap into.

How to set a SMART goal for writing

A key feature is QSR which means Quoted Search Result. This tells you how many other websites are ranking for the same keyword. In other words, what your competition will be if you choose to use it.

The lower the number, the greater your chances will be to rank #1 on Google for the keyword.

Another great feature in Jaaxy is Alphabet Soup.

How to Set a Smart Goal for Writing

As the name implies, when you enter a keyword for research, Alphabet soup gives you a never-ending list of relatable keywords using every letter in the alphabet.

It is am amazing feature that often takes me down an inspiring and worthwhile journey of discovery.

For those of you who are looking for good affiliate programs to monetize your websites, Jaaxy offers one of the very best out there.

Cookies are lifetime which means you never stop earning!

So, you can see how easy it is to set some aggressive writing goals for quality content using this amazing tool.

Goals to Improve Style and Engagement


The other important tool that I use for setting my writing goals is Grammarly. I am sure that you have seen the ads appearing as you do research on the internet and write your content.

But have you ever taken the time to check it out?

It is an excellent tool and has helped to zero in on my style while paying close attention to things like your use of words, spelling and grammar.

Grammarly is a lot more and gets better all the time.

Who doesn’t like to receive awards and recognition?! Grammarly keeps you inspired and congratulates you whenever you reach these awesome milestones.

How to set a sMART goal for writing

With a weekly word count, it is easy to set goals and look forward to your progress.

How to set a SMART goal for writing

I have been writing with Grammarly for over 1 year and it is great motivation to know that I am more productive than 99% of other Grammarly users. That gives a solid benchmark to helps me to keep setting robust stretch goals.

Over the past year, I have set goals to improve my style of writing and my tone. Again, Grammarly’s metrics have helped me a great deal to achieve my objectives.

How to Set a SMART Goal For Writing

Whatever your writing goals are this year, Grammarly is a tool that can help you achieve them.

It is free to get started and again, if you are an Affiliate Marketer, they have an excellent Affiliate Program.

 

Your Writing Goals Are Within Reach


Whatever your writing goals are, they are within reach. The critical thing is to ensure that you have set appropriate SMART goals for yourself. Leaving it to chance will not get it done.

Knowing that there is help for you to set and manage your goals is a welcomed additional benefit.

When I started my journey to become a successful Online Entrepreneur, I thought I would have to go it alone. Writing can make you feel as though you are on your own so having resources around you that take some of that feeling away can really give you a boost.

This year, I am building and scaling content for my 3 websites. In addition, I also write regularly for the Online Entrepreneur community that I am an Ambassador for.

My goal is to complete 300 blog posts for my websites and at least 200 within my learning community. So far, thanks to these tools, I am well on track.

What about you?

Leave me a comment below and let me know what your writing goals are and how I may be able to help you achieve them.


Cassandra Patrovani

CASSANDRA PATROVANI


Content & Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, Management Consultant, Traveller, Online Entrepreneur, Coach & Mentor

 

I currently live in my Birth Country, Trinidad and I am the proud mother of a truly beautiful 10-year old daughter. She is a very talented Dancer, Ballerina, Moko Jumbie and Swimmer.

As an Entrepreneur, I have started businesses in New Zealand, the USA and here in Trinidad. I have lived and worked all over the world – England, USA, Africa, New Zealand, Central America, (to name a few).

We LOVE! to travel and explore cultures.

In October 2019, after drifting around the internet, I launched my Digital Entrepreneur Footprint with Wealthy Affiliate.

Today I manage 3 profitable websites, coach other Digital Entrepreneurs, design training programs to strengthen the personal leadership required for business and, I educate my daughter through travel and other human and cultural experiences.

 

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