Looking at the success of a blog can be done in many ways and you should have a clear understanding of what you want out of the blog in order to get to those results. Here are a few blogging key performance indicators.
Self Satisfaction
This is great goal. Some people do really just post for the fun of it. They are not concerned with readership, money or anything like that. They just post because they want to. However, this goal usually becomes obsolete after a while. Eventually, you wonder why you’re blogging.
Community
Blogging can be a great way to connect with people and share information. Comments are a great way to interact with your visitors. For some, this is their goal, to be informative and helpful and gain respect. If this is your goal, consider how you are writing your posts. They should be open and honest and give readers the feeling that their input is valued. Ask questions at the end of the post and showcase top commentators on your site.
Money/Sales
This is the big one. Lots of bloggers want to be earning money through ads or through product sales. Where as this is an obtainable goal, it does take a lot of work and great posts to get the traffic necessary to start making money. You also need to realize that if you want to quit your job and live off blogging, you’ll have to basically work two jobs now, your current one and the blog, until you get to that point.
Lead Generator
Sometimes it’s not sales, but rather leads that you are looking for. Especially in business-to-business or industries that have longer sales cycles, leads are very important. In this case, you can post about your product, testimonials, tutorials and FAQs and get by. However, industry insight, articles and unique viewpoints will help out much more. Don’t forget your call to action items in each post and in the design of your blog along with easy, clear ways to contact your company.
Branding
What better way to secure your brand but by talking it up every chance you get? Brand protection is very important for most companies and posting company news, product releases/updates, press releases and employee hirings can help secure your brand in the market. Be careful to not keep it to self centered though, if the users sees no value in the posts, will they still see value in your company?
Industry Outlet
Being the one that thousands of users turn to for news and information is not that out of reach. You just need to find a niche that has an opening. However, you need to dedicate lots of time and write very good posts to become an authority blog. It’s going to take time too. If you have the love of the topic, good writing skills and the drive, you can make it though.
No matter what your goal is, there are some things that co-exist across all KPIs, good writing, good design and usability. Step back, take a look at your blog and consider ways it could be made better. Your visitors are a good source of usability information and so is your analytics software. Do some research and consider things other than just your writing skills.
The path to reaching your blogging KPIs may not be as simple as just creating good content, but that’s a great place to start.
