Photo by Lucas Lenzi on Unsplash

It’s the start of a brand new year, and chances are that at some point you made some New Year’s resolutions.

As a blogger, you may have set yourself some goals (SMART goals are something I recommend) such as:

• “I want to double my traffic.”
• “I want to create an ebook to sell on my blog.”
• “I want to write five posts a week (and publish three) so I can get ahead.”
• “I want to grow my email list.”
• “I want to redesign my blog.”

These are all great goals that will help you achieve in some area, or perhaps eliminate a problem or bad habit. But they all focus on what you want to achieve as a blogger. There’s another key element you may want to include in at least some of your goals.

Your readers.

Instead of thinking about what you want to achieve in 2022, try thinking about what you’d like your readers to achieve. What resolution would you like to set for them?

Setting a Goal or Resolution for Your Readers

One approach you can take to come up with a possible goal for your readers is to think about removing negatives. Ask yourself questions like:

• “What kind of pain could I help eliminate from their lives?”
• “What bad habit could I help them get rid of?”
• “What mistake do you want them to stop making?”
• “What obstacle could I help them overcome?”

You can also can look at it from a more positive angle with questions like:

• “What can I help them achieve in the year ahead?”
• “What good habit can I help them develop?”
• “What positive change could I help them bring about in their lives?”
• “What goal can I help them reach?”

Think about your readers. You might want to go back to your reader avatars, or even think about the individuals who commented on your blog or emailed you about your posts.

Who are your readers? What are their pains, obstacles and problems? And what are their hopes and dreams?

Identify one thing you can help your readers work on in the year ahead.

Why Helping Your Readers Helps You Too

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with setting your own goals for more traffic, income, comments and reader engagement. But flipping it around and looking at the change you want to see in your readers may also take care of some of your own goals.

Pinpointing how you want to help your readers during 2022 will help you work out:

• What content to produce: what posts could inspire your readers, for instance?
• What products to create: what would help your readers move forward?
• How best to promote your blog and attract new readers.

Write Down a Resolution for Your Readers (and Use It)

What’s your goal for your readers in 2022? Write it down, ideally in a single sentence.

If you’re struggling to come up with a goal for your readers, ask them what they’d to achieve (in relation to your topic). You could ask on Facebook, or even run a survey.

Once you’ve written down that resolution, put it somewhere you look every day. For example, you could put it next to your computer so whenever you sit down to write it reminds you of what you’re trying to help your readers achieve.

That resolution might be the starting point for:

• A weekly post that hones in on the problem or goal you’re trying to help your readers achieve
• An extended blog post series
• Discussions you have with your readers on social media
• Launching a Facebook group to help your readers achieve that particular goal
• A course, an ebook, or even a membership site.

You might want to announce the goal you’ll be helping readers work towards, especially if they helped you choose it.

For instance, you could say, “Since sending out that survey, I’ve thought a lot about what I want to achieve with this blog in 2022. And I’ve decided I want to help you…” and then state whatever it is you’ll be helping them achieve.

I’d love to hear what goals you come up with for your readers in the year ahead. Please share your ideas in the comments below.

If focusing on your readers really inspires your blogging (TIP: it should), I build upon these ideas further in my my 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Course which explores how your blog will make a difference to your readers and leads into monetization strategies by looking at what your readers need.

This post was first published on Jan 10, 2019 and updated Jan 20, 2022