With the start of a new year, we try to put our best foot forward and make promises to ourselves that we intend (or say we intend) to follow over the next 12 months. While New Year’s resolutions are a fun tradition, it can be disappointing if only after a few weeks you realise that they’re harder to stick with than you thought.

So, if you’re a blogger, whether for business or pleasure, and are getting ready to make your list of New Year’s resolutions, read this article first. We’re hoping it will support with your resolution brainstorming for 2018 and assist you to reach your aspirations. Plus, most of these blogging resolutions are easy to follow so you have no reason not to keep them.

1. I will publish more frequently

If you’re like many bloggers, you might find yourself slacking on your blog posts now and then. While it’s perfectly normal to not feel like writing all the time, remember that being consistent with your blog content is key to keeping your readers engaged and coming back.

Posting when you feel like it or skipping a week or two might not seem like a big deal to you, but it can have a negative impact on your readership. It can let down those readers who expect to see a new blog post every couple of days. And if they keep coming back to your blog only to find there’s no new content in sight, eventually they’ll get tired and stop checking as frequently, or at all.

So make it your New Year’s resolution to publish more content and to let your readers know when they can expect to read it (for example, every two or three days).

2. I will keep an editorial calendar

How many times have you waited until the last minute to come up with a blog post idea? While that’s ok to do once in a while, don’t make a habit out of it. If you’re serious about your blog, you need to get organised. And the best way to do it is to keep an editorial calendar.

An editorial calendar allows you to map up your blog content for the month so instead of desperately searching for a topic and writing something in a hurry, you can focus on writing something that’s high quality and amazing.

When you already know what you’re going to write about, you can take your time researching the topic and writing it to ensure it’s a great piece of content that your readers will enjoy. Plus, you can write in advance and schedule your posts so you can also enjoy some time off when need be.

So make this your New Year’s resolution: save yourself the hassle and create an editorial calendar to map out your content for the month. It will not only help you to stick to a schedule but also to let readers know when they can expect a new post from you. To create your calendar, you can use any tool you like from Trello to Google Sheets.

3. I’ll make new friends

While this might seem like a personal New Year’s resolution (and it can be that too), you should make the effort to make new online friends. Whether they’re bloggers, photographers, explorers or web designers, connecting with peers can help to improve your blogging strategy.

How? Think guest blogging. If you’re a travel blogger and build relationships with other travel bloggers or with photography bloggers, you’ll have an easier time getting your name and content out there.

Guest blogging isn’t dead, unless you use it for search engine optimisation purposes alone. But if you use it to share your knowledge and expertise, it can help to get your name and content in front of many more people, while also bringing organic and targeted traffic to your own blog.

Another not-so-obvious but great benefit is that, in exchange, you can also invite other people to guest post on your blog. This not only brings a new voice and some refreshing content on your blog, but you can also take advantage to relax and enjoy some time off from writing.

4. I’ll recycle more

If you’re having a hard time coming up with new topics to write about, why not use what you already have? I’ve said this before – content you only use once is content wasted. So always think about additional ways you can leverage the content you already have and recycling it into different formats.

For example, if you’re a web designer and you’ve written several articles and tutorials on how to improve a homepage, why not gather them all together and combine them into an ebook or a guide? You can then use it to entice people to sign up for your mailing list and share their contact information with you in exchange for the ability to download your guide.

Don’t stop there. Any blog post can be turned into anything from infographics and presentations to webinars, podcasts and vlogs. In this article you’ll find a bit more information about these traffic-boosting alternatives to blogging while in this one you’ll learn about the pros and cons of blogging, vlogging and podcasting so you can see which one would work best for you.

5. I’ll invest (more) in video

People will crave video and live streaming in 2018. YouTube and tools like Facebook and Instagram Live make is easy to connect with your audience and to express the more human side of your brand.

So, here’s another New Year’s resolution to add to your list: invest in video by doing vlogging, interviews, how-tos, Q&As, behind-the-scenes content, and anything else you think your audience might find interesting.

Need more information? Read our post to learn more about the eight types of videos to create to engage your audience.

6. I’ll read more and learn some new skills

Learning a new skill has never been so easy with the plethora of free or relatively inexpensive online resources available to self-educate. So if you want to learn web design so you can edit images or customise your blog template for Valentine’s Day or Christmas, you have lots of courses and tutorials online that can help you with that.

If you want to learn how to properly optimise your blog, how to use social media to get more readers or how to use Google Analytics to see how well your blog content is performing, all you need to do is to take the free 123 Reg digital skills courses.

Apart from taking courses to learn new skills, you should also make time every day to read books, magazines, and other blogs. This won’t just help you to relax but also to improve your writing and maybe also give you some great ideas on what else to write about.

Wrapping up

These are just a few ideas of what you could be aiming to achieve in 2018. So choose whichever fits your blogging goals and write down your New Year’s resolutions now. Keep that list in plain view so you can review it and get the motivation you need to keep going. Good luck!

What else is on your New Year’s resolutions list? Tweet us @123Reg.