2011 Goals
I suppose I’m a little late getting this post out now that we’re over a week into the new year. But considering that there are 254 days left in the year, it’s probably ok 
Most of my goals this year are business related. I’m excited because this will be the first year where 100% of my focus is spent on improving my business. I do have a few personal goals mixed in as well. Anyway, let’s get to it.
Business Goals for 2011
1. Double my monthly income writing.
This is the only goal I really have where there is a financial figure tied to it. The reason for this is that it’s really the only thing I have any (financial) control over it.
To achieve this goal, there are a few things I’m going to do:
- Hire a coach. Done. Having a coach will help me in several areas including finding work and improving my writing skills.
- Double my daily output. During the last couple of years, I’ve been pretty relaxed when it comes to how much written work I do. I’m working on that now and as a result, I’ve already seen some improvements in addition to making more. I’m more efficient for one thing.
2. Build 2-3 niche/info sites per month.
These sites are smaller sites focusing on very specific niches. Monetization will come from many different sources including adsense, amazon and clickbank to name a few. Many of these sites will give me the opportunity to create my own products as well.
There are many benefits to building these sites. For one, there are many fundamentals to learn including keyword research, finding the best method for making money (which is very niche dependent) and split testing. You also see results faster since the competition is weaker (obv another benefit for someone with half a clue and gambling marketing exp) or not there at all.
I’m sure I could build more than 3 per month. In fact, I recently read that someone was putting up like 10 or 15 of these a month. However, while these are small sites that will bring in much less income ($xx to $x,xxx) than an authority site (+ $x,xxx), I still want to have a quality over quantity mindset. I want to provide value with these sites. I also want to maxmize each sites’ potential.
3. Source the niche sites out.
My plan is to start sourcing these sites out. I think that I’m pretty good (or so I’ve been told) at explaining things, so teaching someone how to build these niches sites for me should be easy. It’ll give me time for my bigger websites too.
4. Build 3-4 authority sites.
I want to build 3-4 authority sites this year, all on things I enjoy doing and talking about. After all, doing what I want, on what I want, is the reason why I like working for myself. Well, one reason of many, I guess.
I’ll disclose further details as to what the sites are going to be about in later posts. I want to get them planned and launched first. But you can expect 2 to be launched between March and May, and one to be launched in the fall. If I do a 4th one, it’ll be spontaneous – I have no idea when it’ll go up, if it goes up.
I’ll discuss monetization strategies with these later on as well. I won’t be focusing on monetization that much in the beginning anyway. My focus will be on building traffic, which hopefully results in a list and more importantly, a community.
5. Build my first wordpress site.
I’ve been working on my coding and designing skills for some time (php at the moment). I’d like to develop my first wordpress site. I’ll probably build a blog theme to use on this site. Depending on interest, I might offer it for sale.
6. Create a portfolio.
I need a portfolio to showcase the different skills, services or products that I offer. This includes my writing, any themes or templates I make and anything I choose to sell (graphics, themes, etc) on other sites like graphicriver or themeforest.
I’m still not sure where the portfolio will be. It’ll probably be here on this site. I’m still thinking about it and will let you know when I do.
7. Posting here more often.
I’d like to post here more often, maybe 2-3 times a week. My biggest issue is that I’m not sure what direction to take the blog, especially considering that I might turn part of it into a portfolio. I could provide some tips for various things, random things from what I do regularly, business stuff, etc….
Anyone have any thoughts on what they’d like to read about?
…..
Well, that’s about it for my business goals for 2011. You may have noticed that I left all monetary goals out (except for the writing). I see many others saying that they want to make “x” amount of dollars this year. This is ok for things you have control over. But when it comes down to passive income, you just don’t have enough control over what you make. It just seems to me as if these guys could be setting themselves up to fail that way. Besides, if you do the (quality) work, the money will follow. I’d rather focus on that - it’s easier to manage/control at least.
Personal Goals for 2011
I don’t have too many personal goals for this year. But the ones I do have are very important.
1. Lose 75 pounds.
Pretty self-explanatory. I need to make friends with the gym equipment in my garage. This is only 6lbs a month, which shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. I’m sure I’ll end up doing more than this for the first couple of months at least.
2. Spend more time with the fiance.
It’s pretty easy to lose time when I’m on the computer all day. But I need to remember why I work so hard – to spend more time with my friends, family and my fiance.
3. Take more breaks.
Same idea. I spend too much time on the computer. Life is way too short for that. While I have business goals to accomplish, I feel that it’ll be much easier to do when I’m not running myself in the ground day in/day out.
I have a few vacations lined up for this year too which should help some.
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All right, I think that’s it. If I think of any more I’ll be sure to post them. If you guys have any goals for this year, post them in the comments below. If you made a 2011 goal post, let me know and I’ll post them here.
Category: blog
