I thought that writing about our goals for next year would be a good thing as it might help some of you to get organized early enough. One thing I have learned during my MLM stint is that we need to plan goals and monitor them at all times.
And while for this blog I had certain goals which I have attained so far, I can still improve on this by being more specific. I realize that if I’m not specific enough, then things will only turn out fuzzy.
December has always been a great month to knuckle down and work your butt off while others party and celebrate the holy season. A couple of years ago I had my best month ever in my MLM business in December and sold nearly $3,000 worth of products, which resulted in a nice enough check. It was then that I realized it was a bonus to work hard through December instead of thinking “nobody is buying anything”.
Some of my friends in my old MLM business have had their best month themselves in December and they continue to do so. I heard this isn’t any different in Internet marketing either.
The idea of planning now for next year is to hit the ground running in January when all the others emerge from their exhausting party routine.
This will give you you an unfair advantage! Are you going to grab it?
I know I am. And here is what I target for next year to give you an idea on how to set goals.
- increase my daily readership
- increase my RSS subscribers
- increase my list
- increase my income to $6,000/month by July 2008
- accept direct advertisers
- getting serious with affiliate marketing and build 1 niche website every month
- create my own info products and JV with a heavyweight if I can
- start my own membership site
- increase my blog’s overall ranking (PR, Alexa and Technorati)
At this stage I have specific targets for each one of these bullet points. Most often they reflect in a specific number.
What I do is to try to break these down to monthly targets which are more attainable in the overall scope of things.
The lists isn’t exhaustive either because I might stumble across a great idea I cannot resist but in no way will I let myself from getting distracted from my initial list unless something major happens which is outside my control.
Ideally I will manage to reach my goals sooner than later and that would be fantastic as I could use the rest of the year to stretch myself further.
I find that having goals will allow me to stretch myself and stay on track. I’m no good with sticking to a tight schedule however. I’m more the kind of person who strives to get to a certain number and then reconsiders from there.
If I constrict myself too much with targets I fail and drop them altogether.
Nonetheless, targets are a must if you want to grow your business/blog/yourself or all three in 2008. Plan them now and start incorporating methods early and next year might as well be your best ever.
I certainly wish you the very best of success for 2008 and hope that we can travel the exciting journey together.
Monika
Technorati Tags: future-planning , business plan
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That certainly is an impressive set of goals.
I have a few general goals for blogging (and I may be expanding them if I continue to build readership and such), although I’m lumping freelance writing into that pot as well.
You make an excellent point about sticking to a tight schedule. It’s very easy to lose motivation if you fail to meet strict deadlines or schedules.
I’m especially excited for your goal of hitting $6,000/mth in income by July next year, Monika - I really hope you hit that! Best of luck!
On something more specific, I would have thought December would be one of the best months for any marketer/merchant - especially since it’s a ‘holiday’ month almost globally - people would be throwing cash around (even if the global economic outlook is getting gloomy at the mo’).
Those are very good goals and definitely achievable. Good luck with them!
And I agree that this is the time of year to work hard while others aren’t. It can be the most profitable time of the year.