Breaking 5 Out Of 7 Goals In 2007
Around a year ago, I wrote a post titled Resolutions and Targets For 2007. Like most entrepreneurs, I set goals that I wanted to achieve for the rest of 2007, which I could then take the time to reflect upon at the start of 2008.
I’m happy to say that I completed 5 out of the 7 goals that I set myself. Here they are below, with little explanations behind how I completed some of them, and why I didn’t complete the others:
1. Increase my online earnings from $100 per month to $200 per month – Tick!
I managed to complete this goal within 2 months, registering a March 2007 income of $241.80 using only Text Link Ads, Adsense, Adbrite and ReviewMe as my income sources.
Since then, I’ve gone on to make $600 per month from only this blog using around 10 streams of income. Developing income streams is so important – and I would definitely recommend everyone to do it.
2. Build traffic and RSS readership to Blogtrepreneur to 200 RSS readers within 2-3 months and 500 RSS readers within 6 months – Tick!
I also managed to achieve both of these goals within a few months (let alone 6), and have gone on to rack up over 900 RSS subscribers. Unfortunately, I’m unable to access my Feedburner feeds at the moment due to their server being extremely low – but the graph shows nice, sharp increases in subscribership – and I owe that down to producing some good content over the past few months.
3. Completely finish The Golf Chum program and launch the software on the site – Incomplete
Unfortunately, after creating a desktop RSS widget for the latest golfing news and stats, I lost all enthusiasm for the project, so much so that I didn’t renew the domain name (which has now been taken over by some German folk). I did manage to have a Beta round (showing people like Travis and Ray) but the actual product didn’t come to fruition.
One important lesson I learnt here, is that you must take the plunge to see how successful a particular idea, product or service will be. If you don’t, you’ll begin to lose enthusiasm and will keep delaying the launch – so get out there and release it.
4. Combat SPAM on my ChipandChat forum and replenish it with posts – Tick!
After having seen ChipandChat over-run with spambots, I finally decided to sell the site on DigitalPoint – and managed to get $35 out of it for doing pretty much no work at all.
The new owner cleverly redirected the traffic from ChipandChat to his own forum – and I wish him all the best with his network.
5. Successfully flip Teentrepreneur – Incomplete
After having created Teenage Entrepreneur as a sister site to Blogtrepreneur and loaded it up with content, I felt like I wanted to sell it as an experiment, to see how much it would fetch.
As a result of sheer laziness, I ended up keeping the site – but in a twist of fate (and after having done a bit of SEO), I managed to gain the number 1 spot on Google for the term “Teenage Entrepreneur”. I’m pretty chuffed about this, and the term brings a nice amount of traffic per day.
I’m attempting to monetize this traffic at the moment with Adsense and Affiliate Programs, so I’ll keep you updated with how it goes.
6. Create more flipper sites – Tick!
Whilst I’m not prepared to give away the details of one of my site purchases, I can tell you that I bought a complete site package (courtesy of Gary), and remodelled it in WordPress into an email capturing website. Unfortunately, the domain has been sandboxed for the time being, but I’m feeling big things for when I get out.
Hopefully, smaller sites like these will require less maintenance in the long run, and should produce some nice, residual profits if managed properly.
7. Continue to meet people online and share knowledge – Tick!
This was my best goal for sure, as it’s not about what you know, but who you know. I came across some truly magnificent people in 2007; including bloggers, entrepreneurs, boostrappers, marketers, web coding and programming gurus, and some real-life heroes. Thanks to all who have been in touch and who I continue to chat with on IM – you guys have kept me in the blogging game for nearly 2 years!
So there we have it. 5 out of 7 isn’t too bad, and I’m pleased with myself for setting easy-to-reach targets – this past hour has made for a pleasant looking-back session!
In tomorrow’s post, I’ll be making some new goals for 2008. So I’ll conclude this post by asking what goals did you manage to break in 2007? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or by email.
