I spend a lot of time prattling on about how important goals are — especially internet marketing goals. It's not just talk — I really believe goals are critical. I set them all the time, especially at the end of each year. I even write them down. But I usually don't go public with my internet marketing goals for MasonWorld.com – not until this year.
Why the sudden change?
Two reasons really – a main reason, and a second reason. The second reason was sort of the straw that broke camel's back. Not a straw, really — a blogger. A really popular internet marketing blogger that lives in a place where the sun is always shining (both literally and figuratively).
More on that guy in a minute.
Critical Mission Failure
The main reason that I want to go public with my 2011 goals is that I am very unhappy with my progress in 2011. Basically, I failed to make real progress on my main objective for my online business in 2011 — to help people profitably.
This mission for this blog is to create real value by helping people in their internet business endeavors. I believe that if your focus is help people (and you are successful), that the rest (the profit part) takes care of itself.
Quite frankly, I did not meet my own expectations. Not even close. I just did not work on it very hard. Certainly not hard enough.
- Posts and Podcasts were sporadic
- Blog promotion was completely absent
- Content could have been stronger
- Social media engagement was limited
- No real “viral/pilar content” was created
- I often failed to follow up with reader comments quickly
- I disappeared from forums and other exposure
- You get the idea — I didn't help enough people
So, I am thinking that if I publish my 2012 goals, I will generate some accountability. That's the real main reason for this post.
A Shot From San Diego
The second reason is that I am following Pat's Flynn's example. He's the blogger that I mentioned above. He lives in San Diego, and the sun really does almost always shine there. It's almost always 72 degrees there too.
Pat grew up there and doesn't think the weather in San Diego is a big deal. But it is. And so is his blog where he makes great use of public goals. If you have not read it, take a peak at Pat's 2012 internet marketing goals post. When I mentioned on twitter that I was considering publishing my goals for 2012, Pat had the nerve to tweet this:
So, that sort of pushed me over the edge. And that is why I am publishing my internet marketing goals this year.
Internet Marketing Goals Need Motivation
Not just internet marketing goals, but all goals need to be properly motivated. If they aren't, they will fail for sure.
You will recall that the mission of this blog is to “Help People Profitably“. The vision for how to do that is clear as well — “To Talk About, Teach, and Do Affiliate Marketing.” So, with that goal and mission, it is pretty clear that I need to be doing three things:
- Talk: Creating great free content that helps people
- Teach: Create great products that help people
- Do: Create affiliate sites that actually work
That last one is really important, because if you aren't doing a thing, how in the world could you teach it?
I think this is especially true in internet marketing, where things are changing so quickly.
That said, let's get down to my goals for 2012.
My 2012 Internet Marketing Goals
As you might expect, I have broken things down into three main areas.
Talk: Creating great content that helps people
- Establish a publishing schedule by 1/15/2012.
- Establish a podcasting schedule by 1/15/2012.
- Publish more than 125 quality posts by 12/31/2012
- Publish more than 25 excellent podcast episodes by 12/31/2012
- Create a free membership area with extra content (downloads) by 2/28/2012
- Re-vamp autoresponder with 100 evergreen A/R messages by 6/30/2012
- Leave no unanswered comment on the blog in 2012
- Make one helpful or engaging post to Facebook every day in 2012
Teach: Create great products that help people
- Finally release my “beginners guide to part-time affiliate marketing” product by 12/31/2012
Do: Create affiliate sites that actually work
- Identify 8 underperforming affiliate sites by 1/31/2012
- Restart work on the Niche Duel Site (LearnGuitarBasics.net)
- Restart work on the Open Niche Project site
- Publish reports on NDS and ONP sites monthly
- Get all 10 sites on page one for main keyword by 6/30/2012
- Get all 10 sites to number 1 in Google for main keyword by 12/31/2012
The Bottom Line
Well, that's it. That is the work that I hope to achieve. All of those things are in my control.
Internet Marketing Goals — What do I hope to see?
I hope that the results of meeting these goals are:
- Total RSS subscribers over 7500 readers
- Total traffic over 1000 uniques per day (currently 200)
- 10 new passive income sites with income > $250/month each
- 100 new thrilled customers for my affiliate marketing product
So. That's that. Will plan to report on this again in April.
Thanks,
Mark
P.S. Thanks Pat.
You’re welcome buddy. I’ll be watching you closely 😉
That sounds creepy – but you get the idea. 2012 baby!
That is totally creepy Pat. Did you hack into my web cam again?
LOL.
Seriously. Thanks Man. You Inspire Many. Me included.
Mark
Looks like its gonna be a lot of hard work but Im sure you going to see some incredible results. I think you did the right thing by showing everyone your goals.
I feel like checking out your blog every day now when I know the purpose of your blog and where you want to go. Some of your goals are similar to mine as well.
All the best!!
Thanks David. I hope to post an average of 3 times per week to meet my
125 post goal. I hope every post is well worth the time it takes you to read it. Thanks very much for the encouragement. I’ll need it in March or April For sure.
awesome Mark! Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve got a houseful, a global job and commute times. I appreciate you!
Thanks. Appreciate the support, Kent.
Hi Mark!
That’s quite a lot of work for 2012 but I know that you can do it. Your goals sound amazing. I’ll watching out for your new blog posts and podcast. 🙂
Thanks. I have a great Virtual Assistant. That should help a lot!
Totally agree, Pat is an inspiration and you are as well. If it helps, you’ve responded almost immediately on the comments I’ve made on your site, so you’re already on your way. Looking forward to following your progress.
As a result of Pat’s post I too posted both last years goals and this years goals on my personal blog. I’m new to the internet marketing side of things and one of my main goals is to create 3-5 sites with at least 10 unique posts initially on each to help my audience solve a particular problem or achieve a particular end goal. As a result of providing epic content, I plan to derive revenue from those sites through several different means. Primarily through affiliate links to related products which will help my audience solve their problems, in addition to Adsense content and eventually sponsor ads. That would be through a combination of email subscriber lists and click through links/ads. I’d like to obtain an email subscriber list of 10 people by June 30th and 50 by Dec 31st. My revenue goal is to bring in $100 by June 30th and $250 by Dec 31st.
The goals are no where near the level of yours or Pat’s, but I think for a newbie they’re realistic and the more I learn through both of you, the more I hope to be able to substantially raise those goals as time goes on.
I’m getting familiar with Market Samurai right now to help me choose the right niche for the ideas I have, so once you get started I’d really be interested to see the process you go through. I plan to document the process that I go through as well. Thanks and good luck!
Thanks Chris. Agree that Pat totally rocks.
I like your goals a lot. Very smart to get lists up and running at the very beginning, and helpful to set achievable revenue targets.
Regarding MS, I plan to restart the OPEN NICHE PROJECT — that will certainly cover keyword research in a way simular to Pat’s Free Keyword Webinar.
Thanks again for your comments.
Great, looking forward to it. And also, let me know if I can be of any assistance on your goals as well. I’d be glad to help out as I’m sure I would learn a ton as well!
Sounds like a great plan, I’ll be following you closely.
Franck
Thanks Franck — should be very interesting, that’s for sure!
Jan Willis · from Cranfield School of Management left this comment via Facebook.
The comment was caught up in the comment system transition (she was commenting as I was importing comments into the new system.) I am reposting her comment here for completeness.
Hi Mark I came across your blog post via Pat’s Facebook wall which is proof that all this social media voodoo really does work so like you I plan to do it more consistently in 2012. I was struck by your comment about how you can’t teach someone how to do something unless you’ve done it yourself first. Glenn Dietzel (creator of the New Stealth Guru Model) says is that the skills of making it and teaching it are completely different. Seems to me there are lots of people in the online marketing world offering coaching programmes who claim to have made millions. The key thing is that they have credibility because we believe they are successful and they have lots of testimonials. But does anyone ever check out their track record? And does it really matter at the end of the day so long as their content is good and they can help others to be successful? Are those of us who insist on walking the walk before talking the talk effectively competing with one hand tied behind our backs? I’d love to hear your take on this. In the meantime good luck with your plans for 2012. I will be sure to check in from time to time to hear how you’re doing so do post updates from time to time.
Dave Starr · BCVTHS left this comment via Facebook.
The comment was caught up in the comment system transition (he was commenting as I was importing comments into the new system.) I am reposting his comment here for completeness.
I’m glad you posted this. I was on your feed due to some very valuable content you wrote a few months back, but lately very little had come through. A few days ago I was ‘spring cleaning” my feed reader and was actually deleting the feed for the blog in the lest above yours (which had also grown cold) when this post came in. Saved by the bell. You have good stuff and value to share. I’ll keep reading, you keep writing and here’s to a great 3012 for both of us.
— Here was my reply
Saved by the bell — yep. 2011 was not my best year from an internet marketing standpoint. Thanks for sticking with me. I will do my best not to disappoint you.
Jan — nice to meet you. I completely agree that the Making It skills and Teaching It skills are different. There are lots of people that cannot effectively teach the stuff they know how to do. As you point out, the problem is when people teach stuff they don’t really know anything about. That is a bad thing, because a lot of people in IM are trying to feed their families and pay the light bill. That’s why I like Pat Flynn. He tells the truth and is completely transparent.
Hey Mark, just heard your podcast with Pat Flynn – good stuff. Your goals are pushing yourself, keep up the good work!
@Addicted2Italy Thanks. Appreciate the positive feedback. Should be an interesting 2012.