I Need Di$cipline

Why Your Business Needs a Copywriter

2012-02-04T11:51:50Z

Many business owners and entrepreneurs who are setting up their websites will attempt to write their own web content, sales letters, press releases, and promotional content to save themselves money, rather than hiring a professional copywriter. However, the content of your online presence is very important and you could be limiting your success by skimping on this aspect.

Here are a few reasons why it is worth the money to hire a professional copywriter:

Your Mistakes Cost You Credibility

If you are not a professional writer, it’s easy to make mistakes and typos. However, a website with an awkwardly worded introduction, a press release with a spelling mistake, or a brochure with grammatical issues will cause your customers to not take you seriously. Even if you are a pretty good writer, your written content might be too long, boring, or not targeted to the right audience. First impressions are crucial, and are you sure that your writing skills are up to the challenge? If your area of expertise lies in some other field, hire a professional writer to craft words which will blow your customers away while you focus on doing what you do best.

You Are Missing Out on Traffic

Professional copywriters are experts on SEO, or search engine optimization. This means that they know exactly which words to include on your website so that your customers will find you in a Google search, and how often to include those words. With the help of an SEO copywriter you will draw in a lot more hits on your website, which will bring you more customers and continued success.

You Are Confusing People

If your business or service deals with something very technical, such as IT or finance, what you actually do for your customers can be very complicated. If you try to explain it in a way which makes sense to you and your colleagues, you will likely leave your customers very confused. You need someone to understand what you do and then convey the information that your customers need to know in a clear, simple, and exciting way.

You Can Focus on Other Work

When you have your own business, there is always a lot of work to be done. Sometimes you can be so busy booking clients, making invoices, delivering your services, dealing with employees and all other aspects of the business that it is almost impossible to find enough time to write something for your website. When you hire professional copywriting services this will free up some of your time and help you get more things done. For example, if you can’t find the time to update your company blog frequently, you can pass the job along to a freelancer and they can write articles every week for you for a set fee.

Freelance Copywriting Services Are Flexible to Your Needs

One of the great things about working with freelance copywriters is that they will be there for you when the work needs to be done, but when the work tapers off and your business goes into a lull period you are under no obligation to continue working with them.

These are a few reasons why working with a freelance professional copywriter will be incredibly beneficial for your business. Before you attempt to write your content all by yourself, why not get an expert in to give you some professional help?

There are many reasons why hiring professional copywriting services can be a huge advantage for your business.

SEO Ethics – What’s Fair For One is Not For Another!

2012-02-03T15:05:35Z

Who does not want to see their website ranked as number one in the search engine results? The top spot is ever so glamorous and enviable, even for a modest webmaster. SEO firms are always striving to improve their clients’ sites and employ various methods to do so. Each optimizer is different from another and optimization of a webpage could be done in more than one way. Therefore, the method followed by one optimizer is not exactly the same as another; there will always be a difference,unless one optimizer needs to (or is compelled to) use the framework of another optimizer in his/her work, which is not a common practice in SEO.

So, what is Ethical?

The battle over ethical and unethical SEO shall continue for a long time. But for now, ethical SEO practice is the one that is ‘conventional and has been acknowledged’ by a majority of SEO experts.

Which ‘hat’ to don’t?

Numerous thoughts, viewpoints, methodologies and procedures mean only one thing- Conflict! What one person ‘believes’ to be a fair practice might not be to another. Similarly, in the realm of SEO, you will find optimizers being categorized as ‘black hat’ and ‘white hat’ optimizers. If the optimizer follows the ‘rules’ he/she is said to be a ‘white hat’ optimizer and the one who breaks these rules is a ‘black hat’ optimizer. Recently though, another term- ‘grey hat’ is also audible in the SEO circles. Grey hat optimizers may not ‘break’ the rules, but they do ‘bend’ them to their convenience. Nonetheless, grey hats are very hard to define and some grey hat practices go so unnoticed that even search engines like Google cannot pin point and say ‘that’s wrong’.

The Dilemma

The fact that there are no set rules, makes the categorization of optimizers into either of these ‘hats’ a painful task. Even expert optimizers, who have been revered and ranked as top white hat practitioners think that some SEO personnel are simply pushed to the edge to use ‘unethical’ means,as a last resort.

Only Doing His Job

If an SEO firm is independent, it works on its own terms. Therefore, it can set its own SEO practice manual, which can be accepted by all SEO experts. On the other hand, in house optimizers of a company do not have the right to set rules; they simply follow them. If the company wants its SEO personnel to make their website number one in search engine rankings, but does not provide them with the required resources, the optimizer might have to put on the grey hat if not the black hat. In such scenarios, nobody could blame the optimizer, as he was ‘only doing his job’!

What’s the Right Way?

Although the right path is still an illusion, many SEO experts believe that any optimizer, who uses prescribed tags, does not encourage spamming, uses the right keywords with the right density and incorporates organic linking can be said to be a white hat optimizer. This is only a fraction of the good SEO practice; there are other principled ways, which go beyond the scope of this discussion.

Jeet is part-time guest post writer who likes to write article on SEO & SM as passion. He also runs link building firm named GetLinksPro from Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Smartphones for Mobile Bloggers

2012-02-03T14:54:38Z

Mobile bloggers are making a mighty statement in the world of mobile Internet. Bloggers that benefit the most from mobile Internet are those who blog about traveling. Instead of waiting to make it home or to the hotel to blog about their adventures, mobile bloggers can pull out their Smartphone and blog as fast as the adventure happens.

So with all of the increased interest on mobile blogging, the unasked question revolves around which Smartphone is preferred most by mobile bloggers. Just like any desktop or laptop, mobile phones are not created the same. Bloggers can now do quality interviews, top of the line photos; they can even shoot amazing videos for their blogs.

So whether looking to upload better quality videos and photos, or looking to update more often with less hassle, these Smartphones are the phones to purchase.

iPhone 4

The main purpose of bloggers is for them to multitask. A typical desk shot may be: Photoshop is up and running, music is playing in the background through the media player, and then there are multiple web browsers up and running. The makers of Apple have brought mobile bloggers one of the greatest mobile Smartphones to date.

The iPhone 4 allows bloggers to have multiple pages up, without the fear of slow browsers, or low batteries. Mobile bloggers will be able to blog all day long with no worries of dying phones or poor Internet services.

Blackberry Storm

This is the Smartphone for the writing intense bloggers. The landscape keyboard allows the bloggers to tap away at the screen without worries of typos. Another fun feature is the 3.2 megapixel camera built into the phone. A great toy for bloggers who want to upload photos of their conquests without having to buy a separate camera.

Motorola Atrix 4G

This handy Smartphone comes with a dual core processor which allows bloggers to run more than one application at a time, letting the blogger get more done in one sitting.

The Motorola Atrix 4G is capable of allowing mobile bloggers do last minute double checks on their phone before officially posting their latest blog without the fear of losing work.

Samsung Galaxy S II

This is the phone made for traveling bloggers. The display screen from the start gives off better colors, sharper images, and has an overall rich screen resolution. With speeds that are compared to lighting, this Smartphone is always going to deliver 4G speed. Traveling bloggers will enjoy the 1080p HD video and the 8 megapixel camera for uploading the best pictures from their journeys.

These are the phones that will forever change the way mobile bloggers do their jobs. From high quality pictures, to super fast speeds; no blogger will go wrong with one of these Smartphones. There will never be a blog left unposted when these phones are involved in the mix. So if traveling is the name of the blog or if the goal of the blog is to brag about the High School’s theater group, mobile bloggers will always be up to date with the help of these top Smartphones.

The article is transcribed by William Taylor. William is adroit orator, who can influence the whole world with his tech knowledge. Visit his site for mobiele telefoons and sim only.

January 2012 Blog Income Report

2012-02-01T22:09:25Z

2012 hasn’t exactly started the way that I wanted it to. A quick eye over the stats in this blog income report will tell you that I didn’t concentrate on my online dealings in January as I was hit with some personal problems. I don’t want to highlight them all here but it involved the end of a two year relationship and the loss of my first child who was aborted at 3 months.

People who know me will tell you that I’m a tough son of a bitch and I’ll keep fighting no matter what people throw at me.

And without further ado let’s get on with the meat of the matter.

Page Impressions & Visitor Count

The unique visitor count for January stands at 2,456, which is a huge decrease of 1,060 from the month of December.

The page impression count for January stands at 5,038, which is a big decrease of 1,478 from the month of December.

This means that each unique visitor looked at 1.68 pages.

My bounce rate has dropped from 67.89% to 71.74.

I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see I have dropped a lot of traffic after what I have had to deal with offline in January. Hopefully when I get my head together I’ll be able to put this right again in February or maybe March.

Show Me The Money!

Adbrite = $0.56 (+$0.37)
ContextWeb (AdsDaq) = $0.28 (-$0.74)
Fidelity Media (AdJuggler) = $0.29 (-$0.02)
Passive Income = $17.24 (+$0.23)
Private Advertising – $215.00 (+$210.00)
Private Writing = $380.00 (-$66.15)
Reviews = $103.85 (-$25.65)
Smowtion = $0.64 (+$0.35)
TLA = $4.00 (+/- $0.00)
UnderDog = $0.01 (-$1.15)
Zapunited = $0.20 (New)

Total = $722.09 (+$116.84)

- ZapUnited is a new network that I am trying out.

- I hit a bit of good fortune with my private advertising in January. I really hope that is not a fluke.

- Half of the private writing amount came from some clients I’d done work for several weeks ago, nice to see they FINALLY got round to paying me.

Top Five Search Terms

I like this part of the monthly income report. It is amazing how people find this blog on search engines.

1. most successful business ideas
2. my plans for the future
3. unfollow non followers
4. blog income report
5. i need discipline

5 Top Site Referrals

The top five sites that sent the most visitors to this blog.

1. facebook.com
2. smuggecko.com
3. urlopener.com
4. problogger.net
5. webconfs.com

Top 10 Commenters

This is just my little way of saying thank you to the people who take the time to comment on this blog. Without you guys it would be just me rambling away.

1. Patrick (5)
2. Tabby (5)
3. Amanda DiSilvestro (4)
4. New York hifu specialist (4)
5. Lennart Heleander@Property Marbella (3)
6. modern bath vanities (3)
7. Retail Panda (3)
8. tires (3)
9. David (2)
10. Mohideen @ seo blog (2)

This blog, and me earning money online, would not be possible if it was not for those awesome folk over at Bluehost. If you are looking for quality, reliable and cheap hosting then I urge you to check them out today.

Debt affiliate program – Affiliate marketing to earn money from home

2012-01-26T10:21:21Z

If you want sit at home and earn money, then affiliate marketing is a good option for you. This is increasingly becoming popular as it is a convenient way of earning money online. Affiliate marketing is basically a form of internet marketing where you have to advertise the products or services of a merchant on your website or blog. Debt affiliate program is a form of affiliate marketing. In such affiliate programs you advertise the debt relief services of a particular company which is the merchant and you get paid depending upon the kind of affiliate program that you sign up for.

If you have signed up for pay per lead, then you will get paid once a customer who is navigated to the website of the merchant from the link in your website fills up a form and generates a lead. If you have signed up for pay per click debt affiliate program, then you will get paid every time a customer clicks on the link displayed on your website and gets navigated to the website of the merchant. Of course, the amount of money you get will differ with the kind of program that you choose.

How to make debt affiliate program successful?

If you want to be a successful affiliate marketer, then you should keep some things in mind that can help you to draw more customers. Remember that, the more traffic you can attract for your website, the more number of customers you are likely to navigate to the website of the merchant. This in turn will help you to generate more income. Some tips to keep in mind are:

You should make the content in your website or blog debt related so that the link you are providing for affiliate marketing is relevant to the content of your website. If you provide completely irrelevant content from the link that you are marketing, it is highly unlikely that you would get many customers to navigate to the website of the merchant.

You should choose reliable merchants to sign up for your debt affiliate program venture. This can be done by researching on the background of the services of the merchant. This is because if the customers who sign up for the merchant’s program don’t get a good service, they will automatically stop visiting your website.

Thus you can see how you can use debt affiliate programs to earn money. Please visit http://www.facebook.com/debtconsolidationcare for more information to earn money through debt affiliate program.

Create a Content Schedule Specifically for your Blog

2012-01-24T21:27:07Z

Nowadays, nearly everyone has a blog, covering practically every topic imaginable. However, only a small portion of blogs possess a dedicated audience that does not consist of the writer’s loved ones and friends. What distinguishes these blogs from the endless others on the Internet? The main characteristic that differentiates active blogs is the content: more often than not, blogs with frequent, high quality content are likely to develop an audience and authority in its niche.

In general, there are two types of content schedules that are used by bloggers: daily or weekly content posts. The pros and cons of the two are listed in the following:

Daily Content Posts

Pros:

The main advantage that arises from a high posting frequency is the increased amount of content. A daily content schedule allows writers to cover timely issues, responding quickly to current events. Readers are also provided with brand new content everyday, which can allow a blog to quickly gain a following. In addition, a daily content schedule also has a positive effect on the blog’s search engine ranking, as the increasing number of pages makes it easier for search engines to find the blog.

Cons:

One of the main difficulties of a daily content schedule is to come up with diverse content every day. Writers are required to devise varied content posts, which can be difficult to maintain over time. In order to keep up with a daily schedule, bloggers writer shorter content, resulting in a decrease in post quality. Another disadvantage of a daily post schedule is the amount of time it takes to maintain the schedule. However, many blogs offset this problem by using multiple writers.

Weekly Content Posts

Pros:

With a weekly schedule, bloggers release content on certain days of the week. A more lenient schedule, writers are able to spend more time on their articles and produce high quality posts. A weekly schedule is also easier to maintain and are frequently used by blogs that are managed by a single person.

Cons:

In order for a blog to grow, it needs to have consistent, quality content. With a weekly content schedule, the blog is likely to take longer to grow and establish itself. Another con of relatively low posting frequency arises from interactions with the community: every blog post usually possesses a comments feature or another outlet for audience interaction. However, if the blog has fewer posts, then the blogger has a decreased chance of engaging his or her readers.

How to Maintain your Content Schedule

Regardless of the type of content schedule you choose, there are several important tips that every blogger should follow, in order to maintain a schedule.

Time Management:

Depending on the content schedule, some blogs may require more time commitment than others. However, every blogger needs time management skills in order to assure the success of the blog. In order to help with time management, many blogs have a “queue” feature, which allows posts to be scheduled for a certain day or time. This allows a blog to stay active without direct supervision by the writer.

Follow Your Niche:

Make sure that your content fits with the theme and niche of the blog. One of the risks of high posting frequency is the need to come up with consistent, quality content. Therefore, many bloggers may be tempted to write beyond the niche of their blog. However, this can have a negative effect on the quality, as well as drive away readers.

Have a Backup Plan:

Sometimes, situations arise while maintaining a blog, such as a missed deadline or a case of writer’s block. Avoid compromising your content schedule and write several backup blog posts in advance. Another option is to utilizing guest blogging, which allows contributors to post on your blog. Guest blogging allows for a fresh voice, bringing a new opinion to your site. In addition, guest bloggers often have their own audience, allowing their traffic to trickle to your blog.

Maintaining a consistent schedule can be a daunting task, especially for new bloggers. However, by choosing and following a content schedule, bloggers can experience an increase in traffic and readers, and watch their blog grow and flourish.

Rachel Hyun Kim is a writer on topics ranging from telemarketing services to document scanning. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including credit card processing for small business owners and entrepreneurs at Resource Nation.

Social media SEO v/s customer engagement

2012-01-16T22:30:09Z

What happens when social media is incorporated with search engine optimization? You can see two different results. The expected results of social media strategy used via the method of search engines are pretty different from the results of social media tactics being used for the improvement of customer engagement. This is certainly a vital distinction to realize since the blend of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media prove to be great tool and what you see is different results in business value. Let’s explore the idea of social media and SEO against the customer engagement in the following article.

The social media for SEO: With the help of SEO, the customers are able to connect with different brand content via their favorite search engines. The content both with quality and quantity are being rewarded with better search rankings, thus bringing in a good amount of traffic which is eventually turning out in product sales. With such strategies which revolve around the customer lifecycle, the SEO is playing a key role in rendering information at all the touch points. In this way the consumers are reaching at point or information which they are looking out for. The SEO experts are able to use the social networks, book marking services and news to attract a number of links. With these links you get traffic and at the same time are able to discover the rank content. The social participation targets the content formats and mining topics which also help people to get good and unique traffic and links from the number of people including the bloggers, readers, site owners, journalists.

The social media for customer engagement: As per the studies a majority of corporate social media initiatives are being taken care by the department of public relations. They often target on things like creating an awareness, engagement, influence and relationship building things. With the help of good relationship with consumers and the industry influential factor you build the business brand and inculcate positive association which the brand promises. With strong brand you see the boost in sales since most of the consumers are aware of their brand value and trust them for the solutions. The social media programs moves around customer engagement which can be accomplished with things like the content, peer networking, tools, or the special drives that compels them to participate and get the recognition. The social media for customer engagement is meant to create awareness, trust, and a boost in shorter and higher sales besides getting good customer retention.

You will find better way through the social media and SEO: The blend of social media and SEO works the best with good content. Therefore devising a proper content marketing strategy the brands are able to target and influence the prospective consumers. Besides, the business brand also improves in terms of visibility over the search engine results both for the website and social media contents. This eventually works for building good relationship with the customers.

Two groups- the social media and SEO which often remained separate however is seen together these days for moving ahead in business for better customer relationship and engagements. The SEO experts are now sitting together with the social media experts since they realize the impact these sites over the internet. Hence the social media experts now enjoy enhanced kind of customer engagement with the help of proper SEO programs. In this way you get new people and unique visitors over the social media engagement platforms.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of cameras and watches. Recently an article on Nikon Coolpix L120 attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Golf Carts.

Tips to Making Money Online…Without Breaking the Law

2012-01-24T20:35:45Z

If you’re a writer, you know that money doesn’t always come easy. While you work on that next New York Times Best Seller, you have to do something to make a living. In other words, the idea that you can actually make a decent living through blogging online is exciting. You get to write about topics that interest you, interact with people about your articles, and watch the money roll in. However, it’s important that you make sure you stay legal while you do all of this great writing.

Now don’t let the title fool you: It is completely legal to make money online through blogging. However, many bloggers find themselves having to take out a small business loan come tax time because they were blinded by the excitement of all those dollar signs. When you make money through blogging, taxes are generally not taken out of the money you are sent. This can sometimes make the job very confusing, so consider the three things you should be keeping in mind as you make your money from blogging:

How to Make Money Online and Stay Legal

1. Income Tax – A traditional paycheck usually already has income taxes taken out of the total, so people sometimes forget that this isn’t the case when you’re making money online. With direct deposit, many people do not even look at their pay stubs to see how many taxes were taken out. This makes it extremely easy to forget the importance of the tax (at least when it comes to dealing with the IRS). When you are making money on your own, it is important to keep track of how much you are making and then set aside some money for taxes. If you want to know exactly how much money you will owe, consider visiting the IRS self-employed tax center or H&R Block tax calculator. Fill in your information, and they will take care of the math for you.

2. Self-Employment Tax – If you’re making money online through blogging, it means you are self-employed, or an independent contractor. Therefore, this means that you must pay this additional tax on top of your income taxes. You pay these taxes by filling out a 1099 form and filling out the appropriate boxes. Self-employment tax is generally calculated as 15.3% of your net earnings. This tax usually only applies if you make more than $400 or more per year. For more information on the tax, visit Oblivious Investor.

Although this is probably not the best news you’ve ever heard, independent contractors do have a few perks when tax time rolls around. These perks come when you claim all of your expenses.

3. Claiming Expenses – Anything that you use when blogging online is tax-deductible. For example, if you had to buy a new laptop in order to blog or you needed to meet a potential editor for lunch; you can write both of those off come tax time. All you have to do is make sure you keep all of your receipts and you should get a tax break with no questions asked!

Worrying about your own taxes is sometimes tough for someone who makes their money by blogging online. At the end of the year, the amount of money you owe is going to seem like a lot, but the truth is you would be paying the exact same amount if you were working for an employer. In the end, it is important to remember that you love your job. If you didn’t have to pay taxes like everyone else, you would have a lot more competition.

Photo Credit: scragged.com

Yes, I Quit My Job to Earn Passive Income While Sitting on the Beach All Day!

2012-01-10T15:12:34Z

The following article is a guest post by Patrick Meninga of Make Money With No Work. He recently sold his website for $200,000 dollars.

After working at traditional day jobs for a few decades, I decided that I wanted more out of life. Specifically, I was interested in:

Time freedom – the ability to work when I wanted and be my own boss, rather than having to show up at scheduled times.
Mobility – the ability to work from anywhere in the world.
Financial independence – the ability to enjoy my time freedom without being seriously limited due to financial constraints.

If you work too hard for your money then you never have any time to enjoy it.

On the other hand, if you coast along doing very little work and creating almost no value, you don’t have enough money to really enjoy your free time and do the things that you want to do.

This was the dilemma that I set out to solve when I was trapped in a 40 hour per week day job.

Here is how I solved it, and how you could potentially do the same thing.

Create an authority website

I created a single website in a potentially lucrative niche, and I proceeded to work on this website for a period of four years.

If you have some expertise regarding your topic then doing this will result in an “authority website.”

When you first start publishing to your brand new website, it will be far from being an authority. But this will change over time as:

The site ages in the eyes of search engines.
The site earns organic incoming links from trusted sources.
The site grows from a few dozen articles to a few hundred and potentially a thousand or more some day.

If you choose to pursue the authority website model, do not fall into the trap of diversification. Having more than one web property becomes a liability in such cases, because your time and energy is halved or even worse for your flagship project.

Better in this case to focus all of your available resources to a single website. This will lead to “authority status” much quicker.

If you concentrate on a single website, you enjoy the following powerful benefits:

All of your link building is supporting a single website. * All of your new content that you publish helps to expand a single website.
All of your social promotion is pointing at a single website.

This is the secret to creating success in a timely manner. Forget diversification and instead, concentrate. You will build authority much quicker that way.

Quality defined: Learn to write original and helpful content

You have probably heard the “quality content” mantra quite a bit in your online marketing journey.

It is true that you need quality content. But what does that actually mean?

I propose that your content should be:

Original – it should contain insight and ideas that cannot be found elsewhere on the web. This is important, because no one will ever spread your message or link to you if your articles simply rehash existing content that is commonplace. Your unique knowledge, perspective, and expertise have to bring something NEW to the web.
Helpful – if your expert insights do not serve to help anyone, why will they care? Your readers have to care about your website if you are going to build a sustainable business.

Hopefully you choose a topic for your authority website in which your expertise allows you to be both original and helpful when you publish new articles.

Publish daily

An authority website makes money based on traffic that it gets every day. In order to get more traffic you need lots of articles.

The easiest way to have a large website is to build it yourself, one day at a time. I recommend that you aim for publishing three articles each and every day. Such a publishing quota will help you to build a powerful website in a fairly short period of time.

My website did not really start making “live on the beach all day money” until I go serious and added over 500 articles to it. Within less than a year of doing so I was able to quit my day job. Later on I sold out for six figures, and now live mostly on investment income.

This is all possible based on having a high volume of articles on a single authority website.

The tricky thing is that they must be quality articles as well. Work your way up to publishing two or three articles daily while making sure that you maintain high quality.

Sustain this publishing rate for over a year and you will have an income generating asset on your hands.

Choose the right topic, sustain it for several years, and you may well have a six figure website on your hands.

Promote the site and allow time for it to age

There are plenty of ways to automate website promotion or create manufactured links by the dozen.

Most of that stuff probably will not help you.

Instead, focus on real world networking, reaching out to other website owners in your same niche.

Have actual conversations with these webmasters. Leave some insightful and meaningful comments on their site. Slowly build a relationship with them.

The end goal here is a guest post with a link pointing back to your website.

Hard work? You bet it is. Most people will not do this, which gives you a huge opportunity.

Do the promotional work to get quality links, and reap the rewards. This is how you build authority.

Doing this often will take time, which is fine because your website needs time in order to age anyway.

Authority and website age tend to grow together. It takes time and persistence to build authority that leads to sustainable income.

However, what is your alternative? To simply waste time and NOT build an income generating asset? Which would you rather do?

Put in the work and you can be “living the dream” like I am:

Create a single authority website in a lucrative niche.
Publish useful and original articles on a regular basis.
Promote the site with high quality backlinks via genuine networking.
Be patient enough to see the money start rolling in as your authority builds.

This is exactly how I built my six figure website.

Feel free to ask any questions and I will answer them in the comments. Thanks!

My Goals For 2011 Revisited

2012-01-03T19:10:33Z

In January last year I decided to set goals for this blog instead of resolutions about myself, I did this because I’ve always seen resolutions as promises to yourself that are only weak promises that can be broken easily, plus I thought it would be a different.

Today I’m going to revisit these goals and see how many of them (if any) I achieved.

GOAL 1: Make More Money Than I Did In 2010

In 2010 I made $1423.93 and I did this without putting in as much effort as I’m capable of so I was very confident that I could easily make more money during 2011. The truth is I passed the 2010 sum within the first three months. I finished 2011 by earning a grand total of $6547.74.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Absolutely!

GOAL 2: Write More Content For This Blog

In 2010 I published 107 posts which I didn’t think was good enough so I wanted to publish a lot more in 2011. My aim was one article a day but I didn’t really believe deep down that I would stick to that so I unofficially changed it from “post once a day” to “post more than you did in 2010”.

In 2011 I published 153 posts, that means I posted an average of 12.75 articles per month. It’s an improvement but I’m hoping to be able to say that I’ve doubled that next year.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes, although it is still not good enough in my opinion.

GOAL 3: Give This Blog A Redesign

The best thing I did during 2011 was give this blog a redesign. I was apprehensive about it at first because Thesis costs money but I managed to persuade a friend to buy it for my birthday. There is a message there, when people ask you what you want for Birthday/Christmas, point them in the direction of a theme or plugin.

I am so pleased with how the blog looks now, I’m still tinkering but I think it is just about right as it is.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes and I did it for free thanks to a friend’s generosity.

GOAL 4: Step Up My Bid To Get More Guest Posts

Not only did I manage to publish more guest posts in 2011 but I think I went a bit nuts and posted too many, to the point where I was having to ask guest bloggers if I could hold onto their articles for weeks before publishing them.

I must think of a reasonable amount to publish so I don’t run into this problem again.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes I did but I got swamped in the amount of posts that were too good to turn down.

GOAL 5: Start Up More Blogs

During 2011 I started up five new blogs, hopefully by the beginning of February I’ll be able to start submitting them to sponsored post networks to make more money . I have even more domains waiting to be used.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes.

GOAL 6: Double My RSS Subscriber Count

I wanted to go to town on my RSS count during 2011 but I haven’t even made a dent in it. In my defence I have not tried to increase it, I’ve been spending the time on other areas of social media like twitter & Facebook.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: No, I think I’ve actually lost subscribers.

GOAL 7: Start My Mailing List

This was something that I kind of half succeeded at. I managed to start my mailing list in the sense that I’ve set it up and turned it on but that is as far as I have got. I haven’t sent anything out and I haven’t done anything to entice people to subscribe. I still managed to gain 35 subscribers though.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes & No.

GOAL 8: Double The Traffic

My goal was to get 2,000 unique visitors and 4,000 page impressions a month, In my last blog income report I hit 3,516 unique hits and 6,516 page impressions. And the stats seem to be more or less increasing every month.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Yes, with gusto!

GOAL 9: Submit More Of My Old Articles To Article Directory Sites

This was something I failed to do, actually I didn’t submit ANY articles to article directory sites in 2011. It is definitely something that will be on my list for 2012 because I aim to submit some to sites like InfoBarrel and earn more passive income.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: No, I failed miserably.

GOAL 10: Write More Content For Passive Income Directories

Again I failed at this as I did not submit ANY articles to any directories. I’m looking to increase my passive income during 2012 so posting to sites like InfoBarrel and Hubpages is definitely at the top of my list of goals for 2012.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: Again that would be no.

GOAL 11: Write At Least One Ebook

This was one goal that I didn’t even think about, which is surprising because I’ve been wanting to publish a book of some kind since I was 8 years of age. I think it is something I have to do if I want to entice people to subscribe to my mailing list.

Did I Achieve My Goal?: No.

So out of the eleven goals that I set myself for 2011 I managed to achieve six of them, failed four of them and one of them (Goal 7) was a stalemate. How did you do with your 2011 goals? Did you achieve more of them than I did?

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