smart goal setting

If you have read my last post: SMART Goal Setting For 2009, where I look at SMART as an anagram that provides you with the keys to creating goals that will motivate you, then you may have also noticed the comment left by BE Folks:

This is first post i read regarding new year’s resolution and goals. hope u have set up your goals already. wish you successes!!!

Well to be completely honest – No I hadn’t!

But over the last couple of days, I have taken the time to think about where I see SOB heading over the next 12 months and what I want to acheive. So I have decided to list them here for a couple of reason:

  1. So You Know What To Expect
    I don’t treat my visitors as customers that I just try and flog any product to in the hope of snagging myself a commission. I value the relationships I have built through this blog and I’d prefer to think of you all as part of the StandOutBlogger family!

    So, since you are now part of the family, I wanted to let you know where we are heading so you can know what to expect over the coming 12 months -and hopefully if you havn’t already, it will encourage you to subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of it! Because it will be exciting!!!

  2. To Keep Me Accountable
    I could easily write up some goals and keep them to myself, but where is the accountability? I have found when I have done this I will get to the end of the period of time, not be anywhere near meeting my goals and when somebody would ask me how my goals went, I’d reply, ‘Yea good, I think I hit most of them’. (Just being honest)

    Putting my goals out in the open, where you all can see – and check back on when I post my results at the end of next year, will make sure there is no, ‘Yea good, I think I hit most of them’. Instead I will have to give exact answers.

  3. To Keep Me Motivated
    Some people don’t seem to get motivated by written goals, but this is usually because they are not written in the right way. If you stick to the SMART goal setting formula you are sure to come away with goals that will keep you pumped all year long!

    I am the type of person that gets sidetracked really (i mean REALLY) easily, and I lose drive for a project just as quick – so staying motivated is always one of my biggest challenges, but I am sure these goals will have me excited :D (You will be too when you read them!)

StandOutBlogger Goals For 2009

I have categorise my goals into 4 categories:

  • Statistics
    This will be were I set goals for all the typical ways bloggers seem to measure themselves by. Including RSS, Technorati, Alexa and unique visitors.
  • Product
    This will look at goals I set that are ways to piggyback off the blogs success. So I will look at StandOutBlogger Underground and product creation.
  • Profit
    While I havn’t really focused on making money from SOB in the last 6 months (I still have though), I think it’s about time I get a little bit more serious about it. I will not only set a monetary figure, but also be creating goals on the methods I will use to make that money.

So I’ll stop stalling and get straight into my goals for 2009…

Statistic Goals

rss count image

  • RSS Subscribers (Current 718) Goal: 2,500
  • Alexa (Current 110,050) Goal: 60,000
  • Technorati (18,103) Goal: 10,000
  • Unique Visitors (Between 280-380/day) Goal: 1,000

I will increase my statistics to the goals I have set above by the end of 2009 by the following techniques:

  • Creating At Least 3 Quality Posts Per Week
  • Continually Adding To The Feeds In My Feed Reader When I Find Blogs That I Enjoy Reading – And Commenting Each Of Their New Posts That I Believe I Can Add Value Too.
  • Focus on SEO, and building search engine traffic by having SE friendly titles, and keyword density.
  • Providing a unique voice that visitors cannot find elsewhere.

I Aim To Build My Statistics To Meet The Above Goals For The Purpose Of:

  • Increasing my influence and reach by expanding my my daily reader base.
  • Build my credibility as a blogger
  • Creating a community of bloggers that are focused on developing blogs that ‘Stand Out’ from the crowd.
  • Create a strong platform to launch exclusive products for bloggers.

Product Goals

blogging products and resource

  • StandOutBlogger Underground
    StandOutBlogger Underground is the email newsletter for this blog. This is linked quite closely to my new Information Product, as I will be creating the info product and sending it piece by piece (as I create it) to SOB Underground Subscribers. I am aiming to have 500 Underground Subscribers by the end of 2009 – I currently have 41.

    I will gain new readers using the following methods:

    • My Aweber Lightbox Popup
    • Promoting Underground and It’s Benefits In My Posts
    • Providing  Fantastic Incentives To New Subscribers
  • Blog Redesign
    You blog design needs to do so much more than just look pretty, it needs to be a converting, selling and SEO machine. While this design has served very well, there are a lot of features that I would love to see included as well make it more efficient.

    I will redesign SOB by the end of July 2009, to increase conversion and monetization, while making it easier for visitors to find and read information.

  • Information Product
    I am currently in the process of starting the creation of my first comprehensive information product. This product will be a course on ‘How To  Successfully Launch A Blog’.  If you are a member of SOB Underground, you would have already started to receive initial drafts of it.

    As part of this information product I will be launching a brand new blog from scratch and journalling the strategies and results – so subscribe to SOB Underground to get this product for free.

    I will have this product ready to launch in the second half of 2009!

Profit Goals

blog profits

  • Private Ad Sales And Paid Reviews
    I will be making over $500 a month from both private ad sales and paid reviews by the end of 2009. This will be achieved by:

    • Having increased statistic = higher valued adspace
    • Actively marketing my free adspots and paid reviews on my blog
    • Contacting potential advertisers inviting them to advertise on SOB
    • Frequently use Sponsored Reviews to find potential paid reviews.
  • Affiliate Sales
    Including affliate income from both the SOB blog and SOB Underground, I will be making over $300 a month from affiliate sales, using a range of affiliate programs such as:

  • New Blog Income
    I will create a new blog that will have a monthly income of $500 by the end of 2009    , using list building, affiliate marketing and Google adsense for monetization.
  • Information Product Sales
    The above mentioned blog launch information product will be making over $1000 in sales a month by the end of 2009.

    • This income will include affiliate commissions.
  • Total Income Goal by End 2009
    I will be making a minimum of $2,300 a month from blogging and blogging related products by the end of 2009    , using the methods listed above.

I have a whole lot of stuff install for StandOutBlogger in 2009, so make sure you subscribe, and become active – and let’s grow our blogs together this coming year!

If you have posted about your goals for 2009, I’d love for you to leave a link to them in the comments below!

Arrows to ecourse

About Thomas Sinfield

Thomas run multiple blogs and is busy testing different strategies and systems to increase profitability and exposure. He is currently working on a new project (yes another blog) that is set to be his most profitable yet.