This is my declaration of goals for 2012 and how I plan on achieving what I set out to do. In a few days it will be the sixth of January, and in Spain that means that all children get presents from the “three kings”.
Not only the children though, families use this day to give presents to adults as well (instead of Christmas) and the presents I have asked include 2 books: The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone and The Barefoot Executive by Carrie Wilkerson. (Note, those are not affiliate links, I haven´t read the books yet, so I have no clue if they are going to be any good).
I am thinking though, that these 2 books will be highly motivational, to really kick my butt into gear and make 2012 an explosion of income. So far of the dreaming, now it is time to put my action where my mouth is, so here is my thinking:
This past year, I have learned a few things:
1) It is ok to not follow the advice of experts and adapt their train of thought to your own situation. When I stepped of the “marketing in English” bandwagon, and started creating sites in my own native language, I tapped into a market of huge potential. And even though the niche is highly competitive, it is far easier to get your foot in than I ever imagined.
2) It is ok to not build links. Ouch! Here I have been for years, thinking that the more links the merrier, but in fact, the amount of links is not as important as the amount of content in general and quality content in specific. Or at least, that is what I have seen this year, and it is what I believe, will be the hard core of my online business, to withstand any of the big G´s algo changes.
3) Instead of playing the system, it is far easier and profitable to give the big G and your readers exactly what you want. Apart from that, you will find that it is a lot more solid too!
4) I have learned that content goes a long way. You can´t predict income because it really does depend on too many factors (that is, if you don´t trade your time for money). But you can predict and directly influence the amount of words/articles you publish each day.
How Do These 4 Lessons Apply to My 2012 Goal?
First of all, let me tell you that my goal for this year, is to reach € 12K a month before taxes. I believe that is very well possible, especially with my experience, lessons learned and dedication.
In one of my latest posts, I mention how I got a new site earning well over a $1000 per month. That site is still going strong, even though the occasional problem has made me change plans and adapt things.
I gotta say though, that the last two months of 2011, were far less profitable for that site, and I personally was the one to blame. I lost focus, I lost desire and I lost faith.
You see, the main path that site was making money, was through a Dutch affiliate network, and I´d get €30-€50 per sale in commissions. Sweet while it lasted, until I found out that they were closing their network for people who were not based in the Netherlands. That meant that starting the first of January 2012, I would no longer be able to ask for payments, simple for not living in the Netherlands.
I´d still be able to promote their products and keep my account, see my earnings building and all, but not able to touch it.
So, that sucked and it sucked big time, especially because I had started setting up different sites to back up the main one of them had already started attracting traffic. I had been working hard on those sites and all of a sudden my basic plan, my foundation, was sort of gone.
More Lessons Learned:
1) Make sure you set your sites up in a way that you can easily change your affiliate links. Instead of manually putting in my affiliate links, I am always using the Pretty Link Pro plugin.
So in case a link has to be changed, I can do that from the admin panel, instead of having to go into my blog and find all the links manually (with the chance of missing some and thus, missing income opportunities!)
Apart from that, I love the Pretty Link Pro plugin, because it lets you turn words into affiliate links in hindsight, automatically, set no-follow links and track all impressions and click throughs, so that you can easily keep an eye on which posts work and which need some work to improve CTR.
2) Have a backup plan. In my case, the affiliate network is going to be useless for a period of time, because of my non-residency in the Netherlands. But, my traffic is still worth gold, because it is highly targeted and I know it converts into sales. With the help of the Pretty Link Pro plugin, I can easily send that traffic to another money making source, for example, the book I created.
Massive Action in 2012
For my 2012 goals though, I am planning on taking massive action. I really need to up the daily, weekly and monthly word count that I am putting out, if I want to hugely increase my income.
I am no longer going to worry about all the details, about “getting it just right”, about finding the perfect tool, or the perfect system. I am no longer going to find the gold nugget to trick the system, or see if there are ways to cut corners, or automatically build links.
From now on, I am going to treat my main earners as my estate and do anything and everything possible, to make it stronger.
In other words: do all that is possible to turn them into even better sites, with more quality content, with the focus on the readers:
1) Killer content and lots of it, refreshing daily
2) Better design
3) Higher speed
4) Secure the sites
5) Personal touch
I think that the combination of these 5 points will make the sites much more legit in G´s eyes, PLUS by providing my readers with what they are looking for, I think I won´t have to go into great length to get backlinks; in time the links will grow naturally.
Basically, this is also the direction that TKA has started to go into over the course of 2011 and it was quite a curious process to witness as a member. I had been with the TKA for 2 years, loved the place and still do. And even though I am no longer a member there, I still recommend the place to anybody who does not know how to build a solid income online.
I said earlier, that it is hard to predict your earnings, but that you can predict your output in words. Well, looking at my stats and earnings per site that I am going to focus on in 2012, I know that each published on-site article will make €1 per month.
I also know, that that figure is set low on purpose, in reality an article usually makes more per month, but wanted to be on the safe side.
I also know, that the more articles you put on a site, the faster the traffic will grow and thus the value per month will increase as well.
So basically, in order to reach my 12K per month goal, I will need 12K articles published, 1K articles per month, you do the math!
Here is where the 10X rule will come in… MASSIVE ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN IN ORDER TO MAKE IT BIG!
Now, there is no doubt in my mind, that that number is virtually impossible if I have to write all the material on my own. However, I KNOW for a fact, that I will reach that amount of income long before I have published 12K articles.
But, I know for a fact, that once you start kicking it in a massive way, the process will start snowballing and grow bigger and bigger, faster and faster, and that at one point, I will outsource most of my content, enabling me to grow even faster.
These past years, I always tried to improve to the point where things had to be perfect. So perfect that I made it hard on myself to get anything done, because there were always details missing or whatever excuse I could find, not to reach perfection, and thus lower my output.
This year though, I am going to focus on writing content and nothing but writing content. And I will be doing it in a niche that I know a lot about, that has my full interest, and that I know converts well. Plus, I understand the niche, I KNOW what people are looking for. I know the keywords, I know the train of thought, so I am in the perfect position to give them what they are looking for.
PLUS, this past year has taught me, that the output of a higher amount of articles on my site, leads to more traffic, as long as I make sure that my on-site SEO is effective.
If you are still reading at this point, I want to congratulate you, because it means that you are most likely to understand that there are no short cuts for long term goals. If you want to build an online business in Internet marketing, or any other form of online income, you must understand that the base of your business must be solid.
If you try gaming the system, you might get short term results, but in the end, you will lose.
I for one, am glad to see the change towards offering higher quality. I have seen many people complain this past year, about Google destroying their business. What used to work like a charm, setting up thin sites and cashing in, might still work for a short period of time.
So… here is to 2012… may it be the best year ever, and remember:
TAKE MASSIVE ACTION TO EXPECT MASSIVE RESULTS!
