Goals For The New Year

It is that time of year. Time to sit down and evaluate your goals for 2011. Last year I set a very specific goal. I wanted to attain 100 personal referrals for my primary business. This was my first real attempt at setting a specific goal. I reached my personal referral goal in July. But, I have not reached my monthly income goal. This left me wondering what I had done wrong?

I have learned you can't pick a random number out of the air. This will not help you achieve success. You need to analyze what you need to do to generate the income you want to produce. You need to break down your monetary goal in to achievable mini goals. This will help you maintain focus which will lead to your success.

I have found most people want to Get Rich Quick. If they don't attain a certain level of income quickly, they quit and jump to a different program with promises of riches. Although this is a nice dream, it is unrealistic to believe you can achieve riches without work.

Build your business the right way. Set small goals which will lead to your primary monetary goal. Build slowly so your business will remain strong. Form a team of strong individuals who have the same goals. We are all stronger with the help of others.

This year when I sit down to set my goals, I will analyze what will help me produce income; What will help me achieve my monthly monetary goal? I am going to break down my expenditures and my current level of income. I am going to use the knowledge I have gained to set realistic goals which will produce results. I am hoping by breaking it down to the basics, I can grow my business and start producing the monthly income I desire.

I recommend you set mini goals. If you don't know how to do this, talk with a mentor in your primary business. Have them help you set up a plan which will help you meet your monthly income goal. If you don't know anyone, I will be glad to help. Just contact me and we will set up an appointment to talk about your primary business and the level of income you want to achieve from it next year. If you have set your goals, I would be very interested in hearing some of the goals my peers have set for next year. Please leave your specific goals by commenting below.

Good Luck and Here is To A Prosperous New Year!

What Does It Take To Succeed As An Internet Marketer?

I have been working extra hard over the last 30 days which got me to thinking -"What Does It Take To Succeed As An Internet Marketer?" Of course, the definition of success is subjective to each person. Let's be realistic and talk dollars and cents.

Each of us have set a monetary goal for ourselves. (If you haven't done this, stop reading and go do it now.) One of the things I have learned is there is no quick way to achieve your long term monetary goals.

This is why it is important to break down your goals in to steps. Let's say you want to achieve a monthly income of $1000 each month. How can you achieve this goal. What programs are you using? What is your success rate? What is your retention rate?

These are all important aspects you need to consider when designing your daily routine. If you are using a program which pays you a $10 monthly commission on each active referral, then you will need 100 active referrals to achieve your goal. If you have a success rate of 1 in 10 sign ups per legitimate contact, then you will need to make 1000 contacts to reach your goal. If your retention rate is 50%, then you will need to replace 50% of your referrals each month.

Now break this down in to weekly and daily goals. If you can get 50 contacts a week or 10 per 5 day work week, then it will take you 20 weeks to meet your goal of 1000 contacts. But, if your retention level is 50%, then you will need to add 10 weeks to you goal plan. This will give you a legitimate capability of reaching your goal in 30 weeks. If you take the time to look at a plan pragmatically, then you will understand why most people quit before they meet their goal.

So, What Does It Take To Succeed As An Internet Marketer? It takes a goal, a plan of action, and the determination & patience to see it through. If you became an Internet Marketer to Get Rich Quick, then I suggest you look for another business.

Marketing YOUR Business

I have been asked to write and entry about my favorite marketing tools. I have been working on some page sites which list my favorites and give a brief description. Before I get to those, I want to stress how important it is to CAPTURE your prospects attention.

The majority of the time you will only have a few seconds to grab the viewer. Whether you are using safe lists or traffic exchanges, your TITLE is the most important part of your ad. You have to GRAB the attention of the viewer at the very beginning or you have lost them. I recommend you do some surfing and see what grabs your attention. Did the title leave you wanting more information? Did you believe the title? Did you find it funny or amusing? After surfing, you should realize what kind of information gets your attention and then build your titles accordingly.

Now that we have that established, let's get to marketing. Safe list marketing is a highly effective way to reach a large number of prospects. You can join most safe list for FREE or you can upgrade and receive additional benefits. Here is my site with recommendations for safe lists. SafeLists
Another popular method for creating traffic for your site is by using traffic exchanges. I have been using traffic exchanges for approximately 5 months and have received a monster amount of traffic to my web sites. Here is the site with my recommendations for traffic exchanges. TrafficExchanges
There are a variety of other tools I use to market my opportunities. Some of these tools are so simple to use but their value is tremendous. If you plan on marketing on Safe Lists and Traffic Exchanges, you will need some of the tools I have listed at my FREE Marketing Tools Site.
FreeMarketingTools

I hope you find this information useful. I am an average person trying to earn a living marketing on the Internet. I love social networking and hope you will connect with me at my main social network, Peoplestring. Here is my personal friend link: Catherine D. White

Time Management

I just returned from a very refreshing vacation. My last post was about using auto responders. I am proud to announce my list of prospects grew while I was on vacation due to the use of auto responders in my marketing. This is a valuable tool and great time saver when it comes to returning emails for informational purposes. If you aren't using an auto responder, I highly recommend Traffic Wave as the best auto responder on the market. If you want more information, check out my last blog post.

I had a lot of time to reflect about my time management while I was on vacation. I consider myself a Mompreneur, which is a term I stole from my facebook friend Meghan Arnold. I am a Mom and an Entrepreneur. As a Mom, I decided to not spend anytime on-line while my kids are awake and wanting my attention. If you are a parent, you know this limits most of my day. So, how do I squeeze in the extra time to do all things I want to do on-line? This is what I decided I need to figure out while I was on vacation.

First, I am going to have to figure out how much time I can squeeze out of each day. If I stay up a couple hours after the kids go to bed, then I can get, at least 14 hours a week on-line. Then, I am going to have to prioritize what I want to get accomplished on-line. For me, this is going to require making out a schedule of daily events. I work much better with a schedule. It may seem silly, but if you don't make a schedule then you may find yourself lost on a project and neglecting a priority you had set for yourself. So, I feel a schedule is quite important if your time is limited. My priority for this week is making a 14 hour schedule. I am going to prioritize my techniques and set my days up by this new schedule.

I think as a Mompreneur a schedule could be the most important marketing tool I can use to get things accomplished. If any of you parents out there have some recommendations, I would be glad to hear from you. Just contact me at catherinedwhite@peoplestring.com