Objectives for 2010

In my round up of 2009, I promised to share my objectives for 2010. I think it’s a good thing to go public with these – it’s a kind of affirmation putting them out there in the public domain, and it’s also a good way to clarify your thoughts – if you can explain them to everyone else, then it means you really understand them.

So let’s have a look at what I hope to achieve, with your help:

Content

I’ve posted around once a day during 2009, but I’ve noticed a marked increase in traffic when I have put two or more posts onto the site. For that reason, I want to up the posting frequency. I plan to do this by adding Firas’ techie posts, and also doing more “newsy” short posts on stuff of general interest to bloggers. I hope that will increase the value to readers, and make Mike’s Life an even better resource for new and learning bloggers.

Objective: 10 posts a week, 500 for the year.

Traffic

I was kind of pleased to be consistently hitting 1000 visitors a day. Then I did some of the research for Beyond Blogging, and found that of our featured bloggers, the lowest daily traffic was around 40,000 a day! That’s a huge, huge difference! I’ve already talked about upping my posting, I don’t think I can comment much more around the web than I already do, but there are two things I can do to drive more traffic, do more guest posts and increase my Twitter follower base, and those objectives follow on from here.

I was also happy that my Alexa ranking had come down to 130,000, but I want to get to the top 50,000 websites by the end of next year.

Objective: Increase traffic to 6000 visitors a day. Improve Alexa ranking to below 50,000

Guest Posts

This is an area I’ve been failing at. It’s my own mental block – I really struggle to write good content and then “give it away” to another site. It’s something I simply have to overcome.

Objective: Write two guest posts for quality sites each month

Twitter

I’m really pleased at how much I have enjoyed Twitter, and what a positive impact it has had on the blog. During 2009, I’ve added over 9000 followers. I don’t use any tools, and I don’t autofollow, so that growth has been organic – click by click. I think it’s reasonable to try to do the same again in 2010. Compared to some people, my total of 20,000 followers will still be low, but I’ll know they are engaged and interested.

Objective: Increase Twitter followers to 20,000

Subscribers

I actually wanted to get to 1000 subscribers in the first year, and failed, hitting just over 800 on this blog. I plan to really focus on this in the early part of 2010, and I’m working on a huge case study of my wife’s blog, and how she took that from zero to a full time income in a year. It’s in the very competitive travel niche. My plan is to offer it free to anyone who wants it, and on the final page will be an invitation to join the Mike’s Life community. I aim to get 10,000 copies out free, treating it like a paid product launch, and from there I expect to get around 2000 new subscribers, with the balance coming from normal traffic growth.

Objective: Launch and distribute 10,000 free copies of Case Study, with aim of increasing subscriber list to 5000 overall.

Affiliate Programs

I don’t believe in the scatter gun approach on affiliations. I only recommend products I like and use, and currently they are: Aweber email system, Inmotion Hosting, the Ultimate Footer Ad and the book How to be Rich and Happy. My plan in 2010 is to continue to focus on those, improving my conversion rate and ranking better for their relevant search terms. Additionally, I’m aiming to be involved once again in David Risley’s Blog Master’s Club when that re-launches, because I think it’s excellent. Aside from those, I’ll keep an eye out for anything good in the second half of the year and may do one other promotion.

Objective: 100 new Aweber clients, 50 new Inmotion clients, 24 sales of Ultimate Footer ad,  120 sales of How to be rich and happy, 10 Blog Master’s Club clients

Own products

I think it’s an issue with many bloggers and internet marketers, that they launch one product, and almost before the dust has settled, they are on to the next one, the next big buzz. I think many good products get consigned to the back burner long before they’ve achieved what they could.

For that reason, I don’t plan to launch any new products directly on Mike’s Life in 2010. There may be something related to Beyond Blogging, but that’s still in early planning. Instead I want to take the three products I do offer, The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging, The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter, and Beyond Blogging, and make them better and focus on selling those to people who will benefit from them.

I’ve learned a lot about the value of good design for both the product and the sales pages for them, and also about the value of consistently driving traffic to those pages, so in the first part of the new year expect to see updates on content and designs for BGB and BGT.

Objective: 10,000 copies of Beyond Blogging sold, 6000 copies of Beginner’s Guide to Blogging sold, 1200 copies of Beginner’s Guide to Twitter sold

Design

Mike’s Life runs on a free theme I tinkered with and changed myself. It works, but it’s not as effective as I would like. In quarter two of 2010, I plan to get a professional designer to work on the site, and then to repeat the new design on my Twitter background, business cards and everywhere else the brand appears. I’m going to combine this with a set of professional photos that will make me look even more devastatingly handsome than I already do.

Objective: Complete redesign on blog and all aspects of online brand and to rank No 1 on Google for the term “Devastatingly Handsome Boomer Blogger”

Connections

I’ve spent all of 2009 in an online cocoon – I’ve made some amazing friends, and have established a fantastic partnership with Nathan Hangen, which I’m sure will lead to much more in the future. But I haven’t met any of you, or shared a beer or a coffee with you. That will change in 2010. I will be visiting at least two blogging events in the US, and one in Europe during the course of the year. I also plan to combine these visits with some general promotion with local newspapers, radio and TV for Beyond Blogging and for Mike’s Life. I feel my story is interesting enough to capture some general interest mainstream media interest, if only because I live on a desert island!

Objective: Two blogging events in the US, one in Europe, meet as many friend as possible at each

Income

You’ll have noticed that income came last, and the truth is I didn’t even consider it when planning my objectives, and my advice to you is to do the same. Don’t start with “I want to earn $100,000 this year” and then try to plan how to do that. Instead, decide what you can realistically offer the market, and gauge the numbers you should expect to sell. Income then comes as the last stage.

If I achieve all of the above, it will result in a net income after expenses of well into six figures.

That about covers it. I’m very clear about what I want to do in 2010, now I just need to break each of those objectives down into actions and monthly targets so I can monitor progress.

What are your thoughts, advice, ideas?