Make Money Online w/ Court

Why You Won’t Reach Your Online Goals in 2011

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 07:46 AM PST

Welcome back to The Keyword Academy! We took most of 2010 off from blogging, spending basically 100% of our time with our Pro members. But now it’s a new year, and time to get back to blogging. We’ll be sharing new insights and case studies that will help you improve your earnings this year by leaps and bounds. More to come!

Setting Internet Income Goals is a Waste of Time

“This is the year I finally put the pieces together and reach $X,000 in earnings from my websites,” resolves the jubilant newbie.

I’m sorry to burst bubbles, but no, my friend, this is most likely NOT the year you will reach $X,000 in earnings from your websites.

“What? What do you mean? If I set a goal and commit to doing anything necessary to achieve it, I can’t possibly fail!”

Sure you can. For two reasons:

Do You Even Believe It’s Possible to Make Money Online?

1. You plucked a number out of the air and declared it your do-or-die online income goal. It wasn’t based on a tangible benefit you’ll realize in your life thanks to the new income. So you threw out a random big number, thinking how amazing it would be if you could get there. But the fact is you can’t even grasp that income conceptually.

I’ve surveyed hundreds of new TKA Pro members. One of their top concerns is believing it’s possible to make money online. There’s too much hype, hysteria, and wishful thinking in the internet marketing world. It confuses and discouraged people to the point that they can’t imagine making a single penny online. (This is probably why new TKA Pro members go completely bonkers when they earn their first dollar online – they never thought they’d see the day!)

So if, deep down, you don’t really even believe it’s possible to make money from your websites (or from the websites you’re hoping you’ll finally get set up this year), how are you going to enthusiastically chase an income goal which likely exceeds your income from your full-time job?

You won’t, and that’s the first big reason you’re going to fall short of your 2011 income goal.

Even if you manage to set a reasonable income goal, you still have a serious obstacle in your path, and this is the second reason you wouldn’t reach your 2011 goal.

You Don’t Understand The Work Required

2. You have NO EARTHLY IDEA what work – or how much of it – will be required to reach your phantom income goal. Setting big goals is the fun part. It’s a euphoric experience to sit down with pen and paper and write out “I will make $5,000 per month on the internet by the end of 2011!”

The question is…How?

You don’t know. And because you don’t know what work will be required, you can’t plan it out. And because you can’t plan it out, you can’t create a list of daily tasks that you KNOW will carry you closer to your income goal. And without a list of high value tasks to check off on a daily basis, how will you make progress?

You won’t. And soon enough (probably ten days ago for most people), you’ll sort of forget the goal, or at least seriously discount it. And when you sit down to your computer you’ll have no confidence in what you should be doing, so you’ll soon be left with nothing to do but sift through the dozens of newsletters in your inbox.

Man, what a downer. I’ve managed to completely depress myself just writing all that out.

Thank goodness I have the solution.

Forget Income Goals – Set Activity Goals!

I can promise you success by following a simple two-step process:

1. Figure out the set of tasks that will create $1 per month of low-maintenance online income.

2. Repeat those tasks until you’ve arrive at your monthly income goal.

Now, come on – I’m not being trite or smug or any of that. I’m dead serious.

It’s usually foolish to set a time-bound goal for online income, because too many factors are out of your control. The only logical thing to do is set goals around tasks and events which are complete in your control.

Tasks such as:

- how many websites you’ll set up in 2011.
- how many keywords you’ll target with each of those websites.
- how many hours you’ll spend promoting those websites.
- how many articles you’ll publish.

All of those activities are in your control, right? Barring family catastrophe (heaven forbid), or major job change, or some other huge life change, you can set a goal to invest a certain number of hours per day, week, and month in your websites.

You’ll Finally Feel Successful

Here’s the beauty of setting activity goals instead of income goals:

1. You get to feel successful the day you start working on your goal, and every day thereafter. You don’t have to wait for some phantom income goal to feel like you’re making progress.

The very first time – and every time – you complete your daily required tasks, you get to give yourself a huge pat on the back and say “Today, I succeeded. I did what 99% of people won’t do – The Work. And I know that when I string enough days of Work together, the income can’t help but follow.”

2. You feel amazing clarity – more than you’ve felt since the day you signed up for your first internet marketing newsletter. Instead of sitting down at your computer and getting lost in other people’s blog posts, you sit down and do meaningful work.

So instead of feeling overwhelmed and confused (which is ALWAYS the result of a trip through five or ten internet marketing blogs), you feel focused and enthusiastic. Instead of the usual blog hangover, you feel invigorated by the knowledge that you’re actually doing something to achieve your goals.

That’s the power of planning daily activity goals instead of making up fuzzy income goals.

But the question still remains – what activity goals should you set? We’ll talk about that soon.

For now, it’s time to refocus. If you’ve already lost enthusiasm for 2011, or settled back into the unprofitable habits of 2010 – snap out of it!

We’re going to give you the tools to finally make some extra money this year.

Stay tuned,

Mark

Helmi Kimsui Menulis..