Internet Marketing: Your Best New Year's Resolution

Do you make New Year's resolutions, or do you think that's "kid's stuff"? If you'll change your thinking from "resolutions" to "goals," the next few days can provide the perfect opportunity to get your Internet Marketing business off to a great start in 2008!

Goals are tricky critters. If you make them too big, they're intimidating and downright frightening. It's enough to make you pull the covers over your head and hope for a more friendly dream to come along.

On the other hand, if you make your goals too small, they're like Chihuahuas or Toy Fox Terriers--cute but not terribly useful (no offense to my fellow dog lovers!).

Let's get a "Goldilocks perspective" and make your goals "just right"! Your Internet Marketing goals need to have several characteristics in order to work in your favor. If you want to actually achieve your goals rather than just answer the pop quiz about "resolutions" around the water cooler at work, take a look at the following suggestions.

Write down your resolutions! That simple act will change your resolutions into goals. You have to do a little more thinking to put your resolutions into writing, and that thought process helps change vague, confused ideas into clear goals.

Your goals or resolutions need to be attainable. If mountain climbing is on your wish list but you're not sure where to start, don't write "Climb Mount Everest" on your 2008 Resolutions list. Start with the attainable goals of becoming comfortable with rock wall climbing, rappelling, joining a mountain climbing club, and reading books on the subject.

Regarding your Internet Marketing business, we'd all love to be making a million dollars by the end of the year, but you might want to zero in on a more attainable goal for the year. Look at how long your business has been in existence, how quickly it's growing, and what a reasonable amount of income might be over the next twelve months at a slightly increased rate of growth.

Make your goals or resolutions specific. It doesn't work to resolve to "lose weight." How much weight? Pin it down! The same thing applies to your Internet Marketing business. If you want to increase your sales by $20,000 or $40,000 by the end of the year, put it in writing. Be specific with your goal. It's tough to hit a target in the fog. Clear the air by settling on a specific goal amount.

Any goal or resolution can seem unreachable if you look at it as one big task. As one wit put it, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" The most daunting task can be brought down to size by breaking it into smaller, achievable goals. Instead of listing one big goal or resolution, break it down into twelve smaller goals. Each of these smaller goals should elicit a feeling of "I can do that!" when you read it.

Your Internet Marketing resolutions and goals will only become reality if you take that first step. Nike's brilliant slogan, "Just do it!" applies to accomplishing your goals, as well. Nothing will happen if you sit back and wait to be inspired, or wait to be in the right mood. Sometimes you just have to pick yourself up by the collar, give yourself a little shake, and tell yourself to get moving!

Resolve to do something every day to move you closer to your main goal. It can be something relatively small, but all those small actions added up over a year's time have the cumulative effect of reaching your goal. For example, if you want to read a certain number of books by the end of the year, resolve to read at least 10 pages each day. If you want to increase traffic to your Internet Marketing web site, resolve to write one article each week or blog twice each week or set up a certain number of Google Pay Per Click campaigns each week. Then make sure you're researching and working on each of these weekly goals on a daily basis.

Combining two of the above suggestions will move you into the group of the world's most successful people. Statistics show that fewer than three percent of adults have written goals and plans that they work on every single day. When you write out your goals, and do something every day to achieve those goals, you move yourself into the top three percent of people in our society. Those are the "movers and shakers" of our world. They don't just watch things happen--they make things happen! You can, too, if you put your goals and resolutions in writing and make a daily effort to achieve them.

Resolve today to make 2008 the best year yet for your Internet Marketing business. Then make it happen!