Goal Setting — 2018
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Whew. I am the type of person who wants everything laid out perfectly. You may have noticed it in my blog posts (not really) or the way I am writing topics at least.
I have finally put things out there. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
- Looking Back: 2017 Sales / Business Performance
- Looking Back: 2017 Blog and Personal Stats
- Where I Plan to Invest in 2018
- Mission, Vision and Values
So, as a background, I currently have three huge projects planned out for 2018 (which you can see in my Mission, Vision and Values post). Today I am making lofty goals because — duh sky’s the limit, right? I particularly love the way Elna Cain of Twins Mommy lays out all her goals so I’m following it the way she does it.
1. Time Management and Motivation
Honestly, time management is the biggest struggle for me. I have a 4yo daughter, who can play by herself most of the time, and a 5mo son, who is currently in the teething phase and is very clingy lately because of his allergies. So basically, I just make use of whatever free time I have to do client or business work and work around his schedule. I find myself sleeping during the night even if I resolve to stay up a little bit later to catch up on everything. Sleep is still my biggest priority, it seems. Haha!
What I plan though is to work only 4 days a week, preferably for 6–8 hours only. The 5th day will solely be for work I will do for my blog/business, which means this will be for content creation, marketing and planning.
I hope to change that in the coming months as I create more passive income but for Q1, that will be my goal. It will be a struggle to give up my weekends — I could probably use that for planning/brainstorming, too.
As for motivation, I think that joining Becky Mollenkamp’s group coaching program, the OICI VIP, is already a great motivation. I have an accountability partner, Sue, who blogs over at successfulexpat.com and I look forward to bouncing off ideas and plans with her.
Reading these blogs, receiving their emails and/or joining their Facebook groups is also a great motivator for me:
I’m also working on developing a workflow for my content as well as for my client work but that will probably come later on.
Additionally, I need to work on my automation for client onboarding using Dubsado*.
2. Content
I have huuuge goals for my content this 2018. But I’ll start off with doing a blog post a day, for the next 30 days or so, at least for the two blogs I have that don’t have much content yet. Oh, and did I mention that I have two other destination niche blogs that I’ve yet to start on? Haha!
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Hey, Miss Adventures!
- write 3 posts a week, MWF — Fridays will be round-ups on family travel posts
- explore creating photo albums and videos to share on Facebook and YouTube
- start doing Facebook Lives for when we visit hotels or other destinations
- start a Facebook Group
The Creative Stretch
- write 5 posts a week for the next 30 days
- explore doing Facebook Lives
- start a Facebook Group
Budgetarian Home
- write 5 posts a week for the next 30 days
An awesome win I have today is that I have about half of my topics/titles figured out already. I’ll probably do some brainstorming next week again. But for now, the next step is to actually get started writing those posts!
3. Traffic and Promotion
I had a measly amount of traffic — and I honestly hate social media — for my blogs. Based on my previous stats, here are my BHAGs for all blogs for 2018:
- Traffic — 100,000 (HMA) / 30,000 / 50,000
- Facebook — 30,000 / 5,000 / 5,000
- Facebook Group — 500 / 500 / 500
- Pinterest — 10,000 / 5,000 / 20,000
- Email — 5,000 / 5,000 / 5,000
Other things I plan to do, basically x3 effort hahaha I am such an ambitious woman:
- Use SEO — I currently have a subscription for Keysearch* and I also plan to continue my Build Blog Freedom course and buy the Demystifying SEO for Bloggers ebook
- Comment in at least 3 blogs per day, 5 days a week
- Join Facebook groups and join promo days
- Write 1 guest post for each blog at least once a month (and create a landing page for either a course or a lead magnet)
- Use Pinterest — I plan to use Pinteresting Strategies (for manual pinning) and also automate using Tailwind* and/or Boardbooster*
4. Income
Here’s how I plan to monetize my blogs for 2018:
Hey, Miss Adventures!
- ads (I need 30k monthly to get to Mediavine)
- sponsored posts (start at $150 per post)
- affiliate marketing
- ebook (this one I plan to finish come February)
Income Goal: $500 per month by March
The Creative Stretch
- affiliate marketing
- services — an action plan would be to pitch 5x a week
- courses — this I’ve yet to come up
Income Goal: $5,000 per month by March
Budgetarian Home
- ads
- affiliate marketing
- sponsored posts
Income Goal: $1,000 per month by March
Total Income Goal by March: $6,500 per month
5. Email List
I’ve already started brainstorming lead magnet ideas for all three blogs but have yet to write the content and design it. I am planning to get the ball rolling by the 25th of January.
For now, I am looking at using MailChimp* but looking forward to using Drip* or Convertkit in the coming months. I plan to collect these emails through:
- lead magnet
- content upgrades
- challenges (for Budgetarian Home)
- Hello Bar
- landing pages for guest posts
I guess that’s it. I’m way over my head but what the heck — reach for the stars, right?
What about you? What goals do you have in mind?
