Tyler’s Goals for 2008
December 29, 2007 Posted by Tyler CruzAs promised a few days ago in my Recap of my Goals for 2007 post, here are the goals I’ve set out for myself for 2008.
When setting a goal to be completed in an entire year’s span, I consider them to be long-term goals. I know that some people consider long-term goals to be more like 10-15 years, but when you’re talking about the web, one year online is comparable to 10-15 years.
Therefore, don’t be surprised if I abandon some of these goals or focus on some of them more than others. But whatever happens, the following list is definitely full of things that I hope get achieved. It really should therefore be called my Hope List for 2008, but enough about semantics…
Here is my list of 5 goals I hope to have achieved by January, 1st 2009 (Wow, doesn’t that sound so far away?):
My Goals for 2008
1. Average 3,000+ RSS on my blog
I love RSS because it’s a great metric to measure the growth of your blog. Traffic will always be the ultimate metric, but most blogs do not share their traffic stats, whereas most divulge their RSS numbers.
Exactly one year ago I was at just under 200 RSS (although it’s important to realize that Feedburner wasn’t counting Google’s RSS reader at that time, so it would probably have been more like 350-375) and am now currently sitting at 1109 for a growth of 500%. I only need to obtain a 300% growth in 2008 to make my 3,000 RSS goal, but on the same token that means I need to acquire 2,000 new readers where last year I only had to acquire around 800.
2. Do some live "Networking" with the industry
This is probably the best goal I have on the list here as it is the only one where I’ll have to actively change my habits to do something about it (whereas I can simply do nothing different and still attain my other goals).
The goal is to get out there and meet and network with the online entrepreneur community and industry. Some ideas I have in mind are to: Visit NeverBlueAds’s headquarters, meet John Chow, or travel to a convention – the most likely one being BlogWorld in Vegas or possibly PubCon. I would have added CAC (Casino Affiliate Convention) to that list but they are not held in Vegas anymore but in Amsterdam.
I’ve never attended a convention before mainly because I don’t think they would be of much benefit to me, but I can’t just assume that and need to at least try going before labelling them as not being beneficial. Although, I must admit that I think going to BlogWorld could be fairly lucrative. I’m a businessman at heart – I love making deals and partnerships so I might be missing out on more than I realize.
The other reason I haven’t gone to any conventions or events is because I never travel. I’ve been to the US for short trips 3 times when I was a lot younger, and moved to Korea by myself for about 6 weeks in 2003, but other than that I’ve been nowhere. The travelling costs is another reason. I live on an island in Canada and so it’s a lot harder for me to travel to a convention in California or Nevada than it is for somebody living in a neighbouring state.
But I still hope to do one of the aforementioned things in 2008, maybe even all three.
3. Average $3,500+ per month from blog
In November of 2006, I made a total of $25 from my blog – literally (I just checked my accounting logs). One year later, in November of 2007, I made a total of $1,047.20 – over a 4000% increase.
The first $1,000 is always the hardest to make, and so I’m optimistic in attaining this goal. If I meet it, it will provide a lot of stability as it will take a lot of pressure off of my poker forum for making the large majority of my income.
And, of course, if I can make $3,500 a month from my blog, there’s nothing stopping me from making $10,000 a month from my blog.
4. Do extensive SEO and reprogramming of Movie-Vault.com
This was on my list last year and I never got to it, but really want to finally get it done now. Once I do (hopefully) get the entire site redone, I will probably put it up for sale, somewhere around the $50,000 – $75,000 mark.
I then plan to parlay that money through the purchase of another existing site, most likely webmaster related or else a forum, one that is brining in monthly residual income. Either that or I’ll put it towards paying off some of my condo.
But I may also end up keeping the new-and-improved Movie Vault, reaping the rewards from its SEO improvement.
5. Make more than 2007
Finally, my last goal is to simply make more than 2007. It’s a simple and obvious goal, but a goal nonetheless. I won’t know how much I’ve made in 2007 until my taxes are done in a few months, but it will probably be just shy of $100,000 at around $90,000-$95,000 or so.
It would be nice for 2008 to be closer to $150,000, but I also understand that is asking for quite a lot…
…but I’m allowed to dream, aren’t I? 🙂
First comment!
Excellent goals, all of which I think are attainable.
Good job with the goals! I’m sure you’ll exceed them in 08.
Do it!
🙂
dk
Some decent ones. Most of them seem to be reachable – good luck! 🙂
Hope you succeed with your goals. Wish you luck and happy new year.
I’m the luck winner of $300 RSS contest
$1,000 to $3,000 is not 300% growth.
It seems that your goal can be archive one day.
Well I have just created my blog around 2 weeks ago and now I have a number of visitor but not many Feed subscribers. Hope one day i can get as much as 100.
Good luck with your goals Tyler and personally, I am convinced that you will overachieve in 2008 as far as goals #1 and #3 are concerned.
Alan Johnson
Some good and honest goals. The only thing that bugs me a little about it is I really think you could do so much more but you don’t seem to be pushing yourself much. I understand part of the whole thing is to be able to enjoy your lifestyle and work as you like but if you put in a few more years of actual hard work you could easily step up your lifestyle to the next level.
I only say that because of things like you talking about going to conventions being a bit expensive…one thing I would have thought would have not been an issue at all for you. Sure you can afford it but even thinking it may be too expensive to justify seems a bit “small time” when you have shown you are “bigger” than that.
It’s not until you start stating these very passive goals that I think of you as “small time” in a way. I mean without knowing the numbers I’d always assume you were bringing in more but then seeing how laid back you are about it all it’s easy to see why. Not saying 100k isn’t decent but with the headstart you have, the experience and knowledge you have, you could easily boost that to the big time.
So rather than being realistic and conservative, why not actually make your goals a bit more seemingly unreachable and then actually really try your hardest to reach them rather than just guesstimate what the natural growth will end up at after a year? Rather than just “hoping” for $150k, I honestly think if you really put in the effort there is no reason you couldn’t break the 1million mark. Honestly. Yeah, it would be more work and effort than you are accustomed to but that alone, along with seeing results of that work, might help perpetuate it more for you.
You always step up and put in the effort for your “48 hour” work week challenges and all that is at stake is a couple hundred dollars. If you were able to motivate yourself to do a year long challenge I am sure you could see yourself in a whole different situation. Maybe do a challenge where if you don’t reach 500k by next year you will pay $5k each to 5 people. How much do you think that would motivate you to really succeed?
Again, I know you enjoy your lifestyle and the fact that you only have to work a couple hours here and there but to be honest, these types of post on most blogs usually motivate me to try harder myself. But yours had the opposite affect and made me feel like you just aren’t trying and that it is a shame.
I usually read you every couple of days because I enjoy the effort you put into your post. If you applied that same type of effort to actually growing your business it really shouldn’t be very long before you see results. Maybe give affiliate marketing another real shot? I think with your attention to detail and natural analytical skills you could really do well with affiliate marketing once you were able to get it down. Rather than “just get by” on the residual revenue from the sites you have, maybe put in some effort, risk some investment and really push forward.
Not sure why I went off on this rant lol. I didn’t intend it to be this long but after looking forward to seeing your goals for the year for a couple days I found myself unmotivated and I was just reading YOUR goals. It honestly made me want to go find someone else’s “2008 goals” just to get some feeling of motivation. It’s not a personal attack, the opposite rather. I’d like to see you really succeed because I have seen you put in the effort and know you could pull it off. Seeing you pull it off would help keep me motivated ;).
I agree with pretty much everything you said, so there isn’t much for me to argue about or answer back with *smile*…
Your “One Year Challenge” idea is not bad – but I think it would only do more harm than good. While it may get me to try to work harder, $20,000 is a lot of money at stake to just give away blindly, and the whole ordeal could just make me very stressed.
I don’t know why I find it so hard to work. I love doing this… it’s a dream job, so it’s not like it pains me to work.
Anyway, I have been stepping it up a notch the past few days, working a little bit harder. I finally got a copy of SEOBook and am reading it word by word, devouring it, and will then give a very thorough review of the book myself in an upcoming blog post.
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and good material to have in my arsenal. I read incredibly slowly and the book is 350 pages not including all the bonus material and linked sources, so it will take me a while.
At 23, he is still a very young person (at least, compared to the “dinosaur” writing this comment 🙂 ) so that the fact that he is underestimating his potential is understandable.
Tyler, I don’t in any way claim to know you (after all, let’s face it, you can’t really know a person just by reading his/her blog entries), but you definitely have the potential of earning more than $100k/$150k per year.
I’m not saying that 100k/150k is bad, but it’s the type of income that can secure a certain lifestyle which makes people feel comfortable and for that reason, it is “dangerous” (because it can keep you from wanting to set higher goals).
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
Yeah, I agree – it is very dangerous. Maybe I need to pick up a motivational book by some capitalistic mogul who is never satisfied.
That’s my problem you see – I’m satisfied… too comfortable, as you say.
Being satisfied is not about a destination, being satisfied is all about the journey, about knowing that you are on the right track.
Satisfaction doesn’t only come as a result of reaching a certain destination (after all, once you reach that destination, it’s time to set higher goals), it comes from knowing that you are doing your best in order to tap your true potential.
Alan Johnson
Wow, nice goals you have there. I can’t say that mine are anywhere near the same. My one and only goal for this upcoming year is to get my blog more popular. I recently unmonetized my site in hopes of gaining more loyal readers. It seemed to have worked. Along with my contest I’m holding right now.
Well, I wish you luck.
Congrats to your 2007 earning. For making close to 100k from your online activities you certainly do deserve some respect.
I am also sure that with your commitment to moneymaking you are easily able to achieve your 2008 goals. Good luck on your ’08 journey.
Dan
Oh and one more thing I see you starting some of the goals early ie. the plug posts crept upto $100 already huh? 😀
Well worth it imo.
[…] with the upcoming new year One example is webmaster blogger Tyler Cruz from Vancouver Island. His article posted his goals for 2008. 3 out of his 5 goals was about making money, or making more money to be […]
Well Tyler i have to say you sure know the way of how to earn some pocket money.
Your mind works pretty much in images. A lot of people do goal setting and often undervalue the amount of attention they need to spend on imagery. I highly recommend people to use their computer along with the traditional “vision boards” technique to reach their goals way faster:
http://www.semmy.de/reveals/visionboard
Happy 2008!
Semmy Stumpp
http://www.semmy.name
Without Fun There Is No Success!
Tyler wishing you much luck and success in the New Year!
[…] According to the past two months, I appear to be gaining 200 new RSS subscribers each month. It was only been one month prior that I hit 1,200 RSS, which was a month after I hit the the huge milestone of 1,000 RSS subscribers. If my RSS continues to grow at this rate of incline I will have over 3,000 subscribers by the end of the year, which was one of my goals for 2008. […]
[…] ce si-a propus pentru anul 2008 […]