Clearly Defining Your Internet Marketing Plan For 2011

With the New Year approaching, millions of resolutions will be made and ultimately broken over the next few weeks or months.  I have never been a fan of resolutions per se, but I do believe the New Year is the perfect time for goal-setting, in particular, definable goals with suitable timetables.

It is especially important in internet marketing to have definable goals.  By definable, I mean goals with predetermined numbers or objectives.  Simply saying, “I want to write more articles in 2011” is not a definable goal.  A definable goal in this case would be, “I want to write 5 articles a week in 2011.”  There is now a definitive number of articles to write in a given time period.

Another example of an undefined goal is, “I want to make money online in 2011.”   Well, of course as an internet marketer, you want to make money online, but how much?  A more definable goal for making money online in 2011 would be:  “I want to make $1000 a month online within the next 12 months.”

There are three primary reasons for making your internet marketing goals definable:

1) Planning

When it comes to making money online, there must be an internet marketing plan in place to succeed.  Planning provides the blueprint for reaching your goals.  Short-term goals can actually be the plan for reaching your long-term goals.  In the example a provided above, writing 5 articles a week could be part of the plan to make $1000 a month online.  In essence, your short-term goals are the plan for reaching your long-term or most ambitious goals.

2) Motivation

If someone approached you and offered to pay you to carry a 50 pound rock up a steep hill, your first question would naturally be “how much?”  If the individual never disclosed an amount, you would probably never be compelled to carry the rock up the hill.  Now if that same individual offered you $100.00 to carry that same 50 pound rock, it would likely change your attitude.

The example here is a bit goofy, I know, but you get the picture.  An undefined payment for carrying the rock probably wouldn’t motivate most people, but $100.00 might certainly do the trick.  This same logic can be applied to internet marketing as well.  Coming up with a monthly income figure that would impact your life in a meaningful way would likely be much more motivating than simply aspiring “to make money online.”

3) Evaluation

At the end of the day, there must be some way to evaluate performance and measure progress.  In the 5 articles a week example, it is easy to evaluate performance and measure progress – anything less than 5 articles written per week is not meeting the defined goal.  With a clear understanding of how you are performing and progressing in your goals, it is easier to identify problems, find solutions and make the appropriate adjustments.

It’s okay to have New Year’s resolutions, but as an internet marketer it is more useful to set new goals for the upcoming year.  Sit down, come up with some realistic and attainable goals and then define those goals with concrete figures and objectives for 2011.