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Everyone is writing about their goals for 2009, so I thought I’d put out some of mine here on Dorm Room Biz to share with you all. If you did not read my small post about reflections on 2008, then give that a quick read. It will only take a couple of minutes. No really, go ahead, read it. I’ll wait here.
…okay, still with me? Alright, here are a few simple goals for 2009 that I’d love to meet.
- Grow Dorm Room Biz RSS subscriber numbers to over 250. The count is currently at 109, which is good, however, I want to grow that a lot. Reaching a broader audience will then help grow the site and help me achieve more of my goals.
- Generate over $250 a month from Dorm Room Biz. I’m on the way to doing this, as each month lately I have been around $100-$150. Reaching $250 should not be a problem. However, there is an evil side to this. ALL of that money does not come from Dorm Room Biz, about 15% comes from two other sites. But because it is a little amount, I just include it within the Dorm Room Biz income. Too much of a pain to sort it all out when the payments are combined!
- Completely redesign and restructure the website…this is coming soon. With any luck, by the end of January I will be releasing the new theme for the site and I hope to keep it for at least the rest of the year.
A couple non-Dorm Room Biz goals that I have are:
- Launch 2 more celebrity focused websites. I currently have TheRavenSymone which preforms pretty well in the search engines and brings in small change each month. I’m building my second site now and will be making a bigger announcement about it towards the end of January when I have some more content up. I’d like to get at least 2 more sites up and running by the summer so that they can continue to grow throughout the remainder of the year. The sites will probably be static HTML sites rather than being based on WordPress, but we will see what happens with that.
- Grow my website development business to at least $3,000 a month in revenue. Over the past couple months I have slacked on actively promoting it and looking for new clients. 2009 will be a new year and a new leaf turned for the business. I’m working on getting a new logo for the business and a new website will follow. When these are done, it will be time to fit the ground running to find new clients.
- This final one is a long shot, but I’d love to launch my eBay company into a retail space and make it a fully self supported business. This would include finding the store front, possibly securing a loan to help upfront costs, and then growing my inventory as well as going to back to offering a drop off service (you drop off an item, I sell it, and you get most of what it sells for). This is also dependent on some factors involving a possible full internet tax and the state of eBay sales in the second half of the year. In order to accomplish this, the eBay business would need to generate at least $4000/month in sales. I’m about a third of the way there right now.
So there you have it. Lets make our goals happen together – leave a comment with your goals or a link to your post about your 2009 goals as I would love to check out what other young entrepreneurs are working towards!
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Happy New Year, Chris!! I decided to simply comment here (cos you need more comment love — you provide such sweet and awesome content, and I think comments sometimes show you that we are indeed listening, and we care very very much for you!) about my 2009 goals.
1) A Strong List Based on Honor, Loyalty, and Strength — those three characteristics may seem odd to talk about in public, but it’s always been my goal to become a full time internet marketer with 100% integrity. Sure, if I had taken the “low road”, I would have been able to quit my day job far far long time ago, but I wouldn’t have been able to sleep like a baby the way I do now.
I want to build a list that educates, teaches, encourages, and yes, even disciplines along the way for entrepreneurs that need to hit the ground running. I’m notorious for being the Fast Content Creator — I generally create & launch new products from start to finish in less than a week’s time.
I put product creation on pause to really build a strong list, because I know from direct mail marketing that a good list is worth far far more than just money.
What I see is that a lot of list owners are afraid to market to me, the list subscriber. MARKET TO ME, AND MARKET WELL. I’m a buyer, a devourer of information like nothing else on earth. Why *not* market to those people? Sure, people may unsubscribe, but they aren’t really apart of your core team of fans anyway if they can’t take a marketing message every once in a while in exchange for valuable content, yes?
2. Less Free Work — I gave away a lot of content in 2008, and didn’t have the systems in place to make money anyway (like a strong backend, or even a real product) – I was very client oriented and spent hours and hours of time trying to convince clients to pay me a living, breathing wage instead of a nickels and dimes wage.
3. Get Physical. Refund bandits screwed up digital sales for me. I don’t mind that someone asks for a refund — it happens. But when you continue to purchase my other products and keep doing that, it gets my attention. The excuses are pretty lame “it uh, didn’t work for me” (I find that very vague — tell me why so I can make the product even better!) and one guy even said that he never got the product, when my servers indicated he did.
Also, I feel that physical information products fetch a higher premium — do you think Lucinda Bassett’s “Living Without Anxiety” or any of the Tony Robbins tapes sold for $27? I think not 🙂
People are used to physical information products costing a bit more money than digital products, and I am all about creating premium experiences in 2009. I simply cannot create mucho super crazy value and then ruin that by selling it for $17 — some of my buyers have noted that the low price was a hesitation they had — if it’s so good, why is it so cheap?
I know that in the MLM world, a 3 figure entry fee (for example, when my friend joined YTB she had to pay like $400) is common. I’m going to definitely create an affordable product line, but I definitely want to channel my inner Saks Fifth Avenue / Neiman Marcus as well 🙂
4. We Get Local. I’d like to join the Chamber of Commerce, to communicate with and really get to understand the trials and tribulations of local business owners, and teach them direct response techniques that have changed the way I do business.
I want to raise the profile of my company and also give it “roots”, something that I think is highly important even for us virtual folks.
5. More Syndication. There’s a lot of strong content I’ve created over the years, but no one actually sees it. It hit me when I saw that Connie Ragen Green (@ConnieGreen on twitter), has over 883 articles created in the span of 1.5 years! I’m a fast content writer, I really need to raise my profile and create authority in my niches. I *am* a sharp copywriter, it’s time I make that known 🙂
Creating a book and being on radio for real really has changed my opinion on product creation, promotion and everything in between. I used to believe that others would just toot my horn for me, but I gotta get out there and shine.
6. More Isa! I’m still a rather shy person, but as I began watching your videos, I realized that hey, I could be in front of the video cam too! I’m actually creating a video series on how I create copy. I’m doing a salesletter for Amanda Goldston’s new Clearing Limiting Beliefs program for my copywriting portfolio, and figured I’d generate another source of income by giving people a rare peek into how my brain works to create good copy very quickly — it’s a process that I’ve refined over the last few years.
Can’t you tell I’m a long form copywriter? I’ve written a little mini book here, but when Chris asks, I write! 🙂 Take care, and I wish you nothing but success in 2009 — and beyond!
Work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Wow, one heck of a comment Isa!! I love it! Thanks for stopping by, being supportive, and sharing your insights!