Goal setting, can be a part of an overall business plan, but you have to start somewhere. Without it, you will keep flailing around and never get anywhere.

Setting daily goals will help keep you focused and is a simple way to get started. In doing so, it will help keep you from being overwhelmed and in turn, giving up.

So let’s get started.

Before you start to implement the plan for your business, the question you need to ask yourself is “What are my goals for this project?”

In other words, your goals are the end result that you’re looking to achieve with whatever project you are undertaking. It becomes a plan, of sort, that you need to implement to be able to arrive at the results you’re looking for. It’s like the old saying, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”.

While setting goals is an important part of any business plan, it’s only part of the picture. Achieving them is even more important. Learn how to identify which goals are important enough to commit to, and systematically work towards them by breaking them down into steps, establishing timelines, identifying the resources you need, and benchmarks for success.

I know this can sound a little overwhelming, but let me see if I can break it down for you to better understand. Let’s start with…

“What is a Business Goal?”

In the business world, a goal is a statement that clearly describes actions to be taken or tasks to be accomplished by a company, a department or an individual. A business will have a number of goals, each describing a desired future result and how efforts towards that result are directed. If the goals are accomplished, then the business should be a success.

The statement in itself is an action plan. It becomes a ‘to do’ list that individuals can take and run with a little bit of the time. This makes it more manageable for all concerned to be able to get things accomplished. And the end result is, if things are accomplished, then the project will be completed.

Now, the thing to understand is that goal setting has 2 basic purposes…

The first purpose is to establish a measure or away to evaluate the success of your business. Whatever you do you must be able to track it and make sure that it is on track to your success.

The second purpose of your business goal is set different priorities for all involved. You need to decide who will be accountable for the accomplishments of each goal you set.

Let’s say for example, you are putting together a report that you want to sell online. To do this, you have to consider all the aspects of putting it together. Not only do you have to write a report, but you have to put it together in a downloadable form.

You’ll need a webpage with sales copy, possibly graphics for the webpage and e-book cover, a payment processor in place to handle sales, a way to deliver the report, etc.

You will need to decide who will be responsible for each aspect of the project. Who will write the e-book, will it be you or will you have it ghostwritten? Who’s going to create the sales page and graphics? Who’s going to do the sales copy?

Maybe instead of an e-book, you want to do a video series. Who will do the videos? And the list goes on. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to do it all and will need to outsource a good portion of it.

If this is the case, then you will need to set goals for the individuals that you are outsourcing to. You will need to define a timeline in which you expect the goal to be met.

It definitely takes some thought and planning, but in the end will find that by setting goals, you will be focused and stay on track to completing your project.

Once you learn to set goals for individual projects, you will be well on your way to establishing long-term business goals for the future of your business. Your long-term goals need to be challenging, even to setting goals that will require some effort to reach. Un-obtainable goals will lead to failure, so be realistic and challenge yourself and everyone that is involved.

So to sum it up, your business goals, whether for a project or long-term, need to state…

1. What is going to be done and who is going to do it.

2. It needs to be task-oriented and clearly state what is to be accomplished.

3. A time line, or date, that the task needs to be completed.

I know it sounds like a lot to take in, but here’s a simple way to get started. Each and every day, take a pen or pencil and a notepad and write down what your goals for the day are. Even to do it the night before, so you have it already in place when you get up and get started the following day. You would be surprised how effective this can be and as you complete a goal, or task, check it off the list. At the end of the day, you will be able to see what you’ve accomplished and what you haven’t.

A little tip that I find really helps me, is that if I get stuck on a task that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, I will move on to the next thing on the list and then come back to it. At least this way, I am continually moving forward and sometimes if I’m stuck, it gives me an opportunity to mentally regroup.

Well, I really hope this helps you out. Get started today developing goals for your success.

Until next time, enjoy.

Let me ask you something. Are you a Marketing Frog?

With the economy being the way it is, it’s no wonder that more and more people are turning to the Internet to try and make money. One of the big questions that always comes up is “how do I make money online?”.

It’s a fair question to ask, and yet there is no pat answer. It takes a little bit of time to get settled into the best way for you to make money. The problem is that I see so many answers given, like do article marketing, pay per click, adsense, affiliate marketing and so on. I mean, there’s a lot to choose from and a lot of different ways to go…

But it takes a little time to get settled into something and it needs to be something that you can be successful at. This in itself takes some trial and error testing. It’s not something that happens overnight.

The problem is that most people won’t take the time, or don’t have the patience, to follow through. They soon become, what I call, marketing frogs.

They may find something that has some minimal success, but because the money is not coming fast enough they soon start hopping around looking for the next best thing. What most don’t realize, is that if something seems to be working, then there needs to be a little bit of time to let it grow and develop.

Sadly, too many people give up too soon and jump to the next thing that they heard of, or maybe someone recommended.

Before too long, they are just hopping from one idea to another and never getting any kind of results.

Are you one of those people? If you are then don’t feel bad. With all the opportunities online it’s really easy to do, but you have to stay focused and on track. Find something that you feel will work, take action with it, stay focused on what you’re doing and see where it goes. If after a while, it doesn’t seem to work, then move on but please realize it’s not going to happen overnight.

Now, this brings me to the next problem that I see. Every week, even every day, there is a new product that comes out telling you that it’s the secret to your success. The problem is it maybe a product that’s totally unrelated to what you’re doing. Trust me, I see these products and sometimes I would like to buy them, but the problem is they don’t fit into what my current business model is.

Over time, one cure I have found for this is to keep my credit card in my pocket. Sure, they’re probably great products, but they don’t fit what I’m doing and I don’t buy. It’s as simple as that.

Now the next step is once you find something that you feel would be a good way to go to making money online, is to start by setting some goals for what you are doing. It’s not enough to get excited about what you’re doing, and even start seeing some success, unless you have a goal in mind in a way to fulfill it.

This becomes crucial to the success of your online business. Otherwise, you are going to be distracted and it will cause you in most cases to give up and quit.

Set some small actionable daily goals that will help you get to your big picture goal and every time you achieve one of your small goals make sure you do something to celebrate your accomplishments.

Next time, I’m going to give you some insight into setting goals to help you out.

Until then, enjoy.

Well, the good news is that there is hope for you to make money online. Believe me, you can do it, if you really put your mind to it.

There are four necessary keys that I have found over time that I believe are crucial for your online success.

1. Step-By-Step Coaching

This one is really important because in order to succeed online you need step-by-step coaching from people who have been there, done that. Someone with a proven track record. Face it, it can be so difficult to understand how to succeed online without step-by-step teachings.

If there is no proven step-by-step formula to follow than you are basically out on your own trying to figure things out.

This kind of teaching is extremely valuable and you can’t underestimate the power of it. Let’s face it that nearly all people that are successful today online started in a similar spot you did not knowing which steps to take for success. Everyone has to learn somehow so you may as well learn with a step-by-step system.

2. Website Traffic

Every website online needs traffic or website visitors in order to succeed. It is safe to say that without traffic Google, eBay, Amazon, and other major websites are nothing. The same thing holds true for your business. You can’t get people to sign up for your list, buy your product, or click on your affiliate link without traffic to your site.

Traffic is literally the lifeblood of your online business, is a core component that separates those that have succeeded well online and those that have not. You need to study and learn proven traffic systems to succeed online.

3. Technical Knowledge

In order to have some semblance of success you need to know some basic technical things like how to upload files to your web hosting company, how to use your hosting Cpanel, how to setup WordPress on your own, etc.  Armed with these basic skill sets you can really start seeing some success.

If you do a search on Google, and especially on You Tube, you can find all kinds of teaching tutorials and videos that will show you just what to do.

4. Support

Live support is probably one of the best solutions you can find to really succeeding online.  Finding a program that lets you ask questions when you have them will really help propel you to succeed.  Sometimes e-mail interaction is just not enough so being able to talk to an expert and turn to them for support will be huge for you.

While this is not all inclusive, I think it gives you a great start on the road to success.

If you really want to jump start things, take time to check out one of my mentors extremely valuable coaching offer. Tell Rob that John sent you.

That’s all for now. Enjoy.

I have been using Skype for about 2 years now and I just love it. It’s an important part of my business for keeping up with clients and business contacts. It’s quicker than email and if need be, I can talk to whoever and get what I need right away.

But this caught me totally off guard.

I have been online for about 10 years learned the basics of PC security first things. Keep the anti-virus up to date, firewall on, never open attachments from emails without scanning, etc. I use Windows, so I keep the patches up to date, even do regular back ups of my files.

Never been caught, especially by all the bogus emails I get every day ‘phishing’ for info. I make it a point to stay on top of things.

Hey, I got it going on… or so I thought.

Anyway, I was working along when I got a message in Skype from a business contact. It asked to log into my Skype account to check something. There was a link included.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

I go to the page to log in, thinking something wasn’t right, but wasn’t paying attention, so I entered my user name and password and hit submit.

Next thing I know, I am locked out. What an idiot, I was logged in already, or else how would I have gotten the message.

Well, the damage was done, I no longer had access and after a few minutes, I get an email verifying my change of email address.

A sinking feeling came over me. All my business contacts lost.

I immediately filed a support request with Skype, which was an experience in itself, and after 2 days of going back and forth with them, I was able to get control of things again.

I don’t think it would have taken that long, but they aren’t the sharpest group of people to deal with.

Once I got back in and online, the damage was minimal, but annoying to say the least. Two people I know got ‘my message’ and lost their accounts and quite a few got the message, but managed to get past things unscathed.

What’s strange is that after having a chance to talk to different people that stay up on scams like this, they were totally unaware. I couldn’t find anything anywhere on it.

Fortunately it’s a free acount. I can only wonder what the damage would have been if I had paid subscriptions attached to this account.

So, I wanted to give you a head’s up on this, so maybe you won’t get caught.

And the moral of the story is always pay attention. It’s not a matter of if it can happen, but when.

Winning customers is essential for the success of our enterprise. And this is also true for online businesses. In fact, some would say that winning customers online has its share of pros and cons. The good news is that the entire world is your market, and you could potentially reach more people through the World Wide Web. The disadvantage?

The Internet offers a more impersonal channel in our dealings with people, making it more difficult to garner their trust and favor.

So what are we to do then? Fear not, dear friend. As with everything else in life, we should try to accentuate the positives to compensate for the negatives. Here are a few ways by which you could gain a good number of customers, and keep them for a long and profitable business for you and your family.

Always deliver quality goods or services

There is no better vehicle for our business message than our products themselves. Consistently offering things that are more than worth our customers’ time and money will brand us as enterprises that are committed to quality products and services.

This would only serve us well in future dealings with the same clients. Additionally, this would make our clients as advertising vehicles for our business as well, as they would spread the word about the excellence of our service to people belonging to their network.

Always try to over-deliver

People love receiving more than what they paid for. If you consistently give them some extras, their minds would be conditioned to trust your business for future transactions.

Provide bonuses

In addition to the product you’re selling, add some more goods that would perk up the package. Do this in a manner that you will make your customers aware of the value of the bonuses if they were otherwise purchased. This would definitely increase the worth of your product, and such would make it more favorable for a successful sale.

Additionally, your bonuses would foster good will with your clients, and this could go a long, long way for future orders.

Build relationships

The importance of building good relationships with your customers cannot be undermined. As we’ve discussed earlier, the Internet is a rather informal venue for personal dealings. So try to humanize your approach so that your customers can relate to you as someone who is more than just a business provider, but also as a friend.

Make use of a mailing list

A mailing list is an Internet marketers number one weapon. By capturing the contact details of people who may not have been interested with their current offer, they will be able to condition the same people for future sales. And this could serve their businesses well for quite a long time, as one successful sale can beget another and another after that.

So invest on an excellent autoresponder service and prepare those follow-up messages well. Take good care of your subscriber base, and they will take good care of your business in return.

Winning customers is more than just luck

It entails a lot of strategizing and good planning. Retaining customers involve the same level of commitment as well. In the highly competitive world of online marketing, trust plays an integral role in achieving our goals. Try your best to win your customers’ trust. Take care of it.

And for sure, this trust would fuel good business for you for many years to come.

The Internet is a wild and wonderful place. From what originally started as a scientific experiment for the exchange of information, it has fast become the Global Meeting and Marketplace. People from all over the world can stay in contact and goods can be bought and sold any where in the world.

The exciting aspect that has come into play is with the downturn of the global economy, it has fast become a place for people to generate an income both part-time and full-time. What could be easier than working from home or operating a full time business from any where you are.

It’s a great way to go.

So, with that in mind, I hope that you will spend some time here and follow along in the journey called Online Marketing. There’s something new around every corner and a new learning experience everyday.

Dedicated to Your Success,

John Burnette