My Resolutions for the New Year!
2010 is here folks… like it or not, another year is in the books, and we are one step closer to the 2012 Mayan end of the world! Yes, I watch Discovery Channel too! :-) Let me start by wishing all my loyal readers a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year! You are one of the MAIN reasons I decided to revive my efforts on this website, and I owe you a thank you for inspiring me to continue! (can you hear the noise makers winding up in the background?)
Without further ado… here goes!
My 2010 Resolutions
I don’t usually make resolutions on the eve of a new year, but this is a bit different for me and I decided I would. I feel I have quite a bit of unfinished business floating around, both in my head and on my desktop, and decided I would tighten the ropes on myself, and encourage myself to finish them up!
I Will Quit Smoking!
Many of you will recall I tried to quit smoking several months ago – I failed! Sure it partially worked and I cut down considerably, but in the end, I picked them right back up and continued. Well, I had enough of enough 3 months ago, found a Quit Smoking Study at Duke University, and signed up! I have been going to weekly meetings & taking the treatments they prescribed for the past 4 weeks, and Jan 1st is my quit date!
The treatments they have me on are over the counter patches, which I have been wearing for the past 3 weeks. The instructions are: Put on Patch (2 a day in my case), continue smoking as you feel you need. On your quit day, stop. I have gone from an average of 22 cigs a day to just 5 a day on the treatment, and I feel more confident than ever I will succeed this time!
I Will Write One “Useful” How-To Post Every Week
How-to and step by step learning posts are what got this site to 70,000 DAILY pageviews in 2008. Getting away from those types of posts, well, you can imagine where the daily pageviews are now! In 2010, I resolve to post at least 1 How-To post every week, along with any other posts I put into the works! The most recent series of post about Building a Review Site Blueprint, is an example of the post types that will take shape in 2010!
One thing I have always tried to avoid is writing useless content! I see too many blogs on the web that gloat on the fact they post every day, never get burned out, and always have something to write about! In reality, 95% of the posts are useless! Serious… how many times have you gone to a site with thousands of posts, only to see that most of them are less than 100 words, and leave you with more questions than answers! Isn’t that what Twitter is for?
I have a plethora of knowledge inside my head! Not book knowledge, but practical, no bullshit, real knowledge that is useful to anyone running a small business, marketing a small business and how it all relates to their online efforts! In 2010, that knowledge is going to flow!
I Will Get Local
Getting local to me means I am going to do a few things ever small business should do. I am joining my local Chamber of Commerce, and going to revitalize my website design business at the local level. They are always looking for speakers and local experts at their monthly meetings, and what a better way to drum up some business, while helping others at the same time!
Along with joining the Chamber, I am also going to focus on building at least 1 local-only affiliate site! I already have the plan and domain for the site, and will share it once done. The idea is to attract local traffic only, then sell ad space to local businesses to get their name in front of the traffic I plan to OWN!
I Will Get More Social
Working at home can make you kinda anti-social! Face it, you spend countless hours in front of a PC and work is always there! Also – there is ALWAYS more work to be done in the never ending world of Internet Marketing, and its way too easy for your online friends to get more attention than any others!
In 2010 – I have a two-pronged social strategy! First, I am going to use Facebook for all its worth! Mari Smith has an Absolutely Fabulous $47, 200+ page ebook for anyone who wants to get the most out of social networking. The Social Marketing Method takes all the guesswork out of building your Facebook footprint and turns daunting chores into 5 minute a day tasks that are easy to do! Highly Recommend!
If you have already done so, how about jumping over and joining the Niche Site Builder fan page on Facebook? There is going to be a lot going on with it this coming year!
The second prong of my “Getting more Social” plan involves doing more in my local community! It goes hand in hand with my “Getting Local” resolution, and I will take advantage of as many local relationships I can build!
Finally – I Will Build One Site and Sell it for At Least $500,000 in 2010
I know – kinda lofty right? If you had the same plan that I have, you wouldn’t think so! Myself and Bill from Blog Entrepreneur have partnered to build a single site on a well aged domain I scooped up in the AfterMarket. It is 6 letters and even YOU utter the phrase at least once a week, most of the time to yourself! Unlike my Big Idea site that appealed to 20% of the public, this one hits everyone, and user generated content will drive the site, making it a huge winner!
What Are Your Resolution for 2010?
Almost everyone has them…what are yours?
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
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- Happy Holidays to All – and a Prosperous New Year!
- There Will Be No Big Christmas for eBay This Year!
- Progress – Are You Making Any?
- One of the Secret Ingredients to Finding Success in a Niche!
- Will You Be My Friend?
- I Am Quitting and I Need Your Help!
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Well, I like your idea of going local.
I’m doing something local to my circle of friends and acquaintances. I’ve made a Group over at bit.ly/ShopForCharity that will make an effort of purchasing items online through our links so that we can then donate money to charities and later create a scholarship fund. To me, its ten times more important to think about our community and use our knowledge to do a common good.
Congrats on your goals, I know you’ve already accomplished them Mark; Speaking by faith.
Tony
Hey Mark,
Maybe you can help with this since you’ve brought it up and I have been pondering this for years. Going local is something I’ve been wanting to do. I own hundreds of domains and have owned a Godaddy reseller account for years, but only for the sake of saving myself money on the domain registrations. Our community is a tourist attraction for my state and alot of the businesses do not have websites. I can build a basic website, but how can I cater to these businesses. This would be a way for me to expand past affiliate marketing and get into helping these other small business grow online. There’s a company that provides similar services here in town but their rates are extremely high, such as $50 for a domain. I could cut that easily. I’d like to know more on this topic.
The best to you and your family. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. There’s somebody trying to quit smoking too, his son is trying get 1 million people added to a group on facebook. (Just google – If one million people join before NEW YEARS, my dad will quit tobacco.) You gotta quit, you’ll probably feel better once you do.
Mark, I think you should develop some sort of “follow-along” course as you develop your local site. I myself have a couple local domains in the dust bin that I’ve been wanting to develop for a while. In my area, nothing yet exists and I know I need to jump on it before somebody else does.
@Tony Tvoar – Let me do some digging through yesterday places I visited Tony – There is a national site I found that is bringing attention to smaller charities, and the post I read was where one blogger said she got tens of thousands of new visitors and donations from the recognition.
It may help you drive the cause a bit more. I will reply here again later when I get in front of a different PC than has my history on it.
Also – I added your site to my reader and blogroll – I don’t know WHY it was not here already! GREAT content for anyone interested in growing!
@Sean – I literally “just” relaunched my local business site at 8PM last night! I have been known as Hansen Interactive design since 1997. I found it was too hard to remember and brand. – When someone asks your email and you have to spell it, that’s not good!
I picked up a new domain many months ago and I am in the process of rebranding my local business as MeckWebs. I already have a loyal following of local business, so it’s going to be a hard transition for me. When I started out however, it was all about word of mouth and free ads in local papers!
- Offer free services at first!
- Scour Craiglist daily (Or subscribe to their “Website Gigs” feeds)
- Ask a friend to let you build their site
- Trade sitework for home improvements, landscaping etc
- Join MeetUp.com and attend free local events (Stay away from the webmaster events, and attend Realtor, or vertical business events)
I will have a post about this very thing soon – you are not the only one who has asked about it!
Mark
@Shawn S – Great suggestion Shawn! I have planned the site for several months, changing direction a few times, but the end result has always been the same.
Once I get started – I will do just that! “How to Build and Profit from Local Sites”! Sounds like a good series name! :-)
Mark
Hi Mark,
That’s a good list of resolutions you have going there and I’m sure you’ll have no problem meeting them.
Like yourself I have made a list of the MAIN things I WILL achieve in 2010, when setting a target I always make sure it’s one I can achieve even if it takes a lot of hard work.
Having left work 2 months ago to run my online business many of my targets relate to that specifically however I have also set other targets which are purely personal, one of which is in fact being more social and spending more time away from this PC and more time with Kate. My list is sat and ready to go and as soon as the weekend is over I will be 100% focused on achieving them.
Have a very happy new year, I’m off to celebrate mine :).
Ben
@Ben – I’m sure you will achieve the goals Ben!
Speaking of the New Year celebration… aren’t you the lucky one who gets to celebrate twice? Once for you, once for me?
Have a great New Year!! Looking forward to hearing about your progress throughout!
Mark
@Mark Hansen – Aren’t I just, my new year is just 5 hours away so it’s almost time for cocktails, I’ll have to remember to celebrate again at 5am for NC (EST) time:).
Have a great time.
Ben
Mark
Wish you and your family (that includes the TNSB readers right!) a very happy new year..
Quitting smoking is a big challenge, and it is a great opportunity for you to fight with your own self to come out winner. I am not a smoker myself, but one of my close friends did win the battle and his self-confidence as a whole spiked after he overcame the smoking habit..
I’d not think getting more on Facebook as a way to get more social. I have been working from home over the past 5 months and really want to get out to meet friends. Sad thing is none of my close ones aren’t in this city anymore..So, it really is a challenge I would love to take myself..maybe need to make some new ones…
Regarding your last point, I too am in the process of building a user-generated content site. The idea is good to attract a lot of webmasters and affiliate marketers..But reaching out to them, without being construed as a spammer is proving quite a hurdle..I would highly appreciate if you can also blog about how you go about promoting a user-generated content site (when there is close to none on the site itself).
@Anand Srinivasan – Same to you on the New Year wishes Anand, and congrats to your friend on beating the habit!
Trying to quit is like having a 4 headed Ogre, sitting on your shoulder… telling you every possible reason in the world to light up! The bastard is ringing my ears this morning – but I am blocking out with peanut butter cookies at the moment! :-)
For myself – Facebook is step 1 in identifying and reconnecting with friends everyone in the world! I will take it from World, to Region, and finally, the Local level, connecting with locals. I have also incorporated the same methods into Twitter, but moreso for my local business than anything else.
As far as user-gen sites, the only way I can see a user generated content succeeding, is to have some kind of “Buzz-Factor” to it, and making it as easy as possible to keep the buzz flowing!
I have an article site – that is 100% user gen content. Unless I get out and promote it though, traffic & submissions die miserably. I DONT want that with the new site… I want people to come RUNNING to post – AND THEY WILL! :-)
I will post articles about the site as it gets off the ground, which is still several weeks away.
Happy New Year!
Mark
@Mark Hansen –
Good luck Mark. You’re right with the buzz factor. However, the problem with me has been how to get the word out on the buzz factor. I hope some of your future articles explain the process of “promotion”. It will be highly useful.
@Mark Hansen –
Hey Mark!
Thanks for adding my site to your reads. I’m excited about the group and we have about 94 members now. In this past month we’ve manage to grow fairly well. The earnings are a bit low but I have faith that this will soon catch on. I’m excited about our first donation to the Boys and Girls Club and look forward to that. Its not much but its something of a start.
As for Paidscribe.com I’ve tried to add valuable content. Will continue as we move forward. Love you site a whole lot though! You are the man! :D
Oh and do share the information you find about possibly promoting the Charity driven group.
Thanks,
Tony
[...] you recall, I decided to declare My Goals for 2010 at the end of last year and figured I would provide an update for you all. After all, what good are [...]
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