If you are a regular reader then you know that I change my direction quite often. The problem is I just want to do so much! I love having this blog, I have been trying to build a profitable niche site, and I have been working on getting freelance writing assignments. The problem I am having here is focusing on one project long enough to make it work.
For maximum effectiveness I think I am going to have to stop being so scatter brained. I know that I can do it all, but by not focusing on one project at a time I am losing out on time and money. I don’t want to throw any of my projects out the window, instead I want to prioritize and set myself goals. That I will stick to!
Goal Prioritization
Since right now one of my main concerns is increasing my income, writing has to be my number one priority. I am excited to finally be making enough money to start saving and even spending a little again. Right now my budget is so tight I can barely breathe. Even though writing may not be my number one passion on the list it has come to first because it is the one project that actually pays me right now.
My goal is to complete all writing assignments as I get them and then send 20 queries or applications into prospects until I have steadily reached $500/week in income.
Goal #1- Get enough writing assignments to make $500 a week.
Next in income potential is this blog. I get queried from advertisers a lot but I also probably have pretty high rates compared to others with the same page rank. I figure if I am taking a risk advertising then I want to be paid accordingly. I have found there are quite a few companies who will pay my rate as long as I remain firm. I have yet to make anything substantial blogging this month but I have in the past few months and the income potential is there.
Plus I love blogging anyway! So, I figure I the more consistently I post the better my odds are of advertisers having interest. My new blogging schedule is a post on M,W, and F plus an occasional update or link post on Saturday.
Goal #2- Blog Posts 3 times a week! Blog Income Goal $500/month.
Last is the one I currently am the most passionate about but has the lowest amount of income potential right now, my niche sites. I started a new one recently and then came up with yet another idea and purchased a domain name for it. I want to post at least once weekly on the Coon Hunters website. Then once I reach my income goals or have completed all my other work for the week I will do more with this.
I figure this way I will have plenty of time for my site to age a little bit and move up in rank. I’ll get this site the way it needs to be with a little time and effort.
Goal#3 – Experiment with niche sites once other two goals are fulfilled. Income Goal: ?
Aside from these goals I have also been wanting to write an eBook but I will *make* myself hold off on this until I reach my other two goals.
No more flakiness from me. I am 100% committed to reaching these goals as fast as I can. If it were you which goals would you work on first? Do you think I should spend my time on something else? Ideas or suggestions?
You have some attainable and reasonable goals. It will be an uphill climb, but worth it in my opinion. Good luck!
I can relate. I am in the same boat. I bought a domain and hosting for a niche site but have it on hold so I can write more. Good luck with the goals. They are certainly realistic:)
Good luck with your goals. I think they sound great.
Sounds very logical. First : Cash, Second: Long Term Growth , Third : Add more streams of income. On the other hand, it still sounds like a lot !
Any ideas on how you will organize your time ? I suck at this. Especially, when I get an idea in my head. I want to do it Right Now. Keep us posted on how you sort it all out. It can be really helpful to learn how others do it.
I read in my AdWords binder this morning !
Things are going great for you! Have a good week!
~ Christie
Glad to hear the Adwords is going well! I am just like you though, Christie. On the days I don’t have my kids I am bored out of my mind so I usually spend that time on online stuff and then after they go to bed when I have them. Plus, if I have ideas for blog post or specific topics to write about I can usually write pretty quickly.
Impressive goals. If your main focus is earn more income, then goals 1 and 2 make absolute sense. Once you consistently meet those goals, then maybe you can focus on your niche sites?
Hi Alexa,
I’m fascinated by freelancing income but haven’t done anything about finding work and the niche site is really interesting. I love Pat Flynn and I just checked out your coon hunter’s club site. Very interesting…you’ve got me thinking!
Hope your efforts make you wealthy beyond your dreams…you deserve it!
Ree ~ I blog at EscapingDodge.com
I am glad that your blog didn’t get kicked to third place because I absolutely love reading it. You are an inspiration to me, not only because of your blogging and financial goals but also because of the way in which you are handling parenting.
Thank you so much, Jennifer!
I think you should work on #1 and #2 and put #3 on the backburner. Building a niche site will just distract from the successful site you’ve already built.
A piece of advice from someone with a “make money online”-background:
Forget about making more “niche sites”. First, this is a flawed business model: you target a small niche, you rely on Google traffic until the next Google’s update wipes your site off SERPs. Moreover, if it’s a good niche chances are you’ll still be outranked by spammers that have the time and money to experiment with mass links, multiple domains, redirects and that sort of stuff, so Second – you really do not have enough resources for efficient niche site production, when you’d be building 10-15 a week and then killing half that do not perform, concentrating on the winners.
A much better strategy would be to build larger sites on broader topics and growing them gradually. The trick here is to devote an hour or so a day every day to it and in a couple of months you’ll be making much more than what you plan to make. The site would have to 1) be on a monetizable topic 2) cover a big market for scaling 3) have a twist that existing players on the market do not have. In fact, your current blog fits this criteria really well. I think this is your biggest potential earner. Single Mom’s Income could be made a recognizable brand if you gradually work on it.
Getting spread too thin is the most common mistake while working online, I’ve made it so I’m warning you. After your second and third site you’ll be tempted to make more and more and your existing sites will underperform and sit without any attention. Concentrate on 1-2 FAT projects. Single Mom’s Income could be one.
Copywriting business could be another. In fact you could make A LOT of money if you tried growing your one-person copywriting operation into an agency. The keyword here is outsourcing and arbitrage. Sell an article for $15 and have it written for $5 and proofread for $2 – and you’re one step ahead, you have a business. The rest is scaling, finding clients and growing your operation, it’s not easy but a lot of fun. Try outsourcing your order once and you’ll see what I’m talking about, it’s a weird but rewarding feeling 🙂
To sum it up, here’s my advice: make SMI a trusted brand and grow readership base; grow copywriting into a business; sell the racoon site for 10x monthly income once it starts bringing adsense clicks.
Thank you Dennis I really appreciate your input! I will keep all of your advice in mind. I had actually thought of the outsourcing writing a little.
Great goals! Email me with your writing rates! I’ll get your name out through my contacts. I know how hard it is to get a solid start online, but it grows exponentially from there!
Thank you Crystal!
That’s a pretty busy set of goals! My suggestions:
1) Concentrate on the niche sites. As you know I’m still a newbie in this area, but I can smell the potential! My IV4 site is making almost $50 while I do almost nothing to it, and its not even on the first page of Google. So if you hit Page 1 and have something with a good CPC or other revenue model, you’ll be looking at +$100 per month.
2) Keep growing this blog, but watch out for those spammy “guest post” offers. They can make you some quick money, but they can also annoy and alienate your readership. You have to ask yourself what you feel is more important. If you do participate them, try to keep it minimal.
If you can help it, maybe try adding in some more affiliate links or promotional offers.
3) The writing sounds awesome, but I fear that’s a lot of work for the return. I don’t know what you charge per article, but I just had 10 pretty great ones written for about $7 each. That would have taken me hours to produce. Though there is a serious need for this and I’m sure you can command more as you build your reputation, I’m afraid this avenue has its limits – you only make as much money as fast as you can move.
All in all, the ambition is great! keep it up!
I’ve had this problem much of my life myself!, it’s definitely tricky; there’s so much potential, so many avenues… commitment can be a hard thing in this game.
Just from my small amount of time here spent on your blog… the fact you’re regularly getting 15 + comments per article means you are growing a solid readership and… take it from me, if you let go of that or move on… you will look back and regret it, I did myself. I’m only a young guy by the way haha, speaking like I’m 65, but, it hurts, when you do that!
From looking at your blog here, you have a foundation; you write very well and fairly regularly so I personally think you should put all your focus in to this. And, I know that’s hard, believe me I know, I know, haha. But, from looking at your writing, your posts, the way you communicate to your readers and the foundation here… I think you have serious potential with this blog and the concept is catchy and will catch fire if marketed right too…
I think perhaps you could start finding single mom’s with similar blogs, perhaps bigger than you – and make friends out of potential competitors – as, people read multiple blogs and will read other blogs regardless, so there’s no point in setting up rivals – you may as well network and grow together, as it will benefit all of you… so if you could help expose each other to each other’s readers and things like that, I think you could start to grow even more…
Also, with your content… perhaps start centering it more around the initial concept of the blog aka the difficulties of doing this as a single mother, as that makes it a little more unique, and then you could market yourself and your articles on single parenting forums and things like this – you could really nail down the niche and your voice.
This blog definitely has potential – I don’t know what you’re earning from your niche experiment websites BUT… as you probably already know, building a blog foundation of dedicated readers is hard-ass work, where as building a static niche website is always an option; so I think the fact your blog is growing and is live right now makes it make more sense to really take this to the next level, and then do freelance writing on the side. Perhaps even have a ‘hire me’ button somewhere on this site as well so that if people like your writing, they can hire you 🙂