Kevin's Forum Mastermind Group

[Kevin Lee]

Hi Everyone,

I started this new thread for all forum members to share both their professional and personal goals, so that we can help to hold one another accountable, share advice and check in to ensure we've made weekly progress in the right direction

[Kevin Lee]

As a refresher from a previous post...

In terms of my professional goal, I've only achieved 10% of my target thus far (it involves my work with Evan's authors) in both January and February No improvement yet.

My other professional goal includes catering for my 1st paying client. - I'm doing a Premium Knife Skills class at the LCBO on Monday (taught by a professional caterer) to work on my overall cooking skills.


While my personal goals in 2009 include:

-learning to play the guitar (starting in March. I've already found a private instructor) - I actually started on February 15th and am loving it I'm trying to learn how to play one of my favorite songs as soon as I can!
-master the use of a BBQ grill (in the summer)
-try a new dinner or dessert recipe each week - last week I created an amazing pasta dish for my family.
-lift slightly heavier weights to add a little more muscle mass to partner better in salsa and play better tennis. - I recently introduced a kettlebell and medicine ball into my training regime and to improve core strength.
-and set aside at least $1100 for my annual trip to NY in late August

[GT Bulmer]

Hi, Kevin:

I have many plans for the year, but here are my primary goals:

1) Improve my traffic statistics for www.StarrBizz.com

2) Research and develop a new niche marketing focus

So far, my progress has been slow! I have a few offline writing clients and when I work on their periodic projects, I often focus on that and neglect all but the very basics of my Internet Marketing efforts.

I don't advertise my offline freelance writing services, but even so, it looks like a few more potential clients may be knocking on my door, soon, so I'm going to have to decide if I want to limit the number of local writing clients and projects to allow adequate time to develop my online business.

GT

[TannyL]

Hi Kevin.
I am keeping my goals very low right now since i am focusing on building traffic to my website.

Thanks to Suzanne Morrison on the PPG forum, I started writing a monthly goal list and follow it by a weekly list.

My personal goal is to start learning graphic design by the end of 2009, if my financial situation will allow it.

I started a new niche site, that's done, and I want to finish working on it by the end of March and post to it once a week.

[Kevin Lee]

Hi Kevin.
I am keeping my goals very low right now since i am focusing on building traffic to my website.

Thanks to Suzanne Morrison on the PPG forum, I started writing a monthly goal list and follow it by a weekly list.

My personal goal is to start learning graphic design by the end of 2009, if my financial situation will allow it.

I started a new niche site, that's done, and I want to finish working on it by the end of March and post to it once a week.

Hi Tanny,

So what are your specific traffic goals for your website?

And how do you intend on learning graphic design? Have you planned out which school you plan to attend for it?

In addition, would you have any short term personal goals?

[Kevin Lee]

Hi, Kevin:

I have many plans for the year, but here are my primary goals:

1) Improve my traffic statistics for http://www.StarrBizz.com

Hi GT,

Can you throw out an ideal number? Goals need to be specific and measurable.

[Kevin Lee]

This week's update...

In terms of my professional goal, I'm very pleased to report that while I only achieved 10% of my target (it involves my work with Evan's authors) in January, I had 3 X's the success (i.e. 30%) in February Hopefully, I can cross the 50% threshold in March!

My other professional goal includes catering for my 1st paying client. - No new developments


While my personal goals in 2009 include:

-learning to play the guitar - I will have done my 5th lesson in 14 days since starting. I've learned all the intricate finger positions to play the 5 notes of the 2 songs I want to learn...but now I just need more practice, hand speed and timing.
-master the use of a BBQ grill (in the summer)
-try a new dinner or dessert recipe each week - TBA
-lift slightly heavier weights to add a little more muscle mass to partner better in salsa and play better tennis. - Nothing new to report
-and set aside at least $1100 for my annual trip to NY in late August - saved $0 thus far, haha

[TannyL]

Hi Tanny,

So what are your specific traffic goals for your website?

And how do you intend on learning graphic design? Have you planned out which school you plan to attend for it?

In addition, would you have any short term personal goals?

Hi Kevin,
First I want to break the 500 visitors/day line, I am stuck on this one for a long time, my fault,working less, but i am working on it.

I started asking around on local forums and searching in small schools and community school in my area.
At first I thought just taking a small course, one day a week, and master photoshop. But now I am thinking a full 3 year academic degree in graphic design and computer games design. Not sure yet.
I am still thinking about it and checking to see if my financial status will allow me go to school for 3 years (there is an evening school, but it expansive).

My main goal right now, is to finish working on my new niche site, I had a WP blog insalled, but need to get the template as I want it and right now it's a real chaos.

Step by step. baby steps.

[Kevin Lee]

This week's update...

In terms of my professional goal, I'm very pleased to report that while I only achieved 10% of my target (it involves my work with Evan's authors) in January, I had 3 X's the success (i.e. 30%) in February Hopefully, I can cross the 50% threshold in March!

My other professional goal includes catering for my 1st paying client. - No new developments


While my personal goals in 2009 include:

-learning to play the guitar - I will have done my 5th lesson in 14 days since starting. I've learned all the intricate finger positions to play the 5 notes of the 2 songs I want to learn...but now I just need more practice, hand speed and timing.
-master the use of a BBQ grill (in the summer)
-try a new dinner or dessert recipe each week - TBA
-lift slightly heavier weights to add a little more muscle mass to partner better in salsa and play better tennis. - Nothing new to report
-and set aside at least $1100 for my annual trip to NY in late August - saved $0 thus far, haha

Just as a quick update, I actually reached 35% of my professional goal in February (and not only 30%)

Hopefully I can reach 60% in March!

[GT Bulmer]

All right! I haven't posted here for a while. It's time I caught up. I suppose part of the problem is that some goals are personal and when progress is slow, a person is hesitant to admit it.

First, let me say that I am impressed and appreciative of Kevin for being loyal to this thread. If more of us participate here regularly, I know it will inspire and encourage others and will have the same effect on ourselves!

1 - Alexa Ranking: My ranking has been fluctuating quite a bit over the past month. I haven't been doing anything specific about it. Currently, it is 788,151 and my original goal was to get it to 500,000.

2 - Traffic to StarrBizz.com: Tanny mentioned a goal of 500 visits per day and that is my ultimate target, too. It is based on a target recommended by an online marketing mentor.

I monitor my traffic with three online resources:
- Tools provided by my web hosting service (Host4Profit)
- StatCounter.com
- Google Analytics

I THOUGHT I was making progress, looking at my web hosting provider statistics, currently sitting at an average of about 200 visits per day ... but I have been told by more experienced marketers that that figure is inaccurate, as it includes my own visits and a few other deceptive visits.

StatCounter and Google Analytics are, apparently, more accurate and they run very close to the same as each other. But ... the figures for unique daily visits (meaning, not the same person returning more than once) are substantially lower than the number mentioned above!

==> So, my new SPECIFIC website visitor goal is 200 per day, registered by either StatCounter or Google Analytics.

To achieve this goal, I will continue my weekly focus on forum participation (various forums), blogging, website updates, Social Networking (follow me on Twitter - gtbulmer), article marketing...

3 - Niche Market Focus: I have made no progress towards this goal. (Still balancing offline client writing projects with online marketing interests!) I have something specific in mind, but do not want to state it until I am actively working on its development.

Well, those are the key goals at the moment.

GT

[David Hurley]

Hi Kevin and All,

Here are my goals for 2009, or at least the ones I am willing to air on a public forum!

1. Make $1,000 profit on http://grasp-the-nettle.com in a calendar month sometime in 2009.

2. Fill up all 100 places in my PLR article club. (This will go a long way to helping me achieve goal 1.)

3. Get my grasp-the-nettle.com Alexa rank below 200,000.

4. Get onto the Empowerism.com leader board (by recruiting 5+ affiliates in a month) at least once this year.

5. Get 20 of my SFI affiliates to upgrade to EA (i.e. have at least 20 EAs by 31st Dec 2009).

6. Turn my neglected English teaching website into an online teaching portal as a way to increase recruitment to Success University and recruit 100 affiliates to get me into the SU Success Express magazine!

7. Set up a new SFI email letter series.

8. Ship all my books from my mother's attic (UK) to my house (Japan)! (Several hundred books, taking up 21 boxes.)

9. Start a new investment plan. (I.e. begin "paying myself first").

10. Move my Japanese-games-shop.com site to a new webhost, redesign the site and renew the product listings.

11. Move my English-Renaissance.net site to a new webhost, and update it plus fix bugs etc.

David H

[David Hurley]

Thanks to Russell's post on another thread, I have remembered another one of my goals and now will make a specific commitment to it.

Russell's thread on microfinance loans: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3264&p=19404#p19404

12. Add a section to the front page of http://grasp-the-nettle.com promoting microfinance. I will do that by,

i. donating a small % of my online income each month to microfinance (either SmartStartGiving.com or Kiva.org)

ii. keeping a public record of the amount donated

iii. inviting visitors to my site to donate

DH

[David Hurley]

Okay, how am I doing so far...?

Goal 7 - ACHIEVED (thanks to some assistance from Jeff Casmer)!

Goal 8 - IN PROGRESS... My library is now in transit UK-JAPAN ...

Goal 9 - IN PROGRESS... Pay myself first - I have the proposal forms. Now it is just a matter of finding the time to fill them in and send them off to my broker...

[GT Bulmer]

NEWS FLASH:

On my way to an Alexa Ranking miracle - currently sitting at 700,013

Lowest I've been and I was losing hope that I would ever get close to the 600,000s -

Lesson: Never lose hope. Anything is possible and good things happen as long as you stay focused on your goals and keep taking steps to achieve them.

GT

[Kevin Lee]

Thanks GT and David for the updates and congrats on the progress!

In terms of my professional goal:

Total New Forum Posts

Sep 2008 - 1085
Oct 2008 - 1008
Jan 2009 - 738
Feb 2009 - 436 (worst month ever since Evan began keeping track )

Since Mar 1st 2009, we only have about 364 new posts, so the goal is to do better than 436 for sure guys!


Personal Goal:
-my guitar lessons are still going strong and I'm able to play 1 of the 3 songs I'm learning thus far (but there's still a slight delay when changing chords, haha)

This is the song I can play (it's really only 4 chords so it's not very hard, LOL!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPE8x39ji4U

I also bought my acoustic/electric guitar online last Sunday and I can't wait for it to arrive in about 5-10 business days! It cost about $513.00 before taxes so I'm totally committed to sticking with this new interest.