Comments on: 2008 Goals: A Look Back

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:17:13 +0000

Very interesting look at your goals – thanks for sharing.

I don’t usually set many goals – I might have only 1 or 2 – I find more than that and it’s too hard to focus.

Some of these goals are more like predictions ie net worth (as you point out).

I try to set goals that I have direct control over – net worth is ok for long term but not short term.

Mike

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:06:49 +0000

Since I don’t live in my home any more (and have no immediate plans to any time soon), it’s hard not to shift towards thinking of it as an investment.

I think of it has a stock where the gains are necessarily realized, but they are there for the taking if you have the means to sell.

By: jim

jim — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:11:54 +0000

I think the best thing to do about RE and net worth is leave it out or let it be equal to one another, that’s what I do. I guess I never saw my home as an “investment” (though it’s held up in value) so I always kept it neutral with the loan.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:43:49 +0000

Terri, yes it was my best month (though not too far from the average one). I will go back and label that better.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:42:30 +0000

I know why I broke the 55K a few times… I found myself putting hours and hours into articles, researching and editing. The final product of that work was something that others wanted to link to.

It’s simply a case of putting the work in and seeing the results in that sense.

As for retaining traffic, sometimes it’s just luck of the draw. A high percentage of my traffic (and most bloggers who I talk to) come from search engines. People arriving via this method are usually there to get their question answered and then move on to their next task. Retaining them can be pretty difficult.

I have all sorts of demographic information including “referer” info provided by Google Analytics.

By: Terri

Terri — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:53:09 +0000

Was the alternative income category a monthly toll? You said you earned around $30k via your websites in 2008 on your previous post.

By: kosmo

kosmo — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:33:01 +0000

Meant to include this in the last post, but had a brain cramp.

Do you have the “referrer” info in your traffic logs? Analyzing this could give you insights into your traffic.

By: kosmo

kosmo — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:31:28 +0000

One thing you might do – ask “why” you were able to hit 55K a couple of times? Were you the recipient of links from other blogs during these times? If so, a couple of further questions:

- Will your future posts strike a chord with any of these bloggers (resulting in future links)? Obviously, you don’t want to drastically alter your content just to get links from other bloggers.

On the other hand, perhaps you could give the other bloggers a “heads-up” when one of your posts might be relevant to their readers, instead of having them simply stumble across it. Maybe you already do this.

- How can you retain this cross traffic? It’s nice that they visit once, but it’s better if they become subscribers. I don’t have a silver bullet for this one. Obviously, it’s the $64,000 question.

By: Saver in the City

Saver in the City — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:59:13 +0000

Although you might be beating yourself up about not achieving some of your goals, you have to realize you’re still way ahead of a lot of people simple for setting them! Keep up the great blog and best of luck in 2009 for achieving everything you want!