Goals for December 2014

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A lot of your competitors are going to coast right into the new year. December is a great month to catch up. What have you got planned?
 
[9-5] Business Case For Creating 'Expert' Panel
  • Put together all the necessary razzmatazz for selling an idea to the C-Suite
  • Create all marketing collateral for 'big brand' launch campaign
[Personal] Website content
  • Start putting together a few stand out articles that can be leaked into forums to get people into the site.
  • Aim to add another 16 high quality articles to the site.
  • Get all my social media ducks in line.
  • Build the initial pages that will later be monetized
[Health] Bigger Bench - Faster 5K
  • Increase my max bench press by 10KG
  • Finally crack 25 minutes for 5K
Most importantly I want to make sure I spend quality time with family and friends over the holidays!
 
Overall:
In general I have a lot going on, ensuring I get the best results possible for clients being a big one as I now keep less clients, but significantly higher profile ones. They expect attention at the flip of a dime, so while they are more patient for results, the level of 'customer service' you have to put in is significantly more due to the politics that go on in those companies, meltdowns are common over internal arguments about if this or that Moz article is 'right' or not. Seriously it's not funny!

Obviously I can't divulge anything about client work here, but I am working hard on some personal projects which have pretty lofty goals that I can share.

New 'Brand' Site:
The new site is planned for launch in January with at least 50 pieces of total content to be on the site come the day of launch.

I think the benefits here are pretty evident, but in case anyone's interested I will give you a little taste of the reasoning.

50 Pieces Of Pre-Launch Content Reasons:
  1. 50 pieces of content gives me a much larger funnel than a typical site on launch with 5 pieces of standout content, instead I have 50 pieces of standout content. I figure this will keep people on the site longer and increase chances of mailing list signup.
  2. Allows me to leak content to multiple sites; every niches audience has other interests e.g. most entrepreneurs are interested in self-help, so if you run a site about marketing you can bring entrepreneurs into your funnel by tapping into the self-help communities, you can bet your ass that entrepreneurs are interested in marketing. So this is about creating content that has value to many audiences interested in my primary topic.
  3. From an SEO standpoint I can age my content a little, and build a site structure that helps rank keyword targeted content by making use of internal links from content that is primarily there as supporting content (from an SEO standpoint) and additionally more content means more chance of attracting links that then via link flow power up the rest of the site. Make no mistake though... The success of this site and its launch do not rely on SEO in any way, but this is still something to think about for the future.
  4. Despite all of the research I have done there's always a possibility that some of the content won't be a hit with the target audience, since I have 50 pieces of content I can measure the success of each against each audience / overlapping audience in order to fuel my future content strategy.
The Rest Of The Brand Site Goals:
Note: Not in order.
  • Complete the design elements such as form integrations and other CTA Elements.
  • Outreach program to pre-selected influencers in order to try and get some guest posting / link opportunities for referral traffic.
  • Ensure the site is absolutely solid; speed, structure etc.
  • Start rolling out low budget paid ads on pre-selected sites & platforms etc, in order to collect key data about how these platforms perform before rolling out bigger advertising campaigns in January.
  • Create a small PDF download as incentive for subscriptions.
  • Create a number of landing pages for the PDF download to run some of the test ads to. I want to find out whether the prominent opt-in on the site outperforms stand alone landing pages, and whether additional benefits from the traffic sent to the main site negates any small signup advantage that the landing pages may have.
Personal Goals:
  • Learn significantly more about Information Retrieval methods & the mathematics/science in general.
  • Lose half an inch off my waist.
  • Get a full eight hours sleep per night (trust me I'm rubbish on six)
Looking forward to seeing what the rest of you are doing / planning.

- RF
 
Goals for December 2014

After completely failing this in November....

Get my goals in order
While you may utter "wut nonsense!".. let me explain

December is a short month for me, and an important one.
Holiday season, getting presents for two great kids, and my in-laws visiting for the week after Christmas, taking off of work on the 20th....
...
I'll be turning 40 later this month.
Yep, you read that right. This probably makes me one of the elderly folk on this (and other) boards.

I also just got the news that my current job is being nixed.
Well, the whole project is being nixed after 20 years .. and the last three years (with me in charge of IT) being record years, with everything from simple web stats to critical assessments and peer reviews of technology and academic content nothing but stellar.

Politics. Gotta love the game.

So .. while I still have 13 months of guaranteed income, I also have a lot to think about.

Other goals
Of course there are...
  • 10 posts for blind ape
  • Getting my sites all lined up
  • Lose a few kilos
  • ....

Stuff like that, but they all take a back seat to that primary goal.

::emp::
 
Getting My Sites Unpenalized Still
I'm an idiot and spammed the three sites I care about. I've mentioned this several times now across the forum and asked for help with the disavow process. I've been collecting all of the contact info by hand, mainly because i don't want it to obviously be automated like scraping whois emails. I want contact pages mixed and and all of that. I'm almost done with this and I'll begin the process of emailing them all. I think I could finish finding teh contact information today or tomorrow. Then I want to find a solution to automate the emailing, because its getting stupid to manually do this stuff. I figure a month or two from now I'll have the first round of disavow submitted. Hopefully at least one passes the test, if not all three. I'm nto sure if I'll continue trying to save the sites if they don't pass on the first go. I'd rather just start something new. That's where I'm at and where i'm going!
 
My biggest goal -

Working on the SaaS more than I have.

My goal is to somehow put in another 1-2 MORE hours into it than I already do daily.
 
Health: Get my ass back to the gym and start meal prepping twice a week for lunch & dinner.

New Site:
Continue prepping for new site launch in January/February. Keep daily journal. Spend 2 -3 hours per day on project.

WordAgents: Continue to improve internal processes, vet third-party software, hire better writers/editors, let go of writers/editors that are slacking. Create clear goals for 2015.
 
Past Progress

Got in 51 pomodoros last week:

Screen_Shot_2014_12_08_at_12_28_53_AM.png


Tons of work was don't but the interruptions were out of control, so those pomodoros didn't make it to the final count.

Goal #1 - Health - I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to hit the gym this week, probably won't. So my main goal is to get up to drinking 1 gallon of water a day.

Goal #2 - Bootcamp - Get these folks rocking and rolling, goal is a lesson every two days, with homework after each. Got a couple of outlines written out, but won't go into too much details as things should be a surprise with this.

Goal #3 - Corporate - Complete first round of affiliate testing with main product. Got 8 outlines written for tutorials, now time to flesh them out. Have to finish up an interview that's been on the back burner for a little too long, great opportunity for exposure.

Goal #4 - Spanish Connect - New offline sideline gig, waiting on providers, we'll see. Not sure they can deliver on some of the product promised, but we'll see. Already got workers ready to process the product and a manager to organize operation. As long as them boyz don't come knocking, we'll keep rocking. Waiting on main call friday to see the latest.

Goal #5 - Web Design Corp. - Scrapping the idea of getting back into the design game, too many headaches, I'll do these last two projects and call it a day.

Goal #6 - Pipeline Project - I'm going to reach out on Monday and tell these people to hold off until the new years, not going to overwhelm myself.
 
Goal #1 - Meditation - Keep this train running. I think I have a knack for getting into it almost immediately instead of needing that "settling in" period. www.calm.com is god-tier for this. This is the unlocker of all other goals for me.

Goal #2 - Consulting - After an investor backed startup blew up in my face, I'm working on getting my consulting business back in shape. Going to take some time, some outreach, and some network building as working on the startup for a year put most other things on pause.

Goal #3 - Personal Sites - 5 more pieces of mindblowing evergreen content, + email autoresponder series built out to 10 emails. Also, mail out once before Christmas for brand building.
 
#1 Health
Need to get back to my old routine. At least two times a week resistance training. Diet is more or less sorted out but in a new better way. My goal was to not stress too much about the diet and use just my appetite as a indicator. It works well.

#2 Mental Health
Spending more time AFK. Once work day is done get my ass from the chair to do something else. This is hard because there is always a lot of work to do. This is tough.
Implementing chill out sessions, at least hour a day. Just lying or seating comfortably and doing nothing (contemplating) and maybe listening some peaceful music.

#3 Time Management
Plan is there already but implementation is tough as hell. I need to organize myself MUCH better. Lately I heard the guy saying that he needs to learn how to be more relaxed when it comes to schedules. Well, I need to learn the exact opposite.

#4 New Skills & Knowledge
Need to learn at least Russian alphabet till the end of this month. I already started and half way through.
Get basics of javascript under belt. Have all I need but because of sloppy time management haven't learned anything new since weeks.
Read "Going Visual: Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision-Making and Profits".

#5 Projects
Get up and running two projects before December ends. Plus initiating some basic TF systems for those two projects.

#6 Income
Need to make around $1500 more to hit December goal. It might be not that difficult but, if it's about taking client/s then I have to be more selective. Already got myself into troubles just by taking jobs for the sake of making more money ("Greddy loses twice" right?).
 
2015 is here and I sincerely hope that it finds all of you well!

A quick update on me of my December 2014 goals and objectives.

[9-5] Business Case For Creating 'Expert' Panel - All Complete!
[Personal] Website content

  • Start putting together a few stand out articles that can be leaked into forums to get people into the site. Failed to create outstanding content.
  • Aim to add another 16 high quality articles to the site. Complete.
  • Get all my social media ducks in line. Complete.
  • Build the initial pages that will later be monetized. Failed to get these pages drafted/created.
[Health] Bigger Bench - Faster 5K
  • Increase my max bench press by 10KG. Didn't even consistently make it to the gym
  • Finally crack 25 minutes for 5K. I ran once which I'm really annoyed about given the mild weather
Most importantly I want to make sure I spend quality time with family and friends over the holidays! Complete. This is by far and away the goal I'm most pleased with! I managed to spend time with everyone (although I did eat and drink far too much as a result)

It's been an intense month for the CC9 and I've had a lot of learning to do. The homework has been getting tougher but nobody said that it would be easy.

I managed to publish 6 posts (over 5k words) and write 1 ebook (just finishing the edit) which 100 pages of unique content!

Happy New Year to you all and lets hope for a successful January!
 
Week ending 21st of Dec:

12_21_2014.png


That week was completely dysfunctional cause of everything going on with the CC9, holiday promotions, and just all together holiday time. Got in 68 pomodoros thouhg - I'd grade this month a C-.
 
Fuck December.

My life is a huge VA excuses collection right now.
  • Job got cancelled
    • In a year, my place of work is history.
  • Family sick
    • All of my family (me, wife, and two kids) had several rounds of coughing, etc... enough to send us to the doc. Lasted 3 weeks in Dec and is just now slowly on its way out
  • Surprise visits from long distance people
    • For my b-day, my parents invited themselves for 3 days (yay) as well as two of my closest friends (YEAH!!). I am so glad my wife knows me and told me about both of these surprises well before. We were able to tackle all the logistics together. Why people think it is ok to surprise you by turning up at your doorstep needing to be fed, housed, and entertained (all long distance here), I do not understand. Seriously, you and I will enjoy your company MUCH more if you give me a heads up in advance so I can prepare myself, the house, some entertainment, and food.
  • Freak accidents
    • I got hit by a drone in the face (nothing serious, just my ego getting it)
    • My daughter started the year with a nice visit to the ER
    • I hurt myself sledding with my son (again, more ego damage than actual damage, but it still hurts)
My goals?

Nothing got accomplished. Nothing.
I got maybe 3 hours of computer time in the last three weeks. (not counting smartphone use on..err... during quiet moments)
I used that to keep semi-updated on this forum and for family finances / budgeting.

Picking up the grading from CC, December 2014 gets an F-.


::emp::
 
@emp, dude... Woof. That shit blows man. As hollow as is sounds, I'm sorry. It'll be good to see you back on the forum, though. Hope it all gets better.
 
I am actually seeing the humor in it.
No one got badly hurt (even my daughter is fine).

Never take yourself too seriously, and laugh about it.

I flew a drone into my face because stupid and busted my tailbone sledding down a hill with a 4 year old. The day I can't laugh about whincing when I sit down wrong, please take me out into the woods and put me out of my misery.

::emp::
 
Haha... Stoicism is actually a philosophy that I like.

::emp::
 
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