Today we’re going to talk about setting some goals that relate directly to a career in writing for print. Starting the NY off right can set the tone for the entire year, so it pays off to do a little “leg work” on the front end of things. Here are five great goals to pencil into January that will help you get set up:

1. Re-tool your resume(s).

Freshen up all of your resumes and include any print writing credits you haven’t yet added from last year. In print writing, staying current is important. Most editors will ask you for recent samples, so be sure you have them handy to send out. This also means checking in on your LinkedIn content, Facebook presence and any other online “resume-type” sites you belong to so that you can update them.

2. Reach out to editors.

This time of year most editors are just settling back into their routine, so it can be a good time to touch base. Shoot a quick e-mail to those you have already worked with and wish them a wonderful New Year. Then let them know you are available for assignments. You can also contact editors at publications you would like to write for–this works especially well for trade magazines.

3. Brainstorm and start a “tickler” file for the year.

A “tickler” file is a big list of possible article topics that you can flush out when you have the chance–or check for ideas when you are thinking about queries. Brainstorm a big list of ideas and keep them in one spot for times when you need some creative inspiration. Add to it as the year goes–when you have an idea, just pop it in there for future reference. It’s a very helpful tool!

4. Set a few goals and order subscriptions.

Choose a few publications you would like to land an assignment in for 2012 and order a subscription to them. Begin to get a feel for what types of articles they run, what their unique “voice” is like and what you might be able to contribute. Reading a publication on a regular basis is one of the best ways to get ready to pitch a query. You won’t duplicate what they’ve already run, and you will come across as having a thorough understanding of the magazine. Believe me when I tell you–editors really love that.

5. Set up your system for keeping track of queries.

No time like the NY to do this, and it really is necessary. Web writing typically does not have the kind of lead time that print writing does. You can send a query and the follow-up time can be as long as a whole year. If you have something that is already working for you…great! If not, think about what might help you stay on top of this organizational challenge and set it up. Outlook has a calendar feature that might work for some people, smartphones do as well. I use a big desk calendar so I can see the whole month at one time. It doesn’t really matter what you do, but having a plan is crucial.

Do you have any suggestions for print writers who are going into the New Year? Drop a comment below!

On a personal note–I really believe in taking the time in January to do some extra legwork and log the long hours. Getting things off to a good start has been one of the keys to my success as a print writer. I can’t emphasize enough how important I think it is to swing into the NY strong. And I wish you all the very best!

It’s hard to believe it’s another new year already. I usually have my goals and resolutions set by late October or early November. But I’m a bit late to the game this year. In fact, I’ve been somewhat absent here for months. I had a crazy year in 2011. My guy and I started looking for a new place around May. That hunt, move, and settling in dominated the majority of my year and took a lot of time away from other things — mostly the time I could spend on my own sites and projects (hence the absence). I also got engaged. And then the holiday season hit with far too much travel and party hosting. I spent a great deal of my time last week sleeping out of the sheer exhaustion of it all.

Now it’s time to get back on track. And like I do every year, I’m going to share my business goals with you. Here are my 2012 New Year’s resolutions for my business.

1. Get back on schedule with my sites, books, and other projects.

I need to get myself back on a regular posting schedule on my blogs. That starts this week for this blog and a couple of others, and I’ll work my other blogs into that schedule over the next several weeks.

On the recommendation of Sharon Hurley Hall, I recently upgraded my version of Dragon, Naturally Speaking. I didn’t use it before because the accuracy was pretty terrible for me. But 11.5 seems to have fixed those issues. Even with just moderate training the accuracy is great. I’ve already used it to speed up some article writing for clients, and I’m hoping it will keep me more productive with my own blog posts as well.

My book manuscripts also took a back seat last year, which was incredibly frustrating. I’m looking forward to diving back into them shortly — editing the Query-Free Freelancer manuscript and finishing the first novel in my Murder Scripts murder mystery series.

2. See a Minimum 20% Increase in Gross Income

I screwed up in 2011. With all of the moving and other distractions, something had to give. Like I said, it was my own sites and projects. Income on that side of my business dropped dramatically last year, and it made 2011 my first year where my overall income dropped. Not much, but a decrease. Fortunately, my business expenses also dropped quite a bit, so my net income wasn’t affected very much. But it’s still disappointing.

As a result, I’m setting a goal of at least a 20% gross increase. That would get me back in line with past earnings increases. That said, I’ll certainly try for even more than that.

3. Finalize My Business Name Change

As announced last year, my base business is changing. The name will be changing from J.H. Mattern Communications to 3BeatMedia. My websites and freelance writing services will fall under the primary business name. A publishing-oriented division name of 3BeatBooks will be used for branding my books and e-books a little later this year.

This won’t take long to finish up, but I still need to put time into the new websites and then incorporating the new branding on all of my sites. Expansion to two other divisions is planned, but probably not in 2012.

4. Finish Setting Up My New Office Space

Even though we moved in mid-October, my new office space still isn’t completely set up and unpacked. It’s not a comfortable work environment, and getting this finished is a priority for me. In fact, I expect to reach this goal by this time next week at the latest. I have three work areas there — my desk, a standing desk setup, and a large chair with ottoman for longer writing sessions such as manuscript work. I can’t wait to finally be able to use them all on a regular basis.

5. Publish at Least 5 Short E-books

My longer projects this year will be the print book manuscripts. So for e-books I’m going to keep things short. I’m planning to release five shorter, lower-cost e-books (mostly released here through All Freelance Writing). Outlining will be finished this week, and the first should be out before the end of January.

6. Finish Editing the Query-Free Freelancer Manuscript

I mentioned this one previously, but it’s a big enough goal that I think it deserves to stand on its own.

7. Finish Drafting the First Murder Scripts Novel

This one is another big goal I mentioned before, but it also deserves its own spot here. This is the project I’m most excited to work on — the first under my Aria Klein pen name.

8. Release the First Murder Scripts Game

The Murder Scripts series has a natural tie-in to games. And I plan to release a few of them as ancillary products to this novel series. While I hope to release a few this year, it’s a completely new experience for me so I’m setting a goal of just releasing the first.

9. Get to $500 per Month Earnings on my Genealogy Site

Last year I started a genealogy site called Climb Your Family Tree. I originally intended to keep it quiet here and use it as an experiment to show earnings for a new site. But yet again, life distractions got in the way. That experiment is obviously off (for this site at least). But I fully intend to grow it and focus on increasing its earnings.

That will include a new design, new resources (some free and some for sale), building affiliate relationships for products I’ll review, and more. Genealogy is a huge passion of mine, and I’m excited to have it take a more prominent place in my work. I consider this to be one of the best parts of working for myself — being able to integrate passions and hobbies into my business.

10. Find Uses for at Least 3 of my Unused Domain Names

I have quite a few unused domain names — over a dozen at least. I have plans for several of them, but I haven’t had time to do the development work. But those domains aren’t earning me any money just sitting there. Even if it means setting up a few starter sites until I can pursue some of the larger projects, I’d like to get at least three of those domains in-use and earning money for the business. Ideally I’d like to have this done in the first quarter, but I’ll be happy just getting them set up this year.

What are your goals in the New Year? Are you hoping to reach new clients? Earn more money? Branch out beyond freelancing, perhaps by writing your first book? Share your goals with us in the comments below and see what your fellow freelancers are hoping to achieve.

Why look back on this year’s goals now instead of January, when the year is complete? Because you can’t set next year’s goals without an idea of what you accomplished in the current year. It also means you have a month and a half left to make progress on this year’s goals you haven’t reached yet, so looking back might light a fire under you.

Now let’s look at specifics.

My 2010 Goal Progress

I set several 2010 freelance writing and blogging goals for my career. And I looked back on them earlier this year to share progress too. Let’s see where things are at this point:

1. All Freelance Writing Page View Goals — At our mid-year check-in I mentioned that we hit our first traffic goal (a certain number of pageviews at least three months). We also had a master goal to reach at least once this year. I’m happy to say we reached that goal in October, and even exceeded it.
2. My Overall Income Growth — Sadly it’s looking like I won’t quite reach this goal. I was hoping for around a $20k increase this year. But unless my typical pre-Thanksgiving rush is a huge one this time around, it’s unlikely. I can’t say I’m really disappointed. I just made different decisions along the way, deciding to put more time into books and e-books and new site launches (things that will take time to bring in income) rather than sinking time into additional client work. That said, I’ll still see a nice increase — I do every year. So with that, having more major projects finally moving along, and being able to enjoy more time off, I’m actually quite happy on this front.
3. Business Site and Blog Re-launch — This goal was reached pretty early on. The business site was re-designed (I did a custom design on my own for that one), and I integrated a business writing blog. I don’t post to it anywhere near as frequently as All Freelance Writing, but it’s doing its job of bringing new visitors to my business site.
4. Increasing All Freelance Writing Subscribers — As I mentioned in our mid-year check-in, I abandoned this goal. I quit tracking RSS subscribers. Why? There were far too many random numerical swings with Feedburner this year where subscribers of a certain type were suddenly not counted, then they were again, etc. It became too much of a headache. So I don’t get hung up on that anymore. Subscribers here have always paled in comparison to organic traffic from natural links we get elsewhere, and I wouldn’t change that. Maybe in the future we’ll put more emphasis on subscriber counts, but with the way we’ve been growing rapidly without that emphasis, it just isn’t a priority right now.
5. Releasing 2 Web Writer’s Guide E-books — Um, no. You can count this as a total failure as of this point. I’ll definitely have the Query-Free Freelancer’s 30 day marketing bootcamp e-book out by the end of this year, but I’m not holding my breath on WWG series e-books. If I miraculously pull more time out of thin air between now and the end of the year, I may release one (the previously-planned planner). But there won’t be two. Two e-books total maybe; not two in the series.
6. Increasing my Productivity — Last year I was facing issues with a mid-morning slump. I can say I’ve gotten much better about that, even if not by sticking to the original plan. Every once in a while I still slump a bit around 10am, but just knowing I only have two hours left helps me get through it. After all, I don’t want to be stuck working late. I still work late every once in a while when there’s a big project or I just want to get something done so I don’t have to deal with it the next day or next week. But that’s rare. I respect my schedule and my down-time, and I’ve learned to make that sacred. And really, having that time to rest and pursue other interests is enough make me more productive in work.

While I didn’t see it in my original post, I also wanted to have the first draft of The Query-Free Freelancer (print book) finished by the end of 2010. It is not yet complete. But I did recently set a new writing schedule that’s somewhat ambitious — writing four books in eight months. That starts with the QFF nonfiction book and then moves into a novel series in the New Year. I’ve been writing 2500 words per day during each of my four work days of the week, and so far so good. If things continue along that line, I’ll have that first draft finished by year’s end.

Then in my mid-year check-in I briefly mentioned some of my other plans for the site. Many of these were pushed off until next year due to other site launches I was working on. But here are those plans and progress:

• Launching a Solo Freelance Theater Series — This didn’t happen. Yo and I started on another joint episode of the audio play series, but due to time constraints the production was pushed back. That episode will likely go out in the new year as a sort of re-launch of the series. At that point I still fully intend to launch a solo series. Freelance Theater just doesn’t bring in enough traffic yet to make it a priority over some other things.
• Launching the Web Comic Series — This will also be a 2011 launch. I’ve been hung up on the character development stage (it’s been a while since I’ve done any sketch work and this style is still new to me). When I’m happy with the base characters, we’ll have a weekly or bi-weekly series here. I don’t expect to have time to finish that between now and the end of this year, as most of my non-client time is going towards the QFF book.
• Releasing Animated Shorts — These will be based on the Web comic, so they won’t launch until that has been live for a few months.
• Launching a Podcast Series — I have some ideas laid out for this, but haven’t finalized plans for the format I want to use. If or when this happens, it might be rolled into the Freelance Theater branding, but I’m not sure yet. Again, it’s something I want to do here, but not a priority over basic content, e-books, and some of the other site launches.
• Launching a Newsletter / Mailing List — Still a possibility for the new year, but not something I want to pursue right now. Yes, I know some marketers would have my head for not wanting a traditional email marketing list, but that kind of direct marketing isn’t really my style and I do very well sticking to my own methods. So I may drop this plan entirely or come up with a content-heavy newsletter in the New Year. I’m leaning toward the first right now.
• Releasing the First Chapter of The Query-Free Freelancer Book on AFW — As you may have seen in a past post, I decided not to pursue a traditional publisher for the QFF book (although I intend to for my fiction). I’m taking the indie publishing route, and in fact will be launching a site related to indie publishing in 2011. So the original plan to release a chapter and mini-proposal publicly don’t make sense anymore. The first chapter will indeed be released, but not until the entire book is written, edited by me, and edited by another editor first. The book will be serialized here on the blog, starting shortly before the book’s release date.
• Finishing my First Screenplay — This project is on the backburner. I wasn’t able to get in touch with the primary source I want to interview. I also need to work in a research trip (which happens to be where the source is located). So some time early in 2011 I plan to make that trip, and if I’m able to work with that source at that time, I’ll resume work on the screenplay afterward.
• Revisiting Novel Outlines — You might remember that I have three novels outlined (and one partly drafted). I documented two of those outlines on the blog a while back while testing different outlining methods. But I won’t be writing one of those novels this year. Those were all planned as one-off projects (at least one had some series potential, but wasn’t designed with that in mind originally). Instead I decided to pursue a mystery series. I intend to have three books in that series drafted next year. Yes, I know that’s ambitious, but I believe in challenging myself. The first will be outlined before the end of 2010, so I can pick up with the writing on January 3rd, shortly after finishing my nonfiction book draft.
• Launching IndieLounge.com — This project was postponed mostly because of hosting issues that would make merging my original indie music site into the new one rather complicated. Those issues are mostly worked out now, and I’ve started rough design changes. It will launch in the New Year rather than this year.

So there are some goals reached and a few failures along the way. Overall I’m very happy with this year’s progress. I’m even moreso because of all of the things I’ve accomplished this year that were not on my goal list. Some of those things include:

• Launching my new personal hub at JennMattern.com
• Prepping the launch of IndieLounge.com (which will come out some time early in the New Year)
• Prepping a new mystery novel series (more info about that coming at my personal hub)
• Getting BizAmmo.com back on a normal posting schedule (hired two writers to help)
• Re-launching NakedPR.com as solely a social media blog (used to be PR and social media) — re-branded it as SocialRealist.com

So yeah. It’s not as though I did nothing else in the interim. But that’s much of the fun of goal-setting for me — see what new goals and plans spring up along the way.

Now it’s your turn. How are you coming along with your 2010 professional goals? Have you reached most of them? Did you forget about them almost as soon as you made them? Do you plan to set new goals and resolutions for 2011, or do you prefer to play it by ear? Leave a comment and share your goal-setting stories with us.

This week I thought I’d share my goal categories with you to hopefully help you understand all the different goal subsets you could be utilizing in order to ensure a full and satisfied personal and business life.

Career goals: Career goals define those places you would like to take your career over the years. They generally revolve around a job function, title or professional accomplishment you are aiming for and might need licenses, degrees or a high level of experience in order to achieve. Some examples might include working your way up to become a managing editor, becoming a novelist, or writing a book of essays.

Business goals: Believe it or not, as a freelance writer, you have a business and the goal of your business is different than the career goals you may have. Business goals deal directly with the growth and progression of your business as a whole, and not just your actual career track. When you are attempting to determine the goals for your business, you might ask yourself the following questions:

• How would you like to see your business grow?
• How much money would you like to make?
• How much would you like your business to be able to contribute to your retirement plan?
• Would you like to expand your employee base or service offerings?

Daily goals: Your daily goals are those things that you must get done each day in order to stay in business, work toward your career goals and keep your clients happy. This covers the individual articles you have due, interviews you must complete, blog posts waiting for edits, marketing duties and any other daily tasks on your calendar.

Income goals: Income goals define what you what to get out of your business and career financially. These are strictly related to earning and will rely heavily on the amount of money you need to make when you first establish them. Eventually, you will set goals that reflect the amount of money you would like to make instead of defaulting to what you need to make. Income goals can even be segmented between the goals you have for the income of your business versus the goals you have for an individual aspect of your career.

Personal goals: Personal goals are those matters of personal growth and accomplishment you’d like to achieve through your career and business. They may be philanthropic in nature and relate to educating others, donating your time or sponsoring charitable events; or they may be related to your own personal growth and how you can encourage it through learning to express yourself through your work, stand up for yourself and improve organizational and other skills. Your personal goals may also be financial and directly related to the income goals of your business.

Remember, when setting your goals be sure to own them. This is your business and your career; you must set those goals that work for you and keep your professional and personal life moving forward.

• I’m struggling to make a decent (or any kind of) income off of my comedy writing skills.
• I’m working to get back into college and finish a degree despite financial debt and transportation issues.
• I’m actually a werewolf.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a lot of advantages over all the less fortunate people on this planet, and I’m grateful for what I have. Still, these problems bug me a lot and I want to take care of them and move on to new challenges. Like figuring out why my TV still gets UPN.

As I’ve worked on these problems, I’ve run into countless obstacles and setbacks. Many times, I’ve felt discouraged and angry as a result. But then I shake it off and get back into action.

Why? What keeps me coming back to fight time and time again, no matter how often I fail?

Simple. I refuse to settle for low standards.

You see, when I first started this freelancing affair, I knew I wanted a fantastic career that made me excited to get up every morning. And without that degree I mentioned earlier, leaning on my comedy writing skills seemed like the best way I was going to make a living. Besides, I couldn’t work fast food. Not after I was caught smuggling Happy Meal toys in cups of Sprite.

Of course, being a freelance comedy writer is no small feat. I knew how to write the stuff, but getting people to buy it was a different story. That’s why I eventually found myself at Jenn’s then-new blog, Query-Free Freelancer, to learn her query-free method of finding clients. (Remember, that blog got merged with this one a while back, so you can find all those articles on here.)

It sounded like a great idea. Attracting clients to come to you through clever marketing seemed perfect for an aspiring comedy writer. I got to work building my brand. I developed my website, networked with like-minded individuals, promoted the work I produced…the whole deal.

And after all that…

Dana (my sister): How much did you make this month?
Me: $1,000.
Dana: That’s great!
Me: Good thing I had all those hotels on Boardwalk.

Yep. So far, no one has lined up to take my tantalizing comedy bait. Now, I’m not saying Jenn’s method is faulty. It works, but you need time and patience. Time is something I can’t spare anymore – I need results, so I have to change tactics. And I’ve got finances to worry about, too. I can’t just keep writing on my bills, “Be patient. I’ve almost found the treasure.”

Still, it was a discouraging blow. I felt like I didn’t have the skills to make freelancing work. (A feeling I’ve experienced before.) And besides that, I had to get outside help for my debt so I could get back into school, which dealt a blow to my pride. I gotta say, I felt pretty crummy.

But I knew I would get back into the game. That vision of my ideal career keeps driving me no matter what. Soon I did some personal journalling to find the error of my ways. I came to realize that I have fears about pitching my work. I latched onto Jenn’s query-free method as a result – I felt like I was making progress, but if I had just faced my fears in the first place, I might actually have some clients by now. After all, people don’t NEED comedy. You have to convince them otherwise.

At least, that’s my theory. I could be wrong. They used to think the earth was flat, after all. Only after trial and error did we realize it’s just a waste of space.

But hey, it’s something to work with. Every time I return to the drawing board and revise my plans based on the feedback I’ve gotten, I get closer to the solution. I’ve bombed tons of times, but I always keep coming back. I want to meet those standards I’ve set for myself.

And that’s what you need to do as well, readers. Not just us newbies striving to build a successful business. Even established freelancers can step on the plate. If there’s something you want – bigger rates, bigger clients, whatever – let me tell you now that you CAN get that. It’s just a matter of refusing to accept what’s “good enough”.

Developing higher standards is a vital part of positive change. It triggers that initial drive to clean up parts of your life. And even though I may not be a successful freelancer yet, raising my standards has helped me make changes in other parts of my life, like creating productivity habits and quitting soda. (Still working on some other habits, but hey. Smacking toasters that don’t work isn’t abuse, it’s taking “correctional steps.”)

If you don’t like your current results, admit it. Then raise your standards. What would you rather have? Be honest, and realize that you deserve what you want. What has to be done to acquire it? Get everything you need, form a basic plan of attack, and take action. Your plan won’t be perfect, but that’s fine – after a while, lay out your thoughts and experiences in a journal, determine what you did wrong, and revise the plan accordingly. Then get back into the game.

Every time you work and fail and revise and work again, you develop tenacity. And hey, you’re a freelance writer. Tenacity is vital to making it in this business. But that’s fine. If you really want the lifestyle, or if you really want to improve the lifestyle – if you can’t settle for “good enough” – then it’s a handy virtue to have.

Refuse what you don’t want and go for that gold. Keep showing up to the game, and you’ll win. It’s only a matter of time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to fix another dilemma that’s popped up. I’m having a hard time staying focused lately. People keep interrupting me and saying weird things like “it was poisoned.”

Today I’m going to share some of my goals for 2010 (professional goals at least). Here they are:

• I want to increase All Freelance Writing pageviews. Last year my goal was to maintain around 100k pageviews each month. I didn’t have a lot of ambition for the site other than to keep on blogging. That’s changing this year. I initially set the 2010 goal to 150k pageviews per month. I expected December to have a traffic slowdown due to the holidays, but oddly traffic increased quite a bit and I’ve already exceeded 150k pageviews for December. So for now my goal will be to try to maintain that level for at least three of the next six months, and then increase to 200k pageviews per month by the end of the year. I’ll re-evaluate the goals as I go and increase them if needs be.
• I want to earn more money. That’s a given, right? I already earn a rather nice income, and have seen increases every year I’ve been in business. 2009 saw around a $10k increase over 2008, and based on existing monthly contracts (several of which only started mid-2009) I’m expecting to earn about $20k more in 2010. That’s accounting for client work alone. I plan to earn significantly more through my own sites and projects as well, although I don’t have a set number in mind for that right now.
• I’m relaunching my business site, with a client-targeted blog. Much of my blogging is focused on networking with colleagues. When I ran the PR firm I had NakedPR which brought in work. Right now I don’t really blog for clients. That’s changing. I launched PublicRelationsWriting.net months ago as part of a challenge here, and I’m moving that to my business site at ProBusinessWriter.com. I redesigned the site recently to a very minimalistic design and finished coding it. It’s going to operate as a static site with an attached blog, through WordPress as usual (this was actually my first time coding my own WordPress blog which feels good and which was much quicker than expected). The PR writing blog content is being moved to that attached blog, which will focus on a wider variety of business writing topics. The new site is up on a test domain for now, but I’ll be moving it over to the business domain either on the 1st or when I get back officially from my vacation after the 4th.
• I want to increase All Freelance Writing subscribers. My goal for 2009 was to reach 1000 subscribers for the main feed (not including the freelance writing jobs subscribers). I met that goal. For now I’m setting my 2010 goal at 1500. At the six month mark we’ll see where we are and I’ll decide whether or not to increase that goal.
• I want to release two Web Writer’s Guide e-books. The second e-book in the series has been sitting around waiting for me to finish it for quite some time, and I’m hoping to release it in January (in addition to the Query-Free Freelancer’s 30 Day Marketing Bootcamp e-book and a 2010 planner for freelance writers). I want to put out another one in the second half of the year.
• I want to increase my productivity. It’s nice always having a full work schedule and being able to turn down gigs. But I know I can do more and without burning myself out or working longer hours. There are some things in my work process that take more time than they should, there’s downtime I could be putting to better use, and I want to see if I can improve things. Basically I want to consolidate what I’m already doing in a way where I can take on one or two more regular monthly contracts (which would be in addition to the $20k more I already expect to earn this year, not a part of that goal). I’m going to stick to my current work schedule — get up at 4am, start work at 5am and work through noon (my 8th hour is my lunch hour off from noon to one if you want to get technical). What I need to do is find ways to avoid my mid-morning slump, which is at least not as bad as the afternoon slumps I had when trying to work 9-5. So I’ve set a very detailed schedule for myself, and my goal will be to stick with it for a few weeks to see if it becomes habit or unmanageable. While I won’t go into all of the details here, it amounts to a 30 minute workout once I get up followed by a shower (meaning getting changed out of my beloved PJs before work) and a few cups of coffee with a healthy breakfast. I’m going to be doing more cooking to make sure I have good foods around to keep me energized rather than resorting to frozen meals and takeout. Little changes like that have worked well for me in the past, and I’m sure they will again. I just tend to get distracted for a few days and throw my whole routine off in the morning. I figure if I make that workout and breakfast non-negotiable before work starts, it might be harder to get completely off-track if I do go off the plan for a day or two for some reason. We’ll see!

I have lots of other small goals like a survey and report here, launching a classfieds section / marketplace here, releasing a white paper through my business site, creating a few other products to sell over the course of the year, and launch an online class / course series hopefully by this spring. But these are the big ones. Now tell me, what are your goals for 2010 for your freelance writing career?

Take a look at some of your goals set at the beginning of the year, and see how you’re doing. Here are mine:

• I want to flip at least 6 sites. (Probably not going to happen. I flipped 2-3 early, and have a few others built and sitting until I’m ready to flip them, but I’ll likely wait until they’re earning a bit more to get a better price, rather than the originally-planned quick-flips.)
• I want to finish drafting at least one of my outlined novels. (I’m not sure about this one. I got about 11,000 words into the first draft, but I’m not really happy with it. This is the novel I outlined in 2004, and let sit because I was torn between whether it would be a better novel or screenplay. Frankly, it seems more screen-worthy than appropriate for a book. I’ll finish pursuing that story one way or the other this year – it may just not be in novel form. If I do go the screenplay route, I’ll likely finish that and then start on one of the other novel outlines – putting together a first draft. But I don’t expect to finish it, since I’m focused on the nonfiction book for The Query-Free Freelancer and my e-book series right now).
• I want to get AllBookMarketing.com on a regular posting schedule, even if just once per week. (I actually opted to merge that site into All Freelance Writing instead.)
• I want to get back on posting to AllBookWriting.com about my books and e-books-in-progress. I didn’t post enough there during my e-book process. (This was also merged into AFW. Most of my book writing talk for now will focus on QueryFreeFreelancer.com, because it ties in nicely to the book there and writing books is a part of platform-building, although any references to fictional work will likely stay here.)
• I want to launch at least two more Web Writer’s Guide E-books after I settle my marketing on the first one. (A part of me wants to say I’ll likely only get one more published, but it’s possible I’ll hit two. The marketing e-book is a bit delayed, but will be out soon enough. The next will probably be a shorter, more specialized one, so it is indeed possible that it will launch by year’s end.)
• I want to get published with my byline in at least one print publication. (Frankly, while I’d still like to do this, it’s just not a huge concern of mine right now. And with the push on QueryFreeFreelancer.com, querying publications just for the sake of meeting this goal would seem hypocritical. So if an opportunity presents itself, great. If not, I’m not too worried about it.)
• I want to finish eLearn101.com, build some traffic and revenue, and then sell it. (This is a tougher one. I’m not pursuing the directory there anymore. That’s what I know for certain. I have considered moving FreeOnlineCourses.info to the elearn101.com domain (monitizes well as it is, but I’d probably be able to build more traffic and income with the more brandable domain, either to keep it for the income or to sell it. It’s just not going to be a priority for a while, so might be a 2010 project when I’m doing my own sites full-time.)
• My big goal for the year (and one I know will be a struggle to achieve) is to move from full-time freelance writing to full-time income from my blogs, e-books, etc. (writing “for myself”), with just part-time client work by the end of the year. (I am very happy to say that progress towards this goal is moving along very nicely. Next year, client work will be a part-time income source, while the bulk of my earnings should be coming from my sites, blogs, e-books, and hopefully the QFF book. I’m quite excited about that prospect, I’m thrilled at how some of the sites have progressed this year so far – more about that below.)
• And of course, I want to see my overall income keep climbing year over year. (This goal will absolutely be met.)
  
• I desperately need to finally get a new accounting and filing system setup to help me with my always-messy records and such. (And this goal probably WON’T be met! lol)

So there you have it — my goals published here early in the year, and how they’re coming along. However, those aren’t my only goals. As the year progresses, new goals are formed, old ones change a bit (hence the site mergers), and some cease to matter. Here are some of the things I’m up to currently that weren’t originally-planned goals for 2009:

• I’m writing the nonfiction book — The Query-Free Freelancer. I finished outlining recently, and began drafting this week (sign up over there, and today I’ll be publishing the rough TOC to let my members decide what I draft first, since I’ll be publishing excerpts for them).
• I launched QueryFreeFreelancer.com. It’s tied to the book-in-progress as a way to get people thinking about the issue of becoming query-free, while building an audience for the future book.
• I’m re-designing several sites. Basically, I’m going to custom designs instead of templates (for the bigger sites for now). I wanted something very simple and “old school” blog format for NakedPR.com, and that was the first to be done. Then I did the unique design for the QueryFreeFreelancer.com launch. I redesigned AllFreelanceWriting.com (that design is off with the coder now being finished up and should go live next week I hope). I’m in the process of redesigning a small business blog (more on that below, as one of the “Big 3″). Then I’ll likely redesign AudioXposure.com and possibly Free Online Courses (if I get around to moving it to the elearn101.com domain this year). I may redesign WebWritersGuide.com, but I don’t know if I’ll have time for that this year (more worried about getting additional e-books up there).
• Big 3 Blog Changes – My previous “big 3″ blogs are having some overhaul work done. NakedPR is pretty much finished. Just a design change there (and income is surprisingly nice over there, considering I rarely update it). I do need to update a few of the older pages / posts there, like the distribution site list.

  All Freelance Writing is going through its changes now. Design changes will come first, followed by a few minor changes for monetization. Income on this site could easily be improved, and I’m going to be trying a plan that doesn’t involve a lot of sitewide banners and such (which you can see on the design itself). The job board will be reinstated (used to earn well when jobs were on their own domain). The e-books will have a prominant link on the site to hopefully keep those sales coming in. I’ll also be moving more towards affiliate promotions which were doing very well here before, but which I stopped to focus attention elsewhere. The contextual Clickbank ads will be gone – they’ve proved pretty much useless over time. Instead I’ll be going to back to promoting specific products that I’ll hand-pick because I think they’re actually worth your time. I don’t intend to promote them with any banners, buttons, etc. sitewide.

  The business blog will have the most changes. In that case, I’ll actually be going with more ads. I’m doing the design for BizHow2.com, but that’s not where it’s currently located. I’ll be moving the worthwhile blog content over to the new domain when the design is ready, updating and better-optimizing a lot of those posts as I go along (meaning a very big project indeed). The current domain will be wiped clean. The only thing I’ll likely keep is the slogan (and possibly the logo altogether). A new site will be launched on that old domain, so it won’t be redirected to the new one (meaning the new site will need a lot of early promotional work). The old domain will instead be used to house a collection of business tools and resources, and will either be a static site or a WordPress site setup to essentially be static (no blog).

I’m sure there are other smaller things that I’ve forgotten, but those are the activities (aside from client work) that I’m personally focusing on right now.

What about you? How are your 2009 goals coming along, and have you set any new ones?