Can you believe we're already half-way through 2010? Wow! And you know what that means, right? It's time to look back on the goals and resolutions we set for our freelance writing businesses, blogs, etc. and see how we're coming along. Maybe we've met some of our goals already. Perhaps it's time to let some go because we've made other goals along the way. And it might be time to set some new goals to keep progressing through the end of the year.
As I always do at this time of year, I'm going to share some of my early 2010 goals and let you know where I stand with them. I hope you'll then leave a comment doing the same. It's always nice looking back to see how far we've come over the months.
Here are my goals set at the beginning of the year, and how I'm doing with them:
1. Increasing All Freelance Writing Pageviews
We had a yearly goal for pageviews here, which we have not met yet. However, we're about halfway between where we started and where I want to end up this year, so we're on target. In addition, I set a somewhat lower monthly pageview goal that I wanted us to reach at least three of the first six months. I'm happy to say we did reach that goal. For the next six months we'll keep working towards that higher goal until we (hopefully) reach it.
2. Earning More Money
At the beginning of the year I was hoping to see about $20k more from client work alone in 2010. And so far I seem to be just about on target for that. I'm actually surprised by how well work towards this goal is going so far given that I cut Fridays out of my schedule. And that brings me to another goal....
3. Getting More Productive in My Work
Logic would say if you cut your work week from 5 days to 4, you're going to get less done and earn less money. Not true. I'm earning more. And I'm getting far more work done. How? Cutting down on my working hours forced me to get more productive with those I had left. I let go of clients who were paying on the lower end of my spectrum, increased projects with higher-paying clients, and in the process now earn more without stressing over work so much. And that's the key for me. More time off to unwind and relax meant less stress at work, which meant I could focus more easily and get more done. I couldn't have hoped for better results... except maybe cutting things down to three work days -- maybe a goal for next year. 😉
4. Overhauling my business site and blog
Business site. Check. Business writing blog. Check -- sort of. It's launched. I just don't update it much. So perhaps I'll do that this week. It won't ever be a highly active blog like All Freelance Writing. But I do want to try to get at least one post per week up between now and the end of the year -- at least most weeks.
5. Launching Two Web Writer's Guide E-books
Um, yeah. Hasn't happened. I have the Query-Free Freelancer book to finish first, and then I'll finish the first of these two WWG e-books. I've honestly slacked on the e-book front this year, big time. I'm always distracted by something else, but given that I want them to be the primary income source for my blogs, expect that to change. I'll likely start putting out much shorter e-books and reports in the $5-10 range, and keep longer ones with custom bonuses solely to the WWG series. I'm going to shoot for the QFF one finally this month once I get things setup for it. And August for the WWG e-book. The second WWG ebook (3rd in the series) will probably be scheduled for the fall -- for now I'll set a tentative goal of November.
6. Increasing AFW Subscribers
I honestly can't say how this one is progressing. I track through Feedburner, and on checking today they seem to be showing rather sporadic fluctuations again (they do this more than makes sense, and it's not just to me). For example, if I wrote this post two days ago we'd be perfectly on target for reaching our subscriber goal by the end of the year. But in two days they're showing a 400 subscriber drop (not normal, and almost certainly not true). So I'll just have to keep monitoring it between now and the end of the year for the larger trends.
In the post linked above I mentioned other smaller goals. Some are reached; some are not. We did launch the AFW marketplace. I did not put out my white paper on my business site yet (but I still have time, and I'm not taking on new clients at the moment so that's not a big priority right now). I wanted to launch the online course series on AFW by the spring, which didn't happen. Other projects came up -- the writer's market directory, work on the upcoming Web comic, the Freelance Theater audio plays, launching the book club, and all of the free tools and such that have been put out. So I don't feel badly about putting those off.
And of course there are new plans and goals. For example:
- I'll be launching a solo Freelance Theater series (as Yo did earlier).
- The Web comic will launch.
- We have plans to turn the Web comic into a series of animated shorts as well (either late this year or next), and then eventually insert those characters into a game.
- The podcast is still planned.
- I'll be releasing more products of my own (here and on my business blog mostly), as well as finding affiliate products I'm willing to get behind -- to get the blogs' income up where I'd like it to be.
- I'm considering launching a newsletter / mailing list.
- The QFF book will have it's first chapter released online probably this summer, in addition to a mini-proposal.
- I'm working on my first screenplay as mentioned here before.
- When the screenplay is finished I'd like to revisit one of my novel outlines and work on finishing a more solid draft. That, or I'll work on the outlines for some of the other projects floating around in my head and my notebooks.
- I'll be launching IndieLounge.com -- a collection of blogs on indie music, indie film, indie publishing, and independent workers (the freelance lifestyle). I'm trying to figure out the theme for that now -- deciding to purchase one or do the design myself or just manually tweak one of them I've released here. No idea yet. I already have one or two of the future writers on board, so that will help us kick things off a bit more smoothly I think.
And I'm sure there are other things in the works that I'm forgetting. I often do until I go back over my notes. That's just what comes to mind at the moment.
So okay... what about you? Do you have any new goals? How are you progressing towards the goals you set at the beginning of the year?
Impressive progress Jenn. My goals are coming along, and I think in about a week or two I’ll feel more like my old self about them. But that brings up an interesting point–having goals is fine and good, but you know sometimes your motivation wanes and life gets in the way. How do you deal with that and keep yourself on track?
That’s terrific Jennifer. I’m glad to see you are on target for almost all of your goals. That’s always a good feeling.
Like Yo said, Jenn – very impressive. It’s also pretty inspiring.
I didn’t set any official goals for 2010, but I had an overall main aim of taking my freelance writing career seriously. For the past few years I’ve enjoyed writing, but only played at being a freelance writer.
We’re in July and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I’ve increased my rates successfully, received a larger order from a regular client and also taken on a handful of new gigs.
My aims for the coming 6 months are to take on a few more clients at my new rates, become more involved in regular discussions in the freelance writing community (If I’m busy, I tend to – unfortunately – neglect this side) and try to stop working on weekends.
Thinking about this, I’m actually really, really pleased with the year so far and looking forward to the rest of it!