The Thing About Setting Monetary Goals...
One of the things I'm pretty confident in is that setting financial goals is a big mistake.
If anyone were to take a look at my Google Calendar, they would see monthly goals that I created when I first started WA revolving around money, such as "$600" by the end of my third month and stuff. Let me make it clear: I haven't made any money through Internet marketing -- just some small change from my serial, a WA Invite and one of my training modules. Six hundred bucks? Not happening. Not happening anytime soon.
The reason I say financial goals are bad ideas are because, quite simply, you can't control them. Financial goals are more like...dreams, wishes, or aspirations. You can't control those; you can only hope for them.
What you can control are your day to day activities, including and especially the things that may potentially bring you income. You can control how many articles you put out daily, how many pages/posts to add to your site or blog, what to share, which social networks to share to, and so on. These are the things to set goals around. These are the things you can achieve.
Edit: Someone brought up the fact that most businesses have a "bottom line" in place, which is a typical financial goal. Here's the thing about that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Recent Comments
7
I agree with you and Dan on this... I am not sure setting financial goals in our business is good, at least for me it doesn't work. I do think that if one has a certain amount they wish to make as their main goal to shoot for is better.
For what we do, and in my own experience it seems better to have a different goal, such as: seeking to be better, learn more, write an article or two or three today, get so many backlinks, rank my site higher... then the money should come.
Now some of them guys in The Warrior Forum hauling in bucket loads of dough just from making and selling sometimes junk products, I am sure they have a bottomline. However I do not consider them pure internet marketers. They are product creators... we in here are what I call pure internet marketers.
Nice post, I agree.
Kevin
I love your outlook. Being an Accountant I am constantly working with Financial Budgets, which are based on productivity measurements. So, in a statistical manner we are doing the same thing. The differential factor is a IM novice has no personal track history to based their Financial goals on. With that in mind your approach is by far the best. Activity based measurements are the only known factor.
Another benefit of that type of goal setting is that they are actually taking action, instead of just dreaming of the money.
Thank you for sharing this practical approach.
Dan
Well said! I know nothing about accounting, but this just seemed to make sense to me. Glad you agree.
i don't totally agree with you on financial goals. i do agree that since internet marketing is sales-focused, and you're not the one buying, so you don't have total control. but i have worked other places that were sales-focused, and watched as people who had the drive to MAKE their goals happen, do so and still stay within ethical boundaries. the financial goals is something i've seen in many places, including, if i recall corectly, "How to win friends and influence people", by Dale Carnegie.
that said, i wish you the best of success!
I remember what you're referring to -- the so-called bottom-line that most businesses have in place. However, despite this being a mass practice, it's a hindering one.
Numerous studies have been done on this. Basically, when people are faced with monetary incentive to complete a task, they will:
- Do better if the task has clear instructions and/or is repetitive/mechanical in nature
- Perform horrendously if the task requires even the slightest bit of creativity
So when it comes to goal setting, financial goals should apply to scenarios where you already know exactly how to yield x income using x method in x days. But they will hinder you psychologically if you don't know how to make money.
I recommend the works of Dan Pink for more info. He has a quick youtube video on the topic here that I'll include in the blog post above.
See more comments
I agree with Dan. When you have no track record to judge by it is difficult to set goals but, you still need an overall objective or goal. The secret is setting realistic goals. $600 at the end of month three may not have been realistic. Rather look at something like a "to do" list. Start from the end. Where do I want to go with this? Then backtrack and list what steps are needed to get to that aim.
Then determine by when you want to each action done. This will spur you on to take appropriate action.
Whilst you are still learning it may be unfair to expect of yourself to set specific financial goals. Be fair to yourself.
Just be careful. If you keep aiming at nothing, you will hit it every time.
That said - I wish you every success in your efforts! God bless.