Looking Back at 2014 & Forward to 2015

I was going to blog a bit about Vegas, but Eddy, Ian, and Vitaliy all beat me to the punch. This is the third time I've been invited to Vegas to attend the Wealthy Affiliate conference.

As always, I've come away with more ideas on how to grow my business and a confirmation that Wealthy Affiliate is the absolute best place for beginners to come to learn how to grow a business online. I have been recommending it since 2009 for a reason!

Instead of talking about the trip again, I want to take a look back at my 2014 and what I'm planning for 2015.

My 2014 Accomplishments

I now have content published on my site five days a week.

Take a look at your own posting schedule. How often are you posting? Once a week? Every other week? Once a month!? You're doing yourself, your website, and your readers a great disservice if you aren't publishing content often. I firmly believe that having content published to my site frequently is the number one contributor to my success.

I now publish content to my website five days a week. Every article is unique, engaging, and runs at least 750 words. High quality content has been my number one focus since starting my website in 2007. It's the reason why my site continues to rank very strongly for highly competitive keywords.

My wife now works from home full time!

You may have noticed the beautiful blonde in the other Vegas pictures. That's my wife! We've been married for two and a half years now. One of my long term life goals was to have Amanda working full-time from home with me as an Internet Marketer.

We developed a strategy before she quit her job and she has been hard at work since August of 2014. She's no longer going to work 60 hours at a job she hated and felt under appreciated. Now, she's working full-time on a project she loves and enjoys the same freedom and flexibility that I have as well.

(You can find Amanda's site at http://www.dealtrunk.com/ -- Feel free to check it out!)

I hit highs in terms of income and traffic.

What's being taught here at Wealthy Affiliate works. However, it's up to you to follow the training and commit to your business. They say "content is king" for a reason and judging by my growth in 2014, that mantra isn't going any where any time soon.

Seriously, plan out a posting schedule and START WRITING. The only variable in this equation is you! Finish reading this post then get to work!

I went back to Vegas.

Free flight, free hotel, free food, free gambling. What's not to like!?

Looking Forward to 2015

Travel, travel, travel.

Travel has been a driving factor of my efforts online since I started. I wanted a job where I had the freedom and flexibility to travel where and when I wanted. With Amanda working full time from home with me and the growth in my business, we have some big travel plans in the near future.

First was Vegas. The conference spanned from Monday to Thursday, but we were able to extend our trip from Sunday to Sunday. To all future attendees, 7 days in Vegas is dangerous. I do not recommend it if you enjoy having money in your wallet.

Up next is California. We'll be doing the coastal drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles over 4 days. From LA, we'll be spending a few weeks on Maui! After last year's polar vortex that froze the North East, I booked a trip to spend some time on Hawaii. My office will be a beach during the coldest month of the year. Can't beat that.

We also have plans to visit Lake Tahoe, Hilton Head Island, and a number of other shorter getaways in there. All thanks to the power of working from home.

This will be our office for most of the winter :)

I'll be going back to Vegas.

It wouldn't be a year at WA without a trip to Vegas. I do look forward to meeting a lot of you there next year! Can we get a few more girls on the trip? Listen, I love the guys we've met, but it's just been a bunch of dudes walking around Vegas together. We need some ladies to balance things out.

I need to optimize my existing content.

My site is big. Nearly 1,300 posts big. (Remember I had mentioned I publish new content on it often? I wasn't joking. It's that big of a deal.) It's gotten too big that a lot of my content has been neglected over the years. There are posts that are getting a lot of traffic, but they ultimately lead the reader nowhere. I'll be spending what looks like the better part of 2015 optimizing my existing content and coming up with better content strategies moving forward.

What are your plans for 2015?

I mentioned above that the only variable in this equation is you!

Make your plans today for the rest of the year. Remember, this is a business and you need to treat it as such! If you are expecting a full-time income, it requires a full-time effort. You can't half-ass your way to success. Commit to building your business and your income will grow as well.

Most importantly: content, content, content.

-Steve