Without goals, nothing can be achieved. We have always set a combination of short term & long term goals to help us achieve any success...and if you talk to any other successful Internet marketers, you will get the same story.

THEY ALL SET GOALS!

Goal setting also helps out with organization. If your goal is to write one article by the end of the day, then the chances you will complete this task are much greater than if you do not set the goal.

How to set GOALS

The key to goal setting, is getting them down on paper or in digital format (or both). If you don't record your goals, you have no way to track your progress. One thing that many members do here at Wealthy Affiliate is set-up their goals within the Tasks & Goals application.

Tasks & Goals Tracking

Another thing you can do is offer a live look for other members into your goals. Many members set-up their yearly goals within their WA Space Profile (under their About Me) or within their WA Space Blog. Here you can show people how well you are doing with your goals. This will attract a lot of interest to your space as well as people will be inclined to watch your progress.

WA Spaces

Short Term Goals

Short term goals are critical. Think of it as the small jobs. The little jobs lead to much bigger success. If you can break things down in terms of short term goals, then you will be organized and be able to accomplish much more.

Here are some examples of short term goals:

• Set-up hosting
• Set-up a domain
• create a landing page
• build an ad group
• write an article
• write a blog post
• choose an industry
• create a joint venture
• build a resource at WA

It really could be anything. Goals allow you to create a schedule. For example, if you were to create a schedule for your Article Marketing campaign, it might look something like this:

Monday:
-Write 2 articles.
-Research 2 New Industries.
-Build 2 landing pages for articles.
-Submit articles to ezinearticles.com.
-Social bookmark articles.

Tuesday:
-Seek affiliate programs in 2 new industries.
-Write 2 more articles.
-Submit articles to HubPages.com.
-Social bookmark articles.

Wednesday:
-Write one article.
-Research 2 industry audiences.
-Build 1 landing page for article.
-Submit article to Squidoo.
-Get one-way links to article.

Thursday:
-Come up with 10 new keyword concepts.
-Write 2 articles.
-Build 2 landing pages.
-Submit articles to ezinearticles.com.
-Social bookmark articles.

Friday:
-Work on getting more one way links to all the articles from this week.
-Write one more article.
-Submit the article to Squidoo.
-Research competitors articles

Saturday:
-Research and come up with 10 keyword concepts.
-Write 2 articles.
-Submit articles to GoArticles.com.
-Social bookmark articles.

Sunday: DAY OFF (give the brain a rest)

Look how much work you would have accomplished within just one week simply by outlining your short-term goals and scheduling. 10 articles are up and running, potentially getting traffic and sales. Multiply this by a whole month and you would have 40 articles submitted and receiving traffic & sales. 480 articles after one year!...you get the point! Short term goals lead to long term gains!

Long Term Goals

What is a long term goal? A long term goal is one that cannot be completed overnight. Long term goals can also be considered milestones, which in essence, do not have any time associated with them.

Long term are the "big goals". Dreaming big will allow you to become much more successful. Do you think that Steve Jobs dreamed of creating a billion dollar company in Apple. Likely! Without having huge goals and ambitions, we would have never created the success we have realized. Don't underestimate your potential as it is large!

The Internet has leveled the playing field between large businesses and individuals. Whereas it would have taken a lot of start-up capital in the 1990's to start a business, now you can get started for next to nothing...in some cases NOTHING (think Article Marketing). Because of this, you should not limit your success to your past thinking. Set long term goals AND set milestones.

Examples of these could be:

• Make $1.
• Get an article listed in Google.
• Build a PPC campaign.
• Build a functional website.
  
• Build a 20 page website.
• Get 1,000 clicks to my articles.
• Earn $100/day.
• Earn $200/day.
• Earn $1000/day.
• Own 5 domains.
• Be successful in 2 different niches.
• Build relationships with 10 business owners in my niche
• Build a 100 person mailing list.
• Create a 50 email follow-up sequence.
  

This list could be anything that is relevant to YOUR goals. Creating a sequence of your long term goals and checking them off as you achieve them will increase your passion for success!