Goals for November 2011

October 2011 Review

October didn't go as planned. Work, family, and life intervened and prevented me from making solid progress on most of the goals I set last month. I'm not going to go through each goal because I ended up having far less time to accomplish the goals than I originally thought. Sometimes this happens. The lesson here is not to get discouraged. As long as you are making some progress, you are on the right path towards financial independence. Even just thinking about projects, brainstorming, and daydreaming should be considered "work" when it comes to making a venture successful.

What Worked in October

Despite not being able to fully accomplish most of the tasks, I did make some progress on almost every front. The only thing that really didn't work out was finding ghostwriters for my planned ebooks. As my ebook is a longer term goal, I think I will hold off on posting on Odesk or Elance until I really have the time to devote to it. In the meantime, I will try and do some of the work on my own, without spending a time.

I am extremely proud that my online retail business is beginning to bear fruit. For the month of October I earned $34.95 in profit with over $86.00 in total sales. That may not seem like alot, but this is my first full month in operation. In total my online retail business is averaging almost 32% ROI!

Another positive development is that I have been steadily gathering more wholesale suppliers. Just this month I set up an account with a video game wholesaler and was able to list 15 competitively priced and profitable video games for my media section.

My niche websites have seen a noticeable increase in traffic, but conversions were down this month. I spent most of my energy building quality backlinks in an attempt to boost page rank on Google. In time, hopefully these efforts will pay off.

For this next month, my priorities have shifted a bit since my online retail business has taken off. However, I still want to devote plenty of time to my niche websites as they can be an excellent source of passive income.

My Goals for November
1) Have at least 200 products listed on my etail storefront by end of month (again)
2) Continue backlinking to niche site #1 and #2 (at least two quality backlinks each)
3) Finish and post Ezine article for niche site #1
4) Finish two (2) Squidoo pages
5) Write a product review (on Wizzley or Here)
6) Post at least 2 updates on my value investing blog
7) Evaluate effectiveness of updgrading Amzon seller account to professional grade for $39.99 per month
8) Finish The Challenge
9) Finish Static Content for niche site #2
10) Post at least once on niche site #2
11) Finish all design for niche site #3
12) Create at least one (1) more static page for niche site #4
13) Begin designing niche site #5
14) Do initial set up for niche site #6
15) Buy domains for at least one (1) more niche site
16) Research at least three more profitable niche areas
17) Have fun and try something new!

While it may seem like a longer list, the tasks are much more straightforward and many contain the key modifer "at least" to give me some leeway. Posting on forums takes up alot of time, so it will not be a priority this month unless I am doing it for fun/a break from the main goals. The hardest task will probably be completing The Challenge and getting my product list to 200 items.