Setting goals is an important key to the success of any business. People who keep up with and achieve their goals are noticed more, probably because they are the “movers and the shakers”. Because they are written, these particular business owners achieve their goals relatively easily. In contrast, people who choose not to set written goals don’t know where they are going or even where they want to go. So in essence these businesses are stagnant with no immediate hope of moving forward. Written goals are paramount to build your business and do well in life. Here are ten tips that can help you attain your goals:

1. Written goals are written by people who know exactly what they want to achieve. They know their business and personal worth, and act accordingly. A good way to start writing your goals is to make a list of your accomplishments every day. Also take some time to dream big. Where do you want to be next year? Five years down the road? Do you want to expand your offerings? Add product offerings? You will be surprised to know that you could find out a lot about yourself in this process that you never noticed before. Once you start looking at this list, not only will your self-confidence boom, but you will have a renewed fervor about your business.

2. Be clear about your goals. If need be, break your goals into smaller, more manageable tasks. Pat yourself every time you achieve a minor goal. It will boost your self-confidence, and help you achieve bigger goals.

3. Find a mentor who can help you reach your goal. Most people, who have done well in life, have a mentor who has traveled the same road on which they are traveling today. Meet your mentor regularly, and seek his/her advice and support as a routine. You will find that you are learning something valuable every day.

4. Socialize with people who are positive and supportive. Life is give and take so make sure that you give them the same support and respect that they give you. Be sure to avoid people who are negative and critical of you and your business. Such people erode your self-confidence. They make you look at your negative self, and not your positive self. After some time, you get enveloped in their cynical and negative world-view and negativity is sure to set in about your business. Nothing can be more damaging than that. Take an inventory of those around you. Do they hinder or harm your success? If they are friends, dump such “friends” as soon as you can. Or ask yourself how you can help them change the way they think about you and life around them. If they are family members, you must take caution. If you have an open relationship, let them know how it makes you feel when they talk negatively about you or life in general. Let them know that you are making positive changes in your life and that you will not be able to listen to their banter anymore (this approach can also work with friends). You want the MOST supportive people around you. The negativity in your life has got to go.

5. Pay attention to what your goals look like. Make sure you take pleasure in writing your goals. If you do, they will be more attainable in the long run. When you begin to attain your goals, you will have an air about you that in contagious. Remember that every human being wants to be found in the company of smart, intelligent, successful people. When your goals are realized and attained you will radiate a positive, smart look. Remember attainable goals very easily make the difference between success and failure.

6. Don’t be afraid of failures. Take them in stride and move on. Say to yourself that you will succeed the next time. Never make the mistake of allowing your failures to overwhelm you. Shrug off your failures as something inconsequential, and take on a new challenge. Of course, you must learn from your past mistakes, and be realistic about your abilities.

7. Keep your goals “fit” by exercising them regularly. A “fit” goal is much attainable and achievable when they are whittled down. If you are consistently not meeting your goals take some time to “exercise” them. Do they need to go on a diet? Can they be broken down into more manageable chunks? We all like to think and dream big. But if you are not achieving your goals, it may begin to affect the positive attitude that you exude and this can affect not just your business, but can carry over into other areas of your life.

8. Have a wide range of interests, and take an active interest in what’s going on in the world. Meet and talk to a lot of people. Don’t focus all your attention only on your business and your written goals. Don’t be afraid to divert your attention to new interests and new tasks.

9. Your goals should contain what that you love. You may have excelled at things in the past and then given them up because you’ve come to the conclusion that they are not right for you. Remember, you will never grow your business by doing the things that you hate. Burnout is inevitable and the goals will ultimately be unrealized.

10. Don’t be afraid to pick new goals if your goals have not come to fruition. Nothing can erode the confidence in your business better than having consistently unattained goals. We’ve all heard the saying, “good things come to those who wait.” Perhaps it’s just not the time for this particular goal to be realized. Don’t give up. Keep it written down and come back to it. If your goals are attainable you will also increase your self-confidence.

Try to practice these tips faithfully and see the difference in your business.

WORD OF CAUTION: Don’t make all of your goals too easy to attain. Eventually you will stagnate. Take a leap of faith, dream big! The world is yours for the taking!

About the Author
Becki Noles is the Visionary of the Virtual Accuracy Companies and the Director of Marketing for The Selon Group.

(if you would like to reprint this article, please email becki@theselongroup.com with the URL of the article location)

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don’t understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let’s start by examining the most basic data – the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as “hits” and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply mean the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase – the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor’s needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

About the Author
Becki Noles is the Visionary of the Virtual Accuracy Companies and the Director of Marketing for The Selon Group.

(if you would like to reprint this article, please email becki@theselongroup.com with the URL of the article location)