2011 was a pretty darn amazing year, to say the least!
As a result, I find myself filled not only with gratitude, but also my fire to accomplish even more in 2012 is burning brighter than ever.
I’m a big believer setting goals, because if you don’t have a crystal clear picture of where you are going, chances are you will never arrive. And even if you did, how would you know if you hadn’t already defined the destination?
So with that in mind, below are my business goals for 2012.
Niche Site Goal: $5,000/Mo
In the first 3 months of this year, I will be launching somewhere between 50 and 100 new niche sites. I intend to build a mix of both sites to flip and sites to keep for the long haul.
The build-to-flip will tend to be smaller sites of 3-5 articles each. The build-to-keep sites will generally have at least 30 articles at the time of launch, and the topics I choose for these sites will be topics that are broad enough to allow me to publish over 100 posts for each site.
What I can’t specify is the exact number of niche sites that I’m going to launch. This is because I have chosen a starting budget of $10,000 and I won’t know how many sites I’ll get for that because, as I just mentioned, some will be large sites (30+ articles) and some will be small (3-5 articles).
What you can expect to see in 2012 is a significant increase in my Adsense earnings. My goal by years end is to have increased my Adsense income to $5,000 a month.
Some of you might be wondering why only $5,000 a month? The reason is this: I don’t want all my eggs in one basket, plus, I love to learn/teach new things.
Online Income Lab Subscribers: 15,000
About a day or two ago, my list just surpassed 2,000 active subscribers. Given what we have in store for our Youtube channel over the next year, I suspect that 15,000 subs by year’s end will be easily achievable; however, as the whole Youtube thing is kinda new to me, I can’t say for sure.
What I can say is that based upon the current growth rate of my list, at least 10,000 should be a no brainer.
Youtube Subscribers: 10,000
If Jenna Marbles can rack up over 2,000,000 subscribers, surely I can hit 10,000 
In all seriousness, in 2012 I intend to put a massive effort into building the Youtube channel into a major online asset for traffic generation.
In fact, this one goal was the primary reason why I hired Courtney, my new EA. Courtney is going to be in charge of all things Youtube; right from writing the business plan, to keeping me on schedule in providing the content.
After starting to study some other successful channels, I quickly realized that Youtube has far more potential that I’d ever realized, and so if we can succeed here, it just opens more doors for sales of products as well as the creation of new products that will be targeted not just to online marketers, but to anyone looking to increase their brand’s exposure.
Facebook Likes: 10,000
Like Youtube, for me, Facebook is severely under utilized; despite have the potential to massively drive traffic to my blog.
This will be one area of my business where I invest in paid advertising to drive traffic. I have been testing this a bit in the last few months and now that I have Courtney on board, I intend to spend more time figuring out if my spending will have a positive ROI or not, and if it does, rest assured, I will spend more.
Niche Site Mastery: $100,000/Mo
At the time of its sale, my last business had sales of about $150,000 a month, so setting a goal of $100,000 a month for Niche Site Mastery isn’t quite as crazy as you might think. Allow me to explain…
About a month ago, I launched a “done for you” VA service (in beta) to 22 members of Niche Site Mastery. The goal of the service was to deliver turn-key websites to NSM members; thereby making it easier for them to succeed.
The service was very well received, and, after a few bumps (that is why I only launched it in beta and restricted it to just 22 people), we’re now just about ready to widely launch the service. In fact, I will be using the exact same group of people to build all my sites as will be used by my customers.
What this really means is that NSM is evolving from just a membership site focused on training, to a site that provides training as well as web development and link-building services for its members.
So, with that in mind, if you think that a typical customer would like to build 10 sites a month at $99 a site, the value of each customer is about $1,000 a month in total revenue (profit is much less, of course).
Give me 100 customers doing this and suddenly NSM is doing $100,000 a month; which based upon what I was able to achieve with my last company (which was also started in my house), is a very doable number.
If you want to be kept abreast of the launch, make sure you subscribe to my blog’s mailing list and you won’t miss a thing.
Warrior Special Offers: $50,000
I have already generated about $6,000 with WSOs, however, I’ve come to realize that they have far more potential that I first realized. The key with WSOs is to ensure that you have a solid network of other list owners that are going to mail for you.
A friend of mine demonstrated this rather successfully in December when he got WSO of the Day and generated about $60,000 in two days with a $20 product. He did it by having a large group of people mailing for him.
Thanks to him, I’ve now been invited into the same mastermind group and and slowly started to devote more time to getting to know the people in the group. When I have enough good will in place, I will launch my own WSO, which will be a $20 product that is made up of the outsourcing section of NSM.
My thinking here is this: to develop a new $20 WSO every two months and hope for $10,000 in sales each time. Affiliate commissions will take a huge bite out of that, of course, but immediate profit isn’t the only reason to do a WSO. They are also terrific for list building, which, as you already know, is one of my other major goals for 2012.
Video Tycoon Sites: $5,000/Mo
The first video tycoon site is really close to being done. (don’t know what a video tycoon site is? Listen to this) Were it not for the holidays, the sales page would already be live and I’m quite sure the first sales would have already come in.
The second site is currently in development and I plan to launch one more about every two months as they are a LOT of work to create. However, they also have a LOT of profit potential from very little traffic.
They are also something that nobody else is doing (aside from Nate and maybe a handful of his students).
The goal is to have six of these sites operational by year’s end earning $700-800 per month each. Nate River’s has accomplished this and more, so I see this as very doable so long as other priorities don’t stand in the way.
Growing my Team
The last quarter of 2011 was a whirlwind of activity, and, to be honest, I darn near burned myself out trying to keep up with it all. If everything goes smoothly, I can keep up, but not really get ahead. Throw a few server issues (I had some) into the mix and suddenly I’m struggling to stay on top of things.
Working with a feeling like that just wasn’t fun so I decided to set out and hire a full-time executive assistant and get an office. Both of these things are now done, so technically, this goal is already achieved, but as this post is about goals for 2012, I thought it important to share it.
Courtney and I have now worked together for a week, and I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen from her so far. She is very smart, focused, and appears super-keen to take on all the tasks I assign to her.
When I think of what she and I can accomplish working together, I can’t help but brim with excitement! Courtney, you rock!
Other Projects
Below are some of the other key projects that I have high expectations for in 2012.
Fitness Membership Site: $100,000
In partnership with Mike Cooch, I’m developing a membership site devoted to helping people maintain their health and fitness. Just like the make money online niche, this niche is super crowded. With that said, I have no doubt in my mind that Mike and I will be able to make the site a success.
As for what it will earn this year, I’d only be guessing, however, as some of my readers may recall, this site is the subject of the $100,000 in 12 months project, so I guess the goal should be to have the site and its list worth $100,000 by this time next year.
GiftSimply: 10,000 Users
In partnership with Kane Miller, owner of SocialAdr, I’m developing a social gifting application/site. We are very near our beta launch, so stay tuned for your chance to participate in the beta program.
In terms of revenue, anything between $0 and $100,000 is possible, so instead of stating a financial goal, my goal is to have it grow to 10,000 users within a year. Stay tuned to this blog for updates on our progress.
Domaining
This is a business that I’m not yet in, but it fascinates me, just the same. Given that one of my business partners is one of the most well-known and successful domainers on the planet, I suspect that it won’t be too hard for me to learn the ropes.
The appeal of this business is it simplicity. Buy 100 domains for $7 each and then sell 3 or 4 of them for $1500 each. No articles to write, no links to build, no sites to build, etc… If you’d like to hear more about domaining, be sure and listen to this podcast.
Summary
Obviously, I cannot accomplish all this by myself. Nor would I even try.
The reason that I’m in business is because I love a challenge, and I love to build systems that other people can run. That is what team-building is all about. If you don’t have a team, you aren’t likely to accomplish as much as you otherwise could.
Blogging the way I have over the last year has allowed me to create some pretty killer relationships with some very smart people. And, contrary to what some people believe about online marketing, this is not a business to you should do in isolation. Trust me when I say that a full year of being locked up in my spare room alone was more than enough “me time”, hahaha!
If you are going to succeed, you are going to need a team, and it would be my privilege to be a part of yours.
Have you checked out my podcast channel over at iTunes?
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See that guy over there? Hopefully, that ain't you!
In fact, I'm willing to bet you are smarter than most people looking to become a successful Internet Marketer and you're not interested in shady "get rich quick" schemes.
Instead, you are looking for a proven strategy and a step by step guide for executing it. Put simply, you already know that time is your most precious asset and you don't want to waste it.
If that is the case, I want you to have a look at some training videos I've created for readers of this blog. These videos cover:
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25 Responses to My Goals for 2012
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Who’s Trent?
Having sold his last business for over a million bucks in 2008 by the age of 38, Trent has since immersed himself in the study of internet marketing by going out and doing.
While he's not yet making millions, he is earning far more than the vast majority of new marketers, and, best of all, because he's not yet years ahead of the average newbie, what he's teaching is directly applicable to 95% of people wanting to earn their living online.
Why not jump start your internet marketing career today?
You’ve got some serious shiz in the oven Trent- That’s awesome and good luck.
BTW Jenna Marbles has two things you don’t that help a lot on Youtube.
Trent, I love your new goals and will catch up your Niche Site Goal. I have been learning a lot from you. Very inspiring.. it’s all about process, outsource, and create a repeatable process to let someone run.
I have little investment to start with.. just $500 a month and 2-3 hours a day, but love to scale up and do everything outsource as you do eventually.
Damn Trent, you’re a beast! I’m working very hard to meet my own goals for the next 6 months and beyond. All the best for 2012 and I know that you’ll meet and exceed your expectations.
Thanks Andre!
Some lofty goals, but I like it. Excited to see the no-huddle offense on the adsense niche sites (sorry, football term – how about power play slapshot
).
You’re right about YouTube being good for brand exposure (and income). For my niche product site, I have 10 videos on YouTube that are embedded on my site. Each video is short about 10-20 seconds and has a 2.5 second pre roll of just my site logo and domain. Last year I had over 55K views on YouTube alone. I can tell it works cause in my stats each month, I have a large amount of direct traffic.
In August, YouTube allowed me to monetize my whole channel. The CTR is terrible but this move did add an additional $10/month in my pocket. Not huge, but $120/yr pays my hosting.
I would wish you good luck this year but great entrepreneurs don’t need luck. So, I’ll wish you much success.
Who made your pre-roll? I need one!
Thanks so much
Pre roll was probably a bad choice of terms as there isn’t much production on it. I whipped up a quick (and rough) example. http://youtu.be/QsOlJwkKSh0
If you had a little longer beginning and throw in a snippet of your podcast intro music as well.
Hope you don’t mind my borrowing a tiny clip.
Thanks for that. I’ve got something a bit different in mind…
I figured your plan was much more than just that.
Never fail to inspire me Trent. I set myself goal of 50 niche sites last month which I smashed with plenty of time to spare:) My first goal for this month is hitting a century with subscribers to my own blog but looking at your numbers I think I might raise that a bit;)
WSO’s is definitely on my list for 2012 as well but thanks for all the great training in 2010!
Keep on rockin mate.
50 sites last month? Wow, man, you are crushing it! Good to hear
Great list of goals, Trent. And I don’t think too many of your followers will be surprised if you accomplish them all!
Thanks dude
Trent,
I am blown away by your goals, but would not be surprised if you hit most, or maybe even all of them. In my opinion, a mind as keen and analytical as yours is something this market sees rarely. Traditional “businessmen”, with the appropriate experience and expertise, do not generally recognize internet marketing as a viable business model.
Although you may ultimately build income streams that you can entirely step away from, you will remain the most valuable asset to your business.
I am excited to see you really ramp up the AdSense income, and am impressed with the level of diversity you are looking to establish. I wish you the very best for 2012 and will be watching closely!
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks Tom; some very kind words there
Trent,
Congrats for the goals. After 2012 I will have a potential new client to target for my hedge fund.
Keep up the good work!
Fede
hahaha!
Lots of interesting goals! Fingers crossed for you.
Are you going to share your video tycoon site or is it for your eyes only? I’m quite interested to see what one looks like but haven’t got the time or money to sign up for Nate’s course just yet.
I will not be sharing any URLs. Too many copycats lurking out there.
Trent, you are an ambitious business man! That’s what I like about you! I definitely think that product creation is the way to make monetary gains fast. I launched my first product this month and hope to have at least 2-3 more this year.
Nice job putting your goals in writing, I need to do the same to keep myself on track.
Man you have some great goals! Good luck!
Thanks so much
Wow,Wow,Wow,Wow these are some hardcore goals Trent and I applaud what you are trying to accomplish. I’d like to point out why it’s so impressive. Your first month at this you made $222 fast forward to December 2011 and your gross revenues were $27,442 that’a a 12,261% growth over a period of time of less then a year.
Your goals for the niche site mastery are very realistic as well, when I first looked at it $100,000 a month is a huge figure but the math is there (1,000 *$100=$100,000, how scalable is the business and I’m assuming your VA’s are taking over for this as well?
The last key point I wanted to bring up are your affiliates. As if these numbers weren’t impressive enough you didn’t even include your affiliate commissions which are usually your number two earner in your income reports. I suspect that your niche site mastery course will far surpass your affiliate earnings but as your continue to become an authority in this niche your affiliate earnings will continue to rise.
My question for you is are you going to keep trying new things and diversifying? Your adsense sites seem to represent a huge cost do you expect to see the adsense earnings to climb or will you shift more of your focus to your niche site course and your fitness membership site?
Anyway kind of a long comment but I wanted to say that your goals are quite inspiring I had some goals written down but I might have to kick them up a notch! Cheers.
Hi Bojan,
Yes, you’re right, I did leave affiliate commissions out of my goal report; mostly because they are a direct result of increasing my blog’s list and traffic. Plus…I just forgot
Re building niche sites, my latest batch are continuing to make big percentage increases and you can rest assured that I will be following through on my goal to launch many more. I spent hours yesterday on keyword research and will be doing the same today.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I LOVE reading all the comments on my blog!
Trent, i wish you success in your IM sojourn for the year 2012. I am pretty sure with your experience and availability of tools, you will get these things done.
Do not be distracted at all and Aal Izz Well
Sheyi