2017 is finally here and some would say – not a second too soon.

2016 was a horrible year for many, personally for me it was just another year.

Now that 2017, it’s time to rock it and made it the best year ever.

Anyways, have you set any New Year Resolutions like the majority of people? If so, throw them out right now!

Instead of having New Year Resolutions, let’s set some goals instead, this way we can actually measure them and make a plan to meet them instead of just talking about them. You can set your goals to whatever you want but we recommend you set them to something realistic that you have a chance at achieving.

Some examples of goals would be “I want to be earning $100 a day by May”, “I want to be earning $2000 a month by April”, “I want to be earning $5000 a month by September”. When I set goals, not to sound cheesy, but I try to use the “SMART” criteria (you can read more about this here). [SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound].

In all my example about, you can see I meet this criteria, I like to do this so when I look back I can easily determine if I’ve met my goal or if I need to work more to hit it.

Now we need to come up with a plan on how we are going to meet our goals. We can set as many goals as we want, but without a plan, we are almost wasting our time. So how do we come up with a plan? We need to write down what we are going to do to meet our goals.

For example, if you have a financial goal such as the ones I’ve outlined above and you are in affiliate marketing, you will need to be launching campaigns to make the money. Part of your plan might be to launch 5 campaigns a week. Part of your plan might be to take your existing campaigns and port them over to different countries or different traffic sources to diversify and expand your earnings. This is also the time to look at where you need help. Do you have all of the tools you need? Do you have all the knowledge you need? Figure out what you need and address your needs.

Now what’s really important is we go back to our goals and write them down. Make sure you see them every day or every other day. We need to look at them and stay motivated. We don’t want to treat this like a New Year Resolution and give up after 2 weeks. We want to stay hungry and keep at it until we hit and surpass them! I recommend to go back to your goals every month or few months and see if you’re on track. If you are not on track, you need to review your plan and change it to get you back on track. Staying hungry and focused is often what separates success from failure.

We wish you the best for 2017.

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” – Steve Jobs.