This week, I’ll be highlighting some of my friends around the blogosphere’s resolutions for 2008, and giving specific advice that you can use if you have a similar goal!
The action plan below follows the outline from The Ultimate Guide to New Year’s Resolutions.
Next up is Pamela Troeppl, a humor columnist and writer who offers a premium PLR content subscription service. She also runs an Internet Marketing Forum where you can register for free!
Pamela’s Resolution
“Get 100 new subscribers for my Internet Marketing Forum”
My Reaction
There are a LOT of ways Pamela could go about securing 100 new subscribers. She should brainstorm a list of all possible ways to attract customers (either on her own with a coach) and write out an action plan for each one.
Even if she comes up with 30 different strategies but only has time to execute 10, she should still write out the initial action steps for every plan. This way, she has no excuses for stopping once she gets started — if she sees one strategy through to fruition and/or another action plan doesn’t quite work out, she can immediately move on to a new one without missing a beat — or a potential client.
Planning for Success
I’m going to focus on two strategies Pamela could adopt: getting new business from previous clients, and setting up an affiliate program.
A surefire way to drum up new business is to get back in touch with past satisfied customers. Pamela should compile a list of all of her writing clients’ emails and get back in contact with each one, letting them know about the convenience of her new subscription format. She can either write one form letter and use a mailing list service like Aweber to personalize it with each person’s first name, or (even better) write to each client personally, reminding them of the last project they worked together on and letting them know about her latest endeavor.
Her initial Next Actions for this first project would be to compile all of her past clients’ email addresses and first names into a CSV file, to signup for an Aweber account, and to draft a short email getting back in touch and promoting her new service.
She should also start an affiliate program so that other writers can promote her service in exchange for a small cut of the subscription fee. In fact, some other writers may want to signup themselves to distribute Pamela’s materials to their own clients as bonuses.
Her initial Next Actions for this first project would be to ask around for suggestions for an affiliate program management tool, and to brainstorm a list of places to find writers that may be interested in becoming affiliates (i.e. freelance writing blogs, Craigslist, or Elance).
Other ideas could include: search-engine-optimizing her blog; writing guest posts on writing blogs to attract other writers to her affiliate program; and personally contacting other ebook authors and offering her service as a means to add extra bonuses to their existing packages.
Review for Success
At least once a week, Pamela should review all of her project plans for Next Actions, and make a list of actions to complete during the following week. (Breaking it down into a few key steps each day is a great way to fit constant progress into a busy schedule.) She should also evaluate how successful each plan is, and refresh her memory as to what plans are still on hold waiting to be executed. It might be time to stop working on one idea and start working on another.
Ensure Success
For a source of motivation, Pamela could put a large chart on the wall that ticks off her progress towards the first 100 subscribers. She should also surround herself with printed receipts for her paid subscriptions to give her that surge of energy she might need to send just one more email or contact just one more ebook writer at the end of a long night.
Of course, the real motivation behind getting more subscribers is bringing in more passive income so she has more time to spend with her family. If she has a dedicated office area, she should decorate it with memories of happy times spent with her husband and kids, if she hasn’t already. A quick glance at a smiling family photo is great motivation to keep going when the going gets rough.
Pamela also needs to celebrate the smaller victories. She should setup a reward for herself after every five or ten new customers, even if that reward is something small like a bubble bath or a favorite dessert.
Through her blog, Twitter account, or other outlet, Pamela can also get positive reinforcement (and positive peer pressure!) by sharing how close she is to her goal for even more motivation.
Other resolutions in this series:
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