Setting up an online business and being able to make money online will usually not be much of a problem for most people. The struggle begins when you start getting bored of your online business or think you are done and quit working which over time will make you lose position and quite a bit of online income. If you would like to be one of the few that last for years then I highly recommend you become acquainted with internet business goal setting. This will help you have something to work for meaning you will spend more time online working and therefore earn more money for a greater period of time. In some cases the money will be enough of a motivator, but for some of us we need actual lines in the sand which we can cross and know we have reached our goals. It is important when setting goals for your internet business to not go overboard and set them way to high. You also do not want to set goals which can be accomplished quickly because you will run out of ideas.
Finding the middle is key when setting goals so figure out what is best for you and your internet business. Some can set goals up to a year ahead and keep them in mind while working helping productivity and income generation. Others such as myself need goals that do not go past a few months or we lose sight. Personally I like setting a goal every three months or so of where I would like a certain website. One example of a goal which I have now is for my website get paid to take surveys. I would like it in the top twenty for all major “survey” keywords. The only reason I set goals which are so ambitious is I have been working online for years now and know how to reach the top of Google for keywords. If you are somewhat new to the online business world a better goal may be to reach the top 100 for a certain keyword. For the newer people I also recommend placing an emphasis on learning about SEO and internet marketing when setting goals.
One difficult part of goal setting is knowing when you have reached the goal. There are many websites out across the web which will assist you in tracking progress of an online business. For those who prefer to set goals in terms of money they can visit the websites which they market or their account where they accept payment after purchase. If your goals are more traffic oriented then you may want to use stat counter or Google anaylitics which will help you track all aspects of traffic. For people like me who prefer to set goals in terms of search position the tools that will be helpful include Google webmaster tools and google adwords keyword tool. These two will help you find what keywords are best and the amount of traffic that any specific keyword has monthly.
