When I started the trial, I felt completely overwhelmed by email, and I just wanted a way out. I was waking up every morning to an incessant barrage of PR people, sales letters, chain emails, people wanting me to write about their product, companies wanting me to promote them without compensation, and–generally–a bunch of junk. Not “spam”, really, because it was sent by real people (sadly.) But a ridiculous pile of useless crap that wasn’t easily filtered.

Since my email address is public, and my blog is popular, it seemed like every day I’d end up on some list that I didn’t ask to be on. People would sign my email address up for everything from political updates to PR posts about seemingly random companies sent from a “do not reply” address.

In short, my email inbox was a micro-Hell waiting for me every morning.

The First Seven Days: Transition

I woke up the day after I wrote my “I’m done with email for 30 days!” blog post, and realized I needed to have systems to handle my inbox. Email filters weren’t cutting it–I needed a real person’s help.

In Google Apps (Google’s Gmail solution when you have your own domain name), you can “delegate” access to your email account to another person. So I set Susan, my virtual assistant, up with an @erica.biz email account so I could delegate my inbox to her.

Now came the tricky part: Actually distancing myself from email.

Getting Rid of the Crap

I set up a brand-new email account that only Susan, Parnell (my co-founder), and Brian (my boyfriend) had access to. I disconnected my erica.biz email from my phone and set it up so that my phone only had my private email account on it.

Whew! What a relief! Finally, I had disconnected from what seemed like an endless stream of email. I set up a mind map so that Susan, with her new access to my email, could do routine tasks like automatically deleting PR junk and unsubscribing me from lists. She also sends me a summary email every morning. Here’s one summary email she sent me (names and sensitive data have been blurred out):

You can see how much time this saves me every day. Instead of having to go into my inbox and wade through a pile of junk, filtering messages one by one, Susan does it for me. Based on her daily emails, I tailor my mind map and give Susan further instructions on how to reply and/or filter specific types of email I receive.

The Next Step: An Autoresponder

I then implemented an email autoresponder that would respond to anyone who emailed me. If you’ve emailed me since June, this will look familiar. Here’s what it said:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully…what I’m about to say is important.

I’ve made a radical change in my life, and I’m taking a sabbatical from email. (Note: I’m still around and working–just not replying to email!) This means that the email you just sent to me will likely NOT be read.

Please read this blog post for more details about why I am doing this:
http://www.erica.biz/2011/30-day-trial/

What should you do now?

1) If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer, please email [redacted] for assistance with your account, and our staff will get back to you quickly. (Always email [redacted] instead of me directly in the future.)

Please note that [redacted] is for Whoosh Traffic customers only. Any non-Whoosh Traffic-related email that is sent there will not only not get read by me, but will likely get you permanently banned from emailing that address again.

2) If you and I have corresponded in the past and you need to get in touch again, feel free to call me or find me on Skype ([redacted]). (Note: If you are a Whoosh Traffic customer and need help with your account, please email [redacted] instead.)

2) If neither of the above situations apply, please find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ericabiz and send me an @ reply there. (I will be checking once a day.) Alternatively, you can find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ericadotbiz . I will also be checking this once a day.

Thank you for your understanding.

-Erica

I wondered if putting our Whoosh Traffic support email address would cause people to email us with all kinds of junk, but during the entire 30+ days, I only received one out-of-context email there (and promptly banned the sender, as promised in the email.)

As I implemented these solutions, the noise died down. I get just 2-3 pitches a day now (and I quickly reply asking them to remove me from their email lists.) Susan handles my inbox with aplomb.

In short, my 30-day trial was successful. The only drawbacks were few compared to the hours I gained back. The biggest negative was a few Whoosh Traffic potential customers who weren’t sure whether it was okay to email our support email address. I fixed that by updating my autoresponder. This is what I use currently:

Hello, and thank you for emailing me! Please read this carefully.

I am not currently accepting guest posts on erica.biz.

If you are a PR company emailing me about your product or service, I ask that you please remove me from your list.

I read all emails, but I may not have time to respond to you. My assistant, Susan, also reads my emails and may respond where appropriate. If she responds, you will see her name in the From field and also in her signature. If it says it’s from me, it’s from me.

If I do respond, it may take a week or more. For Whoosh Traffic-related issues (sales *or* support), please email support@whooshtraffic.com, use the live chat feature on http://whooshtraffic.com, or use the contact form on our site. Please do not send Whoosh Traffic-related issues directly to me, as I can’t respond as quickly as our support team can.

Thank you for understanding and for helping to keep my inbox clean.

-Erica

(Note: This was different than the autoresponder I had previously…you may notice a few comments on this post referring to my old one.)

This cleared up those issues, and that’s what I plan to stick with in the future.

How Much Time Did It Save/How Much Did It Cost?

Susan spends about an hour a week on my email, so that’s a bit over $60/month in direct costs to me.

I use RescueTime to show me exactly how much time I spent on email then and now. RescueTime measures how much time you spend on each website and in each application on the computer you’re running it on, and is now my “gold standard” to see where I’m wasting time. If you want to know where all that time goes when you’re on the computer, RescueTime is your solution.

I went from spending 1-2 hours a day on email to 3-5 hours a week. That’s a savings of approximately 5 hours a week. At my consulting rate of $500/hour, that’s a $10,000/month savings.

Of course, not every hour I saved could be billed out at $500. But even if every hour I save is worth $50 (and I think that’s a fair assumption), I saved $1,000/month.

In other words, unchaining myself from email massively benefited me in terms of both having more time and having a better emotional state (which is, frankly, priceless.) I don’t hate waking up and getting on the computer any more. That’s huge.

Apply This to Your Business

As business owners, there are a lot of little things we do that are total time-sinks. I don’t even think we’re aware of them.

If you claim you don’t have time to do something, it’s time for you to get better delegation skills. If outsourcing your email scares the bejeezus out of you (like it did me until I reached my breaking point), that’s reason enough to try it. You may be pleasantly surprised with the extra time you receive back in return for having the courage to make a tough choice.

Recommended Reading:

• RescueTime. Sign up for a free account and start seeing where you’re wasting your time. I am a huge fan.
• How to Hire an Employee. My complete step-by-step guide to hiring an amazing employee.
• How to Make Money on the Internet. There are three things you need in order to make money on the Internet…

Before I tell you what it is, let me share with you a typical day in my life as of right now. I want to show you exactly what the hell is that I’m going through.

Let’s start with the good stuff. Whoosh Traffic is doing amazingly well. I’ve created a business that is earning well into 6 figures a year in just 8 months, which is extraordinary. I couldn’t have done that without my team (which now includes 8 full-time staff members, and my super-cool co-founder Parnell) and my amazing community and customers (yes, that’s you!) So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

And rest assured–Whoosh Traffic isn’t going anywhere. In fact, we’re growing quickly (and we’re hiring a Python programmer, so if you know anyone with relevant experience, have that person email jobs@whooshtraffic.com with his/her resume, and Parnell will get back to him/her.)

Neither is this blog going anywhere. But you may have noticed that I haven’t written in a while. That’s because of my aforementioned nemesis. It’s choking my available free time, my creativity, and my energy. I have had enough.

My Typical Day

My typical day goes like this: I wake up around 8:30AM or perhaps 9:15AM if it was a late night. (I usually get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, and I don’t use an alarm clock.) Then I check my email. The next few hours are absorbed with trying to get my inbox to zero, which I am pretty much never successful at. I also may have client consultations–as I do a 1-on-1 30-minute search engine optimization strategy call with every customer who signs on to Whoosh Traffic.

Late morning is also where I try to schedule interviews. I’ve been on several podcasts lately, including Shift Your Consciousness and Tech Zing Live.

Sometime in there, I eat breakfast and take a shower. It’s usually lunch time by then. In the afternoon, I focus on creative work. This is where I often work on Whoosh Traffic. Occasionally, I have doctors’ appointments and other miscellaneous tasks in here, though Marilyn, our housekeeper, takes care of most of our routine tasks.

About once a week, in the afternoon, Parnell comes over and we have a team meeting, where we sit down at the dining room table and hammer out what we want to work on at Whoosh Traffic.

Then, in the evening, it’s back to email. Sometimes I will work on it for 3+ hours at night. Unfortunately, email is like an annoying pest that never goes away (and that’s not to be offensive to anyone who has ever emailed me–it’s an aggregate feeling.) I have an aggressive filtering system set up in Google Apps, so I never get email list emails, product shipping notices, or anything delivered to my inbox that isn’t pretty personal. And I get upwards of 40+ emails a day that need to be replied to. Most of them can’t be replied to with a sentence, either. I have to spend time thinking about it.

Email is a weed that has taken over my life. It is a cancer that kills my creativity, eats my free time, and demands my attention. And through all that, I never feel “complete” about it. Inbox zero only lasts for a few hours at most–until someone else emails me with a question and I feel obligated to reply.

Although it’s popular to declare “email bankruptcy” and simply archive all the emails in your inbox and start over, that is not the problem I have. The problem I have is that email does not stop. It is like a sewage line being pumped directly into my house that I have to wade through every morning.

And I have had enough.

So, for the next 30 days, I’m not going to check my email. And I’m going to take additional steps so that–hopefully–I will never have to check email again.

I’m that fed up with email. And while I totally understand that you may not really “get” the situation I am in, I at least ask you to understand that email is crushing me like a giant weight. I wake up every morning and think “Ugh, email.” I feel overwhelmed every time I look at my inbox. I get chronically depressed because my inbox is never zero, there is always more email to respond to, and I don’t ever feel like I’m doing a good enough job at responding to emails. (Some of you can attest to my complete lack of followup; I have emails that I haven’t responded to in weeks or months, and I know you’ve followed up. It’s not you, it’s me.)

Email makes me feel like a compete failure, every day of my life.

While my previous thought pattern tells me email was required, I’ve now gotten so tired of it that I don’t care if it costs me money, lost opportunities, or anything else.

The Steps I’m Taking

Here are the steps I am taking immediately:

1. I am setting up an autoresponder for erica@erica.biz that explains this and links to this blog post. Officially, this email break will be through July 5. Unofficially, I don’t ever want to have to deal with email again. I will reassess this 30-day trial in early July (most likely publicly, here on erica.biz!)
2. I will be using our support desk to reply to both Whoosh Traffic pre-sales and support emails. And I will also be training my assistant, Susan, to reply to many of these emails, so I can detach from that loop of endless replies as well (though fortunately, our Whoosh Traffic customers pretty much rock and the volume on the support desk email is pretty low.)
3. I will set up a private email address that only three people know: Parnell, Brian, and Susan. They can “triage” there–if something comes through the support desk that they can’t handle, or if they have a business issue for me that isn’t urgent, they can email me there. All three of them are cool about only emailing me when they really need something, so that volume should be low as well.
4. I will engage Brian, our designer, to implement live chat clearly on Whoosh Traffic’s website as a way for potential customers to contact us for pre-sales questions. It’s far easier to answer questions in live chat than it is in an endless stream of back-and-forth emails.
5. I will continue to be available via Twitter and Facebook, and I will check each of those at least daily (although if you spam me there, expect that I will block you.)

What Do I Expect to Accomplish?

I expect that getting rid of email will free up 2-3 hours a day of my time, or at least 20 hours a week (since I often work on email on weekends as well.) My goal with dumping email is that I will have more time to work on this blog, as well as Whoosh Traffic.

I feel strongly that I can provide much better value to this world by writing blog posts than I can when I’m caught up in an endless stream of email replies. And I’ll be able to better serve Whoosh Traffic customers when their emails don’t get caught up with a bunch of other stuff in my inbox.

So–this is it–I’m done with email. And if you’ve ever emailed me, don’t feel guilty! (Especially if you’ve shared a success story–those are the emails I enjoy most.) I’m taking the steps now that I should have taken a long time ago. By doing this, I will be able serve you better–I will be writing more here and less in my email client.

If you can pull one lesson from this post, it’s this: Nothing is required in this life. If something is causing you emotional agony but making you money, it’s not worth it. Forego both and clear the space in your life, then focus your energy on finding something awesome to fill that space.

I’m making a radical change in my life to create the space I need to serve you better. Yep, it’s not what other people do, but fuck what other people do. I’m doing what I need to do to make this world a better place. And I know in my heart that this is the right thing to do.

I’m back, world. Spread the word…I’m ready to start blogging again. And I do believe erica.biz–and my life–will be better than ever because I had the courage to admit that I was failing and make this change.

Special thanks to Pamela Slim for helping me figure out what’s most important.

Recommended Reading:

• Shift Your Consciousness podcast interviewed me. Check it out!
• Tech Zing Live interviewed me. This is actually almost completely different content from my Shift Your Consciousness interview, so definitely grab this one too, especially if you’re interested in hearing about my childhood.
• How Do All Those “Idiots” Make So Much Money? Does it drive you nuts that some idiot with a terrible product seems to be constantly making sales, when you know your product is better? Read this post…

In December, realizing the new year was coming up, I again sat down to write goals. At first, I wrote them privately–in my notebook. (One of them manifested almost right away, which was surprising.) I fully intended to faithfully copy them down and expound on them in a blog post for the New Year. I even started writing the blog post.

But I never finished it. And the more I wrote, the less it felt “right.” It got to the point where I didn’t blog for three weeks because I was stuck on that post.

I was stuck on my #themeword for a while in December, too. Actually, it kept coming up for me, but I felt like it wasn’t right. The word? Breathe.

I feel as though I’m sitting on the cusp of a huge transition in my life. On one hand, there’s the strong, powerful, business side of me that has been in charge for so many years. That’s the part that sets goals and works relentlessly, tirelessly, to keep them. That’s the CEO side of me.

But that part is also defective. It’s broken. It’s broken because it can’t withstand emotion. And slowly but surely, it’s breaking down and dissolving. I used to ignore my emotions. I got really good at running away from things that held emotions, like relationships and people I loved. I was successful in business, but I had no life.

The last vestiges of that part of me are leaving. In many ways, it scares me to death. That’s the “face” I show to the world, you know. The business face. I cast an image of a person who is successful, confident, and in charge. And, over the years, I’ve ingrained the confidence into my heart to become a truly unique and powerful person.

The emotions show up fast and furious now. They hit me quickly, with no warning. All of a sudden I’ll be cast back years in my life to when I did something stupid and the full force of emotions will hit me like a bodyslam. I’ll get pulled back into that moment and feel everything as if it’s happening to me all over again. That’s why it’s been hard to write on this blog lately.

But I know this is a part of the healing process for me. That I’m going through this because now I am finally properly equipped to deal with all the emotions. And as I release them one by one, I feel an amazing sense of peace.

The old paradigm of my life is now broken. And truthfully, I don’t know where this goes from here. Somehow, I have a feeling this blog will become more popular than ever. And I know that with this post–this transition piece–I will once again be freed so that I can write how I really feel.

What’s In Store for 2011

So what’s in store for 2011 for me? Amazing things. I’m going to buy an RV. And then I’m going to drive it all over the place and meet and hang out with cool people. I’m going to start opening up on this blog and really showing you my life, and I’m going to keep giving you the straight talk about business and personal growth that you’ve come to expect.

I’m going to write a book. But it probably won’t be done this year. That’s okay. It will help a lot of people.

I’m going to spread the word about Celiac disease and help others get tested for it. I’ll help heal a lot of people. That aligns with my bigger purpose in life.

I’ll continue with Whoosh Traffic and it will be a runaway success because I’m going to put my heart and soul into it, and I have the most amazing co-founder ever, Parnell, who has become a great friend and like a family member to me. Whoosh Traffic won’t fail, but it will evolve. And I will definitely be talking more about it on this blog.

I’m going to take more vacations, more time for myself, and I’m going to be true to myself both here and in person. I’m going to let my emotions guide me into the next phase of my life.

But goals? Nah, I don’t have any this year. I’m going to try it this way for a year and see where life takes me. And, through this blog, I’ll share insights from my journey and thoughts on taking your own business to the next level.

Here’s to your 2011. May it be your best year ever.

I’m off to buy an RV.

(If you’re new here, welcome! I set 3-5 major goals every year publicly on my blog and update my progress every quarter. Here are my goals for 2010.)

Goal #1: Create and Release 10 Products in 2010

You may have noticed that my product creation machine has dramatically slowed down in the past few months! That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I’ve been focusing my resources more on my new business.

I do have a new product coming out, and I expect it will be out by the end of the month. Originally called Maximum Clients, Minimum Time, I’ve now changed the name to Maximum Traffic, Minimum Time, both because I like the alliteration better and because I feel it will appeal to a wider audience with the new name.

I created a mind map for the course and, after sorting out everything I wanted to include in it, broke it into 6 modules. I’ve completed modules 1 and 2, and aim to have module 3 completed this week. I want to make more progress than one module per week, so I intend to crank up the work and get ‘er done by mid-month. Then, I’ll prep the members’ area and sales letter, and you all will have first crack at it!

It’s a blockbuster product, which will have 5+ hours of video content encompassing everything I’ve done to help get this blog top rankings in Google and gain over 14,000 visitors per month on autopilot direct from search engines. (That’s about 43% of my total traffic.) You might think top rankings come naturally for a blog such as this one, but even with good post titles, it doesn’t work like that. The course is a comprehensive look at the “missing link” between creating a website and getting piles of free traffic from search engines. It’s a course worth purchasing for every blogger, content creator, and business owner who has a website.

It is likely that Maximum Traffic, Minimum Time will be the last information product I release this year, as I refocus all my effort on launching my new company.

Goal #2: Create and Launch My Startup

Wow, has this been a crazy ride! In my last goals update, I mentioned I hired a local developer to work with me on Best Blogs. But In August, I revealed that we stopped development on Best Blogs. Then, in a more recent post, I explained why. In summary, our most difficult problem with Best Blogs was just getting people to care, and it was going to be a really long path to monetization.

So, we pivoted, and are ready to launch Whoosh Traffic. In fact, as you’re reading this, we’re working with a few private beta customers to get early feedback! We’re only 2 months in, and I’m so excited to be at the point where we can start helping customers. The back end is looking great and our website is coming together, too.

So, what is Whoosh Traffic? One of the best ways to get better search engines is to get other sites to link to you, but it’s a long road to do this manually. Whoosh lets you outsource all the tedium to our staff, saving you time and frustration. Plus, we have amazing proof that our system works to boost your rankings over time even for competitive terms. (And no, nothing we’re doing will get you banned by Google!)

We have a specific type of customer to target and the market is hungry for a SEO service that doesn’t stink, so I feel we’re sitting on top of a huge goldmine, and I’m really excited about the company.

Goal #3: Get 20,000 Blog Subscribers

In December 2009, I had 6,400 blog subscribers. I will successfully double that as of this month. Erica.biz is currently adding 20-25 new subscribers a day–mostly from traffic coming directly from great search engine rankings for all kinds of search terms.

Many would be envious of that rate of growth. Unfortunately for me, I set a really aggressive goal–20,000 subscribers by the end of 2010! Frankly, I’m not sure I’m going to achieve this goal. It would take a lot more writing–mostly guest posting and more search engine-optimized posts that rank well–to drive enough traffic to hit this goal.

In case you’re curious, here’s how I would hit this goal: I’d increase posting frequency on erica.biz to twice a week, and at least one of those posts would be search-engine optimized. I’d continue to utilize the Whoosh Traffic strategy to get those posts ranked well. I’d also write one guest post a week and submit it to a blog with an Alexa rank of 50,000 or less (remember, lower Alexa rankings are better…Google, the #1 most-trafficked site on the Internet, is Alexa #1.)

This strategy would push me into the 20,000 subscribers realm pretty fast. But honestly, I wouldn’t enjoy blogging as much as I do now if I set an aggressive schedule like that. I enjoy writing one post per week, and I really enjoy having a “diary” where I can look back and see exactly what was going through my head every week for years at a time. Blogging more often than that, though? No–I’d rather focus on building a business.

Profit Instruments Sites

Several people asked me how my Profit Instruments sites were going. I’ve only done one, though I have the domain name registered for a second one. My PI site is ranking #1 for its targeted search term, but it’s not converting visitors into buyers.

I have some ideas on how to fix that, but just haven’t had a free moment to sit down and work on the site. In the meantime, though, I’ve used the Profit Instruments methods here on erica.biz to huge success.

My oDesk review and Super Affiliate Handbook review posts were both based on the Profit Instruments course. In particular, I used the SEO methods that he recommended (now the basis of Whoosh Traffic as well) on both posts, which are working exceedingly well.

The oDesk review post netted $100.00 in passive income last month. The Super Affiliate Handbook review post is new, but it’s ranking #2 for its targeted search term, which I expect will drive sales. Assuming both posts make just 1 sale per month (pretty likely), I’ll be making about $72 per month in 100% passive income. Not bad for a $200 investment in an info product, some time spent writing review posts, and some Whoosh Traffic magic! (Not to mention I can continue to do this over and over again for more profit.)

My Income Numbers

Now–what you’ve been waiting for…my income numbers!

I reposted June’s numbers to represent the final income I received from the Profit Instruments promotion (vs. my estimated numbers that I posted in July’s update.)

July and August were pretty slow, mostly because I didn’t run any promotions on my blog. I ran a small promotion for Guest Post Secrets for my birthday in July, resulting in a nice bump in sales. Blog Setup continues to hum along, mostly from people reading this blog and wanting to start their own blogs.

Here are my full income numbers:

September saw a quiet launch of my personal 1-on-1 consulting, which I ran to gauge interest in an offering like this. It did pretty well, and I really enjoyed getting to know some of my blog readers on a personal level! I may offer this again in the future if I have some extra time.

Assuming I can get Maximum Traffic, Minimum Time out this month, I should see a nice boost for October.

Whoosh Traffic will be a separate company, not 100% owned by me, so I won’t post its earnings here, but I do plan to update regularly with how it’s going. I plan to continue posting my blog earnings here.

That’s it! My next goals update will January (*gulp*), when I get to look back at how I did throughout all of 2010.

Recommended Reading:

• 2010 Goals. My original 2010 goals post from January.
• 2010 2nd Quarter Goals Update. My July update.
• 2010 First Quarter Goals Update. My April update.

(If you’re new here, welcome! I set 3-5 major goals every year publicly on my blog and update my progress every quarter. Here are my goals for 2010.)

Let’s see how I’m doing!

Goal #1: Create and Release 10 New Products in 2010

This one has slowed down a bit–you’ll see why as you read the rest of this post! I’ve released four products: Guest Post Secrets, Best Blogs, my first one-day workshop, and Blog Set Up.

I did hold my first one-day workshop with four participants on June 26, and it was a huge success! I gained confidence in what I want to teach, which I plan to release as a product later this year. And all four participants gained great insight into their businesses.

I also learned that my projector, which I bought a few years ago, wasn’t up to the task…so I bought a new one! (Note: 1100 lumens is insufficient for anything but pitch black. I upgraded to a nice 4000 lumen Epson projector!)

I plan to hold another 1-day workshop later this year here in San Diego. As my blog readers, you will be the first to know about it.

Three of the products I’ve released have now made over $3,000 in revenue each: Guest Post Secrets, the workshop, and Blog Set Up all crossed the $3,000 threshold.

But what about Best Blogs? Let’s talk about what happened with it in the second quarter:

Goal #2: Create and Launch my Startup

The original Best Blogs prototype was developed in PHP by a developer I hired in Romania. There wasn’t anything wrong with this setup, except that I had to manage him, and I burned out on that pretty quickly. The prototype was (mostly) functional, but I kept encountering bugs, and it seemed like every time my developer added a new feature, something else broke.

The site stagnated. In early June, I realized no development had been done on the site since April. I had to make a critical decision. Either I needed to hire a developer who could be mostly autonomous, and pay him accordingly (U.S. salary), or I needed to scrap it and call it quits. Paying a developer would mean about $20,000 of my own money spent on development costs over the next 6 months with no immediate payoff. It was a big decision.

I thought about it for about a week, ruminating over possibilities in my head. Eventually I came up with what I believe will be an astoundingly profitable revenue model, and mentally let the $20,000 go in preparation to hire someone. (In other words, I promised myself I wouldn’t fret over paying someone $20,000 to develop the site.)

I found a local developer here in San Diego who agreed to redo the site from scratch. Best Blogs will re-launch later this year (probably August or early September), built on Pylons and being far better managed. The interface will be largely the same. I reviewed the revenue model with my developer and he “gets it.” I’ll talk more about that as we re-launch the site, but suffice it to say, it’s a common yet oddly overlooked model. And it has nothing to do with banner or display ads.

I’m again excited about Best Blogs, and having someone work on it with me that I trust makes it so much better. Since he’s local, we meet at a local coffee shop once a week to go over anything that needs to be talked about regarding the site. Next year, assuming all goes well with the launch, I will spin off Best Blogs into its own corporation and give my developer some equity. The business has huge potential, but probably won’t start showing revenue until Q4 2010 at the earliest. It’s a startup, so it’s still a gamble, but I like the odds!

Goal #3: Get 20,000 Blog Subscribers

I’m still plugging away at this one. My Feedburner count shows nearly 11,000 people. As we’re over halfway through the year, I’m going to have to pick up the pace. This will be a close one!

I had a nice week where three of my guest posts ran on three consecutive days on other popular blogs. I signed up over 450 new email subscribers that week. (If you’re one of them, welcome!) A few more weeks like that would do me well. It will take some more guest posting to really get those numbers up, though!

And now, the exciting part…my income numbers!

My Income Numbers!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that my goal was to make $10,000 a month blogging in 2008.

That didn’t happen.

Then, in 2009, I lost most of the year to being sick, and was eventually diagnosed with Celiac disease. By the end of the year, I was feeling better, but I still didn’t meet my goal.

In 2010, my blog began to really take off and I started posting income numbers. But I still hadn’t hit my goal.

Well…I am proud to announce that in June, 2010, I finally hit the goal I originally set in December, 2007!

It took me longer than I expected, and I had some setbacks, but I persevered.

And I not only hit my goal…I blew it out of the water.

Here is my income breakdown:

Most of the income came from my Profit Instruments review. 183 people signed up through my link for Profit Instruments. What an amazing number! I thank all of you who signed up, and definitely understand what you (my readers) want now.

Marketers always send me programs to review. I go through 2-3 programs a week, and decline to promote 99% of them. (A reader recently asked me to go over why I don’t promote most of the programs people send me…I will write about that in the future.) Profit Instruments was a program I felt comfortable promoting. And while it hasn’t been without its snafus–mostly regarding Paypal–overall, people have been happy with the program. I’ve even heard a few reports of people taking action and using the Profit Instruments system to make money. Good! That’s what it’s all about!

I wasn’t expecting so many people to take action and invest in Profit Instruments, and I was humbled and pleased that so many did! The deluge of emails–both questions about Profit Instruments and people emailing me receipts–was quite a handful. There was one day where I sent something like 160 email replies. I think all I did that day was hit “Reply” and type out responses!

I quickly realized I needed to hire someone. It just so happened that a friend who is in college was looking for a summer job and not having any luck finding one. (She lives in Portland, OR, which I hear is a difficult city to find jobs in.) I agreed to hire her part-time as my virtual assistant, and she became my savior, sorting out all the receipts, getting everyone on an email list, and generally cleaning up my inbox!

(Note: I always have someone ask me when I write about virtual assistants: “Is the email I got from you really you?” The answer is yes–every email with my name on it is written by me.)

She’s also now doing the blog setups, so if you order a blog set up, you’ll get a reply from her! Thanks, Alonna, for making my life easier!

I’ve so far written about two people I hired last quarter. This week, I hired a third–my first full-time employee here at Inspiring Innovators! His name is Matthew and he lives in the Philippines, and he’s doing full-time SEO work for erica.biz and my other websites. So far, he’s on a 7-day trial and working out well. I found Matthew through Replace Myself’s job board.

It’s been an amazing quarter, and I am so grateful that I was finally able to achieve income levels I didn’t think were possible only a few short months ago! I look forward to continuing to grow my business, as well as being able to share my journey and help you along your path, too!

Recommended Reading:

• 2010 First Quarter Goals Update. Posted in April, 2010.
• 2010 Goals. Posted in January, 2010.
• 2008 Year in Review / 2009 Goals. Posted in January, 2009.
• 2008 Goals. Posted in December, 2007.

A product roadmap helps you figure out
where your business is going.

Great question, Amy! I’ve shared my goal about creating 10 products in 2010, but I haven’t talked much about how they all fit together…

The Problem: Infinite Opportunities

It is possible to do a nearly infinite number of things to make money online. There isn’t just one “proven path” to riches…witness the huge number of crazy inventions that make their inventors millions. (Ever had that feeling… “I could have done that! I should have done that!” Right? Me too!)

I want to do so many things. I’d love to write a book to help out people who are discovering that they have gluten intolerance or Celiac disease. I know that would be profitable. I constantly have ideas for WordPress plugins, video products, a product on great businesses to start online…

Pretty quickly, I had to learn to focus. I had to think strategically…not only about which products would make me the most money, but how those products would integrate with each other. This is the real key.

Step 1: Test With a Free Product

I started testing the market for blogging success materials by releasing my free Blog Success Manifesto. I went over the top with it as a free product. It’s 62 pages, jam-packed with practical advice on growing your blog faster than you ever have before. I could have easily charged $17-$27 for it, but I wanted the readership growth instead. (And I got it…nearly 4,000 people have downloaded their free copies!)

More importantly, the success of my free download proved there was a market that was interested in growing their blogs. I then launched my Guest Post Secrets product to serve that same market. I edited my Blog Success Manifesto to refer to Guest Post Secrets, and put a big mention about it here on my blog. Now I had two products working together, like this:

Step 2: Go Upmarket

My next step was to present a higher-ticket offer. I created my one-day workshop and offered a free webinar to my list (most of whom joined up originally because my Blog Success Manifesto.) I sold 4 out of the 5 slots right away, and the 5th one closed later. (That means my first San Diego workshop is now sold out! Hooray!)

These products worked in tandem like this:

Step 3: Fill in the Blanks

Now I wanted to create more products. Once you have a couple of paid products out the door, you can start filling in the blanks.

Part of Best Blogs will be a mailing list bloggers can sign up to, so I added that into my roadmap. Then I launched Blog Set Up as another low-price opt-in similar to Blog Success Manifesto:

My next product will be an intermediate product offering an hour with me for $497:

And then, I plan to release a product guiding people step-by-step through setting up their blog and driving traffic to it:

It’s pretty cool to see how these products fit together, isn’t it?

The key here is that once you have a buyer, you need to offer more products to that person. It’s much easier to sell something to someone who has already bought something else from you. If you don’t have the products to fill in the blanks, you should go out there and find great affiliate products that you are happy to promote, and make money that way.

Step 4: Automate

The final step in your roadmap–after you’ve launched some products–is to automate much of the cross-selling. You can do this with an email autoresponder series — something I plan to talk about in a later post. (I use Aweber as my email service, and recommend them.)

Four days after you download my Blog Success Manifesto, my email autoresponder follows up with you to make sure you got the download–and also introduces you to Guest Post Secrets. The Guest Post Secrets homepage allows you to opt in to see some high-value free videos, and over a 4-day period, gives you a special deal on buying Guest Post Secrets.

As I launch larger products, I will integrate these into my autoresponders, too. My goal is to have a defined roadmap of products to create in a “funnel” that automatically rolls people over from buying a low-ticket product like Blog Set Up or a free product like Blog Success Manifesto into buying higher-ticket items. Many of these products will be hands-off on my part, allowing for an automated income stream of thousands of dollars a month.

It is incredibly difficult to make a million dollars online selling one-off products…especially if they are inexpensive ebooks. Here’s a typical example: A person decides to make money online. They sell a dog training ebook, then the next month peddle psoriasis cures, then leap to the “make money online” niche. They now have three different lists, each with only a handful of people. And imagine trying to write content about dog training, psoriasis, AND making money online all in a few days! Forget it.

Multiple products are a good thing. But without a product roadmap, and a plan of action for seeing how they all fit together, multiple products are less than worthless. I vastly prefer becoming an expert in a few small fields and selling products in those fields only. I may pass on the next overhyped “million-dollar idea!”, but I can feel confident that every customer I gain will pay off far more than the people who simply hard-sell one or two items.

Repurposing Your Products

By the way, here’s a roadmap I’ve been developing for my next set of products:

You may see now how some of my existing products can be re-purposed for a different audience. Can your products do that? If not, you may want to consider changing your product roadmap.

Questions, or comments? What’s your product roadmap? Let me know in the comments!

Recommended Reading:

• How To Make A Mind Map. Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed by some of the projects you are working on…like you’ve set an impossible goal? Here’s a video on how to make a mind map and get all that junk out of your head…quickly and easily!
• Creating A New Product. A four-step guide to creating your first product.
• Products I Love. If you haven’t seen this yet, check it out…it’s the full list of all the products I use on a regular basis and recommend!

Blog Set Up.

If you’re new here, I write my goals publicly on my blog every year, then update regularly with new information. My biggest goal for 2010 was to create 10 products and release them. This was a challenge to myself to learn to create and release products quickly.

So far I’ve released:

1. BestBlogs.net (more on Best Blogs in a later post)
2. Guest Post Secrets
3. One-day in-person workshops

And now, my latest creation: Blog Set Up.

One way to get more customers for your products is to create more customers. Guest Post Secrets is geared toward bloggers, and I have another product (not yet released to the public)–video tutorials on how to set up your blog. What better way to sell these two products than to help people get a blog set up?

As part of an “implementation challenge” at a conference I attended, I set up Blog Set Up from scratch in about 24 hours. On Thursday, May 20, I did keyword research and eventually settled on the domain name blogsetup.us.

The site works like this: You sign up for a HostGator account through us, and we set up your blog for you for free. We get paid by HostGator to refer you as a new customer, so that’s how the site makes money.

Once we’ve set up your blog, we send you an email inviting you to opt in to our Blog Set Up email list, which contains a free helper video on how to set up a custom design for your blog (WordPress calls this a “theme”.) Then, we’ll send you some more cool content in the hope that you will purchase Guest Post Secrets or my as-yet-unreleased blog tutorial videos.

Testing Your New Product

By Friday, May 21, I was ready for my first customer. I mentioned it at the seminar I was at, and five people there signed up.

When you launch a site, you’re not going to get it right the first time. Watch others go through it–and keep quiet. Ask them to run through their thought process out loud. Note any questions they have–those are questions your site needs to address up front.

After watching two people go through the process, I redid a significant portion of the site, then launched an AdWords campaign to drive traffic to it. The AdWords campaign is getting an amazing click-through rate, but people aren’t buying, so one of my next steps is to address that.

The good news is that people who do know me are buying, and the site is just about to crest $1,000 in revenue in its first week!

I also shot two quick video testimonials from people at the seminar whose blogs I set up. I’ll add those to the site over the next few days to show some social proof. (Tip: Video testimonials work far better than text ones. Invest in a camera and record them on the spot, then edit and post them!)

Next Step: Outsource the Work

Right now, I am doing the blog setups, but one of my additional next steps is to find a capable person to outsource this to. I plan to use oDesk to find the person, then use Camtasia to shoot a how-to video with my exact process for setting up a blog, and then watch my new employee go through a setup his/herself. That way I’ll know quickly whether I’ve hired the right person.

Want to Launch a Product Fast? My Tips…

I’m proud: I was able to break through a lot of my own barriers and launch a complete website in just over 24 hours! That’s a new record for me, and makes my 10 products goal for this year much more achievable. This website should also boost my income significantly–especially if I can get the AdWords clickers to actually take action and buy a hosting package.

There was no way I could have launched Blog Set Up in 24 hours if I had to write all the HTML by hand. So, for quick implementation, I used WordPress as my content management system–even though Blog Set Up is not a “blog”.

I have to give credit to WooThemes and their amazing “Optimize” theme. It looks fantastic on Blog Set Up. Plus, I found a bug in the theme and they were able to fix it just a few hours after I posted on their forum. Optimize was well worth the investment.

Since I’ve had such great support with WooThemes, I find myself buying from them again and again. (erica.biz runs on their Fresh News theme.) I highly recommend WooThemes if you want to launch a site quickly. Check out WooThemes.

Need a blog set up? Have you been procrastinating on getting started with a blog? Take advantage of Blog Set Up today and get your blog set up by our experts!

Have questions about fast product launches, or about Blog Set Up itself? Ask ‘em in the comments and I will answer! Also, feel free to share your own product launch experiences.

P.S. Stealing this product idea would not be a good idea. Find your own product idea.

Recommended Reading:

• oDesk Review. Is outsourcing worth the effort? Here are my thoughts, plus my step-by-step guide to using oDesk to outsource labor.
• What to Do When People Aren’t Buying. Ever get the comment “I’d love to buy your product, but I just can’t afford it”? Or–how about the even more blunt “That seems expensive!” You probably don’t need to lower your price! Read this for what to do instead…
• How to Read People’s Minds… …and create the product they most desire! It would be great if we could read people’s minds. As far as I know, that product doesn’t exist, but these two methods come pretty close.

It’s the end of the first quarter (okay, a little bit past it…where did the time go?!) and I’m ready to share with you what’s happened in the past three months.

First Goal: Create and Release 10 Products in 2010

I’ve released three products so far!

Product #1: Guest Post Secrets

The first product was Guest Post Secrets. Through March 31, I sold 58 copies of Guest Post Secrets, for a total income of $2080.00. This is solely to my own email list and on this blog–I haven’t pushed it hard anywhere else. In Q2, I plan to start advertising it and offering it other places. (The affiliate program is up! You can sign up here.)

I used some of the income from Guest Post Secrets sales to create banners (via 20dollarbanners); you can see them inside the affiliate program and place them on your own site or blog to promote Guest Post Secrets and make money!

I’m pleased with the amount of Guest Post Secrets sales, especially since the product will continue to sell for many moons to come, generating a nice stream of passive income for me.

Note: If you purchased Guest Post Secrets, you should have an email invite to the special online workshop I’m doing just for buyers on Tuesday, April 27. If you have purchased Guest Post Secrets and didn’t receive that email, please contact me.

Product #2: One-Day Workshops

My next product is a series of one-day workshops. On March 31, I did a free 90-minute webinar, which I called a “Wednesday Workshop.” At the end, I made a pitch for an in-person workshop here in San Diego in June.

I developed the workshop idea because of the large number of people who are asking me for coaching of some sort. My main concern with coaching is becoming too passionate and getting “sucked in”. When I work with someone, I really want that person to succeed, and I absolutely go out of my way to help that person grow his or her business. But that often leads to me spending hours helping the business owner tweak her website or get “just the right” 30-second pitch.

I love doing that, but I don’t want to pull myself away from being able to help thousands of people at once via this blog or creating an information product. So the workshop, for me, is a good compromise. It gives you, as the business owner, a full hands-on day with me, with at least one hour guaranteed to be about you and your business. It also introduces you to four other small business owners and gives you insight as to what they’re struggling and doing well with. We meet in person, so we can kick down barriers easily. And, because the cost is split between five business owners, it’s far less expensive than straight-up hiring me for a day.

I made the pitch on my Wednesday Workshop and four of the five spots for San Diego sold out right away! (If you want the last spot, go read the details and then contact me. You’ll need to pay from the workshop page. Once you’ve paid, I will be in touch with you to confirm everything.)

Will I be doing these workshops again? Yes, absolutely…but the price is going to go up. I want to take them on the road, too. I’ll announce more workshops via online workshop webinars throughout the year. But if you want in, don’t wait. That fifth spot will fill up. If you’re the right person for it, shoot me an email.

Goal #2 and Product #3: Create and Launch My Startup

Goal #2 was to create and launch my startup. (I’m counting this as one of my ten products.) By now, you may be familiar with it: BestBlogs.net. I ended up hiring a developer to write the site. (I found him on rentacoder.com.)

After a few weeks of hard work, I launched Best Blogs at South by Southwest on Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech. Unfortunately, the project has been relegated to the back burner as I work on another information product, but I plan to get it started back up soon.

My next task on Best Blogs is to hire a VA who can go through and add ~10,000 blogs to the site. This will take a month or two, but then the site will have some great data. I also have some big new features in the works. I just have to start making more time for the site!

Goal #3: Get 20,000 Blog Subscribers

Goal #3 was to get 20,000 blog subscribers to erica.biz. I’m moving along well on this goal. I gain about 13-15 subscribers a day at this point, which is nice growth–although still slower than I need to reach this goal.

The Feedburner counter on the sidebar, which currently shows ~7,800 subscribers, seems to be undercounting subscribers a significant part of the time, so I may need to switch up my goal and just use Aweber’s email subscriber count instead. I currently have ~4,300 email subscribers via Aweber.

There are a few methods I plan to use to increase my subscriber count. One is to continue guest posting on other blogs, particularly on the “become a blogger” type of blogs where my Blog Success Manifesto will go over well. I have a guest post already scheduled for Daily Blog Tips in June.

Another one is to implement a pop-up “subscribe” window when a person reaches the end of a blog post. I got inspiration for this from Chris Guillebeau, who implements this nicely on his site. He cheerfully made an introduction to the developer who did that for his blog, and his developer implemented it for erica.biz a few days ago. It shows up only the first time you visit my site, and prompts you to opt in for my Blog Success Manifesto when you finish reading an article.

Along those lines, I have in the works a new free ebook. It’s going to be about business mistakes. I expect to release it in the next month or two. You all will get first dibs on it as my blog subscribers…so be on the lookout!

Revisiting An Old Goal: What Happened to Making $10,000/Month?

Some of you old-time subscribers may remember that I set a goal in December, 2007 to make $10,000/month in online income from this blog.

I still haven’t made that goal, but I’m making huge progress toward it. In March, I made $4,660.76 of revenue that is directly attributable to this blog.

Next week, I will detail exactly where that income came from–and reveal some surprising statistics! Make sure to sign up for my free business tips, if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you then.

Feel free to post any goals you have or any questions you have about my goals in the comments!

Recommended Reading:

• 2010 Goals. Posted in January 2010. The current set of goals I am working on.
• 2009 Goals. From January 2009; I recap my 2008 goals and set new goals for 2009.
• 2008 Goals. Posted in December, 2007.

I don’t use a costly system. In fact, my initial investment was about $6: Several notebooks at Big Lots–a closeout store. (Here are the same notebooks on Amazon.)

Below are some questions and answers showing exactly how I use this system. If you have additional questions after reading this, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Q: Why/how did you decide to use this system?

I want to do something productive to move my business forward every day. Running a business is a marathon, not a sprint. Doing 1-2 hours of productive, creative work every day will do amazing things to help your business grow. By keeping my task list simple and filled with tasks that are both creative and productive, I know I’m moving in the right direction. And there’s nothing like flipping through pages of crossed-off to-do items to make me feel like I’ve really accomplished something.

This to-do system may sound deceptively simple, but the reality is that having my notebook open and beside me at all times motivates me like nothing else. I can immediately look at it and pick one task and just start working. Without it, I would be lost–and I would probably resort to surfing the Internet a lot!

Q: How do you decide which tasks to put on your list?

At the beginning of the notebook, I leave space for big projects. (I typically organize these by month.)

Every Sunday night, I write a to-do list for the following week. Next to each item, I write an approximation of how many minutes it will take for each task.

Each week, I aim for 5 “big” tasks and 5-10 smaller tasks. I classify all tasks by the time I think they will take–in minutes. (This also forces me to get far better at estimating how much time each task will take.) You can see the time estimates in the picture below; “60+” means more than 60 minutes, or multiple hours. If I believe a task will take more than 2-3 hours, I will break it down into smaller tasks (e.g. “write blog post 60,” “edit and post blog post 45.”)

This week’s task list.

Q: Do you modify your list during the week?

The list isn’t sacred. I can–and do–modify it during the week. If an email comes in with a task that takes longer than 10 minutes, I write it down on the list. If it takes less than 10 minutes, I do it as it comes in.

Q: What do the circles around some of the dashes before the tasks, like “Pull together Problogger blog post,” mean?

This is how I denote “A task so large that I don’t need to do anything else that day.” If I clear that task in one day, I take the rest of the day off. That’s how I motivate myself to tackle bigger projects.

Q: You’re a geek. I’m surprised to see you using a notebook. Why not use a software-based task system?

One of the reasons I use a notebook and not a computer-based task system is that it was too easy in most systems to move tasks from one week to the next. With every computer-based system I tried, I ended up with a pile of stale tasks at the bottom of my list that grew larger over time. That was incredibly demotivating.

With my notebook, I start fresh every week. When I do my Sunday night writing-down of tasks, I manually copy tasks from last week to this week. I use that time to consider why tasks didn’t get done. Sometimes I simply run out of time or energy to get everything completed. But other times I realize that there is a draining task I really don’t want to do on the list. If a task remains on the list for more than two weeks, I generally either outsource it or forget it. This notebook, then, is a perfect way to see what I need to outsource next in my life–as well as what’s not important to me.

I don’t write 100 tasks on my to-do list. Bigger projects go at the beginning of my notebook or in a mind map.

If I get everything on the list done for the week, I take the rest of the week off. This is rare, but it does happen…and I make sure to never pile more things on my list just because I am done with my tasks for the week. I reward myself with a day or two off instead.

Q: Why do your task list on Sunday night and not Monday morning?

In Jack Canfield’s book The Success Principles (which I highly recommend reading), he suggests adding tasks and looking over your to-do list before you go to bed so your subconscious can figure out the most effective way to do your tasks while you sleep.

I find I also sleep dramatically better with my to-do list out of my head…I don’t get awakened with any thumping heart, “oh my gosh I need to…!” moments. If my mind insists on going over a task I have on the list, I remind it that I already have that task written down, and my brain quiets so I can go to sleep.

I have been known to get out of bed and write tasks down in my notebook so I don’t forget them. (Same with blog post ideas!) It’s worth the two minutes of getting out of bed so you can sleep better at night.

Q: Do you recommend this system to everyone?

Everyone is different. This is the system that works for me. I happen to know that this system, or a similar one, also works for many others. (I sent J.D. Roth over at Get Rich Slowly a link to this video, and he loved it so much that he started using a similar system!)

You may or may not like this system; that’s fine. What’s important is that you have a system. Never turn on your computer without knowing what you want to accomplish; there are so many time-sucking programs and websites that you can spend hours on without ever really doing anything. Having a system helps to ensure that when you do decide to work, you get the most important things done.

Have questions? Want to share your own system? Feel free to leave a comment!

Recommended Reading:

• The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. If you read one personal development book, I’d recommend this one. Canfield summarizes at least 20 other personal development books. I pulled a ton of insight from this book.
• How to Make a Mind Map. This is how I make larger projects come to life!
• The notebook I use. Here’s a link to the notebook I use; via Amazon.com.

2009 Goal #1: 350 paying customers for Inspiring Innovators.
As an explanation, I incorporated my company as Inspiring Innovators, so any product I release will have that as the company name behind it. But the actual inspiringinnovators.com site is what I am referring to here.

I did launch the site, and got some paying customers. But, frankly, the back end sucked. It was confusing.

So, I didn’t meet this goal. I want to redo the backend and launch again in 2010. I plan to scrap Amember and move to Wishlist Member, which is far more intuitive. Lesson learned: Test your back end before you launch.

Also, I never had a sales letter set up for Inspiring Innovators. Another lesson: Do a sales letter! I tested it as a blog site where people could preview the audios and then sign up after listening to the preview, but people were confused by that, too. When I re-launch, I’ll probably just do a straight long-form sales letter on the front page, and you can preview the interviews here on erica.biz.

I also plan to hire a VA to schedule interviews for me, as I found I slacked on getting interviews set up.

2009 Goal #2: Grow erica.biz to 4000 subscribers. Done, and done! I had about 800 subscribers or so when I set this goal. Truly, it has been an awesome year for erica.biz.

2009 Goal #3: Complete our move to San Diego. Done, and loving it here! We moved July 1.

As they say, two out of three ain’t bad!

On to my goals for 2010. I have an exciting announcement to make!

Goal #1: “10 Products in ’10″

My primary goal is to release 10 products in 2010. Most of them will be information products, like Guest Post Secrets.

To release 10 products in ’10, I have to have a laser focus. I can’t start all 10 projects at once; I’d never accomplish anything. Part of my goal is to finish one product and release it before starting on the next one.

This is really a “can’t lose” goal. If it’s the end of 2010 and I’ve released, say, 6 products and achieved goal #2, I’m going to be really proud of myself, even though I didn’t technically meet this goal.

Goal #2: Launch a Startup (You Heard It Here First!)

One of my 10 products is going to be a new website with potential for strong growth and revenues.

That’s right–the really exciting news is that I’m actually going to launch my own startup!

I don’t plan to take on any venture capital; I don’t need it. I still haven’t decided whether I want to code the site myself myself or hire someone. My little company is going to take on some big players, including at least one that is VC-funded.

I am really amused about this. 10 years in the Valley and I never once created a “Web 2.0″ website. I stuck with blogging and running a web hosting company. Now that I’ve moved to San Diego, I’m going to launch a startup with a Web 2.0 business plan that competes with other Web 2.0 companies (and, frankly, a lot of Web 1.0 companies.)

Although I can’t say more details about the startup now, I can say this:

The idea came to me in 2009 and just would not leave me alone. There is a venture-backed company doing this exact thing, but they are doing a piss-poor job of it. Since, at its core, it’s a relatively simple idea, I looked around for other companies that were doing this, and shockingly, I didn’t find any.

I ran Google keyword searches, and there are over 250,000 people a month searching for this. Most of the sites in the search results aren’t productive to the person searching for these terms.

I expect the development cost for this site to be minimal–about $1500 if I code it myself, and only a few thousand dollars if someone else codes it. I have a monetization plan.

This is a simple idea. There are other companies in this space. It’s just that I think I can do it better than they can, and I have a specific plan to achieve that. Plus, since I didn’t take $32 million in venture capital, I can achieve profitability quickly and (hopefully) make money month after month.

Goal #3: 20,000 Subscribers for erica.biz

erica.biz had massive growth in 2009, thanks to you! I easily hit my goal of 4000 subscribers. Here’s my stretch goal for 2010: 20,000 subscribers. That’s going to require more blogging than I did in 2009, but I’m ready for that.

To summarize, here are my big goals for 2010:

• Create and release 10 products in 2010. This includes Guest Post Secrets, my startup, and whatever other information products or pieces of software I choose to release.
• Launch my startup. Of course, I’ll be detailing the startup costs and more about it right here. Stay tuned!
• Grow erica.biz to 20,000 subscribers. A big “stretch goal” that requires me to write a lot more…but it will be fun!

My #themeword for 2010

My #themeword for 2010 is CREATE. 2010 will see me release several products, including Guest Post Secrets, and my new startup.

I created the #themeword meme in 2007, and I’m so excited to see how it’s taken off! To participate, just think about one word that you would like to describe your new year. I encourage you to make it positive. Your #themeword can unfold in unexpected ways!

Other people who have posted their #themeword (click on their links to see what their #themewords are):
Erica O’Grady
Tara Hunt
Kathy Sierra
Donna Maria Coles Johnson
Kendall Ruth
Cati Brown
Ruth Kalinka
Andy Dolph

If you’ve posted your #themeword on your blog (and used #themeword in your blog post), please let me know, and I will update this post!

Search #themeword on Twitter to see everyone who has been Tweeting their #themeword.

Happy New Year! Please feel free to post or link to your own goals in the comments.

Recommended Reading:

• My 2008 Goals
• My 2009 Goals