Web Career Girl

Earlier this week I posted my plans to follow three systems this month, and to follow them right through until the end without worrying too much about the instant results. Part of the reason why I chose to do this was something that one of my commenters, Jack, mentioned in his comment for that post: “the work you do now won’t necessarily impact you immediately in this line of work but it will pay dividends slowly. Prepare yourself mentally for that and just keep going. Think of your sites as seeds.”

Happy February! Can you believe it’s February already? I’m sure many of us are feeling that time is going quickly. But it’s fine. A new month is always a great feeling, a new chance to challenge yourself and improve on what you’ve done before. I’m setting myself a new sort of challenge this February, one that will hopefully make up a little for a lack of action-taking in previous months.

So the first month of 2010 is almost at an end already, and it’s time to take a look at what I achieved this January. All in all it’s gone pretty well, though some of my plans have had to change.

You’ve probably heard all those people saying about the ways in which fear can hold you back. Not just fear of failing, but even fear of success can prevent you getting where you want to be. We all fear to varying degrees. As far as I can tell, there are people who blaze through life trying new things and taking everything on the chin. Unfortunately for me, I’m not one of those people, and thinking of the possible negative consequences has a tendency to put me off things. I’m afraid of a lot of things.

I’ve just gone through a major emotional event – no, nothing serious, just the realisation that I may have deleted one of my eBooks and one of my reports that I wrote back in November 2009 as part of my 50k eBook challenge! I can tell what you’re probably thinking already – if you’re going to set yourself a challenge to write 50,000 words in one month then you’re definitely backing it up, aren’t you?!

Working online has its many challenges – one of the hardest in the early days being ‘information overload’. No matter whether you want to make money from niche blogs, affiliate marketing, sales of a unique product, selling websites or anything else – there are a million guides out there telling you how to do just that.

One of the reasons many people choose a web career is for freedom: something that the traditional job might not give you. You’ll work for yourself, you are your own boss, meaning you can take time off whenever you want, work whatever hours you want, and generally do what you want!

I must admit I’m having a really hard time setting my goals for 2010. The fact of the matter is that a web career can change from week to week – you try new things, you learn new things, and you figure out exactly where your effort is best spent. This is why it’s so important to have a plan that’s fluid and that can move with what’s right for you.

By now you’ve probably got your goals underway – I hope so anyway. Some people don’t have completely fixed goals, and that’s fine, but most of us need to measure our success in some way or another or else we won’t move forward in our web career. Instead of just looking at what you earn, which can only take you so far (as long as you’re earning enough to live comfortably), why not evaluate your success in terms of the 10 points listed below?

Now that we’ve entered a new year, and a new decade, I’ve read many, many blog posts about the goals people have set for their online career. I know some people get bored of these kind of posts (which is why I’ve listed my goals on a page, which I’ll keep updated each month – I haven’t quite finished writing down all of my January goals yet), but I personally find it fascinating to read what others have planned.