Running the Numbers in Pursuit of your Goals

I was running some numbers just this morning regarding some of my goals. I have a number of goals but among them are my internet and website related goals. Much of which is regarding the amount of income I would like to be able to generate from my websites. However, the income I would like to generate is highly dependent upon a certain amount of traffic I would need to receive on those websites.

Just to get some idea, I went to a site that gives you information on any domain name you enter. the information you receive will be the approximate value of the site, the amount of traffic it receives and an estimate as to how much income the site generates as a result of the traffic it receives. So I entered in a domain name of a popular website and I calculated that the amount it basically received per visitor was .6 cents per visitor.

Now, in the real world, this amount could vary, depending on how well monetized your site actually is. But let's just say that a site that is adequately monetized generates, on average, .6 cents per visitor. 

So based on that number, I calculated that I would have to have half a million visitors a month going to my websites in order for me to generate $36,000 a year from my websites. Obviously, half a million visitors a month is a lot of people.

You see, we have to be realistic in our goals and in order to do that, we must have some somewhat realistic numbers to work with. We need to know exactly what we are up against. Once we determine that, we need to devise a strategy. The strategy itself is a different matter all its own and it would also involve a number of short term and long term goals. Then, occasionally, we must make assessments regarding our progress in pursuit of the goals.

So there is the initial running of the numbers as I have provided in my example above and there will be the occasional running of the numbers used to measure progress.

Now, to generate the necessary traffic to my various websites, there are a number of methods and factors you will need to consider. There are e-mail lists, blogs, collaborations with others advertising, online marketing, social network promotion and so on.

Realizing how monumental a task may be actually helps you in the sense that it forces you to pull out all of the stops and makes you more willing to give consideration to a number of methods and ideas one could use to pursue a goal. It may help to create a sense of urgency on your part and force you to not only work harder but smarter as well. I would place a great deal of emphasis on the smarter part, if you ask me.

So if you have some goals, you need to work the numbers and then devise a strategy. I'm not saying, though, that the numbers never change or that they are carved in stone. You may get updated information and have to use new numbers. But, at any rate, you need to run the numbers and you need to try to run numbers that are the most accurate numbers you can find. If you find more up-to-date information, run the new numbers and you may also need to modify your strategy as well. Just be sure to run the numbers in pursuit or your goals.

Bob Craypoe