Wordless Wednesday: LOTD

Looking Ahead: Goal-Setting for the New Year

Oh, my, another year has come and (almost) gone.  It's time to evaluate the goals you set this time last year and try again to come up with a new set of goals for 2012.

Actually, there's more to it than that.  While goal setting is important, reviewing progress and adjusting plans at various points throughout the year is even more important.

To be honest, I'm not very good at long-term goal setting.  "Life" changes things sometimes in the blink of an eye (I know that all too well), so I don't like to set myself up for failure right from the start.  Obviously I, too, need to not only set yearly goals and make plans, I need to concentrate on short-term goals and set aside time to adjust as necessary on a regular basis.

There are many goal-setting tools available and I'm sure I have at least two or three "how to set goals" e-books on my hard drive that I've purchased or downloaded for free with the greatest of intentions.  But I'll admit that I am easily overwhelmed when it comes to tackling the job of reading the books and putting plans behind the goals and action behind the plans.  So, this year what I intend to do (good intentions as usual, but I think this will work for me) is to simply write monthly goals in the front of a stenographer's notebook (the size suits me), record plans for the month, and then write a daily to-do list each night or early morning.  I've been doing the daily lists for the past few weeks and that method is working well for me.

Have you started planning and setting goals for 2012?  How do you do it?  I'd love if you'd share your methods and favorite resources here.  Perhaps the way you plan will ring true with someone who reads your comment, someone like me who struggles in this area.  So please, leave a comment below.  Your suggestions could really help someone have a truly productive new year!

A Delicious Lens Intro

Just had to share the intro on this yummy lens by new lensmaster theSEOmama. 

Go read it then tell me your mouth isn't watering and your stomach isn't frantically transmitting "Bake these NOW!" messages to your brain.  Or is it the other way around?  

Oh, who cares.  Just go read this delicious lens intro and mark it as a great example of how not to lose readers in the first 30 seconds of their visit to your lens.  Then, while the oven is preheating, compose a fabulous intro for your next new lens.

How Not to be Overly Commercial on Your Lenses: My Recommended Read of the Day

When you make lenses promoting a product or your business, you really need a balance of not too little, not too much, but just the right amount of commercial or promotional material.

Tom Maybrier explains this in more detail today in his SquidooHQ lensmaking tip, Creating Great Content for your Business or Product.  It's an excellent post that answers a lot of questions that you might have about how commercial is too commercial when you're making product review or business lenses.

Newbies on Squidoo often make the mistake of including too many bolded business links in their lenses and not enough original content.  Even veterans can fall into that bad practice. My recommended read of the day is a great explanation of how to avoid this and what to do instead to make your commercial lens turn out balanced just right.

After you've read it, I hope you'll leave Tom a comment then come back here and let me know what you learned.