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My Personal Daily Writing Goals

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Queen of Procrastination Breaks Her Pattern

Yep, that is right, I am the Queen of Procrastination and in order to finally break my pattern I have decided to set myself a few goals. One of them is a daily writing goal in order to help my online business grow and start earning me better money on a more consistent base.

I love writing, but to be honest, there are times that I really hate it, especially when I have to write about a certain topic because it will be a good topic to earn money with. I started writing early in my childhood and whenever I have the time I still just sit down with a notebook and a pen and just write away. Things do get to become a little different though when it is a specific topic I have to write about.

Why Do I Need to Set Daily Writing Goals

In the case you want to make money online with any kind of online business related to either adsense, affiliate marketing or just plain writing for money, you will spend most of your time writing content. Most people will start outsourcing this part of their business as soon as possible and I too have started outsourcing some of the content that I use to create links to my money making websites.

However, it is way from enough and until I have plenty of money to invest, there is a lot of writing I need to do myself, plus I feel it is important to do a lot of writing in order to learn and understand how things work better. So why all of a sudden the urge to set daily writing goals you might ask, and apart from most of my reasoning being largely very personal, there is a bit I want to share with you. This year is coming to an end in less than 100 days and I want to close it off with a real bang.

More than a real bang, I want to ensure myself that I use these days to the utmost best of my possibilities so that I can look back and say to myself ... "you did really well". And seeing that I know affiliate marketing and similar business, I know one can´t get instant result.

But... Getting instant gratification in the way of seeing the amount of published words go up and up, should give a real rush as well!

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Back to My Daily Writing Goals

There are a few challenges I particpate in. The first is "The fifth 100 Articles in 100 Days Marathon Challenge" (HAHD in short) over at ezinearticles. Basically they want you to write one article of at least 400 words a day in order to fulfill the challenge, but you can also do double that amount. If you do a consistent 1 article a day and finish 100 articles before December 31st 2010, you will get a nice goodybag consisting of (and I quote)
1. Downloadable #HAHD Certificate of Achievement (frame not included)
2. Limited-Edition EzineArticles #HAHD Mouse Pad
3. Limited-Edition EzineArticles Multi-Purpose Padfolio
4. Limited-Edition DVD with EzineArticles Videos
5. EzineArticles Member's Pen
6. EzineArticles "My Next 10 Article Ideas" Notepad

Now, if you go out of your way and publish double that amount, 200 articles before December 31st they will also throw in an EzineArticles Flash Drive Pre-Loaded with Article Templates which will come in handy to grow your business.... or not... Oh well, it will be fun to have!

Now... as a third incentive, they have an added bonus and again I quote: "Added Bonus: The top 100 members for total number of approved submissions will also qualify to be selected for 1 of 10 FREE 1-year EzineArticles Premium Membership subscriptions valued at $697 each!"

Now that is something I think is worthwhile... not only would I get totally in the habit of publishing several articles daily to grow my business, but also get the chance of winning a free membership with all the perks that come along with that.

So... part of my daily writing goal is to submit at least 2 articles a day to ezinearticles.com

Another Part of My Daily Writing Goal

I have been a member of The Keyword Academy for a long time now and I have tried participating in their Summer Rush, a challenge to get all their members publishing a vast amount of words on all different types of sites. This of course in order to grow their online income and I thought it would be great to participate in that.

However due personal circumstances, moving home and travel I really did not do all so well and only published around 90.000 words. (really, that sounds like a lot but it is not haha!)

The guys over at TKA have received so many great responses from their members that they have decided to organize another fall rush and it is gonna run from October 15 all the way through to, you guessed it.... December 31st. (Where did we see that date before?!) So I am gonna fully participate on that, really wanting to do well, but still thinking about which specific goal to set. (which is why I have created this lens as well, part to keep track, part to hear from fellow writers)

Anyways, They are giving a lot of incentives, so many that it is hard to resist the challenge and it is definitely helping me to break through my procrastination mode. A few of the incentives are free memberships for the year, a $1000 cash prize (yes.. that is a $1000 CASH PRIZE) one can win in a draw. And ... the more words you publish, the more chances you get to win. You can only participate in this challenge if you are a member of TKA, but I can tell you that it is well worth being a member (besides, the first month is absolutely free!)

The Keyword Academy

My Squidoo Daily Writing Goal

Apart from my other writing goals, I have also set myself a daily writing goal here on Squidoo. I wanted to become a Giant Squid and actually signed up for the September deadline but did not make it. I had 50 plus lenses but they were not good enough yet, so this time around I want to give it a real good shot and make sure that all my lenses are updated, informative and looking good.

I am guessing the deadline will be .... the 31st of December and it would be fantastic to start off the new year as a Giant Squid... so my goal is to create one good squidoo lens every work day from now till the end of the year, reaching at least 100 lenses before the new year begins. I have about 60 weekdays left to achieve that goal and am currently sitting on 67 lenses... BUT ... I want all 100 lenses to be great. Be super informative, Look great, and get traffic, which means that apart from daily creating a lens, a lot of updating will be involved so I think creating 40 new lenses before the year is over is a more realistic goal.

After all, I want to offer quality!

Update: I was told this part of my writing goals was not clear enough so I better try and make it more specific. My set goal is to have at least 100 quality lenses by the end of the year. Ideally I want to stick to creating one lens a day, meaning I´d be adding another 60 or so lenses to my account before the end of the year, adding up to 120 lenses or so. BUT and here is the catch, I want all lenses to be so great that I can apply for Giant Squid status without doubting the application myself. This means that I will have to be doing a lot of updating and or deleting lenses as well on quite a number of days, something that might make it hard to also create a lens that day.

So specifically my daily writing goals for Squidoo are to spend a focused hour each day either updating, improving or creating lenses in order to reach at least 100 lenses before the end of the year.

Update 10 October 2010
75 live lenses - 23 WIP lenses (wanting to bring the number of WIP down to 0 before the end of October)
Update 16 October 2010
100 live lenses - 8 WIP lenses
/www.squidoo.com/100th-lens">My 100th Lens
Update 24 October 2010
102 live lenses and somehow I am up on my WIP lenses *rolling eyes* 10 WIP at present
And I just made it to level 50!
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My Last Daily Writing Goal

My last daily writing goal is a little difficult to explain because I can´t really share it with the world without ruining my own chances of making it. However, if I do (or don´t) make it, I promise to explain it all in details in the first week of the new year, hopefully with proof of having reached those goals. I can tell you though that it does involve a LOT of writing every day, around 5000 words at least, but that it will definitely pay off.

If you want to know what the last daily writing challenge is, just bookmark this lens and come back in the new year.. (or, more likely, just forget about it and hopefully run into this lens in the future).

I do hope though that my writing will improve greatly with all these daily writing goals, especially since English is not my native tongue, but they say that practice makes perfect, so there still is hope!

Duel: Daily Writing Goals

So here you have it, my daily writing goals, totaling probably around 8000-10000 words a day during weekdays... and I really love to hear from you what you think about them.

Are they specific enough? Do you think I should tell you everything exactly and spoil my own chances? Do you set your own daily writing goals?

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Yes, because ...

LaraineRose says:

I like setting goals. Until I started the Quests I didn't have many lenses. Now I am looking forward to 50 .. something that I never thought I'd achieve.

FrankGual says:

I am struggling with a daily writing goal of 1000 words. I'm making it a point of getting up earlier, hoping that will help.

rwoman says:

Writing requires discipline and the more you do the better chance you have to meet your goals -- whatever they might be. I tell my students they have to work on their writing muscles if they want to be writers just like athletes have to train to be better.

OhMe says:

I say to tell what you are comfortable with. If it motivates you more, then write it down otherwise keep it to yourself. Just my opinion and I am very impressed with your goals here and wish you lots of luck achieving each.

Joan4 says:

Wow! you are a prolific writer! My own writing goals are simply 3 pages a day of journaling, one article a day, one lens a day.

No, because ...

daria369 says:

I prefer to go with inspiration, specific goals feel constricting to me

SereneSea says:

Yes, I feel your goals are clear and obvious. You might have to write a lot but if it has to be quality then it takes time.

Health-Gal says:

thanks Emma for your comment, I made an update, hoping that would be more specific :) (thanks for making me think and clarify myself!)

emmalarkins says:

The ezines one is good, but the Squidoo one is a little vague!

 

Daily Writing Goals Update

I signed myself up for a writing group, 9 others are joining in the effort to each create over 200K words from the 15th of October to the 31st of December 2010. 78 Days to write 200K words that translates into 2600 words a day each day or 3600 words each weekday. That sound do-able so I am gonna aim for 3600 words each workday, AT LEAST.

Magic words being AT LEAST because I want to do more than that. But like my daily walking goals, I think I should set a minimum goal for each day and then take anything I do more than my minimum goal to be a little present to myself.

Plus, I need to get consistency in my life, get into the habit of writing first thing in the morning, while my mind is still fresh and eager to write and finish my daily writing goal first, before starting to twitch and tweak my websites or go into any forum or reading threads and commenting etc.

So this week my focus will be on setting up a plan and prepare the websites I will be doing the writing for. I have lost track of the number of websites I have, and quite honestly that is a bad thing. Picking 5 websites that are already bringing in cash will have the advantage that they already "work" for me, so giving them a huge boost trafficwise by building links and improving them by creating more content will almost certain lead to a rise in money earned.

For now I am just gonna pretend to only have 5 websites and once the whole Fall Frenzy writing challenge is over, I will decided to do with the other websites.

Another thing I will want to do is to actually update this lens weekly and publish the amount of words I have written each day, to hold myself accountable, plus I will show a screen picture of the WorkTracker in my TKA account, which will show the number of words published each week. (yikes, really setting myself up for being accountable full time!)

“Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates. - Thomas S. Monson”

WorkTracker ScreenShot

Update 10 October 2010
So this is the weekly screenshot I will be publishing, showing the amount of words published each day. My goal is to publish at least 3600 words each workday and have that amount grow steadily. As you can see right now, I do write quite a bit, but it goes up and down without being persistent.

I do feel I should make it a habit, to write a certain number of words daily so that my websites will grow steadily and my linkbuilding will become a habit as well, rather than just some potluck fortune fairytale.

The really cool think about this worktracker is the ability to share your results with the people in your writing group, this really does give a little push. Everything is put in a neat little graphic so if you are a bit competitive like me, it will give an extra push to see the results of others against your own.

Start of the Fall Frenzy

Start of the Fall Frenzy

My daily words are still a mess, going up and down without any consistency so my goal for the coming week is to write at least 5000 words a day, although I am expecting to peak on Monday and Tuesday.

Adding an Extra Challenge to my Daily Writing Goals

17 October
So I do feel I am on the right track and breaking my procrastination patterns, but there is still something itching deep inside. I think I should take it a step further and see what I am capable of writing if I created the best circumstances. So here is what I am going to do. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will be having the home to myself and nobody will disturb me. The only thing I really need to do is take my dogs for a walk and get to my daily walking goals but for the rest I have plenty of time and tranquility to completely focus two full days on writing.

Just writing.

So I challenged some people in my writing group over at TKA to see who can write the most. It is not about winning that small private contest, but it is really about pushing each other forward and getting some instant gratification in seeing what one can actually achieve in one day or two.

I am aiming for at least 10.000 words a day, but hoping it will be more!

Daily Writing Goals Put to the Test

Update 22 October 2010
The first week of the Fall Frenzy Challenge over at TKA has finished... I managed to publish 32.770 words in total, that is a daily average of 4681 words. Not too bad but looking at my worktracker it shows a really messed up graphic. The two days that I really challenged myself are the days that count for the highest number of words written (my top was at almost 13K in one day).

What I got to learn though and this is the whole reason of challenging myself, the learning experience of it, is that I have to set specific daily targets. For instance, I challenged myself to write as much as possible in a day and once the day was over I felt bumped instead of hyped. I had written 13K words and instead of being pleased I felt I could have done more. Now, had I set myself a specific target and reached that, instead of saying to just write as much as possible, I would probably have been more pleased about the result.

Anyways... I got to publish a fair amount of words, if I stay on this track I will have 300K words extra before the end of the year, that should definitely make a small impact on my online work outcome.

Coming week is going to be horrible though, with only 3 days I can work and put it more words towards my goal. Oh well...

Update on my Daily Writing Goals

keyword academy work tracker

November 12 so it is about time for a little update. As you can see in the graphic, I have reached almost 88K published words in a matter of 4 weeks. Pretty cool, that is an average of 22K per week, a little over 4K per work day. As you can see, there are a lot of days that I haven´t published a thing, this was due to a small holiday trip and a flue attack that left me like a train wreck.

Anyways... all this writing, what has it brought me so far?

I have seen a spike in my traffic, but more importantly, I have seen my lenses going up, one has now reached Tier one for the first time, so that is great. Also seeing more traffic coming to my websites, resulting in more sales and more earnings through adsense, always lovely.

For the rest, you will just have to keep following this lens, just wanted to mention a new lens I created today about a writing productivity tool that is really helping me, thought you might want to give it a test drive. (it is free)

Write or Die productivity tool.

Fall Frenzy Update

The Keyword Academy Worktracker

With only a few more weeks left I am a bit behind schedule or ahead of it, depending on how you look at it. However, if I want to meet my goal of writing and publishing a total of 300K during this publishing challenge, I really need to crack it up a level.

I have another 12 days left this month to work, meaning that I would have to write and publish at least 10K words each of those working days. I am up for the challenge, if I say it fast enough it does not hurt that bad! It looks like it will be a busy ending of this month, but I really feel I should go for it and set my target high, so for the next few weeks I will be updating this lens to track this huge personal challenge!

Won a Contest!

Start writing for Infobarrel

The good thing about having increased my writing is the fact that I was able to win $50 in the monthly Infobarrel contest! It was a painful process especially since I live in a different timezone and at one point I just had to go to bed, but it has taught me a lot and has made me more prepared to take on future participations in that contest.

I am actually seeing an increase in my infobarrel, amazon and chitika income because of the content I have managed to publish over at infobarrel, but next time I will make sure I optimize the content published a bit better and spread out the entries in order to keep up with my work.

But hey... $50 ain´t too bad!

Update on HADH Ezinearticles Challenge

Ezinearticles publishing challenge

Update 28 December 2010
As you can see in the picture... with 8 more days left to the challenge, I reached 100 articles for the HADH! Thanks to the Keyword Academy and the Fall Frenzy, setting daily writing goals and what not, it seems I am finally able to break through my procrastination problems and actually reach the writing goals I am setting.

As you can also see, I was at 100 articles with only 8 more days left, but have since started publishing a lot more in order to promote my websites, Squidoo lenses and articles I have published in other places as to improve earnings and am now close to reaching another threshold, 200 published articles for the HAHD!

I got inspired to keep on adding to the HAHD challenge because of a tweet I saw on how few people actually made it to finish the challenge so far and am now going to try and reach the top 100 so that I get a shot at the year free premium account.

All in all I am sure a lot of good will come out of this publishing frenzy!

Share Your Writing Goals!

I would love to hear from you, do you have writing goals for every day, do you want to reach a certain amount of lenses before the end of the year or any other specific goal?

  • LaraineRose Nov 20, 2011 @ 8:45 am | delete
    Well, it's getting near to the end of the year. It will be interesting to see if you reach your goal.
  • TopMovieSoundtracks Jan 9, 2011 @ 8:18 am | delete
    Good luck with your writing goals for 2011.
  • vallain Jan 6, 2011 @ 8:18 pm | delete
    Commendable writing effort. I was just working on my 2011 writing goals. Keep on writing!
  • Geekgurl Dec 14, 2010 @ 8:38 am | delete
    It's hard to stick to a plan everyday for writing. My goal is to document everything I can in South Korea while I'm here, and to get into a grad school in Australia! I need to write more and feel like I can with your lens! Thanks!
  • WendyKrick Nov 13, 2010 @ 9:09 am | delete
    I have specific goals for my online writing. My Squidoo goal is to have 300 lenses completed by January 1st. This is a great lens.
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