In order to give myself the best chance of success at achieving my goals, I’m making myself publicly accountable by posting them on a separate page here. The only thing I won’t do is give away the links to all my niches, but you will be able to see how much content I intend to create for them over the course of the next 3 months.

You can find my progress page here. And as always suggestions for topics to create content around, and words of encouragement are always welcomed and greatly appreciated!

Copyright 2007 Ruth Ritchie and Ritchie Media. All Rights Reserved.

I was getting ready yesterday and putting a gift package together, and nothing was going right. I couldn’t find the things I needed to get the job done. (I learned I really need to organize my hard drives in the process, but that’s beside the point.) The more frustrated I got, the more I realized that I really wasn’t having fun, and that the idea of participating in these giveaways was not making me feel good.

It doesn’t have anything to do with giving stuff away. I love giving away information because I know what it’s like to want to get started and not have the money to shell out. I get a real sense of satisfaction when something I say or write is helpful to someone else. And yes, I’d love to have one of those huge lists that the big dogs brag about, but I’m not convinced that being part of these massive giveaways is the best way to go about it.

The bottom line is that after spending a week of getting ready it didn’t feel right. And I’m learning, finally, that if something doesn’t feel right, then I should trust my instincts and not do it. That’s not to say I’m good with staying in my comfort zone and never stretching or doing something new. There’s a big difference in saying no because you’re scared to change (I’ve done that too) and saying no because your gut is screaming at you to stop and think about it.

Does this mean that I’ll never give anything away again? Nope, it doesn’t. I will always have free information available for anyone who wants or needs it. It also doesn’t mean that I’ll never play in a giveaway again. If one comes along that feels right to me then I’ll play along, and be happy doing it.

For now it just means that I’ll be looking for alternative ways to grow the readership of The Introverted Marketer, ways that fit my style and leave me feeling happy with my choices.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you I’m great at making plans and really, really horrible at the follow through. The amount of half-finished projects and half-baked plans littering my office space (they’re not just on the desk anymore) are evidence of that. But I’ve made a goal to have at least on solid, completed project by the end of this year so that I end things on a positive note.

In an earlier post I wrote about facing my fears and that’s what I’m doing for the first part of my plan. I’m going to be playing in a few select giveaways starting this week in order to re-introduce myself to the marketing community and to start building those connections that I talked about in yesterday’s post.

Sad to say, however, that true to form I left things a bit late. It didn’t hit me until yesterday that the first giveaway I’d signed up for is just about ready to open and I’m nowhere near prepared for it. For the rest of today I’ll be getting my gift ready for the Make a Wish Giveaway that starts tomorrow (November 25th). I hope you like what I’ve picked out for you. It would have been easy enough to just grab something from my massive collection of resell rights products, but I couldn’t do that.

So I’ll be back tomorrow with more on my end-of-year plans, but you can head over to the giveaway site now and get registered to be notified as soon as the doors open.

‘Til tomorrow, keep a smile on your face and your stick on the ice,

Lena

So how did this happen? I could blame it on the fact that I’m an introvert. I could blame it on my health. I could blame it on the fact that I became a golf addict this summer. I could blame it on the fact that I’ve been doing some part-time work for someone else. The point I’m trying to make here is that there are lots of things I could blame and a ton of excuses I could make for why I didn’t get it done this year. In the end, it all boils down to two things — I wasn’t motivated enough to meet my goals, and I was afraid of putting myself out there.

Why am I telling you this now?

This is the time of year that can make or break an internet marketer, even an introverted one like me. What you do in the next few weeks can turn a bad year around. How you prepare and plan now can go a long way to determining the level of success you have next year.

For myself I know that I’m going to be working my butt off for the next six weeks because I want to finish this year on a high note, and I want a good start for the new year. I’m more motivated than I’ve ever been because I’m tired of disappointing myself. For several years now I’ve let my fear of failure and my fear of being ridiculed stop me from achieving my goals.

So what does my change of heart mean for you?

Well, for starters it means that you’ll be hearing from me a lot more often. There’s no way I’m gonna make a promise I can’t keep and say I’ll post every day, but I’ll do my best to get at least three posts a week done.

Second, it means that if you want to watch over my shoulder and see what I’m doing to generate income and create a stable successful business, you can do that. I still have to work out the details so keep an eye out in the next few days for that.

For sure one of the things I’ll be doing this holiday season is playing in some of the giveaways that are going on. I’m not sure how many yet, or which ones. That’s what I’ll be figuring out this afternoon. If you want to make sure you stay updated as things go forward, you can either sign up for the mailing list or the rss feed, or you can follow me on twitter.