Planning and achieving your goals can be stressful. Some people make resolutions every new year, only to break them within a week or two. Unrealistic goals are not attainable and just make you feel like a failure when you can’t keep them up. New year’s resolutions are a tradition so we feel like we ought to do them anyway, naming goals without really thinking about whether you will be able to do them or not.

There are a few ways of planning your goals which can increase the chances of success and reduce the stress factor.

Goals should be written down but you should make some allowances. If, for example, you want to lose 10 pounds in the next three months and you only manage to lose 8, is this a failure? Most people would feel that they have failed and go back to their former unhealthy diet and put all the weight back on again, despite the fact that they did lose weight.

You can compare the achievement of a goal to a drive to another city. You don’t travel in a straight line. There will be detours and turns and you might get lost. You don’t go home and start over. You just make adjustments to your plan to get you the rest of the way.

If you think of it that way, losing 8 pounds instead of 10 is not a failure. You planned to lose weight and you did lose weight. Now you only have another 2 pounds to lose rather than the whole 10. When you think about it in this way, the goal should seem easier and this will spur you on. If you managed to lose 8 pounds, losing another 2 should be simple.

Your goals should be reasonably achievable. If you want to lose 80 pounds, don’t plan to lose it in a couple of months because this is impossible as well as being dangerous to your health. Losing 80 pounds in a year breaks down to a slower, easier loss and is within reason.

If you want to earn a million dollars in the next year, that is an example of a goal. But have you planned how you are going to do it? If you have nothing to start with, this isn’t a reasonable goal. Maybe it is a better idea to build your foundation first and take things slowly. Of course if you make 40 dollars, you only have another $999,960 left to go!

The key is to keep your goals reasonable and don’t quit when you don’t quite attain them. Just alter your initial goal slightly – it doesn’t make you a failure.

A internet marketer or web entrepreneur having decided to pursue their goals by taking the path of developing a large number of niche websites, instead of concentrating on just one or two super sites, will eventually face the dilemma “should more websites mean more hassle?” Is the chosen web design software capable of easily managing 50, 100 or more websites, or is the task of managing and updating your portfolio of websites going to be far too much to handle?

Regrettably, many niche marketers are already well down the road before the problem arises and starts to have a significant affect on their business. They could possibly have 10 or 20 websites up and running before becoming aware that a problem exists. Once they know, they then have to ask the question “Should I keep going, or switch all my sites over straight away to another software?”

There is no single easy solution. The original software was chosen tailored to the need to build and manage a large number of websites as well as their intended method of maintenance on an ongoing basis. Changing existing sites over to another application may be way beyond their capability so they should stick to what they do best.

If it is intended to continue maintaining their growing portfolio by themselves, they should consider software such as XSitePro which is more than up to the task in hand. It is cheaper than, say, Dreamweaver and the learning curve is far less daunting. Although the included templates are not all that inspiring, there are much better ones available to purchase and it is quite easy to adapt template graphics to suit personal requirements.

To manage a large number of sites in XSitePro is relatively easy. The software can keep a check of Adsense information as well as multiple affiliate accounts, thus making it perfect for internet marketers. Changes to a site can be published by simply clicking the mouse. The built in reporting functions and SEO tools are very useful, saving much time and cutting out costly errors.

The XSitePro is, however, placed at a disadvantage with the growing popularity of social bookmarking sites and Web 2.0 as it is not built to design sites with the required functionality. Joomla and Wordpress excel in this arena, and have the additional benefit of making collaboration and user created content very easy, although managing several Wordpress or Joomla sites would present quite a challenge.

The XSitePro is also not equipped for blogging. However, there is an inexpensive, even free, option definitely worth consideration for managing many websites and this is Blogger. Even though Wordpress has become the choice of blogging tool for many internet marketers, Blogger allows the creation and hosting of unlimited blogs for free, managing them all from one place, the Blogger Dashboard. Blogs can be hosted on hosting accounts if held, whilst all management can be carried out from the Dashboard.

One further option and probably the easiest if not the cheapest way to manage a large number of websites is to simply pay someone else to do the job!

All online businesses need web traffic. It doesn’t matter what your goal is or which business model you are following, you need a stream of targeted traffic, whether you are monetizing your website with Adsense or selling a product or service.

There are many ways to generate traffic and attract visitors, whatever niche or product you are working with. You need to find affordable yet effective alternatives.

It is easy for large corporations to spend millions of dollars at pay per click ad campaigns, such as Google Adwords, but most home-based businesses cannot afford these costs. You do, however, need the targeted traffic for your business to work. The more money you make, the more you can potentially afford to reinvest in advertising.

As a home-based business owner you have plenty of low cost or free options when it comes to drawing visitors to your website. Here are five ways that can help you increase your search engine rankings and gain a steady stream of traffic.

Traffic Exchanges

When used properly, these can be very useful. Not every niche will benefit from this method but it can be great if you are dealing with affiliate marketing, home-based business opportunities or MLM.

You should create your own landing page for the product or service you are promoting. Try to stand out from the crowd by using something different to what the other affiliates use. This attracts interest and, when used in conjunction with an autoresponder to get their name and email address, you can quickly build you own list of interested customers.

Online Forums and Communities

If you join online forums and communities, you can post comments and have a link to your website in your signature link. Most forums frown upon blatant advertising so make sure your posts are interesting and relevant. If not, it looks like spamming and you might get banned.

Newsletters

Writing newsletters does not have to be time consuming. There are hundreds of article directories online with articles written by experts on pretty much every topic. You can use them within the guidelines prescribed by the author and directory, adding a few lines from yourself as an introduction. Add your ad and you have a newsletter. You can add as much or as little as you want to the original article.

Using Your Own Articles

There are thousands of ezines, websites and newsletter publishers seeking new and unique content every day, as well as all the article directories. If you write you own articles and link back to your website, you are creating valuable links to your site as well as branding yourself an expert in the field. This will help to boost your website in the search engine rankings, bringing you more targeted traffic and is free to do.

Exchange Links

This is possibly the most difficult tactic. You need to find sites that are in the same niche as your own but not in direct competition. You also need to find sites with a good ranking in the search engines for this to be successful. You need to approach any site owner with politeness and courtesy. If they don’t see any potential benefits in linking with your site, they might refuse.

If you use all five of these tactics regularly, you should definitely start to see a climb in traffic.

From time to time we can all use a little more cash. Listed below are some excellent ways to achieve this.

1. You are about to move to a location where you will no longer need a car, but your lease has another year left to run. If you turn your lease in before it’s time, you will incur early completion penalty costs.

SOLUTION: There is a network of people willing to take over your lease by buying it out. LeaseTrader.com list an average of 10,000 motor cars monthly and this is how it works. Create an advertisement for your car and place it on the site at a cost between $79 and $189, depending on whether or not you put photographs in the ad. LeaseTrader.com carry out a credit check when someone makes an application to take over your lease and in turn informs you by email if he or she qualifies. You can then contact the interested party through the LeaseTrader.com message center, where you are also shown the approval status of the potential purchaser. For a fee of $149 LeaseTrader.com will handle all the paperwork when you are satisfied you have found the right buyer.

2. You are in need of a new computer but you do not want to go over your budget or have to settle for fewer desired options in order to save money.

SOLUTION: Taking advantage of on line coupons makes it still possible to get the computer you want. DELL, Compaq, and HP are all on line merchants who generate coupon codes on a daily basis, some with a long time frame, others with the same day expiration. You can gain access to such discounts at various “coupon” sites. CouponMountain.com has a wider selection of laptop and desktop coupons, ranging from 20% to $350 off Dell computers, $200 off special HP PCs, and up to $300 savings on Compaq computers on any given day.

The discount available on these sites changes daily but you are guaranteed a solid choice of electronics and computer discount codes when paying a visit to the major players. It is also worthwhile visiting other coupon code sites such as FabulousSavings.com, eCoupons.com and CouponCabin.com. You should be aware that coupon codes usually need to be entered manually at an on line store’s checkout, or entry must be gained to the site by a specific link to qualify for the savings. Always check your receipt before you make the final click to ensure your coupon code was accepted correctly.

3. You would really like to take the family to a show or ball game at your expense, but you are on a tight budget.

SOLUTION: You can search through many options available by visiting just one site. Fatlens.com uses search engine technology to sift through on line merchants as well as classifieds outlets such as Craigslist and marketplaces like eBay and Stubhub.com. All you need to do is type in the name or the venue of the event and Fatlens immediately produces a list of possibilities which you can sort by price, location and date. You can also see at a glance who is selling tickets and what range of seats are on offer, some even providing seating charts for you to click for further details. After completing a comparison check, you can make your booking confident that you have spent your money wisely securing the best deal available.