Just nine days to go until 2005! The year has flown by yet again, and I hope that it's been a great one for you. If you run your own business, I hope that 2004 was your best year yet!

I know from talking with people at events and through e-mail that many of you have started Internet businesses this year, and others are making it their number one New Year's Resolution! Maybe you've been putting it off for a while, and are waiting for the holiday season to be over and the New Year to kick in before taking the plunge…

Either way, it's a perfect time for taking stock of any important changes that have taken place in your business and on the Internet over the past year… and for looking ahead to the possibilities for 2005.

For us, 2004 was a year of focusing on the key elements to your success. That's why we systematically went through everything you need to know to make your online business a success... broke each topic down… and delivered them to you in newsletters that we hope provided you with a lot of good information.

And, judging by some of the responses I've received, it's great to know that many of you have used these tips to the benefit of your businesses.

Looking back over the year, I'd like to highlight a few of the key strategies that can help boost your business in the New Year. Then, we can take those strategies and use them to set solid, "can't-lose" goals for the coming year!

Key Strategy #1: Stay ahead of your competitors with cutting-edge technologies

We put out a couple of newsletters in the first half of the year looking at some new technology that's still hot right now -- direct-to-desktop marketing. This lets you deliver newsletters and other communications direct to customers, bypassing any deliverability issues e-mail can present and giving you the undivided attention of your current and potential customers.

You can read about the technology and its potential advantages for your business -- and how it's not just Fortune 500 companies who can afford it -- as well as some practical real-life examples of how it can work for any small business, at the links below:

"How Fortune 500 Companies Are Using the Hottest New Technology to Deliver Messages Directly to Their Customers' Desktops!"

"Answers to Your Questions about Direct-to-Desktop Technology... And a Sneak Preview of How I'm Personally Using It!"

We also went back to basics with some articles on Internet business ESSENTIALS that are required reading for any online business owner. Here is a selection of the best ones:

Key Strategy #2: Optimize your site navigation

Studies show that well-planned navigation can help boost your sales by more than 50%! It really can make or break an online business, and is just as important as the visual design of your site -- if not more so.

Check out the link below for some invaluable tips on improving the navigation of your site:

"Four Surefire Ways to Optimize Your Site Navigation and Make Your Sales Skyrocket!"

Key Strategy #3: Boost your ranking in the free search engines

If you want your online business to be successful, you should optimize your site on a regular basis to make sure it's ranked highly in the Web's top search engines. This article at the link below lays out some key tricks you should (and shouldn't!) use to optimize your site, plus the tools and resources you can use to keep it on top:

"Discover the Top 5 "Dos" and "Don'ts" of Web Site Optimization that Will Make or Break Your Ranking with the Free Search Engines!"

Key Strategy #4: Get instant, qualified traffic with the pay-per-click search engines

Pay-per-click (PPC) search engines can be a powerful, instant source of qualified traffic for your web site -- provided you do your homework and invest a bit of time in managing your campaign.

The article at the link below shows you the strategies and tools used by many web site owners who have mastered keyword targeting and know the "insider" bidding strategies:

"Learn how to flood your site with qualified buyers using the hottest new pay-per-click search engine strategies and tools... without losing money on high-priced keywords!"

Key Strategy #5: Convert more visitors into customers with a killer salesletter

Sales copy is one of the most important elements of a web site. Time and time again, I've seen a few small improvements to a site's sales copy result in a massive boost in sales!

The article below spells out EXACTLY what you can do to improve your sales copy:

"Discover the 5 ESSENTIAL Elements of a Profit-Generating Long Salesletter… and How to Use Them to Clinch at Least 70% More Sales!"

I strongly recommend reading these newsletters if you missed them first time around, or revisiting them if you read them earlier in the year. Whether you're an Internet newbie or an experienced campaigner, these tips and techniques are timeless.

As we move into 2005, however, now is the time to take a look FORWARD and plan how you're going to develop your Internet business next year.

How to set goals -- and accomplish them -- by creating your own personal master plan!

It's very important to set GOALS for your business, and this is the time of year when many people set themselves goals for the coming year. But just writing them down is useless unless you actually have a PLAN for following through and accomplishing them.

To start, I'd recommend sitting down with a glass of mulled wine and jotting down a list of ALL the goals you would like to achieve in 2005. If you are running an Internet business, or thinking of starting one, your goals could include:

• Starting a newsletter
• Automating your ordering system
• Adding new content to your web site
• Making $XX in sales by the end of the year

It's a good idea to narrow your written goals down to the top four or five, in order of importance to your business. Setting too many will make the list of things to do seem too long and difficult to accomplish.

By deciding on the most important ones, you will have a much greater chance of achieving them. Once you've done that, THEN you can go back to some of the other goals you had in mind.

Setting goals is relatively easy -- it's creating a workable master plan that's the tough part. This master plan should include a summary of all your goals, a list of the actions that you need to do to accomplish them, specific dates when you need to do them by, and a plan for actually executing these actions.

Here are some tips for making your plan work and achieving your goals:

• Make the decision and go for it. Once you've decided on your main goals, go all out to achieve them. Just not having to decide anymore will focus your mind and provide you with some clear direction.

• Review your progress regularly. You should regularly look back at what you are trying to achieve, then check that you are on track and staying true to your original objectives. By reviewing at regular intervals, you will be able to pick up on any potential problem areas before they get out of hand!

• Reward yourself periodically to keep motivated. When you achieve a milestone, reward yourself. Give yourself a treat, or just take a little time to relax and get ready for the next stage -- you've earned it! Just like a New Year's Eve celebration at the end of the year, a reward at the end of a task will make you feel good about accomplishing what you set out to achieve. So review how far you've come, relax a little, and get energized for the next stage!

• Get support. Running a business on your own can be hard. Getting support from a coach, or even just an online forum, can help you out during any times when things aren't going perfectly to plan. Having someone to bounce ideas off and give you a kick in the backside when the going gets tough can be invaluable!

In fact, getting support can be your key to getting started, too. Like I always say, your best bet is to follow the advice of the experts -- and use the methods that are already proven to work.

That's why I'd encourage you to check out the strategies used by the goal-setting experts -- people who have perfected a system for setting BIG (but attainable) goals and making them work.

You can find out more about how to accomplish your goals in the New Year at: www.marketingtips.com/goals

Final thoughts

Reviewing the past year is the first step toward setting your goals for the next one. It's really easy to just sit back and bask in the glory of the successes that you had, but you should also remember to take a good hard look at anything that went wrong… and review the lessons -- good and bad -- you learned along the way.

The key to setting good goals for the next year is to build on your successes and learn from your mistakes. You'll enter the New Year with way more knowledge than you had at the same time last year, and you need to use this knowledge to the benefit of your business.

Achieving goals should be an enjoyable and satisfying journey, and using these tips should help you get there. Rewarding yourself when you reach certain milestones -- and having someone to support you and provide feedback -- can make the whole experience that much more enjoyable.

Look at it like a long road trip. If you plan your route so you know where you're going and what you need to do to get there... set yourself milestones along the way, and reward yourself at each milestone... then the inevitable long, barren stretches or bumpy roads will become much more bearable.

And, in fact, getting over these small obstacles will make reaching your final destination even more satisfying.

On that note, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!