It’s already 8th January as I’m typing this, but I’ve really been kind of overwhelmed with my FInal Year Project, personal work, company work, and basketball training these days to make a post here.

I did force myself to take time out and write out my personal and income goals for 2009 though.

Did you do that? 

If not..

It’s not too late!

Do it today!

Too many people have emphasized the importance of setting goals already, so I shall not talk too much about that either.

Write down your goals, THINK

about how you wish to achieve them, and make little baby steps EVERYDAY, and work towards your goal!

I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished in 2008, but I have this weird, naggy feeling that 2009 is going to surpass everything I’ve ever done in spectacular fashion

Long story short, here are my goals within the first 6 months of 2009.

1) Buy myself a car. (I’m already shopping and will probably accomplish that goal in the coming weeks.)
2) Hit 5 figures with my projects.  (Strictly income from product sales/affiliate marketing.)
3) Put more effort into working on Marketing-Alchemist.com, KaizenDigitalMedia.com, and KangWeiAng.com. (And start going for offline business as well!)

These are my top 3 priorities for the first half of 2009.

Of course, I have more intricate plans on how I wish to accomplish those, but I shall not bore you with the details.

So, what are your goals for 2009? generic viagra for under $50.00

What a tongue twister of a title eh?

As you can very well see, this blog is not ready for the eyes of humanity at all.

I’m a strong believer in Murphy’s Law. “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.”

I was all set for closing down the old blog and having a fresh new start for a good new year, reviewing through the posts made over the past years, and seeing if I have managed to fulfill the new year resolutions I made at the start of 2007.

Alas, on the night of the 1st January, I just had to screw up on some of the settings on that old blog, causing it to become inaccessible. And because I’m such an optimistic young men, like all impulsive young men, I didn’t back it up.

I’m now greeted with an error screen when I try to access the site:

=
Fatal error : Call to undefined function: _c() in /home/kang/public_html/wp-includes/locale.php on line 93
=

I tried waiting for the good old folks from the wordpress support team to help me with this, but it seems like version 2.3 is too new an upgrade. Not too many folks have encountered this problem before; I believe that even for the minority who have, they did have the common sense to back up their databases, thank you very much.

 So yes, being the forward-looking and never-say-die warrior I am, I decided to proceed with the soft launch of Marketing Alchemist anyway!*Fireworks soar through the air, applause rages through the fields, and the mood of joy spreads through the crowds like wildfire!*….Okay.Nevermind.So there’s not so much of a fanfare afterall.Instead of reviewing 2007 thoroughly through the eyes of the old blog, let’s just move on to the highlights of the year then!

Without a doubt, 2007 was the best year for my internet business ever! (It’s my first year, you see.)

Jokes aside, I met tons of wonderful folks at the World Internet Summit this year. Folks like Khai, Kevin Riley, Dr. Mani, Mark Joyner, Andrew Hansen and hung out with Dylan. I nearly had the chance to meet up with Chiayee as she came over to Singapore for holidays, but it didn’t work out due to time constraints.Milestones of 2007 include my first writing assignments, first purposeful affiliate sales through both pay-per-click and bum marketing, and of course, the elusive first four-figure month.

Unfortunately, at the apex of my achievements, a new semester at school began, and it has been such a super-busy one for me. I had more modules to take than my peers, in addition to my commitments as Project Director of Cyberia Camp 2007.

(The camp went very well, by the way!)

As such, online activities slowed down a whole lot.

And after I’ve fulfilled my commitments at school, I was so exhausted that I had to spend some time smelling the roses with the better half.

She’s been a very, very welcome addition to my life. (Understatement.)

A story for another day. She is currently functioning as my personal assistant, which has saved me the costs and hassles of the need to hire a virtual assistant. She is diligent, smart, funny, and she even feeds me all the time with her wonderful cooking skills. Where else do you find such a versatile virtual assistant at the low low cost of free?

(Never, ever, let her lay her eyes on the above paragraph though.)

*Update*

Now.. This is interesting. Seems like I did manage to salvage some of the posts from the old blog afterall. Here’s my new year resolutions post from last year.

-=*=-

Happy 2007!
By kang | December 31, 2006

It’s already 4.18 a.m. right here in Singapore, so I’m making this a fairly quick one.

A quick recap of 2006.

I’ve taken huge steps in internet marketing.

The birth of KangWeiAng.Com. My first adsense earnings. My first successful affiliate sales. My little accidents and disasters in adwords and yahoo search marketing. More than a hundred books, ebooks and special reports. Hundreds of threads read on Internet marketing singapore, the warrior forum, Wealthy Affiliate. Techniques learnt, implemented, or stored in the memory bank for future use. New friends and acquaintances in the internet marketing world. Mutual admiration for each other. And not forgetting the ugly side I’ve glimpsed of some less-than-ethical marketers. My realization that there’s nothing much I could do about them and I can do is stay on course myself.

It’s been a huge year for me. I haven’t made thousands of dollars yet, but I’ve learnt tons through hands-on application.

And thanks to people like Travis, Kyle, Carson, Dylan, Alex and Chia Yee, through their knowledge and expertise, I’ve grown alot, and I’m sure their brilliance will rub off on me through sheer contact, and I’m damn sure that 2007 would be a great great one for me!

I hope that it would be the best year for you too!

Come December 31st 2007, I would look back and smile at myself. I would certainly re-read this post again.

I would be moved. Maybe I’d even tear.

As I review the best year in my internet marketing career. My successful projects, campaigns, websites

And here’s what I wish for 2007.

To hit $1000 internet marketing income each and every single month, and to help 5 other people do the same. And when that time comes, all I have to do is duplicate that effort, and I’ll be a happy man! When that day comes, I’ll get myself my dream white Picanto!

And to do that, I will..

Focus on affiliate marketing. Bum plus adwords marketing for traffic. And I’ll build niche mini sites to get those sales.

Short and sweet, because I’ve learnt that focus is of utmost importance.

And education-wise, I’ll hone my speed reading skills and make it a point to be always hungry for information, and to apply my new-found knowledge as much as possible. I’ll stretch my learning ability to the max.

I can’t wait.

Bring it on, 2007.

I am ready.

-=*=-

I can’t help but smirk at the post.

I certainly haven’t been very successful, judging by the standards of that post!

• For one, I didn’t manage to have an income of $1000 every month. I only hit that amount once. And that wasn’t even passive income. Not good, Kang. Not good.
• “Focus on affiliate marketing, especially bum marketing.” Well, I did make quite a number of sales with bum marketing. I’ve grasped the mechanics of it, but then I just grew lazy, as usual, and tried alot of other techniques instead.
• “Niche mini sites?” I did build a few. But again, I didn’t follow through. Earned peanuts with Adsense through these sites; nothing to be proud of.
• It’s funny that I mentioned I realized that focus is of utmost importance, and yet I allowed myself to deviate time and again.
• I guess the only thing I managed to consistently “achieve” from the list of goals for 2007, is to maintain a constant state of hunger for new knowledge. This kind of hunger is like a two-edged sword though, so I’ve got to learn to be able to handle it properly, lest I fall into the proverbial information overload death cycle.
• My Picanto? (A Picanto is a car by the way.) A Picanto with my current level of earnings? *Smiles.*

Well, I did have alot of fun with my online business in 2007, but as they say, “never treat your online business like a game.”

I’m going to carry on having fun, but I will certainly strive to be more disciplined in my daily processes.

So, what am i doing this year that is different from the last?

1. Huge boost in productivity. As mentioned, I’ve overfed myself with lots of information, but fortunately, also discovered many gems along the way. I’ll be actively implementing GTD into my working style. Coupled with all the amazing hacks I’ve learnt from Lifehacker.com, I’m sure I’ll become much more productive in 2008!
2. A protestant work ethic. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but coupled with the hacks I’ve learnt, I guess I have also seen first hand, the miracles that happen when hard work is thrown into a business. For a start, I’ve finally taken the effort to actually list down what I want to achieve for 2008, and a thorough review of 2007. Not a slip-shod one like this of course, but a four-page document, with 10 point size font. It’s an amazing experience. You should try it if you haven’t done that before!

Why do so many people say that new year resolutions do not work? My take is that, publicly stated new year resolutions are merely ego boosters and are too flippant to achieve results! What I’m now a firm believer of..

Is taking some quiet time off to quietly reflect and think. Do not worry about what others might think; you’re not going to show them to anyone after all.

You’ll find that at the end of the process, you don’t even particularly want to show it to other people because if done right, it will have some very personal elements in it, some sensitive issues and even some confidential blueprints to your potential success!

For mine, there is one thing I’d like to share with you.

I did up detailed projected “internet marketing expenses” and “internet marketing earnings” lists. I calculated all that based on monthly standards; meaning recurring income and passive income are not taken too much into account.

I got the shock of my life when I realized that a semi-ideal full-fledged internet marketer lifestyle will lead me to spend a whooping $1537on my business each and every month!

Doh!

What shocked me even more.. Is that at a conservative estimate, and without taking into account recurring and passive income from sites built in previous months and stuff like that, my monthly income, provided that I’ve completed everything I wish to accomplish, is a whooping $5100!

I have no idea whether that is chump change to you, but a profit of $5100 - $1537 = $3563 makes me very excited indeed.

The magic in this.. Is that I have arrived at these figures via very conservative and realistic estimates!

The magic happens..

Only when you make these projections yourself, custom made to your business models and lifestyles!

It’s extremely liberating, trust me. Try it out for yourself!

It’s now 2.14 a.m. here in Singapore.

I guess this marks the end of my first post!

I hope this post has given you a better sense of direction of how you wish to approach your own new year resolutions. I strongly encourage you to try the exercise of calculating your expenses and earnings!

Before I say goodbye…

On Friday, January 26th, 2007, I wrote a post entitled “Weeeeee! I have Page Rank now!”

I’m constantly amazed by the amount of stupid things that can come out from my fingertips, but that old little blog of mine gaining a page rank of 4 was a wonderful achievement for me. I was at the stage of running around like a chicken without a head, trying out new stuff like nobody’s business.

Looking back, it felt right. It’s perfectly fine to celebrate small successes. Small results come before huge achievements.

You made every little step; you deserve all the success you receive!

I worked hard at getting that page rank.

And now, I’m starting off with a blank slate, at page rank 0.

It’s like what people say about millionaires not being afraid of going bankrupt again after gaining millionaire status. Because they already have the knowledge and know-how of success.

Of course, now that I’m more familiar with the mechanics of internet marketing, I realize that page rank isn’t a big determinant of how successful Marketing Alchemist is.

What I wish for Marketing Alchemist to accomplish in 2008, is to help you prilosec and warning , whoever you are, wherever you’re from, to succeed online; to fail fast, and to succeed even faster.

Here’s to a wonderful 2008 for all of us!