Well after being snowed in a few days, I’ve knocked out a lot of little tasks and caught up on reading my favorite websites and blogs. Since we are still at the start of 2011, I figured this would be a good time to post about my business and personal goals for the year. 2010 was so awesome, I was really stressed it would all go away in 2011 lol. Seems silly, but ya know.

The past 5 years of working online has been fun, tough, stressful, and full of failures. Thankfully there has been some major successes. My wife (the boss) and I have been having long conversions about what has worked and what has not. Of course some things that worked well a year ago, won’t fly now in the marketing world. Google has made major changes, the Gaming Market has made major changes, and of course MY business has had to make major changes. We have been able to adjust, grow, and best of all learn over the last few years. I think 2011 will be a huge year personally and for our business. It will also be a major year for online gaming and a serious challenge for all Internet business men and women. Also, I re-posted a Google SEO Recap for 2010. It really shows just how many major changes we saw last year. Every one of them affected websites of all types. I expect 2011 to be even busier!

Personal goals for 2011

I’m Fat - Ok so first up, I’m getting super fat lol – I’ve always struggled with my weight, over the past 10-15 years I’ve played software, coached my sons in basesball, football, and my girls in softball. So that kept me in shape. It was also “Pre-Online Marketing” which of course has me in front of a computer a lot, or in an office. So my weight has gotten outta control! I mostly need to make better choices about what I eat, and get some real exercise. We have a nice new treadmill, and a bowflex. So I have what I need, its just the mental aspect of it I need to win.

Quality Time with the family – I’m lucky and have an awesome family. We have six kids, 3 boys ages 15,16,17, and 3 girls ages, 12,12,14 – they are AWESOME kids. We have fun when we are together, and sometimes just all stand around and tell goofy stories about out day and laugh until we hurt. My wife and I are relatively young parents, I had a child when I was 16 to give you some type of idea. So I think there is a little less of a generation gap than some parents have.

Overall I just want to spend more time with them, making memories that will last. They are already being recruited by several colleges for sports and or academics. So soon they will be graduated and in college. It just gos by so fast and seems unfair. So 2011 will be a year of good times!

Get to a conference! Well, I suck. I actually got 2 offers for a free trip to the London Affiliate Conference, I had planned on going for 6 months. Life sorta got in the way, and with the projects we have going its just not the right time. I’ve been turning down free trips for years now, and I’m pretty sure eventually people will stop offering. I really want to see parts of Europe and London and Rome are at the top of my list. The second trip I passed on was a free trip from Gr88 Poker, these guys are awesome. When I let them know I just couldn’t make it, they still wnated to give me something. So They sent me a 32gb Ipad 3g+wifi – this is something I really wanted, but wasn’t sure I needed for $800 lol – but now that I have it, it has some business and task manager apps that I’m not sure how I lived without.

Business goals for 2011

Well this is gonna be a tough one. We have so much going on, its takes a wall of whiteboards, a smartphone, and my new Ipad to keep up with it all. Thankfully we have good people all around us to help drive the train.

Elite Affiliate Software – Feb 1st is the un-announced official launch of the new software. This software will replace the old clunky RakeUpdate Rakeback software, but will not be limited to rakeback. We have spent 12 months in development, and getting feedback from affiliates, poker rooms, affiliate managers, etc – We wanted to do something more than just being “Stats Software” – so along with Rakeback, CPA, revshare – We have worked hard at making it “Marketing Software” – The tools we developed like the built in email marketing tools, reports, impressions/click tracking, have all come together nicely. Of course we paid special attention to use control, customization, seo, and usability.

I’ve been a poker player, I’m an affiliate, and I manage affiliate partners. So I know what I wanted and what people need to help with their business. I’m super excited about this project and about expanding into new markets. it will be a lot of work, and has been a lot of work. But isn’t that what we love to do? Note: pay no mind to the actual Elite Affiliate Software site, I threw it up, but we have been so busy with beta testing, tweaking, checking, and double checking everything I have no messed with it much.

No more new sites! – of course that doesn’t count for the EAS site lol – It was started in 2010, so I get a pass there. now I would start new sites if google and the gaming niche was like it was in 2009. With all the changes and new challenges of creating a new site from scratch, I just don’t want to do it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but I have sites which are 4-5 years old now, are authority in their niches, and make money. So we need to focus on maintaining and making these sites as awesome as they can be. funny thing about websites, I have never had a site in which I said “Ok, there is nothing I can do to improve it or make it better”. Show me a site which is “done” and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t know websites…

Also, if you want an awesome example of how to start, build, and develop a new website in a competitive niche, check out Best Slots Online – This is a site made by one of the best SEO’s I know.

Cleaning up my inventory – I already started this one! We have 200+ domains and 40+ websites. We do gaming, poker, casino, MMA, Entertainment, etc. We have a little of everything. But we have a lot of stuff we just will not have time to develop in 2011 and possibly never. I try never to impulse buy things, so usually everything we have has some type of potential be it exact match domains, or domains with good monthly search volume. Anyway, if you are looking for a cheap domains or starter site, check out this thread – I also have literally thousands of dollars in wordpress and html templates to go with them if you need one, free obv.

Continue to develop existing sites – this of course goes with the last goal, I want to keep adding resources, tools, content to our existing large sites. We spent a lot of time in 2010 updating old content and making everything current and accurate. Its amazing how fast data and information goes out of date. 2011 we will be tracking and monitoring all sites and keeping them updated and relevant. With google being all over the up to the minute information, this is a crusial aspect to any website. the world is “real time” now and your websites should be as well.

Ok, that’s all I have for now. I’d love to hear what all of you plan on doing in 2011, so please drop us some comments below. Also, check out the 2011 Goals for some of my fellow marketers:

• Poker Marketing Star
• Matt Geer Goals for 2011
• Daneil Merritt
• IPoker Affiliate
• Online Poker

Tags: Affilaite Goals for 2011, Internet Marketing for 2011, Randy Layman's goals