2008 is nearing an end and this will be my last post for the year. I will be flying today from Nebraska to go to Chicago, and then tomorrow again from Chicago to Detroit and then driving the rest of the way home.

I decided that in order to move into the new year in an effective way, I needed to look back on 2008 and do a thorough analysis. It is always a good idea to look back before looking forward. By looking back, we are able to asses our successes AND, maybe more importantly, our failures. I'm a firm believer in the idea that we can learn much more from our failures than we do from our successes.

One measure of success, when it comes to making money online, is a pretty simple one – How much money did you make? However, in my opinion, a better measure of success (although harder to evaluate) has to do with how many people you've been able to help succeed. Since I can't fully evaluate the second measure, I've decided to do an analysis of the first.

My Earnings:

I started as a Freebie Trader on January 18th, 2008. However, I didn't really get into it FULLY until May 1. That was around the time when I had my first sticky at the Free Lunch Room. That really gave me the push I needed to really do some big things. So, here's a summary of my Earnings for the year 2008:

  • Freebie Trading (January 18 – April 30): $2,895
  • Freebie Trading (Since May): 25,228.57
  • Lunarpages: $3,230
  • Commission Junction: $90
  • ClickBank: $54.73
  • DIYThemes: $28.71
  • Hostgator: $50

Total for 2008: $31.577.01

Physical Prizes received: 40″ flatscreen Tv and an Ipod Touch.

All in all, 2008 was a very good year (especially for a relatively new guy on the block).

There were a few things that happened this year that really got me going and I would like to share those things with you:

  1. Being introduced to Freebie Trading via Project Payday. It was this that really got me started making money online and formed the basis for this site.
  2. Meeting Freebie Chris and going all the way to Virginia to meet up. We keep bouncing ideas off each other and it has been invaluable.
  3. Being Introduced to Yaro Starak and starting his Blog Mastermind coaching program.
  4. Joining Become A Blogger and learning from Gideon Shalwick.

Mistakes? What Mistakes?

Did I do anything wrong in the process? Did I make any mistakes? My answer to that question would be NO. Not because I think I'm perfect. I know that I'm far from it. However, I have a problem seeing mistakes. I'm sure there's a lot I could do better, but in my opinion, the one of the most important things is that if you want to be successful, you need to start DOING. I would rather move forward in a direction that is less than ideal than to stay stagnant and do nothing.

Now that I have that out of the way, lets talk about the things I could've done better (some people might call these mistakes) 🙂

  1. Develop my system sooner: If I had to do it over, I would've started my blog sooner. Many people get so caught up in the freebie trading forums (which is what happened to me in the beginning), that they find it hard to do anything outside of those forums. If I were to start over again, I would've tried to get out of the Freebie Trading Forums sooner. It might have taken longer, but ends up being more consitent.
  2. Outsourcing sooner: One of the issues that affects a lot of beginning internet marketers is that they try to do too much on their own because of the cost associated with outsourcing. However, the sooner you outsouce, the better (in my humble opinion). The goal should be to be as efficient as possible, because that leads to an increased income in the long term.

I'm sure there are others, but that's ok. Nobody's perfect, but I will continue to strive for perfection.

Goals for the New Year

2009 is almost here and as much as it can benefit us by looking back, we need to look forward and set new goals. If you never set a goal, you will always reach your goal. However, I can't let that be my fate. I have set a few goals that I would like to share. The reason for this is I believe that it holds me accountable and gives me something to strive for. So here are some of my goals:

  1. Make Daily Goals – Whenever I do this for my business, I end up being much more effective. I plan on doing that much more in 2009.
  2. Double my income for 2009 – 2008 was great, and I believe that 2009 can be much better.
  3. Outsource more – I'm enjoying what I do right now, but it can get quite tedious. Since meeting Yaro, I've outsourced much more than I normally would. I have used designers, coders and writers. In 2009, I hope to get a virtual assistant that can help me out significantly with a number of tasks and make my business even more efficient.
  4. Help more people – This has been the most rewarding part of what I do. When I get messages from people letting me know how much they've benefited from what I do, it gives me the energy to continue.
  5. Pay off all my debt – In comparison to many others, I guess my debt isn't that huge. But by the end of the year, I would like to pay off my car, student and personal loans. I've already paid off a significant amount and at this rate, I believe I can be debt free by the end of 2009.
  6. Be able to Quit my Day job – This is the kicker. I would like to have the option to quit my day job. That will be a tough decision because I enjoy teaching. However, I think I'm able to do much more teaching online than in a classroom.
  7. Start a new business – One of my dreams has been to take all of my Science background and create a tutoring website that is aimed at helping people who are having trouble in Science (especially the biological sciences). This has nothing to do with this blog, but I felt like sharing that. I might as well put my Master's of Science in Neurobiology to work.

So that's my summary of 2008 and projections for 2009. It has been great so far and I look forward for what's in store for the future.

I would LOVE to hear what some of your goals are, so please leave some comments below. With all of you that read my blog, I know that there are some big thinkers out there.

About the Author Leslie Samuel


Leslie Samuel a business coach for high-performing entrepreneurs. As the host of the Leslie Samuel Show, he teaches how to build an online business. "Changing the world one post at a time” is the mission he strives towards. As a former university professor, he has a passion for education. He's the founder of Interactive Biology, a blog and YouTube channel dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers. As the head of training for the Social Media Marketing Society, he helps social media marketers get the training they need to stay on the leading edge of social media.

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