Is There Value In Creating an Authority Site Roadmap?

[Lloops]

So I'm just about to sit down to think about my tasks for the next 7 days and one thing I realised is that I'm planning on a micro level - just coming up with tasks that sort of fill the next week.

How many of you who run big authority sites map out milestones months in advance?

Or is it a case you always plan with goals in mind but nothing on paper to guide you?... A hustlers intuition.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I have milestones a week, weeks, months, and years in the future. All of the micro-tasks must be moving me closer to those goals or they're off target.

What this also does is allow you to see the forest from the trees so that you can choose the right tasks in the right order. It's always the 80/20 tasks that you should be doing and trying to offload the other ones to helpers or do them only in your low energy periods.

 

[Lloops]

@Ryuzaki cheers mate - this is exactly what I want to be able to do... see the wood for the trees.

May I ask how you plan these - do you use software, print out or pen and paper?

 

[Vert]

[May I ask how you plan these - do you use software, print out or pen and paper?

This interests me too. Good question.

 

[Lloops]

I think I understand how your planning process works but because it's Friday and my brain is fried can I just double check...

Set 3 goals - short, medium, long. All relate in some way. E.G if the long term goal is 1,000 uniques a day in 12 months then the medium goal might be to generate 500 uniques a day in 6 months and the short term 250 a day in 3 months.

Then...

For each goal period, you might set 3 objectives that all get you closer to the goal - so...

To hit my short term goal of 250 uniques I might have the goal of x best guide posts, y referring domains and z supporting posts all of which take me closer to hitting my short term goal...

Might be a stupid question but I just had to ask!

 

[Ryuzaki]

May I ask how you plan these - do you use software, print out or pen and paper?

Mentally for the biggest goals. Trello for the weekly to monthly (so I don't forget things). I pull tasks out of Trello onto a text file for daily operations.

The biggest goals are always related to MONEY (the only metric related to why we're doing this). The monthly goals are usually related to things like "I want 5 more review posts up in this section." These are directly related to making money. And it's always "finish this section of the site" which involves supporting content to flesh out the section and interlink to the reviews. Some of the shorter term goals will be broken down into very actionable steps:

• Finish the outline to the post
• Write the post
• Add images to the post
• Find good OBL's for the post
• Link out from the post to other content
• Publish and link to the post from other content
• Do the social media publishing routine

You can break it down like that for anything, like ordering content, building links, design stuff, etc.

But usually the mental ones are sequential like "Hit $1k a month once, Hit $5k a month once, Hit $10k a month once." Easy to track and then you raise the number. I live with that goal in my head till I hit it. I study it before I sleep. I study it when I wake. I study it in the shower. I talk about it in this post. Every action I take moves me towards that number. And it never ends because I just raise the bar once I hit it.

The middle goals are usually architecturally related, if that term makes sense, like I described above. The dailies are actionable SMART goals.

 

[Concept]

Here's something that could help connect the short term goals and long term.

Note: This is a post I wrote ages ago on another forum. I thought it would be highly relevant to post here. Some stuff might be a little bit out of scope for what you want to achieve, however, it will definitely give you ideas on how to create a roadmap to where you want to be.

There is a lot here and I tried to keep it short. I’m explaining this so you could use it for even the largest of visions. However, pick and choose what you think would work for you. There are some things that are great for long term life goals, however might be pointless when planning out your daily goals.

Most people go about planning something along the lines of:

I’m here right now, and I want to achieve X goal. So what occurs to me now as the best way to achieve X goal is to do A. Ok so I might do A for a week and then I will move onto B, then C, then D, etc

We focus on the present time and the steps we should take moving forward. It all seems logical and does work in some situations, however in my experience the result is usually we float around trying different things, without a high degree of focus and bam! Our deadline hits and we are nowhere near our goal. The journey there was filled with doubt, frustration, and often times loosing sight of the big picture. We can’t really see the pathway to achieve our goal. Particularly if they are larger loftier goals.

To create that pathway, instead of focusing on what we need to do next and steps we should take we look at it from a different angle.

We looked at it from the future looking back.

But before we do we need to get clear on what it is you want to achieve.

Step 1: Determine desired outcome
Imagine you have achieved your outcome. The outcome is different to your gaol. The outcome could be something more obscure. It could be your vision. It could be a dream you have always wanted to achieve. To do this we need to flesh it out:

• What was your outcome. (at this point it doesn’t have to be measurable)
• What is it like?
• Who’s there with you
• Where are you?
• What are your doing?
• What is your experience of the moment?

The list can go on and on, however the purpose of the outcome is it is empowering context, which right now is inspiring and gives you an opening for action. It’s more of a motivation piece of what you want things to look like, rather than a measurable goal. This is great and essential when planning out how to achieve a long term goal – not essential for short-term goals (day/week).

Step 2: Brainstorm different ways you could go about achieving this outcome.
This step is just a brainstorming session. Take the filter off and right out all the bad ideas and all the good ideas. You are not choosing the pathway yet, just thinking up ways you could potentially do it. Get it all out there.

My recommendations are write down potential pathways that are inspiring however scares you and has you be unreasonable with yourself and others. It really pushes you and has you out of your comfort zone. I also like any ideas where you can build a team around – makes shit more enjoyable (in my experience) and often causes results faster.

List these down, then pick one that you think is the best way to go.

Step 3: Creating a measurable outcome
This is a measurable goal that is a good indicator that you have fulfilled on the outcome that you want.
SMART goals are the best way to go about this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria

In short:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time Bound

Eg if you ultimate goal is freedom and excitement and you see the best way to achieve that is to be a travelling entrepreneur then your measurable goal could be 50k a year, avg working time a week = 4hrs and plane tickets for two booked to the Maldives by Jan 1st 2019.

Or if its something smaller….

Before I got to bed at 10pm I am going to have written 1000 words in a blog post on creating post-it note origami for dogs (I’m sure there’s a niche).


Step 4: Milestones
This is where the fun starts.

You will create a list of milestones from the future back till now. These need to be to ensure the fulfillment of the final goal

If you do choose to create a team around your project, make sure one of the milestones closest to now is the creation of the team who will help you achieve the goal.

How many milestones should you have – well that depends on what it is you want to achieve and how far away it is.

If your goal is in a couple of years then have yearly milestones
If your goal is in months, have monthly milestones.
If your goal is in weeks, then have weekly milestones.

You get the idea.

I have a 3 year long goal. I usually have a major milestone every 3 months. For the current major milestone I'm working towards I then have weekly milestones. How far apart you set each milestone is up to you.

So what do I mean by milestones from the future back till now.

Essentially you start from your end destination and create the milestones moving backwards. I personally like to visualize I am there already reveling in the accomplishment.

Then I asked myself, ok what go me here. What got me here? What was vital to have this moment appear? Make sure the milestone is set up like a SMART goal. Bam there you have a milestone.

Next step take a leap back in time closer to the present date.

If you have a milestone every month, then jump back one month before your final destination.

Ok repeat the process. Visualise the moment. Asked yourself, What got me here?.What was vital to have this moment appear? Does this milestone help you get closer to the future milstone? It is SMART. Now you have a new milestone.

Keep doing this until you get to the present day. Now you have a brief outline of what you need to achieve to reach your desired outcome.

A couple of things you will notice.

• There will be a lot of grey areas – that is ok for now. It also highlights things you will need to be aware of.
• We naturally like to add a lot of things. Only include what is vital to fulfill on the goal. Will this milestone actually bring me closer to achieving the goal?
• There are no actions yet, and still a lot of “ok what do I do between milstones?’. That’s ok. We are building the foundation first then we will fill in the gaps.

Step 5: Team Members
Creating a team is entirely optional, however I find working in a team highly rewarding and produces results a lot fast. Don’t get me wrong, a team is hard work and it is not a shortcut, but is does help in the long run.

In this step you need to list down any people you think could be a part of your team. These could be general roles you could fill or specific people. I usually list down anyone I can think of that would be interested in the project or have similar goals in mind who I can help and they can help me in turn.

The number of people I like to have on my team if I have a new project is around 6 people. This is a personal preference. I find it big enough to get a shit ton done, but also small enough so there is not too much team politics.

To be clear, in the role of business these people are not co-founders, staff or anything like that. They are people who have a similar vision, or like your vision enough that they are willing to take part and actively help you in that. That relationship can evolve however and these team members might turn into a cofounder or staff member.

Side note: This could be other online entrepreneurs who target the same market, but aren't competition. By working together as a team you could receive results faster for all of you.

If your aim is to have 6 people on your team then write at least 60 people who could potentially be on your team.

Later down the track when you go to talk to them I recommend doing the following exercise. Answer these questions:

• Do I have any pre conceived opinion about this person? What is there to give up? What is there to forgive? Get all that bullshit out of the way.
• Who are they for you? Why are you choosing these people?
• Who are you for them? What value will you give to them? What can they rely on you for?

Don’t spend more than a minute on this. Its just to clear your head before calling them. If the minute is up and you haven’t complete the exercise, call them/start talking.

The way I approach these conversations (guide only):

• Share what I am up to.
• Hear what they are up to
• What can they see possible in my idea
• What can they hear for themselves in what I am doing
• If you can see it is a good fit, let them know and ask you to join the team.

There are three ways that this can go:

• They are not interested – that’s fine. Thank them and move on.
• They say yes and know how they can contribute – awesome you got a new team member. Rock and roll
• They are not certain how they can fit into your project. If some people have some great ideas that align with what you want to create then that can be their area that they can own. If someone what’s to be a part, but doesn’t know where they fit you can make suggestions.

I find that when I get a team, my role changes to a leadership position where I keep the vision, guide people, and keep everyone on track to make sure you hit the milestones. Yes you will still need to do the grunt work, however you will have a lot of other people helping you.

I’ll leave teams there for now, I could keep going but it would deviate from the subject.

Step 6: Resources
This is essential.

This step involves writing down everything, anything and anyone that you can use, have, or leverage off to have you achieve you desired outcome.

This can be people, mentors, social media groups, forums, upcoming events, programs, other businesses, blogs, websites, newspapers etc

Just write down everything you could potentially use. You don’t have to use them all, just write down every single potential resource you could use to shoot your project forward.

Step 7: Create practices.
Create a practice that would have the vision you have remain alive and keep you excited. Create practices that you do along the way that will have you fulfill on the desired outcome.

For me it is:

• Writing every day.
• Once a week, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t work
• Reading my vision every morning to remind me
• Following up existing customers every day.

Step 8: Creating a display to keep the vision alive.
This is particularly handy for the longer term desired outcomes. It is a must for any visual people out there however I recommend it to anyone. Create something that visually reminds you of your vision. Why you do what you are doing? Something that inspires you. Some people create vision boards, others might have a picture of their family on their phone with 1 or 2 words to remind you. It may seem like a hippy thing to do, but when times get tough (and they will) it can make the difference between succeeding or succumbing to those hopeless thoughts and giving up.

Step 9: Creating the critical actions
Ok so now that we have spent some time on the previous steps, you should have a solid foundation for what needs to be done.

In this section you will need to list

• The requests and promises made (actions to take). These action are created to ensure the results are being produced and the vision is kept present
• The conversations would you have to have? Who will be having those conversations, and to whom?This could be emails to send, people to call, or may mass outreach. Place the actions that you are promising to take and put them in a schedule.

When writing down these actions include:

• The specific action
• The day that you will do them
• Who will do them
• Who they will report to
• The desired result from this action.

I find that I will have lots of actions listed closer to the present time and the further out from the present moment (and closer to my desired outcome) the less actions there are.

That’s ok. You don’t need to have every single actions between now and your desired outcome. Frankly it is impossible to figure them all out. At least have actions every day for the next week or two. And schedule in actions you can see are highly important down the track.

TIP 1: Factor in shit going wrong
Things will go wrong. It is the only thing I can guarantee. Make sure to factor this in.

When planning out my week I will put actions for 4 days, and leave the 5th day free. I will plan out 6 hours for an 8 hour day. I will have all the actions/milestones for a three month project scheduled to be completed in 10 weeks, leaving two weeks spare for when shit goes wrong.

Make sure you factor in time for shit going wrong, and interruptions. It will happen.

TIP 2: All plans fail. Review.
Schedule in regular time to check in with progress, look at what is effective and ineffective , and update the plan. Don't wait for things to go wrong.

You don’t know everything, you don’t know everything that will happen. New challenges will arrive that you didn’t’ forsee, things will take longer than expected, things wont work.

When this happens, you wil need to review the plan. Use exactly the same method. Mentioned above:

• Reread your desired outcome.
• Reread your SMART goal that will have that desired outcome fulfilled
• Review different possible pathways to achieve it.
• Review milestones from the future back to the current day to create a pathway that will have it fulfilled.
• Review teams
• Review resources
• Review practices.
• Review display
• Update the critical actions.

If done regularly then there shouldn’t be too many large changes. I usually spend about 30 minutes to an hour a week reviewing, tweaking, and creating new actions for the week.

Notes on the "Crunch time":
When it gets to the final month/week before your desired goal things can get tough. It’s not called the crunch time for no reason. Every action you take will matter so don’t waste it.

Some people cannot handle the pressure in this time, so they move the goal posts. Resist doing this.

Think about any sports game. If the losing team is a point or two down with only 5 minutes to spare, do they tell the umpire, “can we have another 10 minutes?” haha nope, they knuckle down and give it everything they have right up until the whistle blows. At times they come from behind and win the game.

If you are ever in the position where the deadline is coming up, and you look like you are behind, don’t give up. Play 100% right up until the time you said.

Many people assume they have lost well before the timer is up. As a result they give up, and fulfill on their assumption.

I can’t tell you how many times I have achieved the goal at 11:59 pm when the due time was 12am (1 minute later). If you told me the week before that I would have achieved it before the time set, I would have doubted you.

But I never gave up. I put everything in it. I did not accept anything less that my absolute best right up until the buzzer went. I have seen many “miracles” as a result but its all due to getting in and getting my hands dirty.

Yes there have been times when it has hit the time limit and I didn’t achieve the desire outcome. But fuck, I know I gave it my all and take pride in that. I then sit back, review and then move the time limit to a later date.

Last word...
Haha, so what started as a list of dot points turned into a short novel

There is a lot here and I don’t expect you to get it all in one go – it takes practice to see how everything fits together. Either way, I hope I have explained it so you can understand and it helps you in the future. I know I could have gone into A LOT more detail. Let me know if something is unclear.

Cheers

 

[Lloops]

Dude, @Concept that response was awesome! Really makes it all clear.

Thanks