In the last few days, I published a list of my best selling images in 2016, and a very detailed look back at how the year went for me. Now let’s take a look forward to what I plan to do in 2017.

The plans for 2017

In the past, I kept failing my self set volume goals every year. That’s not going to happen again. I hope. I try.

So here is what came up being my four major goals for 2017:

• Upload at least twice each month
• Upload at least 100 images each month
• Upload at least 50 images to Stocksy, and 50 images to Westend61 each quarter
• Produce and upload at least one video each month

All of these goals are achievable, I have no doubt. I have just neglected one part of them in the past in favor of another. But I believe a balance between the different options is important to stay on a path forward.

Setting myself a goal to upload more regularly has worked pretty well in 2016, the number of images I put online on microstock sites has consistently grown. Now I want to take that same approach to the premium sites I am allowed to supply. Also, video has been neglected by me for too long, given that the average royalty made from video has been much higher than those for still images.

What if…

In the past years, there always have been changes throughout the year. Most often they would be considered negative by many people but I try to reduce the changes to business decisions made by someone else and find out how they affect my own business. Then I might need to change decisions I have made in the past or not. Quite often, changes are not global affecting everyone but may present opportunities just for myself (though I assume everyone will find these kind of opportunities if they try to stay open minded and keep looking for changes rather than threats).

So I most certainly don’t want to limit myself by declining opportunities in favor of reaching a random goal. And that’s what my goals are. I could easily double or half the numbers. At this point, they all look useful and challenging but achievable. But with compromises I could make more, and with a self limitation to more quality and stricter self editing I would achieve less. Anyways, I will stick to those targets; as a change to the goals I have set in past years, I have now decided to go with monthly or quarterly goals. So instead of having to break down numbers all the time, I will just check off the numbers each month/quarter – or not. If something happens that keeps me distracted for a whole month (as happened in the past), I will just reset at the start of the next month and try to make that goal again.

Bonus: Do a bit more on this blog

I haven’t had the time to come up with new blog post ideas on a regular basis these past two years. And I don’t see a major shift happening since this blog is mostly “for fun” – for those interested, the links and ads posted on this blog have made around $3,000 in the past four years in referral earnings and ad revenue – sounds like a lot but given that a few hundred hours of work time went into writing, the hourly wage is too low to justify extra work.

But I feel that when I write an article, it often serves as a catalyst for my mind to make decisions and changes myself. That’s more or less how I started this blog back in 2013, and how I want to use the blog better for myself in the future. So I hope to offer you more of my thoughts, opinions and experiences next year. You could obviously help by sharing the word about my blog, pointing friends to an article you liked to read or just by offering your own experiences and opinions in exchange as a comment here or on my Facebook page. I’d be happy to read what your plans, goals, resolutions are.

Until then, enjoy the remaining free days and celebrate the arrival of 2017 properly.