Every once in a rare while I stray away from the travel talk and give a business update. It helps me to organize my thoughts… so thank you in advance for this opportunity. And if you must have a travel story to read, why not catch up on my 33 Must-Read Adventures?

At the beginning of the year I shared my New Year’s Resolutions for 2011. Today, I’d like to take a moment and reflect on the outcome of them all.

Content

• Build a more robust Travel Guides section – I’d say this project is always evolving and will continue to be on my list for 2012. 
• Write and publish my first travel e-book – Work stalled on this one for a lot of reasons. It’s back on the list for 2012.
• Feature regular, Guest Posts – I was able to feature a few guest posts this year and wrote some myself. I’d like more guest posts for 2012.
• And of course continue to regularly post stories about making traveling fun - Just last month I surpassed 500 articles on this blog. That’s huge!

Traffic

• I’d like to increase traffic by 50% – Traffic has increased beyond that and continues to grow considerably each month.
• Quadruple my e-mail subscription rate (you can help by subscribing here) – I skipped the subscribe to posts via email in exchange for a new, adventures with ben newsletter that will debut next month.Use the link on the right to add your email address.
• Decrease my bounce rate by 10% – My bounce rate didn’t decrease as much as I hoped, mainly because my traffic grew by a much higher rate. The two work in tandem with each other.

The Online Travel Store

• Increase sales by 200% - Sales didn’t even come close to this number. I think I was being a bit aggressive here. There’s more work to do.
• Add 3 new travel products – I did add more than 3 travel products, in fact, I debuted a whole collection of ebooks by travelers, for travelers. Check them out and buy a few!

Networking

• Build a sustainment plan for the Central FL TBEX Chapter - Our chapter met several times this year, and others have started to plan meet-ups, but nothing is official in the plan.
• Build brand awareness of adventureswithben.com into non-travel communities – I’ve been making progress in reaching out to the Orlando Community and will continue to do this in 2012.
• Be published or quoted in an online or print travel article – I had much success with this, being featured in FoxNews, the BBC and FareCompare.com. 

Live & In-Person

• Present “9 1/2 Ways to Ignite Adventure in Your Life” two more times in a public venue – While I didn’t present this talk, I was able to speak a few more times at a local and national convention.

Travel Plans

There’s lots of travel in store for 2011. Here’s a mix of what’s already booked and a few wishes from myadventure list.

• Take a trip on the new Disney Dream – Done
• Attend Sydney Mardi Gras – The Best Trip Ever
• Attend TBEX 2011 in Vancouver – Was so helpful
• Celebrate my 30th Birthday doing something special – I’m celebrating all year
• Finally make it to Weeki Wachee Springs – Missed this one
• Ring in 2012 in Times Square, New York – Not gonna happen this year

In Conclusion

I’d call 2011 a successful year. While not every goal was achieved, significant growth was made in the areas that mattered and a few surprise accomplishments happened along the way. Tomorrow, I’ll share my goals for 2012.

How did you fare with your New Year’s Resolutions? Share by commenting.

I’ll see you out there…!

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