My kids love to play the games on the Nick Jr. website. There’s a good range of free activities they can do there. But they were very frustrated a couple months ago when the site changed. Suddenly they were having trouble reaching the games section.

By all appearances it should be easy. There’s a drop down menu for games and activities, and games is the first selection. But then they were faced with an image of a game that requires a membership (free trial) or a list of show titles to click on to find the game they wanted to play. Hard for my son, who doesn’t read yet.

The next click allows them to pick a game. Finally, they’re at the place they’re used to using for choosing the games they enjoy playing. After the interstitial ad before the first game, of course.

What does all this have to do with planning your own website? Plenty!

It’s important to remember what your goals are. The goal for Nick Jr. isn’t only to provide free entertainment. They need to provide value for their advertisers. And if they can get paid memberships for access to certain games, so much the better for them.

This redesign meant that I had to spend some time helping my kids get through the new interface. We’ve since bookmarked the games main page to simplify things, so now the kids just have the interstitial ad to deal with.

In terms of meeting business goals, I’d say the design did pretty well. It’s a bit frustrating for the main actual users of the site, especially the pre-literate ones, but parents should pay some attention to what their kids are doing even on safe sites.

That’s something you have to consider with your website. Provided great value for free is a lovely goal, but what about the parts that feed your family? Are you taking care of that too?

It’s not always an easy goal to reach. Providing content is easier in many ways.

First thing to do is just get it out there. Whatever is going to help you make money, make sure it’s on your website.

See how it does with your initial placement. Are you earning something from it? Is it relevant to what people who visit your site really want?

Now move it someplace else on the page. How is it doing now?

As a general rule, fairly high on the page and toward the left is most prominent, and likely to help you earn the most money. That’s not a guarantee. It’s a place to start.

You also need to test phrasing, any ways you’re drawing attention to your offer or advertising, and anything else you can think of to test.

Don’t assume one offer will always be the best either. I’ve had ads do well here for months, then dribble off to just about nothing. Frustrating, but that’s all a part of the business.

Your goals should be a combination of earning money and bringing people back to your site. Earning money once is nice, but if you can get them onto your list, you have potentially many more chances to earn from them. Not a bad deal if you can make it work.

I posted a while back about my goals for 2009. I like to think they’re pretty achievable, but of course there’s one big complication:

Planning around baby.

That’s going to be roughest in the early months of the year. You don’t want to know how very tired I get right now. It’s hard to get work done consistently at the moment. I know quite well that I’m unfocused and tired.

This will of course be getting worse as my due date approaches, and then as I get still less sleep after she’s born.

Ideally, of course, I’ll go into natural labor and be home in a couple days. But since I had a C-section last time I do have to face the reality that I may be stuck with one again. That’s a much more difficult recovery, as I remember it, as well as more painful.

This means I have to think about making realistic goals just for the early parts of the year when I’m too tired to accomplish much.

In January, that means getting things ready for when I go into labor, and the early, exhausted days following. While working at home means I don’t need to take 6 weeks of maternity leave, taking things easy for the first few weeks is only smart.

At the same time, stopping all efforts is not what I want to do.

This makes the big January goal to prewrite some blog posts. Topics that I can just have saved, and hit publish when I need them to go out. This kind of thing keeps it looking as though I’m chugging along, while I focus on what’s really important at that point in my life.

And that’s not just posting cute baby pictures!

February, along with any part of January that may get caught up in having the baby (due date is Feb 3, so I do have to consider this), will be whatever work I can stand to do, while being there for all 3 kids. It’s the initial adjustment period, and I know my son in particular will be adjusting.

Besides, he has a February birthday also, although it’s later in the month.

By March, I hope to be getting somewhat back to normal… whatever the new normal happens to be. Won’t be the same, of course. But I would sure like to be getting the fuzz out of my head and my focus back.

We already have the office setup planned so baby can be near me even when I do work, and to protect her from all the little toys the older two leave around. Just a nice play area where only baby toys will be allowed, I or someone else can sit and play with her, and just have her near me. Beyond just when she’s nursing and I’m typing one handed, that is.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. The thought of being the mom of 3 is pretty overwhelming in some ways, especially when I add in trying to keep running my business without going completely insane. But I love what I do and I love my family, so I have no doubts that I will manage it all somehow.

I’ve been thinking lightly about what I want to accomplish on this site in the New Year. Daniel Scocco’s Group Writing Project on Daily Blog Tips was a nice nudge to actually start sharing some of them.

It’s a bit challenging coming up with goals this year for next. Having baby #3 due in early February means I need to plan around that event, one that is certain to slow up my productivity. But I’ve done well in the past with a baby in the house, and I feel certain I can do it again.

I’m generally pretty ambitious in my goals. I don’t always reach them, but I keep on pushing. It’s just a matter of whether or not you let failing to reach your goals get you down or not. So long as I can achieve some of them, I’m generally feeling pretty good. If I understand the obstacles I have yet to overcome on the ones I didn’t reach, I’m also not in bad shape.

It’s all a learning process, after all.

1. Reach 500 RSS subscribers to this blog .
2. Build overall income to $5000/month across all sites. I’ve nudged this one many times in the past. I’d like this to be the year I stabilize it.
3. 5 posts per week per blog for my 2-3 best sites.
4. Average one article submission per day. I’ve managed this off and on in the past. Once again, just something I need to stabilize.
5. Write at least 1 new ebook. I have about 5 ideas sketched out, so this is a matter of picking one and making the time.
6. Generally get better at networking. I’m still the quiet sort in so many ways.