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It's that strange time between Christmas and New Year ... well maybe you don't see it as being strange but it often seems that way for me.

It's that time when you've had a couple of days away from work doing family type things ... eating too much ... probably drinking too much ... regretting that you ate and drank to excess ... and dealing with family who have descended upon you and now you just wish that they would all go home.

It's that time when you feel like you should be working even though you really don't want to do any work. It's that time when you start getting the itch to try some new projects ... maybe redevelop some old ones ... or just plain do something different in the coming year because you want to make real money without too much hard work.

It's the time when you start dreaming of big things ... huge results ... total success. A time of broad-brush approach with almost no attention to detail. A time when maybe you convince yourself that you really can do it so you make a start ... and then in a week or two your dreams turn to dust and you walk away from the project and it becomes just another of the three gazillion half-finished websites that litter the Net.

But don't think that it's just you ... an experienced webmaster ... who dreams big. There are a lot of ordinary people out there who do exactly the same thing and I'm sure that every web designer on the planet has a bunch of clients who have come to them with big ideas ... forked over their money ... got what they paid for ... and then never did another thing about turning their dream into reality.

So should we not dream about huge projects that will make us a fortune? Of course not ... and at this time of year dreaming about big projects is a whole lot better than coming up with ways to work off those extra pounds we accumulated by eating and drinking too much.

So sit back and do your dreaming ... but instead of just dreaming grandiose thoughts that will either never see the light of day or will die before they're even close to finished, perhaps this year it's time to dream more realistically and instead of thinking more about the end result than anything else perhaps we should start by dreaming about the foundations.

Perhaps while you're doing all that dreaming you should have your laptop or tablet in front of you and you should be doing some research to go along with that dreaming so that you can set up a solid foundation.

So what should you be looking at? Well let's start with the competition. How many others have already turned your dreams into reality? Even if there are quite a few people out there who have already done what you're dreaming about is there room for one more?

If there are others who have done what you are dreaming about doing is it possible for you to do it better than they have? Is there something that they all missed? Is there a unique selling point that you can claim that will allow you to take business away from all those others?

Just because you find that someone has already done what you are dreaming of doesn't mean you can't turn your dreams into reality. Just make sure that you can either do it better than the others or you focus on something that they have missed.

If you're dreaming of something entirely new then now is the time to do a little research into whether or not there really is a market for your idea? If no one else has done what you're dreaming of doing you have to ask yourself why. Have others found good reasons for not going ahead with what you're dreaming of doing? Have they seen something that you're missing?

Whatever you're dreaming of doing, do you have what it will take to promote your new product or idea so that people will find whatever it is that you're selling and want to buy it? What marketing methods are you going to use? Are you still living in the past and thinking that a top organic listing in Google is all you will need to get people to discover your product?

Have you considered how to build your new project for a marketplace that is becoming increasingly dependent on their smart phones and tablets to look for what they want?

These are just some of the questions you need to consider while you're doing your dreaming. Broad-brush dreams are fine but why not spend some time adding some detail before you waste time trying to get something to fly that begins to look more and more like a turkey?