Friday 11 January 2019

An End Of Year Look At My 2018 Blogging Goals

Following on from Tuesday's post which was a review of my 2018 personal goals, it's time to look back on the blogging goals I set myself! I aimed quite high with some of these so I already know I've not achieved most of them but I'm doing better than I was at the start of 2018 so it's not all bad. I'm still really glad I set myself these goals and it's actually been nice to look back on them!
flatlay, pink notebook, flowers, soap and glory makeup

Don't Put Myself Under Pressure To Post

I've definitely been far kinder to myself over the last 12 months when it comes to blogging and that was very much needed after putting myself under so much pressure previously. Before I felt I always had to stick to my schedule of posting 5 times a week, I needed to be on time for comment threads, I couldn't miss a day if I was away, it was silly looking back on it but at the time I thought everyone would disappear if I had a few days off. By the end of 2017 I was frazzled and I didn't want the same to happen again in 2018. Luckily it didn't, of course by Christmas I was ready for a decent break away from it but I definitely didn't feel like I had before. Throughout 2018 I made sure if I was on holiday or if I had plans that I just took that time away from my blog and I felt so much better in myself for it. It also meant when I came back from a small break, I felt ready and raring to go again, full of ideas. I'll definitely be making sure I carry on this way through 2019 too, nothing is going to happen if I take a few days off, like any job we're entitled to a break!

Reach Out To Brands

Compared to the year before, 2018 was not a good year for pitching to brands. I don't know what happened but I just lost all confidence with it. In the past I've been quite happy to send that first email to a brand and more often that not it's been how I get collaborations (which by the way, has anyone noticed a serious lack available over the last few months?!) but once 2018 started, I just lost my way with it and it meant whenever I did go to pitch, I felt I'd failed before I'd even started. Towards the end of the year I did get back into it a little and pitched to several PR's which went well but still I feel a little bit scared about it! I'm hoping over the next few weeks or so to try and make a list of brands I'd love to work with and just go for it!

Reach 5000 Twitter Followers

I aimed high with this given at the start of 2018 I had only just reached 2000 followers so it's safe to say, I didn't quite get to 5000. I mean, gaining 3000 in a year might not seem like much to some and I've definitely seen some bloggers fly past me in terms of social media growth but I actually find Twitter quite hit and miss. I seem to have bursts where I'm on all the time, interacting with others and growing at a good pace and then other times it seems all the people that want to follow me, already have done and I just won't get any further. At the moment I'm at 3311 which I'm quite happy with to be honest. I think for the amount of effort I've put in with Twitter recently, it's probably fair where I'm at now and like I said, I did aim quite high to say I can find it hard to put myself out there sometimes. Fingers crossed I'll have hit it by the end of this year.

Reach 2000 Instagram Followers

Another one I did aim high with but at the time I did think it was doable. I don't think anyone was expecting all of the changes to happen to Instagram over the year though which has meant growing your following and getting likes on your photos, can sometimes be near impossible. It's another one I've had weeks where I gain quite a few followers and my photos seem to do well and other weeks where I lose about 20 followers a day and struggle to get likes on photos I'm really proud of, I just don't know what you need to do to do well on Instagram anymore. At the moment I'm at 1561 so I'm glad I've got over 1500. When I realised 2000 wasn't going to happen, I set myself a goal of 1500 instead and luckily I don't seem to be losing too many at the moment so hopefully I'll at least stay above that for now.

Reach 200 Facebook Likes

Wow, Facebook has been the bane of my life recently! The amount of times I've just felt like giving up with it. I've shared my blog posts on my Facebook page for a long time now but towards the end of 2018, it just stopped growing. No matter what I did, no matter how I promoted it, getting likes was just impossible. I really wanted to get to a small target of 200 likes for the page but right now I'm at 175 So not far away but not really a massive difference to where it was at the start of the year either. Does anyone else struggle as much as me with Facebook? I've also found my posts and photos have had far less interaction recently too whereas in the past they used to do okay. I'm pretty disappointed with this one, I just can't find a way to improve it. I just wish people realised how far one like on a post goes, seriously support people! It's not hard and it makes such a difference to bloggers.

Improve My Photography

I'm really happy with the photos I took throughout 2018. Whilst they weren't hugely different to 2017 and some might think they didn't necessarily improve, I was pleased with them and felt generally they were much better than before! I loved getting a bit more creative with my blog photos, coming up with new flatlays and adding in new props, by the last few months of 2018, I felt I'd really made an improvement and changed things up a little. I also started to take note of which photos seemed to do well on Instagram and if there was any sort of pattern so now I know what sort of style to go for this year too. I just want to keep improving with photography because it's never been my strong point.

So that's how I did with my blogging goals, a bit of a mix. Of course I'd have loved to have reached my goal with every single one but I'm just happy to have achieved what I did and I'm better off with each one than I was at the start of 2018 so that can only be a good thing!

Did you set yourself any blogging goals?

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