An End Of Year Look At My 2019 Blogging Goals

Every year I set myself a variety of goals, some for my personal life and some for blogging so 2019 was no different. I shared just my blogging goals in January as I didn't feel I had quite as many personal ones unlike previous years and also the sort of ones they were, weren't all ones I wanted to share so let's just see how I got on with my blog over the last 12 months. I already know I've not achieved most of the goals I set out to achieve but hopefully it won't be too bad. At least by setting goals I was more motivated than I might have otherwise been, I find they always give me that push to work really hard even if I don't always end up exactly where I set out to.

Image from Pexels

Have My Best Year Since Going Self-Employed

Erm, not a great one to start with! To be fair, whilst I don't think I've had my best year since going self-employed and looking back now 2018 was actually far better than I could have imagined, I don't think I did too badly in 2019. I still worked with a variety of different brands, built up some great relationships with PR's and I got to write about some really fun things so whilst I don't think I'm quite where I was at the end of 2018, I'm still proud of what I achieved. Maybe it's just me but I found there just weren't as many opportunities around in 2019, anyone felt the same? It felt like a real slog to get anything off the ground most of the time. I definitely could have put more into it at times and pitched myself more but getting Bear in April cut out many weeks as he just took up all my time and my life completely changed. Hopefully in 2020 I can get me back a bit as I feel I've lost myself a little in the blogging world.

Get Back Into Pitching To Brands

I did actually pitch my blog to far more brands and PR's in 2019 after really losing my confidence with it the year before and I got some great opportunities from it. I definitely believe that if you want something, you need to go out and get it for yourself, opportunities won't always come to you but it's still a daunting thing to do! I think it's really important to keep in contact with brands you've worked with previously and often that's how I find current opportunities so it's definitely going to be something I'm keeping up with in 2020.

Reach 5000 Twitter Followers

To some this might sound like an easy amount to hit and to other it might seem huge, well I've still not hit it. I know it probably sounds like an excuse but there have been times this year where I genuinely haven't had the time to really use Twitter to my advantage and do the things you need to do to grow so I've just sort of petered along all year but you know what, that's okay. I interact with people when I can, I join in with things when I can, not that there ever really seems to be any chats or comment threads going on like they used to so if I get there one day then I do, but if not, it's not the be-all and end-all. I'm ending the year on almost 3700 followers so slowly but surely I'm getting there anyway.

Reach 2000 Instagram Followers

Ahh Instagram. What a love/hate relationship I have with this. At times it's absolutely brilliant, there are some bloggers who I interact with all the time and I love it for discovering new people. It's also great when your photos are doing well and your followers are growing, but when they're not it can make you feel like absolute crap. I don't just want to blame the algorithm as I know I could have tried harder this year if I really pushed myself but whatever Instagram are doing behind the scenes is affecting so many of us. Our photos are hardly been seen, when they are no one seems to interact like they used too and followers seem to go up and down so much, it's hard to even know where you actually stand with it. I'm so confused that 2 years ago I was getting almost 200 likes per photo and now I struggle to hit 50. I mean, how dis-heartening is that? Whilst my photos will never be exceptional because the photography side of blogging just isn't what I'm good at, I try my best and it's hard when photos you are so proud of, just bomb. I do think sometimes I take things like that more personally than others would but that's just the sort of person I am. Despite staying around the 1700 follower mark all year, I have enjoyed using stories more over the last few months so that's something I want to continue with this year and let's just hope something improves for us all regarding likes because I know so many other people are struggling too.

Get Creative With My Photography

This is kind of what I was talking about in my last post, maybe if I'd really put myself out there and tried lots of different things with Instagram, I'd be doing better than I currently am but I just don't have the imagination sometimes! I've always been a better writer and more about my actual blog content but it seems that's just not enough anymore. My instagram has become more of a personal account too rather than just blogging now so maybe that's not helped? I still share flatlays, beauty photography, lots of different baking ideas and I'm still happy with what I've put out there in 2019. I might not be the most creative on Instagram but I'm never gonna be that person. I've tried new things when I could and I've also stuck to my old style at other times and I think that's just how it's always gonna be for me.

Well, that all ended up pretty negative didn't it? It's hard when some things are out of your control despite how much you try but I'm not going to let it deter me for 2020. There are still milestones I want to hit with both my blog and my social media accounts and I'm going to do my best to get there. I'm starting 2020 raring to go so I just need to put myself back out there, see what works and what doesn't and just enjoy it regardless. Blogging should be fun and at times in 2019 it wasn't so whilst there are things I would like to achieve, if I'm happy that's the most important thing!

How did you do with your 2019 goals, if you set yourself any? Have you struggled more with Instagram and Twitter over the last 12 months?

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