2015 Blog Reflection

Now that I've been posting consistently for a year, it's time to look at how it went!

I've had this blog for a while, but before 2015 I updated it pretty sporadically and didn't promote the posts at all. This year I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could get this blog actually on its feet.

Have I made it obvious yet that I don't know what I'm doing

I'd like to think this year went well! I never set any specific goals, so I guess it's pretty easy to declare this year a success ...

I decided on posting every three days, since that was a consistent number I could reach without stressing myself out too much or seeming too inactive. There were a few times that I struggled to get posts up on time, but there were also times where I had over a month's worth of posts scheduled and had to rearrange them to fit a newer post in.

I definitely could have done better promoting my posts. I starting posting links to my twitter account, but it was usually only for non-book reviews. I also started pinning my posts on Pinterest, but I don't think I have enough of an audience there to make a difference.

I also claimed my blog on Bloglovin this year. Bloglovin has been good for tweeting out links automatically, but I've noticed that some of them don't post until hours after the post went live. I don't know why that is.

My stats went up a lot compared to last year. I'm really glad, but my analytics graph is still kind of a mess. There have been at least two or three times that my blog has gotten crawled. I started using Google Analytics on top of what Blogger provides, which has been helpful in getting more info, but it also hasn't been perfect. Bloglovin also sends me weekly stat reports, but I currently don't have anything to show for it :c I consistently get "0 saves, 0 new followers, 0 current followers" emails. It's a little disheartening, but I know that the links I tweet out get clicked at least occasionally, which helps.

I'm going to keep going strong with this blog and I'm excited for what next year will bring. This time I'm even going to make goals!

2016 goals:

1. promote posts better! This year I'm going to look into other websites and programs that will let me schedule tweets and pins so I don't have to worry about them. I also have to do some research into when and where I should be sharing links.

2. grow a small audience! My sidebar on my blog says I only have one follower currently, but I know I have family that checks my blog, so it's not all that accurate. It would be nice to get rid of the fear that I'm just shouting into the void.

3. comment on other people's blogs! I've seen this advice a lot on "newbie blogger advice" posts, but it hasn't been the easiest for me to do. I've managed to comment a few times, but more often than not my social anxiety kicks in and convinces me to not post what I've typed out. It sucks. There are so many bloggers that I wish I could talk to.

4. find a balance of post types! I started writing individual book reviews in 2015 instead of compiling them by month, which has helped me with consistency, but I can't always find a good balance with them. I've done some pre-planning for next year so I'll have a lot of non-review posts, but whether I'll actually use any of them or not is still to be seen.

And a bonus stretch goal: earn money through AdSense. I added it to my blog this year to see what would happen, but I currently don't have enough of an audience to earn anything. I know the chances of me earning anything substantial are slim to none but it doesn't hurt to try, right?

Hopefully 2016 will be good to everyone!