Last year I made a list of blog goals which I am happy to say, I smashed. 2018 is a completely different year though and things have changed quite a lot since last year. In August I decided to take the leap and go self-employed. Hitting targets and reaching my goals means a lot more to me now and while there are not consequences as such, it does matter if I don’t put the time in to try to achieve new things.
Erin is starting nursery next week and will be going 2 days each week in January and then 3 days a week from February. This means I have a lot more time to work from home in peace instead of working until midnight most nights. This means I have time to take photos during the day and film for YouTube during the day as well. With having more time to get things done, I think I need to set my sights a little higher this year and really set some interesting goals.
Social Media
Last year I made some great headway in terms of social media. I never thought Facebook would be my best platform as it was the worst at the beginning of 2017. I now have over 2k likes and that’s pretty amazing to me. However, I would love to have better engagement across all channels. This is something I have tried to pick up on towards the end of last year. I’ll hopefully have a bit more time to interact more with followers everywhere.
Last year I set myself quite specific goals in terms of social media numbers. I don’t think I’m going to do that this year. Instead, I would much rather become more engaged with the followers I do have and hopefully gain some new ones along the way!
YouTube
Towards the end of 2017 I started a Youtube channel. I’ve been filming as and when I feel like it and not really having any kind of set schedule. Really, I would like to aim for at least posting something new once a week and more often if I can. I know video content is a big thing in blogging so I hope to learn as I go and make awesome videos over the year.
Original Content
This year I would love to create more of my own content. I do quite a lot of product reviews and collaborative posts but this is a parenting and lifestyle blog and I want to write more about that. Well, more about our lives and things that are going on with us. I don’t always want to write about things for other people but I want my content to be things that my readers enjoy and want to see!
I would also like to have a couple more posts that I do regularly. I do updates about Erin monthly which may slow down a bit now she’s turning 2 in a few days and I also post about what we’ve been watching each month. Maybe I should try to have a few goals each month and see how I’ve done with them at the end!
Planning
I’m generally quite an organised person but I would love to plan my blogging better. Being at home for 3 days a week while Erin is at nursery gives me the opportunity to plan ahead and really get some planning done.
I would love to be a month ahead with ideas for posts at all times so I can move things around as and when I need to.
I would love to take photos of products I receive to review within the first couple of days of getting them. Sometimes I end up with loads of photos to do in one go and I hate that. I end up feeling really behind and I think I would find it easier this way. I also think it would help to keep my house/ office tidy as I wouldn’t have boxes everywhere. One thing I do like to do is to have my photo backdrops set up ready to take any images I need. A custom backdrop helps you remember your valuable moments and taking photos immediately helps you to not forget things.
Time Off
I don’t really have time off right now. Being self-employed means that I put in as much time as I can to make sure this works out for us. I don’t want to go back doing a job that I hate. However, I would like to take some time off when I can. We are going to Majorca in April and I would love to have a nice, relaxing holiday (with some filming being done, of course). I don’t want to think about being glued to my laptop all of the time and I want to get back into reading because I use to love getting lost in a book! I know John would be really happy if this is a goal that I stuck to.
So, here I come 2018. If you’re a blogger I’d love to know what goals you’re making this year. Let me know in the comments!
I’m hoping to improve my engagement as well. Excellent achievement on your Facebook likes. I struggle with that one! My goals for this coming year are so far to get ahead with scheduling posts especially as baby no.2 is coming in April! Good luck with your goals! xx