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!
