2016 Review and 2017 Goals

Happy New Year!  I can’t believe 2016 has ended and 2017 is here already!  This is going to be such a huge year for me!  It’s my 10 year high school reunion year (although I don’t think my school does reunions anymore).  It’s also the year that Nick and I get married and move into our house!  And of course, what you are all here for, it’s another year of growing the blog and getting to know all you blog lovers!

2016 review

2016 was the first full year of posting on this blog.  At the beginning of the year I was quite naive about how the blog was going to do.  I didn’t want to be overly optimistic so I ended up setting goals that I thought were attainable.  What I didn’t realize is that the goals were way too simple.  I accomplished all of my 2016 goals within the first two months of the year.   You can find all of my 2016 goals here.

The most notable successes from 2016 were completing my Media Kit, Increasing my post schedule to twice per week, and reaching 1000 followers on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. I also created a mid-year review for the end of the blog’s fiscal year.

2016 Top 6 Posts

How to Complete Your To Do List in 5 Steps – 3338 Views
BBQ Uglies Recipe Review – 1866 Views
How I Use Smart Things for Home Automation – 1248 Views
Say Goodbye to Living Paycheck to Paycheck: The Basics of Income – 1020 Views
10 Must Haves in My Next Home – 919 Views
The Ultimate List of Blogging Groups on Facebook – 789 Views

2016 Achievements

• I completed the Say Goodbye to Living Paycheck to Paycheck book.
• I created a blogging planner downloadable linked at the end of this post.
• I began posting every other week on YouTube.
• I increased my posting volume from once per week to twice per week.
• I started using Pinterest with Tailwind.
• I increased my following by over 700%.

I’ve been tracking my stats for income, pageviews, and followers since I started this blog.  I recently added a trendline to each of the graphs.  The trendline (pink dotted line) is a prediction of where my stats will be from now until the end of June.  It will be interesting to see if I follow the trends.  The teal line shows my monthly stats.

Last year, I was way off with my goals so my goals for this year are going to be a bit different.  I am very clear on my goals for my blog but trying to split them apart into smaller chunks is a bit hard.  Because of this, I am going to create broad goals that don’t necessarily need to be completed in 2017.  As long as I’m making progress towards them, I’d call that a success.  I will revisit the goals periodically and make changes as necessary.

Social FOllowing Goals

• Reach 10,000 Cumulative Followers
• Reach 5,000 Pinterest Followers
• Reach 1,000 YouTube Subscribers
• Reach 1,000 Blog Subscribers

BLOGGING GOALS

• Obtain an average (over 3 months) of 10,000 Page Views per month
• Earn an average (over 3 months) of $1000 per month
• Gain traffic direct or through social channels without participating in Facebook threads