Welcome to the Blog Biz Goal Party! Whoop! I decided to make sure I stayed accountable and also share how I’m progressing and growing my blog biz. Each month members of my Facebook community the MomBossSquad can all add their goal updates in the comments and I will pick one person, who I will give a shout out to on my Twitter feed (almost 22k followers). I might be able to rustle up some extra goodies too! So there will be a winner each month.
So, let’s get going, here’s the low down on my blog biz January.
Top Posts
- Why You Need To Use These Hashtags
- How to edit pictures fast with Lightroom
- How to exploit Trello: Killing it as a blogger
- How To Become A Brand Ambassador
- The Linky List
Follower growth during January.
(n.b. I was obviously still in a Christmas daze as I forgot to track my follower numbers on 1st January! So these stats are 1st Dec – 1st Feb, apart from mailing list numbers as I recorded those)
Twitter – 21192 to 21,887 – 3.2% growth
Facebook– 6621 to 6716 – 1.5% growth
Instagram -13985 to 14,854 – 5.9% growth
Instagram – (small account) -774 to 1232 – 38% growth
Pinterest- 4493 to 5350 – 16% growth
Youtube – 1502 to 1610 – 19% growth
Email subs – Goal was 20% increase in first 90 days. I smashed it and got over 26.7% increase in first 30 days.
What goals did I set this month ?
- Complete the set up for the Blog Growth Accelerator.
- Secure US Guest posts – Secured 3 + 2 podcast interviews.
- Increase mailing list (20% for 1st 1/4) – Smashed it!
What one habit did I focus on for this month ? (How did that go?)
- Focus – I wanted to develop and keep a laser focus. I started to implement the Pomedoro technique. However, I did find there were times when I lost focus and consequently didn’t get as much done as I could have.
What experiments did I try?
- I went live on Facebook from within my page on my Mac, rather than on my phone.
- I bought the url www.mombosssquadcommunity.com and it redirects to the Facebook group, so it’s so much easier to direct people to the group.
January wins
- 61 people signed up to the Blog Growth Accelerator.
- Investing in a high level Advanced Marketing Course.
- Also investing in a mastermind/community to really help me drive my business forward.
- My new branding, I love it.
Must-do-betters
- Rid myself of shiny-object syndrome.
- FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.
- Go to bed before 1am.
- Try and have more separation to biz/family (just a little bit).
Memorable moment from January
- Our lovely review trip to Efteling.
- The success of the Blog Growth Accelerator.
February goals
- Successfully support the students on the Blog Growth Accelerator.
- Research Podcast.
- Pitch 5 UK magazines.
- Begin to create next free challenge/course.
- Start researching the next paid-for course.
- Give enough time (an hour a day) to the courses I have bought for myself.
- Finish outstanding US guest posts.
- Create hit list of potential guest posting opportunities.
- Grow my list – retarget the numbers.
- Devise a content creation strategy.
- Sort out my sales funnels.
Now it’s your turn! Share your goal review in the comments for your chance to win yourself some exposure and a pat on the back!
Comments 18
It’s been a real month of discovery here. I started by doing the Brand Work course and have been thrilled with the results. Not only has it resulted in a lot of lovely reviews but in my first paid blogging work. Blog Coaching with you then helped me both to define my niche – even if it’s perhaps not a traditional one – and to realise my worth. Since then I’ve really clarified in my head what I want out of my blog, thought of a long term product to make it sustainable and know how I want my site to look to get there. I’ve started making changes to the site, and booked a photographer to do a family photo and new headshot – by the end of February my changes should be finalised and who I am much clearer to anyone who lands on my site. Instagram has been a real target for me this month, and I’m up almost 1000 followers. I’ve also started setting myself really tight goals which has made me push towards them with clarity. Most importantly in the Other Half’s eyes, I have started saying no to reviewing products that we don’t need… mmm unless you count baby carriers I might have just agreed to review two more of those… I might just not tell him:-)
In January I got my freelance business website up and running (it still needs a bit of work but happy to have it going). I also sorted out my goals for the year and got them into order. All of the stages are scheduled into my diary to be worked on across the year. It’s not a lot really but January for me is usually a bit of a non-month so this has given me a really good start to the year!
Debbie
At the beginning of January, I took the plunge and started trying to grow my email list. A month later, I have already hit my 2017 target! Needless to say, I have now upped that target – big, scary goals are where it’s at. Through doing the wrap party, I realised I wanted to really focus on my traffic from Pinterest rather than building up my other social networks. After the Facebook live you did on Pinterest I have grown my following and my traffic from their significantly so thank you so much for all your support.
Great goals 🙂
For February mine are:
Increase email subscribers
Post to Instagram at least once per day & increase followers
Try and match or get close to January’s blog income (which was double my target!)
Learn about Affiliate Window which I’ve just signed up to
Write at least one family/personal post per week
Finish creating spreadsheet listing all blog posts & adding evergreen posts to Social Oomph
Wow what incredible stats! Keep it up Aby!
Hi Aby,
I posted a lot of this in the #mumbosssquad so apologies for repeats!
This past month I have got into a routine with writing and planning ahead, meaning I’m finally a little ahead so I have been able to schedule posts!
I’ve joined twitter chats and won a badge 🙂 plus was cheeky enough to suggest future work with one of the people I was chatting with 🙂
I have finally launched my Facebook page after being quite apprehensive as I consider this the closest thing to ‘real life’ (all my actual friends and family), but I’m so glad I’ve done it as I’ve had some lovely feedback and everyone is asking me about it.
I’ve also just joined a Pod for Facebook through the #mumbosssquad group.
I have watched a LOT of your Blog Fix Fridays and also read your advice posts (and a few others including Amy Treasure).This has led me to…
* Use my logo across all social media platforms.
* Use the full 30 #’s on Instagram, then explore and like & comment on top & recent posts. This is definitely having a good impact on my likes and followers.
* I’m also trying to use Instagram stories more and the numbers viewing & returning are steadily growing.
* I’ve created pictures for Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest on Canva
Also I’ve started some regular paid ghostwriting and this is giving my confidence a huge boost.
My targets for next month:
* Understand Pinterest from a blogging POV – not just as a user.
* Add Alt text to all my existing photos on the blog
* I’d like to keep up my followers particularly on Instagram I’m on 640 I’ll attempt to hit 1000 by next time around! 🙂 Twitter is at 1370, I’ll aim for 1700. No idea on a good target for Facebook as it’s all new to me!
*I’m going to look out for your classes on free printables and how to use Social media scheduling!
Finally feel like I’m taking this blogging seriously & stepping it up.
Good Luck to all joining in 🙂 & as ever thank you!! x
Wow! Everyone has such amazing goals & success stories! In January, I was working on getting sales funnels in place for my Baby Record Book product. For Feb, I am aiming to really hit Pinterest hard because I think it is the best platform for conversions for me. Aby, I laughed at your FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS! This is a major area of struggle for me because I have so many things to do, I feel totally overwhelmed. So my other goal is to make much better use if my giant planning quadrant (Important/Not Important/Urgent/Not Urgent). This really helps get things out of my head & placed into action categories.
Well done to you, I also need to get to bed before 1am lol
Well done everyone. I’ve been blogging for 5 months and set my first blogging goals in January. My aim was for a 10% increase on all social media channels every month. Actual increases during January were: Facebook – 43%, Instagram – 40%, Twitter – 29% and page views for Jan were up 39% on Dec. Each channel has also reached at least 1000 🙂 Now I want at least another 10% in Feb 🙂
So many great goals!
My goal in January was to make sure I update Instagram everyday, if only once. Apart from a couple of days, I’ve done that, so really pleased with myself.
February’s goal, alongside continuing with my Instagram goal, is to plan more and become more productive. I’ve even signed up for your free course ‘Project Productivity’ to help me reach my goal!
Laura x
I think I’ve been much more focussed since the middle of January as I was in a bit of a slump after moving house at Christmas and getting things sorted in a new county – but looking back I feel quite pleased with myself!
I managed to:
– ensure I was posting 3 times a week which has led to my blog view being more consistent over time.
– ensure that I had relevant content going onto Twitter by subscribing to SocialOomph and identifying evergreen content.
– This then helped me to go over 1K of followers on Twitter which I’d been working to for quite a while.
– increase my IG followers by 100 which I managed to do in a few weeks by really concentrating on cultivating my feed and engaging with other IG users.
– buy a course on beautifying your instagram which I’m still taking part in.
– join a FB pod via the #mombosssquad FB page which is beginning to increase my reach slowly but surely
– complete the Brands Masterclass which led to me pitching to 2 different companies and being asked to do reviews for items I really wanted and fitted nicely with my blog.
– engage with the comments on my blog so that I was answering every comment. This was brilliant as it also led to me being selected to be a Brand Rep for a brand I love because they loved how engaged I was with the community!
Actually, looking back I think it was a really successful month – but I’m pretty sure February will be even more so as I am now so focussed in following the Blog Growth Accelerator course!
Fantastic goals everyone!
January Review:
Increased Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest by at least 10%
Posted 4 times per week
Increased Email Subscribers by 8%
Joined an Instagram pod
My goals for February:
Increase social media channels by 10%
Get stuck into the Blog Growth Accelerator course ( I’m a bit behind at the moment)
Comment on 3 blogs per day
Go back over old posts and update content/ create pinnable images for 5 posts per week
Must-do-Better
Organise the amount of time for blogging I have each day better.
I am pleased with what I have done this month. Followers on all of my accounts have gone up, not by a huge amount, but I am still happy. My first collaborative post happened which is amazing. I have started using social Oopmh so my posts have been spread out and shared more which has seen a slight rise in views. I also worked out how to make my own thumbnails for my YouTube videos which has made them look much better. This month I want to start using Pinterest more, apply to more brands for work and to write at least 3 posts a week. My continuing goals for the year is to grow my blog and social platforms.
I had a fantastic start to the year. My social media increases were 23% for Twitter, 48% for Instagram and 42% for Pinterest. I set up an email list and created my first free workbook, only 10 followers so far (and one is my mum ) but it’s a positive start. I created my first media kit and got my first two clients! One of my big outcome goals for the year was to pluck up the courage to attend a blogging conference and now I’m booked onto two! I’ve also joined a few group boards on Pinterest but haven’t really started using them fully yet, that’s on the agenda for this month. I just need to keep this momentum going now and the Blog Growth Accelorator course has got me really pumped up x
Oh my goodness i am totally in awe of your goal setting!
WOWZERS! Do you ever sleep? 😉 You have achieved so much Aby! Your VIP Mom Squad is such a supportive and inspiring space too. Good luck for reaching your goals this month #TheList
You have achieved so much! I think I need to make a monthly goal too. I feel like I am just riding the wave here. I need to be more focus. Thank you Abi for the inspirations. xx
So I divided my goals into the 90 day blocks as per your suggest and have been trying out ‘sprints’. I’ve already increased by social media following by 20% this year which was really aided by both a Facebook and then Instagram sprint. Pinterest has not brought as much joy so I’m setting it aside until the next quarter to regain some energy – but it’s ticking away! Another aim was to improve my Instagram by only using my DSLR – which I’ve managed to keep up – I’m also following your advice and trying to utilise ‘stories’ although slightly lost with what I’m doing there! Third overall goal was to hit over 2K views a month – I easily achieved that in January, but my views are down a lot this week despite reach improving on Facebook. I’m not 100% sure why views are down so going to try utilising twitter more and posting to groups next week! I’ve watched everyone of your lives this year as well as signing up to the blog accelerator! I’m brand rep for my first company and pitched to another whose sending me something in March. This is completely new to me – So planning continuing following as much as your advice as possible!