July Blog Report
This past month, I’ve had quite a few challenges to my life as newly WAHM.
There was Ramadan, the whole month of fasting and devoting to prayer.
There was summer with the kids at home, wild and free.
There was we constantly travelling.
But… it wasn’t all that bad on the blogging front because I have no idea what it was that kept me motivated but, it did. In the beginning of the month, I was blogging regularly and had really managed to get quite a few things done. Towards the end though, I had to re-evaluate my plans.
My readership went up in July to 10K per month when a few of my posts went viral but… then the excitement went down.
July
1. I have had opportunities come knocking on my door again. It was interesting because I was told that I was being recognized for my influencing capabilities. I have never worked as an influencer or in any form of marketing before. This really is interesting because it made me realize how co-related blogging and influencing is… Not all influencers are bloggers but most bloggers can be considered influencers. Food for thought isn’t it?
2. My Klout and Sverve score went up this month again. Social Media Management is a very interesting marketing tactic. I have been testing stuff as always and I guess something is working.
3. I have broken two keyboards in two years. This time, I don’t know how I managed to do it but I tore the Keyboard to my Surface RT! I have been solely typing on the RT for a while now and the damage is making me feel handicapped. Now, it is like I am juggling my smart phone, tablet and my laptop to get a post up. I wish they hadn’t discontinued making phones with keyboards! That, and I realized how badly I need to upgrade my phone. Ugh!
4. This past month, I was Guest hosting with the Social Media Mixer. I am still trying to find what it did to my reach and my viewership but I guess, it didn’t do much. I did learn a few things about my style on writing a post and how I can improve it. I also observed that there is a particular length that the post should be to be successful and that small posts usually mean a high bounce rate.
5. My reach on Facebook and Pinterest has increased both in terms of numbers as well as talking about numbers. There isn’t much change on Twitter or Google+ even though that is where I have more engagement. I have tried quite a few things on Facebook the past 7 months and I must say, I have done more experiments on it than on any other network. Something works and some other things, don’t. Of the things that I realized this past month was that the kind of viewership I have. The people that are really interested are those who are from my community or from my blogging network. That told me two things: One, I don’t need to try really hard to work my numbers. I just need to focus on making my content related to the people who I really want to work with. Everything else will depend on that. Two, I don’t need to focus on just one thing because the people who are genuinely interested in my page are in it for the diversity that WnN is all about. This is very encouraging, Thankfully.
6. The first six months of this year, I had a monthly plan and accomplishing all my goals for those month was very encouraging. This past month, I didn’t have goals and neither the time to plan ahead. Since my goal for the first six months was that my blog renew itself and now, having accomplished that, I can focus on my blogging skills. So this month on, that is what my focus will be.
I need to :
1. Practice the Art of scheduling posts and managing my time better.
2. Polish up my graphic designing and photo editing skills.
3. Work on my blog design.
4. Re-evaluate and plan my marketing strategy. The present one is too chaotic!
5. Design a workable blog planner. All the ones that I have seen just don’t fill my need.
That is the plan for August to December. I’ll start with #1.
My most successful posts this month are:
Because this is a blog, I should tell you…: Where I talk about the three things you should never tell a mom who has lost a child.
Baby Let’s Eat!!: A complete guide to introducing solids to your little one. This post was featured!
Potty Training in a Weekend- Review: The review of Becky Mansfield’s book.
August:
1. I want to schedule the posts and take time off from social media to work on my strategies. I know how impossible that is but…
2. August means that it is time for kids and mums to start preparing for their Back to School routines and we are doing just that. My son starts his school towards the end of this month. My toddler just turned 2years old so I am planning on starting homeschooling for her too. August also means the Indian Independence day on the 15th of August. Since we don’t live in India, I try extra hard to make my kids know their country and our dates.
3. I am working on my local reach and on the type of content that I have been more liked for. The stats are really interesting because the purpose of this years (blogging) was to find a niche for myself… I am still analyzing that. Here is what I have noticed:
Google recognizes me for crochet and Jeddah.
Pinterest recognizes me for parenting and crafts.
Twitter recognizes me as an influencer.
What am I interested in??!
All of the above! 🙂
Having a blog report or a personal goals report helps keep me motivated and accountable. Here is a Goals Link Up that I am linking up to. You are welcome to join us.
Congratulations – sounds like your blog is doing great!
Finally got over here to read your July goals report! Hope you had a fun August!