Welcome back to Dossier Blog in 2019! I know the year is well underway already and I was tossing up whether to do a ‘year in review’ / goals type post. But I do love getting these insights from other bloggers, so thought I’d keep the good times coming! 2018 was the first year I set some semi-serious blog goals for myself, and in general I’d say I’m pretty happy with the outcome! Here’s a few of my goals from last year and how they panned out…
Post every week: This was a goal to try to get more consistent with blogging and also put out more content than I have before. By the end of the year, I’d hit forty-something posts. While I didn’t quite make it to a full 52 posts in 2018, I’d say it was a pretty good effort! It was definitely a good challenge putting out 12 posts in the month of December for the 12 DIYs of Christmas.
Start earning revenue: This was something I’d tried to do the previous year but it hadn’t worked out. Then after a bad day at work (and a lot of prayers!), an idea was dropped into my mind on exactly how I would start earning money. The posts and traffic was already there. I added in a few affiliate links to back up what I was writing about and by the next day I’d made $3 overnight! Almost insignificant, but I didn’t care, it was progress!
All of a sudden blogging for an income seemed possible when for so long it had just been like trying to grasp shadows. This continued to grow. Not nearly enough for an income, but money all the same!
Grow a following through mail list & Instagram: These things definitely grew in 2018 but weren’t always my main focus. So they still have a long way to go! But slow progress is still progress, so I’m happy with where it reached nonetheless.
2018 Favourite Posts
As 2018 was my biggest year of blogging to date, there’s a lot of posts to choose from! I really hit on a nature bender at the start of the year, making multiple DIYs with jute, raffia and burlap. Of these, some of my favourites are the raffia mirror (still all heart-eyes over it!) and the sneaker espadrilles I made when I couldn’t find any similar pairs under a hundred dollars. Now, even Kmart stocks similar ones but my DIYers are still going strong.
In May we went to Bali (first time for me) and I loved it! The tropical plants, immaculate bamboo gardens, affordable food and smoothie bowls everywhere… And I can’t forget the amazing shopping! From homewares, to natural accessories that are so popular right now, it was all right up my alley. I created a shopping guide to Bali and even got featured on Canstar for a similar post about my favourite shopping spots.
On to 2019 Goals
That leaves me to goals for 2019. What a big topic! I recently quit my job without anything to go to and then came to the conclusion that I wanted to grow my blog rather than search for other work.
While Dossier has grown in the past year, it is still far, far from bringing in a regular or workable income. So is there pressure to make it all happen? Yes and no. Of course I am working on it like a full time job right now to see where it can go. But I’m also trying to keep from feeling pressured or strained by this, as I know that won’t be any help. We’ve also recently found a couple of great tools in the past months to help grow traffic etc.
It’s really made me realise that blogging can be strategic and controlled, rather than publishing posts into the online universe and hoping they’ll get picked up and sent viral. There’s so many other ways and methods I can use to grow that make it seem all the more possible! On this note, I should mention my traffic has doubled what it was this time last year. I can’t wait to see what happens now that I’m putting in the extra effort.
To keep it brief, I’ll be focusing on optimising my site to increase traffic and therefore growing an audience. This in turn and in time will result in income, but the former is what I’ll be keeping my focus on.
Blogging is something that definitely takes a lot more time to grow and succeed in than I imagined. It sometimes feels like a constant struggle when others around are zooming past with exponential growth.
But taking a look back at the year makes me realise I’m far from stagnant! Things definitely don’t happen on the scale that I want but in general, everything is moving up. Its also not easy to write posts as transparent as this – but it hopefully gives an insight into where everything’s at, and you can join the journey with me.
So, will you? 😉
