The decorations are all away and Christmas is officially over. It’s nice to get the house a bit more ordered, but I do love Christmas so, so much and I’m sad it’s over. I loved the time at home with the family, it was just lovely. I actually really enjoyed taking a bit of a blogging break too, just time for the family in our festive little cocoon. I hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas too?
I wrote about my goals and achievements for the year in Taking My Blog Seriously A Year On & My 2016 Goals. But I think it is much easier to break these down into more manageable chunks on a monthly basis, which is why I am doing a monthly review too. At the moment I am also reviewing the amount of times I post per week, before Christmas I had pretty much got to daily, but I am finding this quite a hard pace to keep up with, at the same time I don’t want my blog to loose the momentum. But I will review things as I go along.
Top Posts
- Christmas Tree World – Blossom Christmas Tree Review
- Is It Wrong To Lie To Your Children About Santa?
- Lovely Things – December 2015
- Goodbye Farley Cat – You Will Be Missed
- Review: Pink Clove Plus Size Clothing
Top Things That Have Made Me Happy
- Christmas!
- I took part in a super fun secret santa with some other lovely bloggers which was great fun.
- My Facebook hasn’t really grown in December – just by ten from 580 to 590, but I am really seeing if you want to grow it you have to pay. But I am going to try some promotion in January.
- On my other social channels I hit 5000 on Twitter woop! And have gone from 4800 to 5100. On Instagram my followers have grown from and from 780 to 890, which I am really pleased with.
- My domain authority went up to 26.
- I am still really happy with my result on the Tots100 I was ranked 234 in November and 232 in December and as of yesterday I am totally delighted to be ranked at 161!
- I’ve worked with some lovely brands – Christmas Tree World, Selfie Clothing, Burn Me On, Pink Clove, Frugi, What Daisy Did and the Drama channel.
Things To Focus on in January
I kept my goals pretty simple over Christmas as it is a busy month and I wanted to be realistic. But I have set myself some tougher goals for January!
- Grow my social media following – I would like to reach over 600 on my Facebook page, 5300 on my Twitter and the biggest growth would be to 950 on my Instagram.
- Update all of my information and linky pages.
- Refocus all of the categories on my blog and do some work on blog’s brand. Commission a few more design elements to go with this.
- Research and join a couple of theme based linkys.
How about you, how was your December and what are your blogging plans? xxx
Great stats – and good luck with your new goals 🙂
Thank you so much x
You have done so well growing your following & your stats. Your tots 100 ranking is AMAZING – congrats Laura! Your goals for January are big ones. Good luck with the category reorganization. I did that back in November & it felt like a load was lifted! #PicknMix x
Thank you I was so chuffed with my Tots score – not sure how long it will last, but I will enjoy it while it’s there. Yes category organisation is more time consuming than I thought but I think I am nearly there!
Hey girlie, love your specific goals for this blog!
Would you link this up to #GratitudeGoals ? 🙂
Thanks Julie, I have just been by and linked up x
I love Christmas too! Thanks for sharing highlights of your year (- well done!) and your goals for the next year. I look forward to reading more of your blog posts and following you on your blogging journey!
Thanks El, I love your blog too and try to make sure to stop by and regularly read it. x
Love the way you’ve written this post such a quick and easy read and love the links to old blog posts too that I missed! Well done on the media growth Facebook is the hardest I’m pretty sure doing competitions and have visit Facebook is one of the best ways as a lot will just like anyway! Mine is stuck at a pitiful 63..happy new year 🙂 x
The only way I have really managed to grow my facebook is through competitions and paid posts unfortunately. Facebook are total meanies now in that respect. Thank you for your lovely comments x
Love this. Yay to 5000 twitter followers, that’s amazing! #picknmix xx
Thanks so much Rachel x
Congrats on your Tots and DA! I’m really looking to improve mine this year, and work on my social media. I’m always on the lookout for new linkies too – they’re the source of much inspiration! 🙂 #KCACOLS
Linkys are definitely the source of inspiration. Thank you for the congrats and good luck with growing your blog x
Hi Laura, I’ve just started my blog 10 months ago, so share the same growing pains and goals that you do. I must say that your blog is really quite lovely, so think your decision to have it redesigned this past year was a brilliant one.
The whole ‘business’ of blogging is quite overwhelming, so I just started to poke my head up a couple of months ago to realize the importance of social media…which will be one of my major focuses this upcoming year.
Congrats to you and your accomplishments and I know good things will come in 2016.
Happy Sunday, Lynn
Thank you Lynn, I am so glad you like the design of my blog. Yes social media is really important in terms of traffic and monetization. Facebook as everyone seems to agree is hard to grow, but other channels somewhat easier. Good luck with your goals too.
Some great things to focus on for this month! it’s a great idea to set goals (i’ve just started to do it for my blog) helps to stay on track! great jumps on your social media though great job! fun to see them grow! good luck with facebook! I’ve struggled with it until now #KCACOLS
I find facebook a struggle too, good luck with your goals too and I definitely think it helps writing them down and setting them each month.
Well done on your growth, I really need to focus more on this area this year I am rubbish at self promoting and growing my blog. Look forward to seeing how you get on this year
Thanks Tracey – scheduling I think really helps so that you don’t feel too overwhelmed.
Love breaking down yearly goals into months. I am a new blogger & want to grow my newsletter subscribers & Facebook followers by 10% each month. Will follow your social channels!
Thank you Cathy, I think I have returned the favour good luck with your growth
I’ve recently hit 5k on Twitter and find that growth pretty steady, Facebook is definitely the hardest. I’ve been trying to post more consistently and scheduling within facebook and my posts have been having a better reach. Thanks for linking to #PickNMix
Yes consistency definitely seems to be helping my reach too and a mix up of all different types of posts.
You had a great December Laura. Your stats looks amazing. Hitting 5000 in twitter is such an achievement!! This will be my next goal! Don’t think it will happen this month but I have some hope for this in February. You are right, Facebook is very difficult to grow. Your Tots100 is really good too. Not far for the actual 100 now!! yaay! Good luck with this and I hope you achieve your goals for January. Fingers Crossed. Thanks so much for sharing this at #KCACOLS. I would love to see you again on Sunday! 🙂 x
Thanks Franca I am sure you will hit 5000 soon 🙂 and your Tots score is fab too – fingers crossed for that 100! x
Well done on your stats Laura you are doing brilliantly! I’m sure that if you keep up the momentum you’ll reach your goals in no time. I really can’t wait to see how you got on next month. Good luck! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next Sunday.xx #KCACOLS
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, yes I’m looking forward to seeing where I am at the end of the month too.
You are doing so well with your lovely blog! One of mine is to join in with more linkies so I’ll be trying to get to yours more often for a start – my biggest one time management!
Stevie x
Thanks for linking up to #PicknMix
I think time management with a blog and children is a hard one – hope you manage it and look forward to seeing you at #lovelythings next month x