2017 has been a big year for blogging for me, particularly the latter half. I’ve taken blogging from something I do occasionally to pretty much a part time job. It’s actually nearing a full time job for me now, particularly since I’m now earning up to £1829 per month from it and spending probably 30+ hours a week blogging. All the while I’m still working my actual full time job at Bronco and loving it more than ever!
I’ve talked before about trying to find balance in my life, and it’s still something I struggle with. I’ll push one thing aside for awhile to focus on another, and at the moment, blogging is my focus. I’m just really enjoying getting my words down on paper screen and writing about things I love every day. I’m feeling motivated to continue to push on with my blogging.
And as a result of that motivation, I’m creating strategies. Like actual, real blog strategies.
I work on campaigns that have strategies at work every day, and I realised I should really be applying those to blogging where I can. Especially since I’m now taking things a lot more seriously with it. I’ve decided to make goals and put actions into place to be able to reach those goals for each of my blogging areas:
Rebel Angel
This is my personal blog and it sits so close to my heart. In the new year, my goals are to continue to grow this space naturally. My readership is largely people like me – young women who have a interest in clothing but not necessarily fashion; who are in their 20s-30s; who enjoy good things in life like home interiors, hobbies and living a slower pace of life. While I don’t post as many outfits here as I used to thanks to other commitments, I do want this space to remain “me”.
Each year, I’m given a desk allowance at work to spend on whatever I like. Last year I got a GIANT diary. I ended up leaving it at work all the time because it was so huge and heavy, plus it had way too much space to fill so I felt like I was wasting it. For 2018, I’ve chosen a smaller diary instead (pictured!) and I plan to use this alongside other notebooks like these to track plans and ideas. I don’t like to make this space too regimented – it’s things I’m thinking, things I’m inspired by, things I like every day, rather than sticking to set posts on set days.
Big Cup Little Cup
Big Cup Little Cup is so niche and I love it so much. It’s something I’m so passionate about and I know it wouldn’t fit at Rebel Angel. I also see huge potential in it. We have a very engaged following in the lingerie community and have seen over 100,000 pageviews in a single month previously there, so I know we’ve really got something special.
I have big plans for Big Cup Little Cup. I plan to invest more into editorial style photoshoots next year and I also want to invest more into supporting independent businesses. This is something we already do, but I want to purchase from them so we can have more diverse reviews. On top of that, we’re going to be creating more advertising opportunities for businesses, marketing them more, visiting some brands, and I have a secret project under wraps right now that I will hopefully reveal in January.
It’s going to need some more organisation though! It’s difficult as it’s run and written by me and my friend Char – we’re both busy people, so meeting up to take photos, arranging who’s publishing what and when, and doing BCLC trips can be hard work to arrange. I’m planning to set up an editorial calendar to ensure our content is regular and varied. I’ve already got a few more in depth posts that aren’t just reviews ready – more commentary on the industry and so on. I’m really excited for this!
Adventure is Out There
My newest project! Adventure is Out There is more of a work-focused blog, but here I’m merging my interests of blogging and working in digital marketing. I’ve gathered a lot of skills, advice and tips on earning money online and blogging over the past 5 years of working in the industry and I wanted a place to share them.
For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to post 5 times per week there, eek! I brainstormed ideas before I started up the blog a few months ago and ended up with literally hundreds. So I decided to split them into categories and ended up with 5 main ones, so those became a day of the week each. I then sat down with my WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin (I couldn’t live without this!) and allocated each idea to a day; some weeks are actually series on specific topics, and some are focused on specific events in the calendar.
My goals here are to continue to write 5 posts per week and to keep up to date with this using WordPress Editorial Calendar and Google Drive. I have a big spreadsheet filled with ideas, links, tips and more that I use as my Master Document for the blog. That’s how I’m planning this one for the New Year – I have posts set out on allocated days until November 2018 there!
And don’t worry, I don’t write them every day. I made sure I had about 10-12 written when I launched the blog, then I never start a week without at least 2-3 of the posts for that week written. It means I’m always ahead on it and not scrabbling to get content written. I hope to get up to 2-3 weeks ahead over Christmas then stick at that throughout the year.
Disney Days
My goals for Disney Days are comparatively very small – it’s very closely connected to Rebel Angel but with a focus on Disney. I realised I had too many Disney ideas to share at Rebel Angel so moved over to Disney Days, but I wonder whether that was entirely necessary now as I don’t have the time to create a huge number of posts there! Initially I’d wanted to share more Disney news but it ended up being more personal with trip reports from my Disney trips.
My goal for 2018 for Disney Days is to simply see where it goes. If I’m able to spend time putting more into it, I will. If I can’t, it’s not the end of the world. I won’t be creating editorial calendars for it – I’ll simply write when I can.
