Last year, I had twenty blogging and writing goals. Did I achieve them?
It’s been a bit of a mixed bag. Some I achieved, some I didn’t and some I decided against doing. Overall, I’m happy with the way the year turned out.
Here’s a breakdown of how I got on (this post was written on December 22nd so a few of the figures may have changed by the time it’s live):
Goal One
The Goal – Have 2.5 million page views on the blog
The Result – I had 2.63 million at the point of writing this post
Goal Two
The Goal – Have 12K+ Twitter followers
The Result – I have 9,335. This is still over four thousand more than I had at the start of the year and I’m happy with it. It’s all organic growth – I refuse to play the follow to unfollow game
Goal Three
The Goal – Have 3,000+ Instagram followers
The Result – I have 2305. This is a bit short of my target, but Instagram is sooo hard to grow without playing the game, and as I only started the year with around 800 followers, I’m still happy with that result.
Goal Four
The Goal – Have over 1,000 likes on my Facebook page
The Result – I have 1,703 likes on my page. I’m really pleased with this one
Goal Five
The Goal – Post to Instagram at least three times a week
The Result – I smashed this one. I posted every day
Goal Six
The Goal – Post on the blog every Monday to Friday except holidays
The Result – As much as I thought cutting down to five days a week would be a good thing to save me time, I missed posting daily, and I ended up going back to posting every day. Major win.
Goal Seven
The Goal – Complete all the blogmin tasks I’ve been putting off
The Result – This one was an awful task but it got done. All broken links dealt with, all old posts reformatted, updated and images added and categories sorted. I also went a bit further and I hired an expert (the lovely Zoe from Mama Geek) to make some tweaks to my theme, sort out security and make the site run faster.
Goal Eight
The Goal – Redesign my freelance writer website
The Result – This didn’t happen. On the plus side, the website I have is working, so maybe I’m just being too picky.
Goal Nine
The Goal – Do at least one vlog
The Result – Still didn’t happen (this has been on my list for two years now). The thing is, I don’t want to just do one of those videos where someone sits banging on about something they could have covered better in a blog post (and I’m way more concise when writing than talking) and I’m not sure what else to do. I’m just going to push this to one side. if it happens naturally, then it happens. If it doesn’t, I’ve made my peace with that.
Goal Ten
The Goal – Take part in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge
The Result – I completed the challenge
Goal Eleven
The Goal – Read 100 books
The Result – Embarrassingly, I forgot to keep count for most of the second half of the year. I was already at 75 in July though, so I’m pretty confident I did this one.
Goal Twelve
The Goal – Complete #NaNoWriMo
The Result – I hot the 50,000 word target on November 27th. The novel is still far from finished, but I completed the challenge
Goal Thirteen
The Goal – Dig out the manuscripts I have lying around gathering (virtual) dust and get them ready to use
The Result – I didn’t get around to this. I was too busy on new projects and client work
Goal Fourteen
The Goal – Find a literary agent
The Result – This was one of the goals that changed. I’m happy self-publishing my books, so I decided against taking this step.
Goal Fifteen
The Goal – Write and publish another short story collection
The Result – This one didn’t happen, although I do have several stories written and ready to go, so watch this space for next year. The goal changed and became a book of funny poems instead – Parodies and Piss Takes.
Goal Sixteen
The Goal – Write and publish at least two non-fiction books
The Result – Again, this one didn’t happen (just not enough time), but it’s not forgotten
Goal Seventeen
The Goal – Look into getting my books into a store
The Result – This is another goal that changed – I did a bit of research on this, and when I saw the amount of red tape and hoops to jump through, I figured all of that time would be better spent marketing my books, which is what I did instead.
Goal Eighteen
The Goal – Increase my monthly income by 50%
The Result – Through book sales, client work and my blog, my income is up around 61% on last year
Goal Nineteen
The Goal – Write and publish another novel
The Result – I did this one – Lacey Patrick and the Wizard of Darkness
Goal Twenty
The Goal – Stop procrastinating and flitting between tasks
The Result – I wouldn’t say I stopped this entirely – there are days when if I didn’t flit, ideas would be forgotten and nothing would get done, but on the most part, I was a success.
Looking back over the list now, I think my goals might have been a bit ambitious. There are only so many hours in the day right. Having said that, it won’t stop me having another list like this for this year. You can check back on the 6th to see what this year’s list looks like.
Did you achieve all of your goals for 2017? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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Please note: Photos are for illustration purposes only and in no way represent my own stats.
Like you, I had a mixed bag. Happy with some of my goals, abandoned a few, and ready to reset some of the others. Happy New Year!
I hit a few. Nothing like you have done. I read a lot of books but I didn’t count them. I did NaNoWriMo- I need to make a list for 2018 and check it off each month. Happy New Year!
I’d be lost without my list! Happy new year 🙂
You had a lot of goals, but you got a bunch done, so you did great. Congrats.
Thank you 🙂
You have inspired me to pay more attention to my goals so that I can actually hit them this year! #AnythingGoes
I don’t really have blog goals like that as I know a lot of those things are out of my control and instead just go with the flow
I used to go with the flow but I found I wasted so much time by putting it into things that had no effect on my end goal. I purposely set goals that lead towards that end goal and I make sure they are all ones I can control (now I just need to learn how to control time and give myself some extra hours in the day lol)
Wow. You actually achieved a lot in 2017. I didn’t set any goals. Maybe I should for this year? I did do my blog admin like fixing links, 301 redirects etc. It was painfully slow but I felt good for doing it.
#AnythingGoes
I love a goal list – it really helps me know where to focus my time. Blogmin is painful lol
Wow! Great goals and results; especially your social media figures. Well done Debbie. I hope 2018 brings you even more success. #anythinggoes
Thank you 🙂
You did great – esp Facebook! You may not have achieved everything but you still did so much! x
Thank you x
popping back – incredible achievement to be able to say ‘I have published a book’! x
There were a lot of goals here! Wow. I’m just starting out on my own goals. I’d love to know why you chose to stick with self-publishing though.
There are a million and one reasons lol – the main ones are I don’t want to wait upwards of a year from finishing the book to publishing it and I like to be in control of the story and other crucial elements. I have debated going down the traditional route, but for now, self-publishing is working for me 🙂
Dang! I would call 2017 a winning year for you!
My main goal was to quit the 9-5 and start working as a freelancer. I did it on Nov 1. Cut it pretty close, but hey I got there! Now for this year…make enough money to stay here 😀
That’s amazing! Making that leap was the best decision I’ve ever made career wise. Good luck 🙂
You are such an inspiration and your achievements put me in total awe. Particularly well done on all that sorting out stuff on the blog that needed fixing which I know is nightmareish and the income increase. All power to you. #AnythingGoes
It is so good to have solid goals. It is also good to go back and see how you matched up.
What a fab post, you really did some great achievements! #AnythingGoes
I’m back with #BloggerClubUK
Back with #bloggerclubuk
With so many goals I think overall you smashed it. Well done you. If you were to have achieved them all they wouldn’t have stretched you far enough so I think I would call it a win!
Thank you 🙂
Wow what a list of goals you have here, and 2.5 millions page views. I’m impressed I would love to be near that figure! Well done on overachieving some of your social media goals and your blog income. That’s all amazing stuff, you should feel mega chuffed! Claire x #BloggerClubUK
Thank you 🙂 I am pretty happy about it all for the most part x
Wow it sounds like you’ve had a brilliantly successful year! I let my blogging game slip a little last year, I had a baby in january and literally had no time at all with two small children to run around after. I’m hoping 2018 will be a bit calmer and I might get to blog a bit more 😉 #bloggerclubuk
Thank you 🙂 I salute anyone with small children who get even one post done!
I’m guilty of flitting between tasks too, I’ve started to write down a few jobs and tick them off so that I (hopefully) stay on task and actually get more done! Well done on the goals you’ve achieved and also on accepting that some just weren’t meant to be. #BloggerClubUK
Thank you 🙂 I’d be lost without a to-do list lol
That’s a lot of goals and by the sounds of it you did amazingly! Well done – I wish you all the success into 2018 🙂 #BloggerClubUK
Thank you 🙂
Wow so many targets, I think you’ve done really well. I don’t like to get stats targets as I have a huge fear of failing my targets! #BloggerClubUK
WOW! What a fab year you’ve had. Congrats on all of your achievements! #bloggerclubUK
Wow you had so many goals and you smashed loads of them! Thanks for sharing, it’s really inspiring to see how far you’ve come x #bloggerclubuk
Thank you 🙂
Hi, 20 goals seems a lot so a mixed bag is not a bad outcome, wow to your stats, very impressive #BloggerClubUK
I think 20 was a bit too ambitious lol
I was going to begin by saying that I don’t set myself targets/goals for my blog because it’s not consistent enough, but I guess that’s my goal. Be more consistent in general: tweet more, write more, post more etc. I’ve become more consistent with my Instagram but everything else is just when I get chance and with a newborn, I can’t see if changing.
Reading this though, I’ve decided to track my social media following this year and try to improve this via interaction. Like you say, I’m not into playing the game. #BloggerClubUK
I can’t imagine how hard it is to fit everything in with a new born! Good luck with your growth 🙂
Congrats, you’ve had a great year! Your page views are amazing, I can only dream of numbers like that!
Congrats, you’ve had a great year! Your page views are amazing, I can only dream of numbers like that! #BloggerClubUK
Thank you 🙂 You’ll get there!
My goal was to look after my health and not do too much. It was harder work than working on goal goals! Haha!
Haha I can imagine!
Oops forgot the hashtag as half an eye on the baby monitor! #bloggerclubuk
I remain super-impressed but what is really lovely is to know how you encourage others to be amazing too. Popping by via BloggingClubUK
Thank you 🙂
My goodness you had a lot of goals but you smashed so many of them! Well done, I am terribly in awe of you right now and cannot even imagine being on your level! Congratulations and all the best for 2018!
#BloggerClubUK
Shevy
Thank you 🙂
I pretty much achieved my goals and was quite surprised that I did to be honest! Mine are more realistic this year which does help! Thanks for hosting #bloggerclubuk
That’s great, well done 🙂
OMG Debbie, I am just in awe that you had such ambitious aims and that you achieved most of it, and over achieved in some areas. How on earth do you find the time? Pen x #bloggerclubuk
It’s the insomnia lol x
Blogging and Writing Bucket List 2018 - My Random Musings
[…] you saw my update on last year’s blogging and writing bucket list, then you’ll know that although I didn’t hit all of my goals, I had a really good year. […]