At the end of 2014 I posted 10 resolutions that I wanted to achieve this year in regards to blogging, since we're now officially over halfway through 2015 I thought I'd do a little update on how things are going so far. I think it's a great thing to see evidence of your progress, that way you can really tell how far you've come and what you need to do to still get to your end goal.
1. I resolve to - Review more international brands
2. I resolve to - Shop smart
I've actually done pretty well with this one. Every time I think about buying something because "I need it for a blog post" I take a look at what I am yet to review and see when I'd be able to fit it in, most of the time I don't bother buying it at all because I have so much waiting to be reviewed already. I'm planning on sticking to this for the future, my bank balance is certainly happier now.
3. I resolve to - Re-design the blog
Obviously this has already been done, thank goodness. I am so much happier with my blog now and don't hesitate when someone asks for the link, whereas before I was a little bit embarrassed by it. If you blog and have been debating whether to re-design or not, I say "go for it!", my stats, opportunities and confidence have all got so much better since I did.
4. I resolve to - Improve my photography
I think, no actually, I know that this has improved a lot these last six months. Of course I still have a way to go and am learning all the time, I don't think I'll ever be totally happy with my photos, but that's the curse of being a perfectionist; Nothing is ever good enough even when others may think it is. All I need to do is take a look back on some of my oldest posts to see the difference in quality and structure, I hope you all see it too.
5. I resolve to - Stop paying attention to stats
This was something that was really stressing me out, as much work as I was putting into blogging, it wasn't really paying off numbers wise, so I would check post stats, follower stats and social media stats way too often. I finally talked myself out of those habits and am much happier for it. I now blog for me and for the readers I already have, rather than trying to bring new ones in. Of course, it's always lovely when my numbers go up, but it's not something I focus on so much anymore.
6. I resolve to - Take part in Twitter chats
This may seem like a silly thing to some people, but I've always been too shy to just jump in new Twitter chats. I see questions being answered and lots of people jumping in and it all seemed a little intimidating. Of course, the fact that the chats move so quickly doesn't help matters, and I can totally see why a newbie to them would be put off, but it's something I've started loving recently. With the help of Tweetdeck, I can see any new tweets that have been posted on the relative hashtag and reply directly from there too. I've even hosted a chat now and am scheduled to host another in August. If you fancy joining in, or just seeing what Twitter chats are all about, here is a list of times and hashtags.
7. I resolve to - Attend a meet-up
Attending a meet-up is something that I really would love, but still hasn't happened. There was a marvelous one a couple of weeks ago for cruelty-free bloggers that I would have loved to attend, but it was in London and I just wasn't well enough to make that kind of journey. I still have my fingers crossed that it'll happen this year.
8. I resolve to - Take a better photo for my profile
I've put this resolution off for as long as I can, and it's still not done though I have edited the one I had previously and I think it looks a lot better now. I detest having my photo taken, but I'm not keen on the one up at the moment so I need to fix it.
9. I resolve to - Get more organised
At the start of the year, I did really well with organisation, but the last couple of months things have taken a bit of a nose dive. I have products in boxes, notepads half full and a blog planner not up to date. This week is the week, I'm getting it all sorted, creating a spreadsheet and updating all of my notes.
10. I resolve to - Install Disqus
The last few months of 2014 I tried numerous times to install Disqus on here, but I never could manage it. It was always crashing on me, or not letting me log in. As you can see from the comments section, I did finally manage it, I don't know how to be honest. I tried everything I was previously doing and one day it just worked for me. I much prefer this commenting system, it looks nicer and is so much easier to chat to you lovely lot.
Having looked back and reflected on my original post, I'm pretty happy with my progress so far. I have the majority of them completed, and all of the big tasks are done. I just have a couple of things that I need to sort out so I can complete the rest before the end of the year.
What New Years's resolutions did you make, and how have you done with them so far?
