A little look into my goals for December & what happened with & behind the scenes of Domestically Blissful.
Happy December!
November was here & gone in a flash. Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Do any shopping over the weekend?
I decided to take full advantage of all of the sales this year, but not until after I got some beauty sleep. Although I didn’t do any Thursday night/early Friday morning shopping I did go out Friday afternoon with my mom & sister for a girl date to Anthropologie. Roger & I also did some online shopping. And I will admit I went to Anthro again on Sunday & Monday. It’s an obsession.
And while we are on the subject of shopping, we bought our Christmas tree last month! The Saturday night before Thanksgiving we had a little Christmas party (just the two of us) & over the weekend we decorated it & watched lots of Christmas movies! I love this time of year!!
What are you most excited about this season?
A Peak Into My iPhone Photos
I tried Mallomars for the first time in November.
This funny picture was snapped during a candid moment. And no, I’m not pregnant.
I started Christmas shopping & decorating.
Went to Trader Joes in Birmingham for the first time!
I didn’t try the cheese, but I was fascinated by their selection.
And I would love to hear what you think of their Cookie Butter!
I have heard that it’s disgusting & the best thing ever. So I am really curious!
My father & I took our annual trip to the grocery store Thanksgiving morning to grab some last-minute ingredients & a newspaper.
We ended up going to 3 stores looking for chestnuts.
And although we had a smaller table this Thanksgiving we chose to decorate it similar to last year’s table.
Thanksgiving was also my sister’s birthday, so after all the thanksgiving festivities we took a little trip to Starbucks to celebrate her being 22! (Cue the Taylor Swift music.)
Then that Saturday we had a 60th anniversary party for my grandparents & I ate enough dessert for 4 people!
When we got home Sunday Roger & I shared this big mug of hot chocolate & the next day I discovered I had flat tire.
What a way to end the month!
Reading Goals & Life Lately
I did very little reading this month. I started the book Hiding in the Light
! Yes, I know it isn’t very Christmasy, but it is my Christmas tradition! Now if only I could get Roger to let me read it to him!November Blog Goals, Accomplishments,
& December Goals
I have to confess that I was so busy configuring my new theme yesterday that I forgot to snap screenshots of my numbers until this morning. So there is 1 additional day’s worth of followers included below.
Facebook: Goal: 5,000 -> Reality: 4,869
+ December Goal: 5,000
+ While I gained over 150 new Facebook followers this last month, I didn’t reach my goal. Although if you read my November Goals & October Life Lately you know that technically my goal was to reach 5,000 by the end of the year, so I am still on track.
Instagram: Goal: 2,850 -> Reality: 2,732
+ November Goal: 2,800
+ HAHA! I gained & lost so many followers this month it’s comical. I know I’m not posting near as much as I use to, but when I do post I get so very little reaction/response (compared to what I use to get) that I have less of a desire to use Instagram. I know I should get back into it, but I am not a fan of all of the changes Instagram has been making. Anyone else feel the same way? Any tips or advice?
Pinterest: Goal: 3,000 -> Reality: 2,928
+ December Goal: 3,500
+ So close! Although I gained over 600 new Pinterest followers last month I didn’t quite reach my goal of 3,000 followers. This month I decided to join a couple of Pinterest follow threads, but those threads never seem to work for me. I follow every single person, but I rarely see the return (even after a week of waiting & hoping!). What do you do if people haven’t followed back after a week?
Oh well, lesson learned (again). I’m still pretty happy with my Pinterest growth this month. I had too many days where I wasn’t pinning as well or as much as I should have, but it’s a new month & a fresh start!
Twitter: Goal: 800 -> Reality: 777
+ December Goal: 800
+ I gained a few new Twitter followers, which is amazing because I still rarely use it!
Page Views: Goal 150,000 -> Reality: 112,507
+ December Goal: 150,000
+ I have some legitimate reasons for a decrease in views. Remember how last year I had all of those malware/hacker issues? Well since getting website protection from WeWatchYourWebsite.com I haven’t had a single issue, so you know “out of sight out of mind.”
Starting at the beginning of November I noticed my blog was slowing down, especially on my Dashboard side. It got to the point that I pretty much stopped blogging. I think there was at least one week that I only blogged twice & I was lucky those published because my blog was so slow.
So long story short I discovered I had malware, I had it removed, & my malware protection renewed. And so after 2-3 weeks of trying to work on a crazy slow website (to the point that I could only accesses my posts 1 out of 25 times), I am back on track, but not without it hurting my page views in the process.
I also knew my views wouldn’t stay ridiculously high like last month’s 200,000+ page views, but I was hoping it wouldn’t fall back to the 30,000 page view average I was at this summer. So I set the goal of 150,000 knowing that anything over 100,000 would be amazing. And while my reality goal for December is 100,000 page views my dream goal is 150,000 page views, so that is what I am going to set it at & work towards.
My guess is that this fall was the biggest growth spirt I will ever have as a blogger. I went from an average of 30,000 page views in August to an average of 164,000 page views over the last 3 months. It’s a bit shocking & overwhelming, but I’ll just keep praising God & plugging along!
And hopefully as Domestically Blissful continues to grow you will see even more improvements as I continue to learn!
Want to connect on a more personal level!? You can find me & Domestically Blissful on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin, & Pinterest!
With love, G
LET US NOT BECOME WEARY IN DOING GOOD,
FOR AT THE PROPER TIME WE WILL REAP A HARVEST IF WE DO NOT GIVE UP.
GALATIANS 6:9
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I love these blog updates that you do. I am nowhere near the level of views that you have, and it’s inspiring to see how you focus on growth and what works for you. I’m right around 17K/month, but I’m also probably speaking to a very small audience being that my blog is all about infertility right now. I’ve seen a lot of growth this year, and hope next year is even better, but I love to see what is working for others. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Jessi for your kind comment!
17K/month is great!! Writing about infertility is very personal & I’m 110% sure that you are bringing encouragement to every single one of your readers!
I was averaging 30K/month this summer & it wasn’t until this fall (after my 2nd blog anniversary) that my blog really started to take off. If you are interested here is a link to a post I wrote about how my page views grew by 500%.
Thanks again for your support! 🙂
Girl! You got my hopes up about you being pregnant!! Thanks for clarifying that. 😉
I didn’t know that it’s a Christmas tradition of yours to read Pride and Prejudice! I’ve never read it or seen the movie, although I’ve had good intentions to! It will happen one day. One day.
I love reading your monthly goals posts. It’s a nice alternative to your Traffic and Income reports you used to do! I’d be interested in learning what your most popular posts were for the month!
Are you still Periscoping? I miss watching your Scopes and leaving you hearts!
It can be frustrating when people don’t follow you back on social media. For Pinterest, I try not to let it bother me too much as I’m simply experimenting with which pins attract new followers. 🙂 I recently started Instagram up again and I wasn’t aware that there are changes?! I hope you’ll continue Instagram! We can help each other out!
I remember reading one of your posts about These Reads. I downloaded the app and started using it (and yes, I’m totally following you!) and have noticed a good amount of traffic from there! Thank you for the recommendation!
Talk to you again soon!
Hey Ashlyn!
I wrote a blog post about if I am brave enough to be pregnant a couple months ago & my husband started getting asked if I was pregnant… So I thought I should start clarifying more, especially with the holiday weight coming on! Although when the day comes that we (I) do become pregnant I will shout it from the roof tops & there will be no questions! 🙂
I HIGHLY recommend Pride & Prejudice! I have read it more times than I can count & it is better than any of the movie adaptions. It can take a little bit to get into, but once you are past the first few chapters it can be hard to put down. By about 2/3rds of the way through I usually have find a place to hide so I can finish it in peace & all in one sitting. 🙂 So good!
I’m so happy you enjoy my monthly goals post & I will definitely start including my most popular posts next month, just for you! 🙂
I had to stop Periscoping. It was taking up way too much of my time & more importantly way too much of my data. I simply don’t have the money to Periscope. 🙁
They seem to have changed the algorithm or something with Instagram. I have been reading about how it’s not a normal timeline feed anymore & that people are missing a large number of pictures posted by people they follow because of how it’s set up now. Super sad. Just another reason not to follow the trend of those who claim that blogging is on the decline & that sharing only on Instagram or in Facebook notes is the way to go. I’m definitely going to keep my Instagram, but I’m not going to put as much time in it or share on a daily basis. Well at least until I get pregnant & catch the bug for sharing a million pictures of my children. I am definitely going to be one of those people. 🙂
I have been messaging back & forth with TheseReads over the last few months & I’m hoping to share my post about the app on the last Sunday of the month/year. I’m so happy you like it! It’s one of my favorites too! 🙂
Thanks for your sweet message Ashlyn! I definitely miss our Periscope hangouts!