A little look into my March goals for the blog & in life, along with a recap of what happened in our life & with Domestically Blissful in February.
So many exciting things are happening!
We are finally reaching the end of dental school!
The 2 most exciting things that happened in February is that Roger passed the Dental State Board Exam & that he got a job!!!!!! I would put a million more of these !!!!! but I don’t want to annoy anyone. I’m just so excited!
It feels like these last four years have gone quickly & dragged by at the same time. Weird, but true. It’s at the point where it feels like this is our life & will be our life for a longtime to come.
Right after we got married we moved to Birmingham & Roger started school. Since this has been our sole existence for the last 4 years I can’t imagine a life different than the one we are currently living.
But Roger keeps telling me everything is about to change. It’s just hard for me to believe it.
For almost 2 years we have been looking for a house (mostly just for fun since we knew we wouldn’t be able to buy anything until this summer), but now house hunting has gotten real! Which means I am having an even harder time focusing on small blog projects because all I can think about are the big ones that I can start doing this fall!
But I am going to try to buckle down & focus on what’s right in front of me & take one step at a time!
And I really want to thank all of you who have been praying for us & with us as we prayed for clarity! As an update to this post I am excited to share with you that Roger has accepted a job in north Georgia & we will be moving there this summer. Which makes house hunting that much more real!
We have pretty much narrowed down where we want to live & I am happy to say that it will only be about 15-20 minutes from downtown Chattanooga! This will be the closest either of us have ever lived to our sweet little city & I am super excited about living closer to family!
ps. I really want to add a million more !!!! to all of the above sentences!
Reading Goals & Life Lately
I didn’t do much reading in February, at least it feels like I didn’t.
I’m still reading Peter Pan to Roger. I read a little bit of P&P. I tried to read some P&P to Roger but that didn’t work out. I have also been reading from a couple of devotional/spiritual books to Roger in the mornings & on the weekends.
I am a little behind in my progress of reading through the Bible. Last month I read a few more chapters of Psalms to Roger & read James, Galatians, most of Job, & have started on Matthew in my morning devotions. In March I hope to read Matthew, Exodus, both Thessalonians, & finish the last few chapters of Job.
Hopefully I will have a little extra reading time this month to read the 2 new books Roger gave me for my birthday. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of these books (& the fun places I am reading them) & share them on Snapchat (@blissfulmiller) or Instagram!
February Blog Goals/Accomplishments
& March Goals
Let’s dive right in!
Top 5 Most Popular Blog Posts in February:
1. Nutty Dark Chocolate Snack Bites (Originally published: 2.22.2016)
2. Chocolate Caramel Marshmallows (Originally published: 10.12.2015)
3. Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup (Originally published: 10.07.2014)
4. 50 Unique Star Wars Gifts (Originally published: 11.22.2015)
5. How to Prepare for a Move 6 Months to 1 Year in Advance (Originally published: 9.16.2015)
Facebook: Goal: 5,100 -> Reality: 5,084
+ February Goal: 5,200
I was super close to making my goal! But alas, I didn’t quite make it to 5,100. But I am going to try a little harder this month to reach my goal of 100 new followers a month, especially since I have a little catching up to do from last month.
Instagram: Goal: 2,800 -> Reality: 2,762
+ March Goal: 2,800
No matter what I do I can’t seem to reach 2,800. I really need to go back & read my 7 Useful Tips for Growing Your Instagram Followers post. I was doing so good with growing Instagram, until I switched gears & focused only on growing my Facebook following, which I then followed up by focusing all of my attention on growing my Pinterest followers. Maybe it’s time to come full circle & focus primarily on Instagram again.
Pinterest: Goal: 4,000 -> Reality: 4,409
+ March Goal: 5,000
Thanks to the changes on the Pinterest app (which make it easier to follow a blogger after pinning one of their Rich Pins) my Pinterest followers have increased by 666 new followers in February. That’s over 400 followers more than my goal! Although my growth has been exciting the new Pinterest algorithm doesn’t seem to be helping my views… So it’s a bit of a win, lose situation.
Twitter: Goal: 850 -> Reality: 816
+ March Goal: 850
This might take awhile… I really dislike Twitter!
Maybe I should ditch the Twitter updates?
RSS Feed Email Subscription: Goal 450 -> Reality: 372
+ March Goal: 472
As many of you know, I just recently started up my RSS Feed & this is my second month sharing these statistics. I really had no idea what kind of a goal I needed to make for myself last month. I am also still making minor adjustments to the style & locations where readers can subscribe. For example, I replaced the Smart Bar RSS subscription with an invitation to join me on Pinterest. Even still I was able to gained 86 new subscribes in February, 3 more than the 83 I gained in January. So even though I didn’t reach my goal I’m pretty happy with the growth. But again, I have no idea if this is on par with my page views… Advice?
And what do you think, is 100 new subscribers too many to hope for in March?
I’m thinking about creating something free to give away to subscribers, but I have no idea what or how. I am going to try to do some research on the subject this month. Also, I’m a little worried that people will subscribe for the free item & then unsubscribe once they start receiving Domestically Blissful’s emails… Has anyone had this happen to them?
Page Views: Goal 100,00 -> Reality: 82,493
+ March Goal: 100,000
Well, that’s a bummer… But it’s ok.
February was shorter, TheseReads is no more, & I only posted 8 new blog posts. I think that reasonably explains my dropped views. I also wouldn’t be surprised if my page views are similar (if not a little less) in March.
Here are 2 reasons why.
- Spring Break
- Posting less.
I was doing really good the last half of last year at posting 4-5 times a week & now I am only posting 2-3 times a week. That doesn’t sounds like a big drop, but statistically speaking that’s half as many new posts per month that I am creating.
But I have several (goodish) reasons.
- I have been spending quite a bit of time looking for a house for us to buy. I am crazy picky.
- I am preparing for our big move. Which means I am going through our home, room by room, & decluttering as much as possible so that we will only move the necessities into our new home. This wouldn’t be a lot of work for a normal person, but I am kind of a
smallbig hoarder. I really need to do some yard sales!
ps. I wrote a post on How to Prepare for a Move 6 Months to 1 Year in Advance that I am using as my guide to prepare for our move. - My mind is completely wrapped up in future blog post ideas. We are currently living in a rented townhouse while my husband is in dental school, which means we have a small space, little money, & minimal creative freedom. But by the end of the summer so much of this is going to change. And while I should continue to think up small doable projects I can’t help but dream up ideas for future projects.
- The biggest reason I am posting less is because my husband is home a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean like ALL THE TIME!! Now I am not going to complain about this because I love my husband & am enjoying each & every moment with him. It has been an unexpected & happy surprise. Of course this will all change once he begins working this summer. We probably won’t have time like this again until he retires, decades from now. So if that means I post only 2-3 times a week & my views drop a little (or a lot) I am going to be ok with that. My husband comes first & I am loving the memories we are making together!
On a side note I am thinking of moving these Goals/Life Lately posts from the first Wednesday of the month to the first Sunday of the month.
Actually, it’s decided. Let’s make it official! My April Goals & March Life Lately blog post will go live on my blog April 3 next month.
Want to connect on a more personal level!? You can find me & Domestically Blissful on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bloglovin, & Pinterest!
With love, G
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
Job 23:10-11
More Confessions from Domestically Blissful:
i think it’s so interesting that you mentioned giving up twitter because I’ve been having the same battle. I haven’t really asked around, but i want to get rid of it too. i’m currently in a trial mode of tweet for the month and seeing how much of a difference it makes. i just always feel like a nuisance when i’m tweeting.
Hey Malia!
It feels like it takes so much time with very little reward. I’ve wondered if I put more consistent time into Twitter if that would make a big difference. So I’d love to hear about how your trial run of tweeting for a month goes!!
Hope you have a blissful weekend! 🙂