In an effort to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing monthly progress updates for my 2018 goals.

Reach five figure monthly blog page views.

To reach 10K page views by the end of December, I need to increase my page views by about 372 per month. Here are my 2018 monthly page views benchmarks and actual views.

January benchmark – 5,610, actual – 7,373
February benchmark – 5,982, actual – 10,151
March benchmark – 6,354, actual – 12,129
April benchmark – 6,736, actual – 9,956
May benchmark – 7,108, actual – 8,072
June benchmark – 7,408, actual – 8,050
July benchmark – 7,780, actual – 9,303
August benchmark – 8,152, actual – 9,914
September – 8,524, actual – 11,500

September is one of the best traffic months I’ve had in 2018, with the highest daily traffic average to date. As you can see in the Google Analytics graphic above, I had consistent traffic all month, with slightly higher daily averages during the second half of the month. My other highest traffic months, February and March, weren’t quite as consistent. I have a few seasonal posts that get views in September but nothing significant. My evergreen traffic was just really strong all month, which is exciting.

There are two primary methods I’m using to achieve my page views goal, which are as follows.

Publish posts weekly with two evergreen posts per month. Check. I maintained a consistent 3 posts per week schedule in September with the following evergreen posts: Essential Formula Feeding Supplies, DIY Fall Mason Jar Decor, 20 Creative Fall Photography Ideas, Envy Scarf Strap Photography Gear Review, $10 and Under Fall Throw Pillows on Amazon, Fall Decor on a Budget, and Protein Lunch with Sweet Potato and Chicken Sausage.
Maintain consistent social sharing, particularly for high traffic and seasonal posts. Check. I’ve been keeping up on social shares for all new posts and have lots of fall shares scheduled in the mix now.

Reach 4,000 Pinterest followers.

To reach 4,000 Pinterest followers by the end of the year, I need to gain 138 new followers monthly or 4-5 followers daily. My September benchmark was 3,579 followers. My actual September total was 3,201 followers.

While nothing amazing, my follower growth this month was solid, one of the better months I’ve had in 2018. More exciting, my monthly viewers number grew exponentially and reached a new all-time high. The screenshot above is from the middle of the month when I cracked the one million mark for the first time. Currently, I’m around 1.7 million and still climbing every week. My monthly engagement numbers are up quite a bit, too. Currently, monthly engagement is around 49,700 users monthly, which is nearly double my average for August.

I’m keeping up with my 2018 Pinterest strategies, which are as follows:

Schedule my own blog content and content from other bloggers via Tailwind. I’ve been working way ahead on scheduling lately and am currently scheduling about two months ahead.
Manage my photography group board.

Publish one article per week on Constant Content.

I snuck in a couple of Constant Content articles right at the end of the month.

I’m still way behind for the year and will be pushing to catch up during the final quarter of 2018. I didn’t have any Constant Content sales in September.

Paint and decorate nursery #2.

Now that I’m done with nursery #2 and our new adoption profile book, I’ve been devoting time to one of my back burner projects: my Etsy jewelry shop. I shared a shop update earlier this month. I re-stocked (and re-photographed) a handful of best selling items, most of which I haven’t offered in a couple of years. My goal is to keep the best sellers I’ve restocked in stock for the time being and eventually, start adding new items to the shop, at most one or two new items per month. Adding new items to the shop again will be a higher priority in 2019.

Finish editing my Europe photos, and keep up with current editing.

To meet this goal, I need to edit a little over 90 photos per month through the end of the year. I edited about 60 photos in September. I don’t have any new Europe posts up, as I haven’t finished working through my Alhambra photos yet. I’m still close to my target and am hoping to push hard through these last few months to meet the goal.

I did pretty well keeping up with current editing in September. I’ve finished backing up and clearing out photos through early July and have finished editing through mid-July. I’ve finished editing the majority of my remaining July and August folders. With another upcoming trip, my 2018 photos total will remain high through October. But I’m happy with my progress, given how many photos I’ve taken lately.

Read 36 books.

My September reading total was 5 books, bringing my 2018 total to 49 books. I’ve already met my reading goal for 2018. But I’m not slowing down my reading pace and am still sharing my reads here and in my bi-monthly reading posts.

In September, I listened to:

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

In September, I read:

I didn’t finish any re-reads in September. I started re-reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline while we were in Montana and am about halfway through it. I finished Fellowship later in the month and haven’t picked up Harry Potter again yet.

I have a post with two months worth of reads scheduled for Friday. Stay tuned!

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