In an effort to keep myself accountable, I’m sharing monthly progress updates for my 2019 goals.

Reach 70,000 monthly blog page views.

Here are my 2019 benchmarks and progress to reach my monthly blog page views goal.

January – target: 37,343, actual: 42,806
February – 40,312, actual: 43,398
March -43,281, actual: 51,102
April – 46,250, actual: 65,303
May – 49,219
June – 52,188
July – 55,157
August – 58,126
September – 61,095
October – 64,064
November – 67,033
December – 70,000

Easter Dinner Menu Ideas way exceeded my expectations for 2019 Easter traffic. In 2018, it got 2,500 hits in March (we had an early Easter), which is about 82 hits per day. In 2019, it got 16,000 hits in April. As Easter was the 21st and traffic dropped off significantly after that, it averaged about 800 hits per day the first two thirds of the month. I still have a handful of other seasonal/holiday articles that are doing well. But Easter Dinner Menu Ideas largely accounted for my fantastic blog traffic in April.

It’s unlikely that I’ll have any other seasonal/holiday articles spike like Easter Dinner Menu Ideas any time soon. My blog traffic generally decreases through the summer anyway. As such, I don’t expect to top my April traffic figure until August or September. You never know, though.

Page view tactics

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. In April, I averaged three posts per week with the following evergreen posts: DIY Sheet Music Plastic Easter Eggs, DIY Book Page Plastic Easter Eggs, DIY Easter Sheet Music Wall Decor, DIY Easter Mason Jar Decor, Spring and Summer Avocado Toast Recipes, 12 Things Parents Want to Apologize for on Behalf of Their Toddlers, DIY Sheet Music Clothespin Magnets, Adult Braces: The Beginning of the End, and Unique DIY Photo Holders.
Maintain consistent social sharing, particularly for high traffic and seasonal posts. Check. I’ve kept up with social shares for new posts. Now that Easter is over, I’m focusing on getting more year round evergreen posts back in the mix and getting summer shares scheduled. I’m staying about two months ahead with scheduling general social media shares.

Reach 7,000 Pinterest followers with three million monthly viewers.

Here are my 2019 benchmarks and progress to reach my Pinterest followers and viewers goal.

January – target: 4,177, 1.3, actual: 4,296, 1.58
February – 4,434, 1.44, actual: 4,630, 1.66
March – 4,691, 1.5, actual: 4,980, 1.82
April – 4,948, 1.77, actual: 5,356, 2.38
May – 5,205, 1.96
June – 5,462, 2
July – 5,719, 2.14
August – 5,976, 2.28
September – 6,233, 2.42
October – 6,490, 2.56
November – 6,747, 2.7
December – 7,000, 3

I ended April 2019 with 5,356 Pinterest followers. Month over month, I keep gaining more Pinterest followers. My engagement on Pinterest was great this month, peaking at 2.39 million at the height of the Easter traffic. Amazingly, it hasn’t dropped back much since then.

My 2019 Pinterest strategies are as follows:

Schedule content from other bloggers via Tailwind.
Schedule my own content via Tailwind.
Manage my photography group board.

Finish and publish ebook #2.

My second ebook, Blog Photography Hacks, is now available for sale! Pick up your copy today. If you subscribe to Amazon Kindle Unlimited, it’s available as part of this program. If you purchase the book and write a review before June 1, I’ll refund 50% of the purchase price. Forward your recipt or screenshot the purchase confirmation and send it to randomcreative28 at gmail dot com. I appreciate your support!

Ebook #3 took a back burner again in April. Tommy’s current nap schedule has made it really tough to create and shoot DIY projects in single afternoons, which is what I need to do for a large portion of this next ebook. As the days continue to get longer, I may be able to fit in some late afternoon shoots.

Publish one article per week on Constant Content.

In April, I published the following articles on Constant Content.

How to Stay Safe in Your Apartment
A Party Hosting Guide for Introverts
Caring for Kids and Pets During a Home Renovation sold
The Biggest Tourist Mistakes to Avoid in New Orleans

I had four sales in April for a total of $221.65. In addition to Caring for Kids and Pets During a Home Renovation, I sold Flying with Gifts for the Holidays (November 2018 title), The Biggest Tourist Mistakes to Avoid in Las Vegas (January 2019 title), Preparing Your Home for Real Estate Photos (December 2018 title).

Finish out all 2018 and earlier vacation photos and keep up with current photo editing.

Vacation photos

Currently, I have the following sets of vacation photos not yet finished that I’d like to wrap up in 2019. The notes in parenthesis are my progress at the end of 2018. The notes following the parenthesis in bold text are my progress thus far in 2019.

November 2015 – Hawaii (haven’t finished editing) Finished editing.
August 2016 – Montana (haven’t finished editing) Finished out completely. Created and ordered a photo book, backed up and edited photos, cleared out all RAW files.
October 2016 – New Orleans (finished editing, need to make a photo book) Finished out completely. Created and ordered a photo book, backed up edited photos, cleared out all RAW files.
May/June 2017 – Mediterranean cruise (finished editing, need to make a photo book and order prints) Finished and ordered photo book part I and part II. Ordered and displayed 8×10 framed prints and 4×6 unframed prints for my hanging kitchen display.
September 2018 – Montana (haven’t finished editing) Finished editing.
October 2018 – Washington D.C. (haven’t finished editing) Finished editing.

In April, I finished and ordered the Mediterranean part II book and finished editing the Montana 2018 photos. When the book arrives, I’ll finish out the Mediterranean cruise photos completely. I’m also hoping to get the photo book done for one of the 2018 trips in May.

Current editing

Currently, I have everything backed up and cleared out through the end of March and have finished editing everything through mid-April (minus a few folders for ebook #3). I’m in a much better place with current editing than I was at the end of March.

Read 40 books.

In April, I read the following books:

My 2019 reading total is 21 books, which puts me ahead of schedule. Stay tuned for my newest “what I read” post with more details about my March and April reads next week!

[Disclaimer: There are a few affiliate links in this post. Thanks for your support!]