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
May – 49,219
June – 52,188
July – 55,157
August – 58,126
September – 61,095
October – 64,064
November – 67,033
December – 70,000

Despite a slow start, March was a fantastic traffic month, my best month to date. I blamed the traffic dip at the end of February into March on the security glitch that occurred when I upgraded my hosting plan. There was also a major WordPress update that took place at the same time, which affected traffic for a ton of users. Either way, my traffic bounced back stronger than ever.

My single highest traffic day in March was actually above my daily target for 2019, which is very exciting. I’m nowhere near hitting it daily, but it was neat to hit it at all. I averaged 1,650 daily views in March, a significant jump up from my average of 1,550 daily views in February.

After the slow start, except for the one really great traffic weekend, March traffic was fairly steady. Free Spring Printables Roundup and April Showers Bring May Flowers Baby Shower continued to get great views this past month. Easter Dinner Menu Ideas did well in March but hasn’t spiked like it did last year, I think largely because Easter is so late this year. We’ll see how it does in April.

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 March, I maintained a consistent three posts per week schedule with the following evergreen posts: Spring Mantel Inspiration, 30 Healthy Ramen Noodle Recipes, Spring Embroidery Hoop Wreath Decor, 10 Myths About Open Adoption Debunked, Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Chicken Sausage and Vegetables, Floral Baby Shower Inspiration, How to Make New Paper Look Old: Tested Techniques, 10 Simple DIY Birthday Cards, and Non-Alcoholic Drinks for Easter.
Maintain consistent social sharing, particularly for high traffic and seasonal posts. I have been keeping up with social shares for new posts and seasonal posts. I haven’t been keeping up with social sharing for other posts. This time of year, I have a ton of Easter and general spring posts circulating and don’t want to saturate my feed with my own content too heavily.

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
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 March 2019 with 4,980 Pinterest followers. The beginning of the month was slow, I guess because Pinterest was cleaning out spam accounts. My numbers actually dropped the whole first week of March before they started to climb steadily again. It definitely wasn’t just me. I started watching a few other accounts after it happened and saw the same thing. After that, growth was consistent. I ended the month just above my April target, so I’m in great shape right now.

If I start pulling a couple of months ahead of my target, I may think about adjusting this goal. For now, I’m happy to keep meeting it solidly every month.

My Pinterest engagement dropped way back into my January range before it started climbing back the last week and a half of March. This is not unusual. I expect to continue to always see this type of fluctuation in Pinterest engagement.

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 officially available for pre-order! Reserve your copy on Amazon today. In March, I worked hard to finalize the cover design and edit the book. I got a ton of amazing feedback on the cover from my Instagram and Facebook followers and a ton of amazing feedback on the book itself from some fabulous fellow lady bloggers. Thank you everyone! I am so proud of this book. Finetuning the cover and content took it that last 10% from great to polished and professional.

Needless to say, finishing up Blog Photography Hacks for a spring release was a high priority in March. I have leaked the fact that I’m actually working on a third ebook right now as well. It took a bit of a backseat this month as I finished up Blog Photography Hacks. I’ll be picking up steam again on ebook #3 as we move into April.

Publish one article per week on Constant Content.

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

Essential Workout Tips for Better Running on the Beach
Tips for Overcoming Dental Anxiety
How to Create a Welcoming Front Porch
Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Flying

I had one sale in March: the February 2019 article Get Your Backyard Ready for Outdoor Entertaining for a total of $57.20.

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. Ordered and displayed 8×10 framed prints and 4×6 unframed prints for my hanging kitchen display. In progress on book part II.
September 2018 – Montana (haven’t finished editing) In progress with editing.
October 2018 – Washington D.C. (haven’t finished editing) Finished editing.

In March, I got Mediterranean cruise prints ordered for my hanging kitchen display and an 8×10 frame display in our upstairs hallway and got all the prints up. I also finished editing the October 2018 Washington D.C. set. I’m hoping to wrap up editing with the September 2018 Montana set in April. Then I’ll be able to focus on the remaining photo books and hopefully move on to clearing out some other older photos as well.

Current editing

Currently, I have everything backed up and cleared out through mid-January and have finished editing everything through mid-February. The only outstanding winter folders are ebook #3 and future blog post shoots. March was a fairly light shooting month (especially after February). I’m not in terrible shape but am hoping to catch up a bit in April.