LifecanbetoffLast August, I set out My Blogger Goals and quickly surpassed that and provided an update, ahead of time, in September in Blog Goals update.
8 months on, and as we have entered spring – the season of newness and growth, I wanted to provide another update as well as set out some personal goals for the season and year ahead.
Life can be Toff!
Firstly, the biggest change to the blog has been the introduction of my logo. As promised, Mogwai Media not only provided me with the logo from my brief, but it surpassed all my expectations. Using a photograph I’d taken that summer of my favourite flower, they recreated it into a logo which fitted in perfectly with how I imagined my “brand” to look.
The creation of the logo provided Life can be Toff with a professional edge, it went from being a hobby blog to being a serious brand. As a result, I edited my website and went from dark and dull hobby blog, to clean and fresh professional website.
I can’t thank Dave and Sam enough for their hard work which inspired the change.
Blog
We’ve heard a little about what has changed in terms of appearance, but I have future goals for Life can be Toff.
One of those is to go self-hosted. At the moment, I’m still very much in research stage, but know that if I want to be taken more seriously, I have to become a serious looking website with my own domain.
This will enable me to build a Domain Authority (DA) which is something some PR agencies and brands look for when wanting to work with blogs.
It’s still all very new to me, so I won’t even try to explain what it is in depth, my understanding is that Domain Authority, or DA, is how your website is ranked on a search engine, the higher your DA, the higher ranked you are on search engines.
Improving DA
At the moment, I have what is a “false” DA because of my wordpress.com domain – this meaning that DA checking websites are picking up on the wordpress DA and not my own.
There is some work to go into self-hosting and it does come at a small fee, but as the year goes on, Life can be Toff will become it’s own domain.
This does mean that if you follow me on WordPress, you will need to follow me on my new site and the following that I’ve built up on the wordpress.com host will be lost – however, as much as I love the guys that follow me on wordpress you are in short supply which does make the move slightly easier and less impactful on my numbers.
Unfortunately, the giveaway I had planned fell through, but I do hope to do something surrounding this in the summer, perhaps to celebrate the new domain and website.
I’d be excited to hear from brands who would look to work together on a giveaway that fits in with Life can be Toff. Email me if you think you have something that will work!
Blog Followers: 42
I may reach my target of 50 before I swap over, I’m pleased with the increase but on the other hand if I’m changing over and you don’t wish to follow me to the new site, then I won’t have lost a huge following.
More regular posts have seen my monthly page views increase and I’m now seeing around 240 page views a month – not groundbreaking but makes it seem all that more worthwhile.
Facebook has been a slow burner for me and my new followers has plateaued since Christmas and my Handmade Christmas Gift Guide post which did gain me a few new followers.
I’m currently at 77 of 100 followers since my last update.
My understanding is though, that Facebook isn’t the best tool for bloggers. I keep plugging away at it though and should really make more effort to post daily.
Wow – my Twitter following has skyrocketed since my last post.
279 as of August and now I have 715. By this September, I’d love to say that I’m at 1000 followers on Twitter.
I regularly take part in various Twitter Hours which helps grow my following. I did start to take part in some “follow trains” but quickly found that these are a great way for you to follow loads of other bloggers, that don’t always follow you back. Shame – as they have the basis there to be potentially great ways to find new bloggers.
I find the follow/unfollow trend extremely frustrating!
I find Twitter incredibly useful as a blogging tool and find that a majority of my site visits, come from Twitter links.
My monthly impressions are around 25k with my most popular tweets being about books and cars. Something I’m considering posting more blog pieces about!
I took part in my first Instameet at Painswick Rococo Gardens with the Cotswold Bloggers and Influencers, Cotswolds Tourism and Visit England.
The theme was Spring – and on a snowy Saturday, it felt like anything but! However, it was a great opportunity for me to meet with some fellow bloggers and take part in English Tourism Week. I’ll no doubt be heading back to Painswick Rococo Gardens later in the spring/summer when the garden will be at it’s full potential.
Instagram Followers: 315 up from 175 when I last posted.
I continue to pin like mad on Pinterest and have started to post my blog posts there as a part of the course. This has prompted some visits to the website – my increased activity has however seen my following go up and my daily impressions look relatively good.
I’m yet to see the staggering referrals to my blog that some are claiming they get through Pinterest, but I enjoy using it and am willing to give it a bit more of a try – perhaps when I have my own domain I will see the referrals improve.
Working with brands, blog collaborations and turning “professional” blogger
Since my last update, I’ve done a couple of blogger spotlight style interviews, I was December’s Blogger of the Month for Cotswold Bloggers and Influencers and also featured on My Random Musings in October.
Looking back through my blog posts, I’ve worked on a number of brands and day’s out with companies since my last blog goals and it’s something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I’m looking to expand on the day’s out I currently find enjoyable to do and look more in-depth at weekend breaks, holiday cottages (having written a piece for work on holiday lets it gave me the desire to want to do more of this in my blog) and also get into book reviews. This is something else which has motivated me into researching my own domain and self-hosting.
I’ve even gone so far as to create a media pack – something I understand the serious bloggers have when a brand or PR agency approaches them. At the moment, whilst it looks like a great piece of work, put together using Canva, the following and statistics don’t really sell the blog all that well, so for now, I’m continuing with using good old fashioned email to sell myself as someone that will provide a well thought out, honest review of products and services.
Future plans
I’ve thought long and hard about where I’d like to take the blog in the future and a range of quirky stationery and slogan T-shirts and jumpers is where my mind keeps heading back.
When I have the following, and the capital to pursue this avenue further, you guys will be the first to know!
At home
There have been a lot of changes at home too, I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve moved. This has provided me with a lot more free time to pursue other hobbies, which at the moment I’m still trying to find.
Several hours were spent over the bank holiday weekend researching DIY projects, as I have grown fond of buying bargain furniture for my new flat which requires a little tender loving care. I have a lot of vision but not a lot of confidence in my abilities – I hope that my next post will be a DIY/Craft style post (something else I’m keen to explore more on the blog) with a lovingly upcycled piece of furniture and not a total disaster zone which ends up being thrown out the window! Watch this space!
Staying at home, my spare bedroom is still showing the signs of being the room everything got dumped in when I moved in, my office or blog hub as I wish it to be, needs some love and attention so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I want it to look like. I just need to get off my arse and do some major clear out – the move prompted a big clear up of clutter, but I did manage to also keep a lot so I need to be even more ruthless than before.
Let’s be honest
One of the downsides of my move, is that I’m no longer doing the 3/4 miles per day and 9 miles per weekend day pottering doing work for my landlords. The result of this, has meant that I’ve gained a “wee” bit of weight.
Now Easter is out of the way and all temptation has been removed (by removed I mean eaten) I have set to improve my eating habits and factor in more exercise into my daily routine in an effort to lose weight. I don’t have a specific target in mind, I’m just going to take it day by day, think of it more of a lifestyle change than a diet.
I’m hoping that by writing down my daily calorie intake I’m less likely to splurge on biscuits and chocolate. Especially since giving up the biscuits for lent I’ve made up for it by eating almost an entire months supply in one weekend!
Photography
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, now I have the time and that the days are longer – and maybe when it finally stops snowing/raining I’m going to get out there and take more photographs. I always take photos with my iPhone, but I really want to take more professional looking shots with my camera. It’s not some fancy DSLR but it’s a start, I don’t consider myself a bad photographer, but I could improve and the only way to do that is to get out there and start taking photos!
I have the time now – no excuse! I should even take the camera with me on my new found exercise regime!
So, there we have it, some Spring motivation! What spring plans do you have in store for you? Do you have any goals you wish to reach before the summer?
Happy Spring everyone!
Peace out!
Jangles x
Definitely a good idea to go self-hosted early on, I kept putting it off until I was 4 years in and a theme change meant I had to resize 1500 photos – not fun! Re the WordPress subscribers, if you use the Jetpack plugin for WordPress.org you can transfer them over so your posts still show up in the WordPress.com feed as well and you won’t lose your existing ones.
Oh that’s really helpful I didn’t realise there was such a thing, I thought I’d lose my followers! I think the reason I keep putting it off is I’m scared it will go wrong and I’d lose everything! Lots more reading up required I think!
LOVE all the goals you’ve set and it’s amazing to see your hard work start to pay off! I’m self hosted now after being on Blogger and it is so much better. Its also a lot easier than I thought it would be!
In terms of selling products and using your media kit, don’t think about the followers and just go for it. Products will draw more people to your blog which will mean more followers. Also, numbers aren’t everything. When using blogger, I had less followers than you now and worked with companies like Next and Debenhams so don’t let your follower count hold you back!
A lot more people read your blog than you may think. I follow your blog on an RSS reader ♡ I’m excited to see where your blog takes you!
Thank you! That’s a really inspiring and uplifting response. Thank you for your support, it means a lot Kim x