We all love setting ourselves goals and the sense of euphoria we get when we achieve them. Recently, this is something I've found myself thinking about quite a lot and a recurring theme over on my social medias.
I've recently started following a lot more bloggers online and something I've noticed is how much people care. Don't get me wrong, if someone messaged me saying they hated my writing, I'd care about that but a lot of people check their stats daily, check their followers daily and post incessantly about their statistics and their next goal.
I found myself wondering, is this normal? I don't do this, maybe I just don't follow the social norms. When I'm close to a big milestone (GUYS, I'M SO CLOSE TO 300 SUBSCRIBERS AND 20,000 VIEWS ON YOUTUBE), I will keep an eye on them until I reach that target and then not check them again for a few weeks.
I've found that my blog and my YouTube grow naturally, and tend to grow more when I promote my stats less. If I focus more on content and quality, promoting my posts and interacting with others, I know my following increases on its own.
The other day, someone tweeted, "I got 100 page views in a day for the first time since I started blogging" and then another person replied, "I've been blogging for 3 months longer than you and I've never had that, what am I doing wrong?". Let me answer that question for you: nothing. Are you enjoying yourself? Are you enjoying creating the content you're making? Are you proud of what you're doing? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
I'm quite sensitive with what I post as I would never want anyone to feel like they should be achieving a certain amount of views by this date and a certain amount of followers by this point because there are no guidelines, there are no rules but just remember there are thousands of bloggers out there, all trying to make it like you are.
This post is sounding really negative but that's not what I wanted at all. What I wanted you all to know is: you're doing good. If you've had a blog for 5 years and you're getting 10 views a day: well done for keeping up with something for so long and keeping a few people engaged. If you've had a blog for 5 days and you're getting 100 views a day: well done for creating a following for your blog so quickly and I hope it lasts a long time.
Views, followers, subscribers, they don't make us any better than the next blogger. People keep saying to me, "you're so good to small bloggers, promoting them is so nice of you"; I promote good content. If I like what I see, I promote it, I don't care if you have 0 followers or 10,000 followers - you're all bloody awesome and we should all be proud of what we've achieved already. No matter how big or how small.
I am so thankful to everyone that reads and enjoys my blog. You brighten up my day but if you suddenly all stopped reading, I'd still keep blogging, it's one of my favourite things to do and I couldn't imagine not tapping away at my laptop every few days.
Wherever you want to be with your blog, you'll get there. Just keep going and enjoy every minute of it.
Let's share our goals in the comments below and help our fellow bloggers achieve them!
What's yours?
My goal is to keep my blog going and growing until the new year when I hope I build the confidence to start a YouTube channel properly :) also to talk to more bloggers outside of the book community because I'd love to read more genres of blog 💜
ReplyDeleteI love this one, you'll know I'll help however I can. Totally agree with reading more genres, I'm so accustomed to YA now, I rarely try anything else 💜
DeleteThis is a wonderful post Zoe. I do post about hitting goals as I'm really proud when I do, but I'd never want to make anyone feel bad about theirs, as I know how awful it can feel. Amy xxx
ReplyDeleteEveryone does lovely, it makes me so happy seeing how happy YOU get when you hit them xxx
DeleteI'm always so thrilled! Xxx
DeleteIn answer to your question, my current goal is to hit 100 followers on my blog, as I've just today achieved my goal of having 75, which I can hardly believe. When I started I didn't think anyone would read my posts, so I'm trying to remember that every view is more than what I'd ever dreamed of xx
ReplyDeleteI'm going to keep retweeting your fabulous blog on Twitter, I bet you hit it by the end of the week :) You're doing amazing xxx
DeleteThat's so lovely of you Zoe, thank you so much xxx
DeleteI'm trying not to care too much, but atm I think it's just the hype from starting my blog, in a months time I probably won't be looking as closely at my stats unless I'm close to a big one like you said (atleast I hope that's what's gonna happen ahaha, who knows :P)
ReplyDeleteYou're wonderful. I didn't really have a goal other than write something someone wants to read. I kept an embarrassing old blog for aboit 2 years with 3 whole readers but I loved it.
ReplyDeleteYou're wonderful. I didn't really have a goal other than write something someone wants to read. I kept an embarrassing old blog for aboit 2 years with 3 whole readers but I loved it.
ReplyDelete