There’s Something About A New year✨

2021 doesn’t quite have that new year feeling, but that can be expected in the aftermath of 2020. Even so, it’s refreshing to look back on my year in blogging, and look ahead at where I’ll be taking the blog in this new year.

A Brief Look Back

Stats and Engagement

In my 2019 Blogging Review I talked about how although I’ve been blogging since late 2014, 2017 was the year I chose to really focus on book blogging. Due to having my department cut at work in February of 2020 (unrelated to the pandemic), getting ghosted after one job interview (out of about 40 positions I applied to over the last ten months), and being quarantined, I’ve had more time to work on my blog this year than any other. I got a little more consistent with posting, took more time to blog hop and discover more book blogs, bookstagrammers, and booktubers, and was able to partake in some great blog tours. And as such, at the halfway point of the year, I saw that it was feasible to reach the 10,000 view mark I had reached in 2018 (for the first time). In November it became apparent that I would exceed that 10,440 view milestone, and am thrilled to see, thanks to all of you, my blog had 11,872 views in 2020.

Looking at that metric and looking back on my first years of blogging—when my yearly view count was about the same as the views I received almost every month this year—gives me a lot of joy. Even more so than usual, I think, because there has been an exponential amount of  joyless moments over the course of 2020. What I want to say is thank you for spending time reading my blog posts, writing comments, and sharing my content on Twitter. I really appreciate you taking time to take in the thoughts, projects, and photos I work so hard to organize and publish here.

I’m also happy to have gained 95 followers over the course of the year; that a total of 570 people considered my words to be worth pressing “follow” for is incredibly encouraging. And over on bookstagram, 60 new followers added me to their ‘following’ list.

For those of you who started following There’s Something About KM in 2020, I’m glad you’re here; I have a lot of great things planned for the new year. And for those of you who have stuck around since 2019, 2018, 2017, and/or earlier, I’m so very glad you’re still here – thank you for the conversations, likes, advice, and feedback. I hope you are all excited for another year of books and miscellany! 😊

Now, What’s In STore for There’s Something About KM In 2020?

Ads

Now that I have consistently reached at least 1,000 views for the past few months, I can implement ads on my site. I’m still researching and learning about the options, but if I can make a little money through ads on my blog, I’m going to do so.

Aesthetic and Back End Details

Although I devoted a lot of time to my blog in the past year, there are two important components I sort of neglected. Back in 2019, I had an issue with my then-blog host, which led to my site being down and needing to make quick decisions about its look to get it back up. Since then, I’ve done little to get my blog looking the way I want it to, but this needs to be a priority for the beginning of the year. I also lost a lot of photos in the 2019 debacle, and need to re-upload or retake them so the related posts are presentable again.

Engaging, Planning, Organization

These three things are always on my blogging goals/plans list, and this year is no exception. I want to engage much more with the blogs and people I’ve found through blogging, and to help with organizing my time and planning posts, I’m going to work harder to stick to a schedule by time blocking. When I do stick to such a schedule I am quite productive; this will be the year I make it a habit. Of course, what exactly 2021 has in store is a bit ambiguous, so I’m also totally willing to adapt to however I’m feeling and, fingers crossed, to a potentially busier schedule related to employment.

Reading Goals

These relate to my blogging goals because, of course, this is a book blog. I will be posting my 2021 reading plans tomorrow, so stay tuned.

And for now, that is all for my 2020 Review and 2021 Blogging Goals. Have you set any goals or made any 2021 resolutions – blogging, reading, personal? Feel free to share them in a comment below.

And once again, thank you hundreds of times over for being here. I’m thankful to be going into a new year with you; I hope you have a fruitful January, and wish you the very best in 2021. 🎉

-Kelsey