GOAL #2  FINISH MY BOOK BECAUSE OF BLOGGING BY JUNE 30

That goal bombed 100%. I did not devote one minute to achieving it.

GOAL #3 GET OUT A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER USING MAIL CHIMP – HALFWAY THERE

Six out of 12 campaigns have gone out. I learned how to segment my list and target my audience. My open rates went from the low 20% range to the high 30% range. I cleaned up my email list then manually added to my Mail Chimp list from my email list and doubled the number of recipients. As of June 17, I have 258 on my email list. None of my call to action opt-ins on my blog has added many subscribers to my list, however.

I feel more comfortable using Mail Chimp now, and I have another new volunteer job creating the newsletter for the church every month. I wanted to complete a  lesson PDF & video or podcast for my Virtual Assistant training, but I did not get that done.

GOAL # 4 WRITE ONE AUSTRALIA OR TRAVEL POST EVERY WEEK – OOPS

That was my goal in January. I have been back from visiting my two blogging friends, Carol and Leanne, in Australia six months on June 26th. In the last twelve weeks, I have posted only two articles about Australia. To meet my goal, I would have to write nearly one post a day. I could do that by following Photo Challenge themes and posting no more than 500-word posts. It was a trip of a lifetime, and I owe an unrepayable debt to Carol and Leanne.

I set new specific goals in April.

• One longer post on Australia every two weeks. My posts on the Fairy Tree in Melbourne and the Botanical Gardens in Ballarat fulfills two of the six requirements here.

• One quick Australia post a week Fun Fotos or Odd Ball Fotos or flowers – not done

GOAL #5 WRITE ONE BLOGGING OR WRITING POST A WEEK ON – TARGET

In twelve weeks I’ve published ten articles which pertain to blogging or writing. So I need two more after this one.

GOAL #6 ONE A+ BOOK REVIEW A WEEK – DONE

In twelve weeks I have eleven posts published, and one more read waiting to write. I have reached out to more indie writers and responded to more authors who have emailed me. One-third of the articles are guest posts.

GOAL #7 INCREASE TWITTER TO 3,000 FOLLOWERS BY JUNE 30 – STILL WORKING

Twitter followers rose from 852 on Dec. 31, to 1,625 on March 31 to 2,289 on June 23,

GOAL #8 INCREASE FB TO 400 FOLLOWERS BY JUNE 30 – ALMOST THERE

Facebook offered me what I thought was a free boost. It turned out that it cost $50.00, but I increased”Likes” to 380 from 281. So in seven days I still need 20 more Facebook fans. Want to help me get there?

GOAL #9 INCREASE INSTAGRAM TO 200 BY JUNE 30 – DONE

Instagram is at 221. I am following 517 and have 362 posts.

GOAL #10 INCREASE GOOGLE+ TO 300 BY JUNE 30

Google + hovers at 257. It has increased by four followers since I checked at the end of first quarter.

GOAL #11 INCREASE FOLLOWERS OF TRAVELING & BLOGGING NEAR AND FAR TO 3,000 BY JUNE 30 –  DONE

On June 23. Traveling & Blogging Near and Far stands at  3,036 Seventy-two new fans have registered through WP Reader since April My five-year-old blog hosts 761 published posts and has had over 80,000 views. Its most views ever was almost one year ago on July 20 when I published an article about a famous place to eat in Woodlake, CA called Woodlake Drive-In.

I set more ambitious goals on April 1 for articles I wanted to publish on this site. I did not write the two articles I intended to write about Sedona, but I wrote two different articles. Celebrate Spring in Sedona with a Layer of Cottonwood “Snow” and Resort Walk Reveals 15 Top Things to Love

• Sedona Courthouse & Bell Rock Walk

• Chapel of the Holy Cross Walk

• Businesses in Woodlake My posts Cruz-ta-Welding about Yosemite with Art By Linda fulfills this less specific goal.
• The best way to increase followers for a hobby blog is to visit bloggers. So I set a goal to visit 182 by June 30 (57 at May 24).

GOAL #12 INCREASE FOLLOWERS OF ALWAYS WRITE TO 1,500 BY JUNE 30

This statistic measures the number of members who register on WordPress.com Reader. It has grown much slower. Eleven new WP readers have enrolled in three months. However, I haven’t asked people to sign up through the WP reader at all. Would you if I asked?  Always Write registered 3,192 views on WP since April 1st.

Google Analytic (GA) also measures statistics.

Traveling and Blogging Near and Far does not have this option. It comes with the business plan which includes the option to use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics offers interesting statistics. For example, over 87% of visitors to Always Write are new. A high percentage of new visitors might mean that either, the site doesn’t offer what people think it is going to offer or it offers it, they get it and they leave. That is what I do when I research. GA measures Bounce Rate, which has improved 40% in Spain! Thanks, Ralph! Thirty-six percent of visitors type in the URL or bookmarked the URL for Always Write. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me if only thirteen percent of visitors are return visitors. Fifty-seven percent of viewers come from YOUR referrals. Thank you! Google Analytics does not tell me who sends them or I would thank you in person.

That said, over 65% of views come from Facebook and 22% come from Twitter. I work hard at publicizing through Facebook, so that must have paid off. On my Facebook Page, I share many of my posts with different blogging groups.

If you would LIKE or FOLLOW my Facebook Page, I’ll send you a free copy of all the groups where I publicize that accept blog posts. Janice Wald of Mostly Blogging recommended about half of the groups I’ve joined.

I also set additional somewhat measurable goals for this site in April.

• Fix comment section –  can’t do according to Daniel

• Host a link party – didn’t try to do this

• Visit and feature Networking Bloggers & new contacts – featured about 15 of the 84 members before I quit doing this.

• Site Ground – Not sure whether I meant an article or a banner. Three Reasons to Switch Hosting to SiteGround

• Grammarly Not sure whether I meant an article or a banner. How to Get the Most from the Free Grammarly Service 

• Divi – didn’t get to this

• MailChimp/ Newsletters –  How to Quit Monkeying Around with Mail Chimp

GOAL #13 TRAIN A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL

• Hire two students to update Amazon, alt tags, in Traveling & Blogging – NOT DONE We have started training, though.

• Assign other duties as needed, for example, Photoshop resizing and filing pictures for posts – STARTED

• Create beautiful cards, calendars, etc. – FINISHED THE TRANSFORMATIONAL BLOGGING JOURNAL

• Resize Canva pictures was a low priority unless I go on Pinterest – ISAIAH LEARNED, THIS, DAVID DID NOT

• Keep Buffer full – not meeting often enough THEY KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.

SUMMARY

What I did not finish did not surprise me. It astounded me that I wrote as many posts as I did. My biggest joy this quarter was training David and Isaiah, two reticent students who whispered about an assignment due in Chemistry like it was a big secret. While it helped get a bit of work done, it created hours of work. However, now I have more training products I can use as giveaways or sell.

Now I realize how large and unmeasurable my biggest goal #1 was. If I am serious about monetizing, I think I need help or training to do it.

Next quarter I will set different goals to measure my blogs using Google Analytics for Always Write.

There must be a better way to increase newsletter sign ups. After launching several campaigns, I enjoy them now, but I HATE pop-up ads, and if that is the only way to get people to sign up, then I need to figure out something else.

Blogging is still my love but it sure has changed! I spend much more time refining my articles, marketing and training my virtual assistants than spontaneously writing articles about my life and visiting other bloggers.

The focus on others rather than merely spitting out what I’m doing adds a rewarding and fulfilling dimension to blogging, and I think it’s improved my writing.