what to expect on the blog this year!
When I started this blog I had no goals in mind and I didn’t even have a solid plan. I just jumped in with a why not 🙂 I wanted to take it slow and build up a comfortable flow. I still want to take it slow and it only took me a year to build up a flow that I am comfortable with, so I come up with a plan and/or schedule for what to expect on my blog in the next 12 months and a run down of some goals and things I want to see happen and new features I want to introduce….
So here are a few of my Resolutions for 2014:
• Get my Netgalley Ratio to 80% (this I have been working on since last year)
• Be more social on Twitter – I’m not very good socially I don’t know why, I love to talk to people but sometimes it just takes me a bit to get started.
• Visit my favorite blogs more often, at least comment 2 times a week if not more (I usually visit most of your blogs but I don’t comment often I’m kind of stalking right now I want to be more interactive and less stalker lol)
• MORE REVIEWS! I would like to do at least 5 or 6 a month (might be wishful thinking but I am determined to give more reviews this year)
• I love promoting books and I do love hosting book blitzes so I want to promote more books and authors whether through my Author Spotlight feature or through tour groups
• I might take less Review tours this year and focus more on spotlights/guest posts/cast/etc. (unless a review is for a book I really want to read)
• I want to try doing interviews this year (I haven’t done one on my own yet)
• I want to add more New Adult and Contemporary reads to my Reading list just for a bit of a change (suggestions?)
• HAVE FUN! I think this is what tends to happen to most people we get so stress about posting and the demand to read so many books that we forget to have fun, it’s why we started doing this in the first place 🙂
I feature a few posts on my blog that will be staying I don’t think I will be getting rid of since I am quite fond of them.
My TBR List (on Saturdays) ~ Featuring one book from My TBR list
Week in READ-view/The Sunday Post (on Sundays) ~ Talks about the week on and off the blog
Author Spotlight (any day) ~ Featuring an author and their book – click HERE for more details, I actually want to make this a weekly feature – once a week on a Thursday or Friday (working on those details soon)
New Posts:
Monthly Rewind ~ This will be the last day of every month regardless of when it falls that will say all the books I read and a recap of the posts for the month. This will start officially at the end of Feb but I might do a practice one at the end of this month to get a feel for what I want included and how to lay it out.
Just A Random Post~ It’s just a random post about other stuff or books. For example if I go to the movies or if I make a yummy meal I just have to share, this will be the place I will do it. I don’t have a day for it and like it says it will be just random it could appear at anytime during the month once or twice even more or I might pick a day for it to post
Talking Books with Ryan and Julia ~ My son wants to do reviews with me and I am delighted to have him and my daughter give me input on the books they read or I read to them, so I will come up with a list of questions for them and do it in interview format. I actually thought it might be cute to do a vine/instagram video of them for each question but I am still working it out only because those are rather short and my son can talk, This feature will most likely be once a month since it’s hard to get the iPads away from them long enough for them to read a book with me 🙂
Up for a Challenge:
Besides co-hosting COYER with Berls from Fantasy is More Fun, I also want to participate in more challenges so if anyone knows of any good challenge I am open to suggestions 🙂
Doing the Hop:
I love Blog hops I find them to be so much fun and you can get some awesome stuff. I want to participate in more of them, which will go with the next update…
Giveaways:
I want to host a giveaway a least once a month on the blog besides the ones that come with tours and blitzes maybe in my Monthly Rewind…I’ll keep you posted on this.
Also something New is on the top tab it’s called Limabean Design, now I can’t really do an entire blog redesign (yet) I can do logos, headers or backgrounds on Blogger or WordPress. I can also do cover pics for FB and Twitter so if you are interested and once I have all the details filled out in the tab I hope you will consider looking me up if you are interested in some design work. Pricing and Artwork is still a work in progress but if you are interested now feel free to email me (limabean74@aol.com) and we can work something out 🙂
So I believe that is it for now as far as what is to come in 2014 seems like a lot but I just want a more active blog with a lot more fun stuff and reviews plus interactions with more bloggers and people who love the same stuff (books) as I do 🙂
Awesome goals! I'm super excited about you doing the reviews with your kids, I always adore when kids speak up about reading! And love the logos you did here – once you get more details let me know and I'll run some sort of promo for/with you on my blog. So excited!
Thank you! So excited about the kids reviews, I know Julia will do just fine but Ryan is a different story as much as he wants to it hard to get him to focus (you know why) so it might be a challenge but i am always up for one 🙂
I am excited about the design part, I want to add book covers too but my self confidence is lacking at the moment. Trying to build up the nerve to realize I
These are wonderful goals! I heard so much about switching to wordpress, but you know…I have no idea how to do HTML, CSS, etc. My header was made by a friend and while I'd like to change it up a bit, it took me hours to set up my stupid little design. lol
I, too, have decided to take less review tours and more spotlights/promos/reveals. My netgalley ratio is HORRENDOUS, so that
I can always help you if you need it. I did my blog and It might not be the "professional" way it works for me at the moment. I can even add CSS for you. Let me know, seriously!!!
I can't even explain my Ratio. I am hoping coyer helps with that this year as well as not taking so many reviews and focusing on the Year of Netgalley 🙂
Good luck with your goals! I will be curious to hear about your move to wordpress or if you have any recommendations on tutorials about moving there and keeping your SEO and whatnot.
I am a nervous wreck to switch, I am so scared I am going to mess it up and lose everything. I am taking a WordPress class in April, I might wait until then.
Great goals Michelle! I'm with you…I jumped into blogging with no idea what I wanted to accomplish and I'd actually never visited any blogs prior to creating mine. I think having fun and doing it on your own terms are the best things to do. 🙂 I look forward to seeing what you do this year!
Thank you! I try to visit blogs as much as possible now but I also never visited before which now I feel like I was missing out 🙂
I hope I'm not being to ambitious but I am loving some of my ideas and if they work, great and if not, oh well as least I tried lol