Blogger Progress Report: One Month On

So here we are again for my second Blogger Progress Report, we made it! But how was it? Now before you start getting curious about any numbers, I have to remind you that my blog is only a hobby, so only expenditure will be disclosed as there are no incomings. We started off my first Blogger Progress report by talking about aesthetics, so we'll jump back in there.

Last month I set myself a goal that by the end of September I would have everything on my blog looking exactly how I wanted it to. This mainly involved either deleting old posts or creating new and improved title images for them. To be honest, I have not finished yet because I'm a perfectionist, but also because I have actually had less time than I thought I would, even in between a full-time job and a month packed full of trips. Realistically, if I want to complete this goal, I will have to make it a priority soon. So, what have I been spending my time on?

On the 9th September I came up with an idea for a collaborative blog page where other bloggers/readers can send me their travel recommendations and get credited for it if I end up there. It's called Recommend A Location and it's active on the blog - but it hasn't seen much action even though it is getting views. I completely understand that I have to gain some sort of reputation before people start thinking of me to come to with their ideas, so I am going to keep going with it and try to earn that. If you are interested, please take a look at the page and see if there's anything you could add 😊. I also added an interactive map on my Meet The Author page which displays everywhere I've been and plan to go, so I'm super proud of that!

It's no secret that Twitter is my favourite blogging tool when it comes to promotion, far more than Pinterest or Instagram or any other social media. Twitter is always where I've had my biggest following, and as I don't have an e-mail list yet (I'm not sure if I ever will), Twitter is the place I really need to reign those views in and engage with other bloggers. Although 'follow for follows' have been tempting to me in the past, now that I am older I don't feel ashamed of only following the blogs or accounts that I actually want to follow. Sure, I have to put in more graft to get more followers or retweets, but that's the way it is! As long as I have a steady stream of people reading my blog, I am honestly not too concerned about follower numbers. By participating in Twitter comment threads, I find that I am keeping my daily read count between 50-80 views a day, which is well over my first month target of 50.

If you read my last Blogger Progress Report you will know that I was not too impressed by the fact that you have to tell Blogger to not count your own page views every single time you visit your own site. This got so annoying that I did eventually get Google Analytics up and running, but now I'm more confused than ever. For example: on the 9th September, Google Analytics tells me I got 178 page views from 6 users??? Blogger Stats tells me I got 80 page views, which sounds more realistic to me. Getting reliable stats is proving to be a problem but I don't really know how to solve it! Do you guys trust Google Analytics with your stats?

Although it is hard to discuss achievements without reliable stats, if Blogger is to be trusted then I will hit 10k all-time views next week. I really wanted to do a giveaway, but there wasn't much of a demand on Twitter when I posted. Still though I am so excited to hit this milestone and do some kind of personal celebration. Another achievement is that I did my first full blog post with only images from the new Canon, called Visiting the Heart of Steel. My two best performing blog posts have been 10 Amazing Places My DNA Links Me To and My Favourite Travel Planning Apps (So Far).

Things with the camera are going very well & Josh and I can't wait for you to see what we create in Croatia and Montenegro. We do find that our Canon EOS M50 runs out of life fast, so we may have to invest in a second battery. It gets used almost every other day between my photography and Josh doing the face-cam for his YouTube videos, so it will be worth the money undoubtedly. When that's sorted, I'd love to start doing fun little vlogs to embed into my travel posts! Since we bought our camera we haven't invested in anything else blogging-wise, which still keeps my expenditure at £0!

What would you like to see next from MB Blog?