The Outcome of Last Month’s Goals and an Announcement

{Items available for sale in our Etsy shop}

In case you haven’t heard, we’re having a holiday shopping sale in our Etsy shop this week. Until Friday at 5pm EST, you’ll receive 25% off when you use the code: HAPPYHOLIDAYS at checkout. You’ll also receive 5 handmade gift tags and 1 balsa wood postcard with your order {limit one per customer}.

Before you run off to shop, I’ve got something else to share:

Near the end of October, I wrote a post outlining my goals for the rest of that month and November. I also said that I’d share the results with you. Since, it’s the last day of the month, I thought I’d share how I did, along with some tips for you. Here we go:

1. Write 20 guest posts.

I’ve written 18 guest posts. Most have already been published, but a few will be published in the next couple weeks. So, I came close to reaching this goal.

I wanted to write guest posts to get myself in front of new audiences and build up my readership. It worked.

Tip: If you want to write guest posts, pick a blog that your target audience reads but doesn’t directly compete with your products. For instance, if you sell handmade baby bags, you might guest post on a mommy blog. Pitch the author of the blog your idea for the guest post, and wait for her response. If she says yes, write the best guest post possible. If she says no, move on to another blog.

2. Interview 4 artists/crafters and post those podcasts.

I hate to say that I didn’t make this a priority. I interviewed 1 person, a professional photographer. It was a lot of fun and really interesting, so I definitely want to do more interviews. But, I think I might have to put this off until January.

Tip: If you want to interview others in your niche, try to start with someone you know. The professional photographer that we interviewed was a close family friend.

3. Sell 20 items from our Etsy shop.

I’m so happy to say that we exceeded this goal!

Tip: If you want to increase your Etsy sells, you need to list or relist items regularly and focus on taking out-freaking-standing pictures.

4. Launch our first online product.

We accomplished this by launching our first class that teaches you how to make fiber art bracelets.

Tip: Check out Dave Navarro’s website, The Launch Coach, for lots of juicy information on launching online products.

5. Gain 100 more blog and newsletter subscribers.

I far surpassed 100 more blog and newsletter subscribers. Woohoo!

Tip: If you want to increase your readership, make sure you provide valuable content in every post you publish. If you do this, people will be more likely to share your content which will increase your readership.

6. Publish two free ebooks.

I published one free ebook—I’ve got the material already written for the second ebook, but I haven’t compiled it yet. So, I met half of this goal.

Tip: Use content that you’ve already written for your first free ebook. Many of your readers won’t dig through your archives, so if you have a lot of related content in your archives compile it into an easy-to-read ebook.

7. Continue to post 5 times per week on Blacksburg Belle.

I was able to keep this pace except for two days, so I’d say I pretty much accomplished this goal.

Tip: Set blog posting goals, try to stay consistent, but adjust as you go along.

Announcement

I’m working on some big projects—and in order for me to keep moving forward on those projects, provide amazing content in every blog post, and guest post, I’m going to cut my blog posting schedule to 3 days per week. I’ll post on Blacksburg Belle Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And, this will start next week.

I’m doing this in an effort to work on my top priorities. Don’t get me wrong. Blogging is one of my top priorities, and that’s why I’ve put so much effort into building up a lot of helpful posts. But, I want to make sure that I practice what I preach, which means I need to cut back to 3 times per week in order to keep giving you valuable content in every post.

We’ll continue to do happy hour Friday videos once or twice per month, but I won’t be posting them on the blog. They’ll only be posted to Facebook, so if you love watching those videos, make sure you’re a fan on our Facebook page.