Food, Booze, & Baggage

Food, Life, Travel

4th Qtr Report (2013-2014)

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one year of blogging

It has been a year (last week) since I started this space!?! I really can’t believe it, it certainly doesn’t feel that long. I still feel like a beginner. I haven’t been very focused on the blog in the last several months, but I’m definitely picking it back up and trying to put more energy into it.  To see my progress in the other quarters:

_3rd-Qtr-Report-Food-Booze-&-Baggage
2nd-Qtr-Report-of-Food-Booze-&-Baggage
90 days of blogging

Technology

I highly recommend the Jenn Lukas’ courses to anyone who has a blog, regardless of if you plan on doing any design of your page yourself. It gave me a good understanding of how the pieces work together.

Future Goals

  • Install better commenting system
  • Invest time in learning more about the DSLR camera and photo editing (this has been on here forever!)
  • Install custom pin-it button
  • Learn more about coding
  • Learn more about SEO and Genesis

Social

 Future Goals

  • Continue to search out new link-up opportunities
  • Continue to grow social media
  • Continue to work on connecting and promoting other bloggers
  • Look for other sponsorship opportunities
  • Share new boards on Pinterest

Blogging

  • This quarter was not good for blogging, much of my energy was packing and planning for our move. I did do two posts about it though: Tips for Moving Cross-Country & The Cross-Country Drive: NC to CA
  • You will see my lack of posting reflected in my numbers as well. The lesson is, posts do equal increased page views 🙂

Future Goals

    • Work more on writing and developing voice
    • Look into joining a blogging network
    • Work towards banking posts
    • Do more with childfree topic/connection
    • Look into monetization
    • Re-do About Page

Design

All of the above classes are membership classes; you can take them if you sign up for the membership without having to pay per class. *All of the links for Skillshare are referral links meaning if you sign up I get a free month and you can too, I do not have any affiliation with Skillshare, this is an offer to all users.

Future Goals

    • Have a few pictures taken of me for blogging/promotion purposes
    • Finish blog re-design
    • Continue working on Skillshare courses! I want to go back and finish some of the projects.

Numbers

The new numbers are August 7th-November 5th. I’ve included the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd quarter figures for comparison. I’ve also included totals. I do not look at these numbers on a daily basis, honestly I should probably look at them a bit more. The numbers are the numbers good, bad, whatever…it is progress.

4th Qtr Report Food, Booze, & Baggage
At the end of a year, I’m happy I started this space. I didn’t quite make the progress I had hoped, but at the same time I feel I’ve come a long way too! I’m looking forward to see how I grow this next year!

Thank you all for your continued support and for being here!!

 

Tour Of Blogland

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Tour-of-Blogland-Food,-Booze,-&-Baggage

Allison from The Ponytail Diaries nominated me for the Tour of Blogland. It kind of came at the perfect time, as I’m marking one-year of blogging. I’ll share a bit more about my one-year of blogging next Monday in my 4th Quarterly Report (I know you are at the edge of your seats for that to come out). 🙂 Anniversaries always make me reflective, I think it is good to take stock every once in a while. I love to see what motivates people and how people view the world, which is what is so great about blogging. I like the fact that you get a peek behind the scenes, so to speak, with these kinds of prompts. The Tour of Blogland asks:

What am I working on?
Settling into San Diego and eating and drinking 😉 Kidding, sort of. I’m trying to get back into blogging, as the summer and the move sidetracked it for a while. I’m working on redesigning my site and making it feel a little more me. I have a lot of blog to-do items. I want to be more consistent with my posting and just re-focus my blogging effort.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?
My blog is just me – my life and what P and I are doing. I like to think that brings uniqueness to the table. I’m all over the board in terms of topics, I view my blog as a lifestyle blog meaning it’s whatever I’m doing, learning, thinking, feeling, eating and drinking. 🙂

Why do I write/create what I do?
I wrote the post Why Another Blog about why I started the blog and it still holds true. I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to document our life and adventures, and I wanted to put the childfree perspective out into Blogland. I felt like there was a gap in blogs for those of us that are childfree.

How does my writing/creating process work?
This question just makes me laugh. I wish I had a process. Basically, since I started the blog, it has felt like a roller-coaster. Some weeks I feel like I’m in control of it and organized and then the next week, I’m behind and scrabbling. Ideally, I would like to have posts completed at least a week in advance, that way I have plenty of time to edit and polish them. I’m the kind of person that needs to take a big  step back and “forget” about it to edit my own writing. This rarely happens and then two months later I look back at a post and realize I wrote desert not dessert. 🙂 I’m trying to get a better process together. Most of my posts branch from things I’m doing in life, so they develop organically.

 

Now for the fabulous bloggers I’m nominating: 

Tour-of-Blogland-Miriam

Tour-of-Blogland-Bailie

Tour-of-Blogland-Denise
 Make sure to visits Allison too! I particularly like her Sunday fiction feature.