Blog updates
I REALLY worked my butt off this month with the blog. And I think, hope, it’s paying off a little. My pageviews are slowly increasing, but more than that I’m producing content that I at least think is really good quality. I’m slowly trying to organize and categorize all of my information too. I’ve been blogging for almost 8 years so I have A LOT of stuff here and I want the good info to be found easily. My first step in that is creating a Disney World planning page. It’s still very much a work in progress but my hope is that eventually it will lead to (almost) everything you’ll want to know about planning a Disney vacation. If you have any suggestions definitely let me know!
I am really focusing on my SEO (if you’re not familiar, that’s search engine optimization, or basically how to help Google find your site when people search for something. I invested in a course called Stupid Simple SEO that cost a bit more than I’ve spent before, but it’s great. I’m a little more than halfway through it and it’s a lot of work but like I mentioned I see it helping. SEO is a “long game” in that it takes time to see it take affect. But since I started the course towards the end of February I’m already seeing progress in my traffic from searches.
A few other things I did for the blog this month included our March tournament of the best Disney sidekick, updated my “About” page, and started the process of switching over my email newsletter provider.
March 2021 goals
- Complete all blog organization (yes – I went through ALL my old posts, organized them into lists by content, and made notes about what I want to update)
- Finish at least half of the Stupid Simple SEO course (yes – 57% done!)
- Update 4 old blog posts (yes – I updated Rise of the Resistance, staying at an off-site hotel, packing during COVID, and Disney subscription boxes)
- Create 5 new printables (I made 3)
- Create category pages for my Disney World planning info (I made some but this is going to be a much more involved process than I first realized)
- Run 85 miles (I hit 75 so close!)
- Get to bed earlier (didn’t do this consistently enough)
- Start homebrewing again (nope)
- Clean and organize kitchen (not too much but I got distracted and I did start the process of cleaning out and organizing my closet…)
April 2021 blog goals
- Finish remainder of SEO course
- Update 4 old blog posts
- Create a category page on planning about dining
- Make at least 2 “complete guides” to either resorts or theme parks (similar to this one on Pop Century)
- Contact someone to help me improve site speed
April 2021 personal goals
- Finish cleaning out and organizing my laundry
- Run 80 miles this month
- Successfully run a 15k race
- Plan my personal vacations for the year
- Treat myself and get my nails done (if fully vaccinated)
- Figure out a fun way to celebrate my birthday
- Make something with my Cricut
What are your goals for the month of April?
I’m curious to hear about the SEO course…will you write a review on it? Also! I love the Disney Planning Page…what an amazing resource!
I am definitely thinking of writing a review of it, or at least putting it as a section in one of my goals posts once I finish it. It’s been really great and I know it’s hard for people to know which courses are worth it so I’d like to write something that might be helpful to those considering it!
I am always amazed at how much you get done along with working full time as a librarian and part time as a travel agent!
I have to hire someone to clean the house.. there are things that don’t get done lol!
It sounds like you are rocking it with your blog! Your posts lately have been so informative and helpful, and it’s really great to see that SEO is starting to work for you. Planning vacations sounds like a fun activity for April, maybe I’ll try that. I don’t usually do goals by the month, but I am hoping to get ahead on my blog posts, which means lots of baking, cooking, and drinking!
Thanks so much Kait 🙂 It’s been so long since I’ve taken a personal vacation that I forgot how much I enjoy planning everything!
Hey Becky, just wanted to say thanks so much for sharing these little updates- it seems like a great way to check in with yourself- and definitely helped me set some realistic expectations for my own work after reading thru this. Since u mentioned you were looking-Just wanted to share a good website speed guy we used was WPspeedguru- it helped a lot on our blog ( just a lot of plug-in/host/ setting tweaks I could have never done on my own) – and the price was reasonable.
Thank you so much for the recommendation! I contacted a few people but they were either booked up or didn’t respond so I will definitely look into this!