MONTHLY REVIEW: October 2016

October has been a huge month of change for my family and I. With my husband starting a new job and I made a big decision in terms of my freelance career too. Giving up being a Cambridge Consultant and choosing to focus instead on this blog and my freelance writing and social media management. Which meant October was crazy as I was shutting down one business, but also at the same time took on a big freelance project and the scales in terms of work / life balance were not really in my favour. I am really trying to learn the work/life balance skill and I have to confess it’s quite a hard one to master. But life is a learning curve is it not?

Top Posts

• Win a £250 Tile Mountain Gift Voucher
• Bob Martin Giveaway – Win a Dog Walking Bundle
• Twelve Awesome Advent Calendars for Women
• Why I’m No Longer a Cambridge Consultant
• My Son’s First Half Term at School & Why I Hate He Gets Homework

Top Things That Have Made Me Happy

• I don’t really talk much about the commercial success of my blog. But as I mentioned above I have now decided to focus my time on working on my blog and freelance writing. October perhaps proved to me that this really was a great decision because it was the month of greatest commercial success for me. Which is really exciting and I am talking to lots of really exciting brands about future projects too. Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging for blogging, but it’s a real added bonus to my family that I can earn from it too and use it to work around my family.
• I have been featured on Matalan’s blog talking about my top tips for being organised on Christmas Eve.
• My DA went from 44 to 41, but to be honest, I think that anything over 40 is pretty fantastic, so I’m not concerned about that at all.
• I am off to Blogfest this week, which I’m looking forward to. To learning more and meeting up with other blogging friends.
• I attended a really fun event with Hotter shoes – who doesn’t love new shoes?
• In terms of stats, I have seen the following growth:
• • My Facebook has grown from 1200 to 1360 (+160)
  • Twitter from 8350 to 8750 on Twitter (+400).
  • On Instagram I have gone from 2065 to 2250 (+185)
  • I am really pleased with this growth. I have surpassed all of my targets for 2016. I had a couple of competitions running on my blog which definitely helps with this too. But looking at those numbers it would be fab to hit 9000 on my Twitter followers before the Christmas.
• I have worked with the following brands: Kerrie Davis Jewellery, Fisher Prize Blaze Monster Dome, Hape Toys, Bob Martin, Personalised Santa Sacks, Tile Mountain, My VQ Retro Emma Bridgewater radio, Made to Last, Alive! Children’s vitamins.

Things To Focus on in November

So as things got super busy in October I will hold up my hands and in all honesty say that other than my social media growth, I achieved none of my planned things in October at all. So my goals for November are pretty similar to last month!

• Get organised, start planning and get on top of my in-box.
• Get better with my commenting on other people’s blogs – I used to be so good with this!
• My social media goals for growth this month are +250 on Twitter, +150 on Instagram and +50 on Facebook.
• Write another guest blog post and continue to do at least one per month.
• Update my About Me page.

How about you, how was your October and what are your blogging plans? xxx