I am very proud of how far Bad with Directions has come (read part one of this post: my six-month update) but I definitely feel like it has a lot of room to grow, lot’s of room for improvement, and I’m ready to take it more seriously. I have a bunch of goals for my blog for the next six months (when it’ll be one year old)/for 2018 as a whole. Although these are very vague goals, for now, this is what I plan on accomplishing/focusing on this year:

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Views

If I can double the number of views I had in the first half of the year, I will be super happy! Meaning I want to reach 28,076 views in six months…that’s 4,680 monthly views. By July 5^th of 2018, I would have 42,000+ views. Talk about goals! I honestly have noooo idea if this is too ambitious or not, but let’s go with it and see what happens!

Posts

Seeing that I ended my first six-months with 44 posts published, I think it would be great to finish the first full blogging year with 100 posts. So I’m aiming at 66 posts – 11 posts a month. Is it doable?

Money

If I can break-even soon and start making a profit, I will be beyond ecstatic! I want to be able to make passive income off my blog, freelance on various platforms, and maybe create a course or e-book to help jumpstart Bad with Directions as a business.

Social media

I think I will officially give up on Facebook and will focus my efforts on Twitter and Pinterest. I have to make a plan for Instagram as well though, as I don’t want to give up on it completely, but let’s see what happens. Creating my own Pinterest Group Board is also an option/idea– so watch out for that.

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Blogging consistently

I have the issue of not planning out my posts ahead of time, not setting time aside to brainstorm, write, or edit, etc. I kind of just get on the computer and start writing and hit publish right away. It’s stressful this way though because I keep telling myself I need to post something and then freak out because it takes me too long to do so. If I can make a list of topics and actually plan out my time (maybe even a day to write) then I’ll be (or should be) more consistent.

More engagement

Along with being more consistent on my own blog, I need to be more consistent with engaging on social media and with other bloggers. I think I also need to set aside time to read other blogs, comment on posts I love, and share the love on social media platforms. I’m just shy when it comes to interacting with other bloggers. I have no idea why, but I think way too much about what I’m going to say and in the end, I don’t say anything. So that’s something I really want to work on.

Guest posts and collabs

This goes hand in hand with the other three points – but along with creating valuable and genuine relationships with other bloggers, I want to do cool activities with them! I think it would be awesome to guest post and have others guest post on my blog (but I honestly have no idea how to get started). If you have any advice or ideas please let me know! It would also be very nice to collaborate with other bloggers, to do a featured section on my blog of other bloggers’ posts, or to even do giveaways! I want to make my blog more interactive and that has to start with me interacting with others.

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Overall projects

So taking all of this into consideration, I have a few things I want to get working on:

• A new logo and picture
• A Pinterest group board
• Making a blog spread and planner in my bullet journal
• I need to turn “How to Make Travel Maps in your Bullet Journal” into something “more”
• Change my hosting to SiteGround
• Maybe more freelance articles?
• A blog business plan
• Write an e-book/course
• Start building up my email list (I started that and have no idea what happened)
• Start a few blog series such as: working at hotels, Travel Tip Tuesdays (ooo I just came up with that and love it!), guest posts, etc.

If you can’t tell already, I have a lot of ideas but no actual plan. I need to sit down and actually make an action plan so I can make the most out of the blog and hopefully turn it into a successful side-business.

Let’s see how much I can accomplish in the next six-months/in 2018!

What are your blogging goals for this year?