Monday, March 7, 2022

Lindsay’s Sweet World is Seven!

Seven years, y’all.  I’ve officially been blogging for seven years and I don’t see giving it up any time soon!  I love to write, and I love to create, and even though I’m sure most of you don’t find my content riveting, this space means a lot to me.  I love having this virtual scrapbook of our lives, and it’s so awesome to be able to go back and see all of the things we’ve done over the years.  

As I do year after year, today I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned as well as some accomplishments from the past year…


A few things I’ve learned this past year…

I learned that I will always choose blog reading over TikTok and Instagram videos any day.  I know the blog industry seems to be dying, but there’s just something special about the written word that you just don’t get in a video.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good TikTok video, but it’s not my primary choice for content. 

I also learned that I am not a fan of Instagram Reels.  I wish people would just give them up and keep the produced videos on TikTok, or I wish Instagram would keep the Reels separate from the main feed.  I miss the old Instagram of pictures and captions.  I do love watching people’s stories, but I almost never watch Reels.  It’s an immediate skip for me.  If I wanted to watch stuff like that, I’d just open TikTok.  Anybody else?

I’ve been stressing for years over making the switch to Wordpress, and I think I’ve decided not to take the plunge.  Migrating seven year’s worth of content sounds scary, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle the anxiety of switching it all over.  I imagine the formatting of my old posts would be a disaster after the switch, too, so I’m not sure it would be worth it to switch. 

I learned that I made the right decision to focus on pageviews/ad revenue and affiliate income for monetization.  I considered putting more eggs in the sponsorship basket at one point, but it just didn’t feel like “me.”  Now I’m thanking myself for that decision because I know so many ladies who rely on sponsorships for the bulk of their income, and many of them have been struggling to find/land them this year.  The influencer market is pretty saturated these days.

 

A few accomplishments this year…

I managed to continue to keep blog pageviews consistent this year even though it seems that blogging is a dying art as most people are turning to Instagram and TikTok.

I also continued to bring in consistent income since my pageviews were consistent.  Woo hoo!  Mediavine will always have my heart.

Despite all of the changes with Pinterest and their new algorithms, several of my older posts are still making the rounds and bringing in a lot of traffic, even after all these years.

I finally put together a loose schedule for posting on Instagram stories during the week, and I made some pretty templates to use.  I ended up sticking with my schedule all year long, so that was a major win.

I also organized my story archives on Instagram, so everything is labeled nicely and easy to find. 

 

Stats

I honestly haven’t been tracking much this year as I’ve just been enjoying blogging for blogging.  My old Pinterest content combined with my daily content keeps the pageviews/income flowing, so I’ve been able to sit back, relax, and not worry about the numbers so much.  So instead of posting my usual stats, I’m just going to post my three most popular blog posts of all time.  I have several that are catching up to these, but for now, these are my top three yet again.

 Most Popular Post of All Time: How to Organize Your Child’s School Papers in Just One Box with 195,774 261,450 288,707 304,239 views

Second Most Popular Post of All Time: Olivia Cate’s Pink & Gold First Birthday with 22,984 111,748 146,997 156,577 166,247 170,873 174,688 views

Third Most Popular Post of All Time: How I Organized My Entire Life by Creating a Series of Lists + How I Use My Planner to Easily Maintain Them with 103,617 133,911 views

Finally, the same words I reiterate in every blog anniversary post:

The sole purpose for starting this baby of mine was to start keeping a journal again – to have a place where I could jot down my feelings and document the fleeting moments of motherhood.  A place to discuss my fears and my insecurities.  A place to discuss my shortcomings and a place to celebrate my accomplishments.  A place to share the things that I love.  I kept a journal from the ages of 6 to 21 – that’s almost half of my life in old diaries, notebooks, and binders all carefully lining the bookshelves in my office – and I thought that it was high time to come back to what I love after a decade-long hiatus.  I feel like I have found my passion and I feel like I am home.  I feel like I was meant to be a blogger.  My only regret is not starting sooner.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you who visit this little space every day, to those of you who offer kindness and encouraging words, to those of you who purchase through my links, to those of you who engage with my posts on social media and pin my Pinterest images.  I am truly humbled by your support and I’m very grateful that I have the opportunity to stay home with our kiddos while also providing an income for our family.    

Happy seven years and cheers to seven+ more!


16 comments:

  1. Congratulations on 7 years - it is no easy feat and you have done it!! I find that I do still read blogs (obviously here!) but its getting less and less and I am posting only twice a week on mine now! I do love tiktok though - so good!

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  2. Congrats! I feel the same as you about blogging and I hate when people say there's no place for blogs anymore! I have met so many people that have since disappeared from the blog world so I'm glad you plan to stick around!

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  3. I absolutely feel the same way about blogs and blogging! I pick them over all other social media type aspects every time. Happy anniversary!

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    1. Thank you! I'm so happy! I hope you continue to blog... yours is always one of my faves!

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  4. Congrats on seven years! I feel the same way you do about IG reels etc. Great observations about blogging. I look forward to reading every day (even if I don't always comment!)

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  5. Happy 7 years!!!! I still remember seeing your original posts all those years ago. I’d love to hear more about your income stream. I’ve been a terrible blogger for the last few years, but maybe hearing more about your blogging income would motivate me to try harder when it comes to blogging! I know I’ll have to start working once Jane is in school, so continuing on with blogging in an organized way could be my answer to helping out my family while doing what I love…motherhood and the blog world are really all I know at this point. Teach me your ways! ❤️

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    1. You are so sweet, Marie! My income is mostly comprised of ad revenue and affiliate sales. Mediavine is a dream company to work with for ad revenue, so once I hit that 25K pageviews/month threshold that they require, I applied immediately, and it's been wonderful ever since! That is, by far, my primary source of income, and the rest is affiliate income from linking. You know I love me some Amazon and I love sharing all of my finds with y'all!

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    2. Awesome! Thanks so much! That helps a ton! I’m so happy for you! Congratulations again on 7 years!!!

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  6. Happy Blogaversary! My blog will turn 7 this year too in July and you have accomplished WAY more than I could ever dream of. I was in a dark place when I started mine and "meeting" people like you made my life so much more cheerful!

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  7. Congrats! So glad I have gotten to know you in this little space. One day we will meet in person!!

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  8. I just created my third reel yesterday and I will agree. I HATE THEM!!! AhhhhHHhhh! I much prefer polished photos! I am still learning and I struggle with change and I know that is part of it, but I do agree... I skip through a lot of reels on my feed. I will briefly look, but then I move on unless it grabs my attention right away. And, I've been posting my reels on my TikTok, which just seems redundant. I don't know why IG wants to recreate itself as TikTok. Well, I know why... but, I miss the old days on IG! My husband is an IT expert, so I did move over to WordPress a few years ago and he handled everything. I am sure I wouldn't have made the switch if I didn't have him to do it for me. Happy 7 years!!!! That is exciting! I know I plan to keep blogging for awhile still.

    Carrie
    curlycraftymom.com

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  9. I love writing and creating too, but I definitely feel like blogging is dying. I hate that. I love reading your blog and am so glad that you still have high readership!!

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  10. Happy Anniversary and thank you for continuing to journal by sharing your days in this blog format. I have been stopping by, regularly, for some years now. I have no idea how I began reading LSW, but I think it was on a list of blogs that another blogger had as their faves so I investigated. Your perspective on everything is a breath of fresh air amid the craziness of the world: pre and post COVID. I save reading your posts until the weekend and then work my way back through your week. Love all the Amazon shopping suggestions! And, I am continually impressed with your organizational skills as well as the way in which you and your husband are such devoted parents. Here's to the future and many more posts from LSW!

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words, Paula. It truly means a lot to me that you took time out of your day to let me know. Thank you so much for following along!

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  11. Cheers to 7 years! So very thankful for you and this blog. Without it, I would have never 'met' one of my very best friends! Love you!

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