May 2016 Reflection

May was our third month on the blog, that is, if you count half of March as one full month. (Yes, I am aware that May is not officially over. Yet it is over for Reading is Inevitable, for we will be having no other posts on the blog or our Instagram.) We have had a lot of fun in May, and have had our ups and downs. We have also learned some tricks that are helping us, and also seem to be lacking some important skills as well. In this post I will look back at the month of May, and will also reveal some sneak peeks of what's to come in June!

Looking Back Into May

  

The Blog

For the blog, and I'm going to be completely honest here, I think that it was a bit of a low. We received a noticeably lower number of pageviews to the blog. I know that pageviews isn't everything, but it's a little upsetting to see that the number of pageviews went down by about 29% from last month.

Also, we missed one of our posting days. (Maybe that contributed to the drop in pageviews.) School is more important than the blog, but I can't believe that neither of us managed to write a post for May 6. Additionally, due to a lack of time, Em was unfortunately only able to write and publish one post this month.

But, let's try to look at the bright side, shall we? One of the most exciting things for the blog was its new look, which Em and I spent quite some time making. In case you don't remember what the old look looked like, let me remind you:

Note: This was the desktop version.

Furthermore, we hit 1,000 pageviews on the blog! That's a lot! But then again, who knows how many of those pageviews were just us?

Our Instagram Page
Our Instagram page, on the other hand, did really well. Just yesterday we hit 80 followers! How exciting! Perhaps we have seen an increase in activity on our Instagram because we have lately started to post more pictures of books.

And, recently, we started to participate in a few SFS's (shoutout-for-shoutout). We actually gained quite some followers from these!


Favorite Posts
Favorite posts! Wahoo! Okay, sorry for that. My favorite post of mine from May would have to be Book Review: Symptoms of Being Human, even though a book review on my favorite book, The Light Between Oceans also published in May. It is written better, in my opinion.

As for my favorite post that Em wrote, that has to be Book Review: This is Where it Ends, for it is in fact the only post that she has published this past month! It definitely is interesting and popular, for it quickly hit #1 for our top posts of the month!

Goals
I am aware that Em made some goals for herself in the April 2016 Reflection that she wrote. Did she complete these goals? For the most part, no. She did not "make blogging less of a chore." Nor did she "have a couple of posts stocked up." (I actually did succeed in this, although I must admit that I have less than other times.) We did, however, have more pictures ready. We actually have had two photoshoots!

Coming Up in June

Okay, enough of the stuff you probably don't care a lot about. Let's get to the interesting part: the part where I tell you what you can look forward to in June!

Book Reviews

Ah, book reviews. Everyone loves book reviews! This time around, we have a few book reviews planned for June. These book reviews happen to be "Book Review: Cast of Criminals", posting on June 6; "Book Review: Rumble", which might be publishing on June 13 or 20; and the posts "Book Review: The Sword Of Summer" and "Book Review: Everything Matters!" will hopefully publishing on two of the four Fridays in June.

Bookshelf Tour?
I have been thinking about writing a little blog post on how I organize own little bookshelf. If I do end up writing it, I might also include some other places I put all of the books! Then again, I can make no promises, for in order for the post to publish, I would have to convince Em to take pictures for me!

Instagram

We will be participating in @graceereads and @serenityread's photo challenge for June! (#grayajune2016) This means that we will be posting pictures daily according to the challenge, starting with Day 1: June TBR. (TBR=to be read)

Goals for June
Em made a few goals last month, so why shouldn't I make a few this time?

1. Get Em more interested in our blog & Instagram. Lately, Em has been saying more and more that she really doesn't care much about having a post ready for Friday (hence her writing only one post this month) and also doesn't care much about our Instagram. I think she cares a little bit more about our bookstagram (Instagram + books).
2. Gain more followers on Instagram. I am not going to set a specific number for ourselves, but I know that we want to increase our followers. Em says that three months and only 73 followers is a little sad, and I spent a lot of time thinking about it one night with the conclusion that I would get those followers.
3. Have a post for every Monday & Friday. I don't want to miss another day. That was not ideal. (Did anyone notice, by the way?

What Else?

Other than that, Em and I don't really have anything planned. I know that that's probably a bad thing, but hey: it's been a busy month. If you do have any suggestions for some posts, I will gladly take them. I could use a few more ideas!

With that, I wish you a lovely day and a lovely June! Keep on reading!

--Julia (oh yeah: signing off might be a new thing too)