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June 2016 Reflection


Even though June didn't go as planned for us at Reading is Inevitable, I think that it still was a pretty good month for us. I mean, of course it could be better, but it could have been worse, as well. We still are starting out here and still are trying to grow our audience on our blog and Instagram, and I think that, considering this, we are headed on the right track!

Looking Back Into June


 The Blog
June was a good and bad month for the blog. The good thing is that we increased in the number of pageviews to our blog this month. The number of pageviews went up by about 13%. I know it's small but it's still an improvement. At least it didn't go down like last month!

 The bad thing is that we had a lot of "filler posts" this month. This basically means posts other than what we really want to see: book reviews, discussions, etc. I had to publish a lot of list posts this month in order to keep the schedule of one post Monday and one post Friday. Of the eight posts I wrote and published this month, three of them are list posts and one is a (less popular) book tag, meaning that half of June's blog posts were not as good.

Instagram
On Instagram, we gained a good amount of new followers and hit 100 followers! I have also just started to try to take my own photos for our bookstagram, so we'll see how that goes. However, we also didn't complete the #grayajune2016 photo challenge. We started to fall behind and just sorta stopped. (Sorry!)

Goals
At the end of May in my May 2016 Reflection, I made three goals. They were the following:
Did I complete these goals? Let's see:
  1. Nope. I was not able to get Em interested in the blog its Instagram account. I did get her to take a few pictures in the beginning, but after that, she didn't do anything. No pictures, and no posts. We both know that she'll probably never write a blog post again, but it was agreed that she will take some pictures. 
  2. I did succeed with this goal. We have gained 47 new followers since May.
  3. As for the last goal, I am happy to say that I managed to write and publish a post for every Monday and Friday of June. 

Coming up in July


The Blog
I have hardly anything planned for the blog in July...and that's not good! In all honesty, I really am behind on things, and my poor online blogging planner is suffering from not being used. Last time I said that I would have a bookshelf tour in June, and since that didn't happen this past month, I plan on doing it this month. I should also have book reviews on How Many Letters Are in Goodbye? and Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts. Other than that, I don't have anything planned, so I'll have to do some thinking!

Instagram
Last month we tried to participate in a photo challenge, and while that didn't work last month, I would really like to participate in another one! We finally decided (last minute) on doing @sammyreadsbooks' July bookstagram challenge (#sammyreadsjuly16).

Goals for July

  1. Write better posts (less "filler posts"). I really want to improve the quality of our blog, and I think that all of these easy-to-write list posts are not making it better. Thus, in July, I hope to have more book reviews, discussions, maybe a bookshelf tour...things that I know I would rather see on a book blog!
  2. Take more of my own pictures. Sadly, Em is getting less and less interested in the blog, and it can be hard to get her to take pictures. I know that she doesn't like me taking pictures, but if she isn't going to take them I think that I might as well take my own! (That means less of those bad pictures of me simply putting text over an old photo!) I hope that this will help our bookstagram.
  3. Get Em more interested in the blog. Like I have said countless times, Em really isn't interested in the blog. (Every time I mention it she groans!) I would like her to be interested in it, though. It feels like I'm running this whole thing on my own! It's supposed to be our blog, not mine!
That wraps up our June 2016 Reflection! Click on the monthly reflection tag at the end of this post to see more of our monthly reflections where we track our growth and progress. And don't forget to check July's reflection to see how we are growing! 

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Comments

  1. BubblesJuly 5, 2016 at 8:19 PM

    I'm a beginning blogger, too, and am learning a lot from you. I like how you turned a critical but not harsh eye on your blog so that you could learn from yourself!

    ReplyDelete

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