August 2016 Reflection

Since the last day of August was this past Wednesday, that means that we are due for a monthly reflection! If you already know the drill, you can skip the following paragraph and move on, but if you don't know it or want a refresher, then go on a head.

In these monthly reflections, I look back on the month for our blog, Reading is Inevitable, and our bookstagram (book + Instagram), @readingisinevitable. I also review the goals I had made the previous month. Then I write about what this month will be like for the blog and Instagram, as well as some goals for the upcoming month. The reason why I do these monthly reflections is so that I can see our growth and progress, and see what's working and what's not working. In these reflections, I make changes according to this. You, as a reader, can also see our growth, and get a sneak peek at what is to come.

With that, I hope you enjoy this monthly reflection. I believe that August was a very good month for Reading is Inevitable. (Yay!)

Looking Back Into August

The Blog

For the third time in a row, the number of pageviews went up for the blog! We got 120 more pageviews in August than in July, and they went up by about 30%. This is less of an increase than last month, but still is progress. I believe that the pageviews might be due to the growth of our Instagram, which I'll get to in a bit.

The posts themselves, however, just like last month, did not get a good number of pageviews. They were all mediocre. It's not like I'm asking for a lot, too; 13 pageviews per post would make me happy. Perhaps if I advertised them better on our Instagram, they would get more views. However, I don't want to do this, because then that disrupts our Instagram feed, causing less followers or interest in our page. I guess you must sacrifice some for other things.

Instagram

At least I can say that this sacrifice paid off. This month, our Instagram did extremely well. We have gained a total of 278 followers this month. Throughout the month, I had kept a record of the important dates for our Instagram:

• August 9th: 200 followers, which is what I said I wanted to reach in August
• August 17th: a feature on @bookstagramfeatures, a feature account for bookstagram accounts 

• August 17th: 300 followers, with the help of the feature
• August 27th: 400 followers
• August 29th: feature on @bookworm_insta, a feature account for bookstagram accounts

• August 30th: feature on @ya_insider, an account featuring "what's funky fresh in YA"

Something else that is exciting is that, for the first time, we have gotten a post that has reached 100 likes. Now the highest number of likes we have gotten on a picture is 147 (this was the same picture that was featured on @bookstagramfeatures and @ya_insider).

The reason for all of this growth is probably due to two factors: 1) Em started to take all of the pictures with her camera, and 2) I began editing all of our pictures.

Goals

In July, I had made three goals as I always do for the next month. They were:

The question is, did I successfully complete these goals?

1. I did keep track of my goals. I even kept track of this one, haha.
2. Yes, I finally got around to making a bookshelf tour. I actually made it into two separate posts, with a part 1 and a part 2.
3. Definitely. Em took all of the pictures, instantly making them all better. And then I also started to edit them so that they all were bright and colorful. Another thing that I did to make our Instagram feed better was to refrain from posting pictures with text over them, such as the one above. The added Instagram stories feature came in handy for this one, as I used it to help advertise our blog rather than clogging up our feed with those pictures.

Coming Up in September

First of all, I would like to say that I can't believe that it's September already. Where did all the time go? Where did summer go? Anyway, moving on, here's what's coming up in September.

The Blog

So far I have three book reviews planned for September. The books are The Goldfinch (yes I am finally making a review; sorry for the wait, as I know a few people want to know my thoughts), When Marnie Was There, and Salt to the Sea. Because I am never sure when exactly Em will feel like writing a blog post (which will probably be less during the school year), I cannot say for sure when the publication dates will be for any of them. 

I also have two movie adaptation posts planned for September which may or may not be published, once again depending on whether or not Em writes posts and the number of posts she may write. The movie adaptations would be on When Marnie Was There and The Light Between Oceans (which I am very excited and nervous about, by the way). In these posts I talk about the movie adaptation in comparison to the book, and decide which I like better. (My first one was this past month on Beautiful Creatures.)

Instagram

We have decided that, yet again, we will be participating in a photo challenge for September. If you haven't seen it yet on our Instagram, we are participating in the #falloutofsummer16 challenge hosted by @never_too_many_books and @serialbibliophile.

If you want to join, I'm sure it's not too late to start!

Goals

My goals for September are to...

1. Have more views per post. I know that the number of views (or likes or comments or followers, for that matter) don't really mean anything, but it still would be nice to have a higher number, wouldn't it? It would be progress, and progress is always good. I think I will advertise it a bit more on our Instagram. Hopefully that'll do the trick.
2. Start using our posting schedule again. It really was helpful in planning. The only reason why I had stopped using it was because I didn't know when Em was going to post, and moving things or writing question marks wasn't the best for me. But I know that it made things easier for me and especially for Em for whenever she does try to write a post.
3. Have the writing part of all blog posts done at least one day before the publishing date. You have no idea how many times I have rushed to write a blog post or finish it up last minute. Too much stress and too little sleep for me. I don't think I want that to happen much longer, especially during the school year.

And with that, I wrap up our August 2016 Reflection. Let's see how September will play out. Until then, happy reading everyone!