Saturday, December 26, 2015

My 2015 Goals. How'd I Do??! Erms...


So. I kicked off 2015 with a set of bloggery goals. There were... a lot of them. And I made some good progress overall I think. I'm feeling confident in the blog and where I wanna be. Yay! It's not perfect but it's getting there. Totally rocked some goals, some are a work in progress and some, well, not so much. I thought I'd do a quick recap on how things went before I figure out what I wanna try in 2016 :)


1. Review every book that I take on for review in a timely manner 
Okay so of the books I had for review in 2015 I have 33 left unread. Of those 13 were ones I'd actually requested or accepted. The others were prints I was cold requested and just showed up. So I don't feel TOO bad about not having conquered them all. I'm actually pretty pleased with where I am with this goal. I did better with it as the year went and a handful of those I didn't finish are ones I probably should have DNFd but wanted to try again later down the line.
2. Make my way through old review requests and get caught up.
Ehhh. I'm getting there. I managed to mark a few off my old list. I'm determined in 2016 and am co-hosting a Blogger Shame Challenge to get the rest off my list :D
3. Get my Netgalley ratio above 95%. 
Erm. Yeah. This didn't happen. I started the year at 82% and ended at 86%. Highest I got was 90% I think. I ended up taking a number of 2016 ones on already and that just didn't help things. But I am determined in 2016!
4. Finish all Edelweiss Reviews--Started with 7 titles
Erm. Yeah. I knocked a few off. Added a few more. Ended with 8 titles. lol These will be part of my Blogger Shame Challenge
5. Cross post all reviews. Keep on top of 2015, work my way through 2012-2014.
I actually did really well with this one. 2015 is cross posted and most of them fairly close to when they went up on the blog. Woohoo me!! I need to work through 2012-2014 still. I have a lot done but not nearly all of them. 
6. Have at least 1 discussion post per month, hopefully 2-4. And figure out a name.
I think I rocked this one. I varied the types of discussions and we had some lively chats. I started he Word from the Herd feature.
      7. Post 1 Blogger to Author or Rock the Blog discussion per month.
      Okay I sucked at this one. I think I only did 3 of them I think. Oops! I got side tracked with other discussions. Better in 2016
      8. Create guidelines for author guest posts and interviews
      I totally rocked this. I now have guidelines for both that are sent out when I have a feature author. It's helped improve my end of things I think.
      9. Raise at least $1000 more in the Support the Troops Auction: Goal--$3608
      DONE! Yall are amazing! We raised $3634.51 for the USO. I was blown away. We'll be hosting another auction in 2016.
      10. Streamline my blog schedule-- set days for reviews, memes, author posts, how tos, etc.
      I think I did a pretty good job on this. I still have wiggle room with my posting but I try to stick somewhat to the below. 
      • Monday-Quote-tastic/review
      • Tuesday--Book Deals, review
      • Wednesday--author feature or review, Insta-Wednesday
      • Thursday--review, Cat Thursday, or author post
      • Friday--review
      • Saturday--discussion topic
      • Sunday--tasty delight or a random fun post
      11. get Ed Sheeran to follow the blog on Twitter (heh) or come on for an interview. Oh...I would die.
      LOL this was just a silly one. I didn't even try on it. Maybe in 2016 ;)
      12. break into the top 1000 on Amazon for reviewers. 
      Oh this was a glorious fail! I'm actually in worse standing right now. See. I had the gall to love a book by an author a lot of people love to hate. And hey voted my review down like 30+ times. Then I had the gall to hate a book (or two) by some authors that have rabid fans and got voted down even more. Ah well. I'd not take back those reviews even if they improved my standing. I do think Amazon needs to eliminate the anonymous feature of voting up or down. It should be like Goodreads. If someone votes one way or another it should show their Amazon user name.
      13. finish indexing the blog
      This was a huge thing. I didn't totally finish but I'm getting there. 2015 is fully indexed. And I started on previous years. Still a ways to go but I figured this goal would take me a while to do
      14. Create one new blog feature
      I did great with this I think. Started up doing a few things.
      • Word from the Herd--discussing issues in the bookish community
      • Insta-Wednesday--sharing my instagram photos
      • Buy the Book--I've always done some type of book sales post but I made it a regular thing
      15. weed out my blog images folders. They're a mess and I spend ages searching for images
      • Kill me. Kill me now. This was horrible! I got a lot done but need to do a lot more. Whew!
      16. Update blog graphics I'd like to change 
      Yes! I did awesome with this. I did new images for...
      • Author images--guest post, interview, giveaway, meme-jack
      • Feature images-- Word from the Herd, Blogger to Author, Quote-tastic, Randomly Random, Tasty Delights, Tag: The Cat Herder, The Monthly Herd, Book Deals, Cat Thursday, 
      • Review headers--Contemporary, Rom-Suspense, New Adult, Mystery, Cookbook, Paranormal, Cozy Mystery Urban Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Erotica, Erotic Romance, Paranormal Historical, Paranormal Erotic, Erotic Historical, Weird Fuckery
      • Blog Header, FB, Twitter, G+
      17. Keep the blog "ahead" by at least 60 posts at all times. 
      This was no problem for me. I hovered in the 80-85 posts scheduled. Got up to 118 during Blog Ahead. 
      18. Be a better blogger friend--I'm trying! Some weeks it just doesn't happen. Usually when my job with authors takes a front seat or the herd is ill. I try to keep up with everyone though :)

      19. Clear out emails, FB personal messages, FB blog messages. And keep on top of them.
      I did decent with this. So many messages. SO MANY MESSAGES. lol
      20. Be better about sending out prizes in a timely manner. 
      I'm still not great at this. Things get where they're going and names picked but, yeah, I still have the issue of losing track of time. Working at home and having a flexible schedule is great in some ways but in others ways not so much. I tend to get focused on something then before I realize it it's two weeks later. 

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