Going back to basics with my content
I started off the year with an ace start. I posted more posts in January than I had done each month since May. I re-started YouTube, which I'm loving, and I felt more motivated than ever. Then too many days out happened when I should have been sorting out my content, and I managed to go a week without posting in the middle of the month. Bad Kirstie. I'd been thinking about the kind of content I wanted to post, and although I love giving in-depth reviews about products, I longed to go back to the days where I could tap out a blog post in an hours on a Sunday morning and upload it without too much thought. When Rhianna wrote recently about wanting things on her blog to be "less big", I didn't really overthink it, but I get the "less big" thing now. I want that.
I started doing this kind of thing with some of my series posts: The Scent Diaries, New-in Fragrance Launches, The Lipstick Edit, but somewhere along the way, these too became the wordy rambles and took just as long as a review to produce. I don't ever sign up to newsletters, but in entering a competition, I ended up signing up to The Emerald Street, and instead of pressing delete as soon as the inbox notification came up, I found myself reading each one and enjoying them. I liked the quickness of it, the snippets of information, and that's something I want to apply to more of my round-up posts. Think snappy magazine-style recommendations, and more personal posts about what's going on, the things I'm loving etc. I really admire people like Hannah Gale who can produce a blog post every single day, and it's made me realise that not everything has to be 2000 words long with 10 perfectly edited photos. I want chatty "Hey this is what's been going on in my life" posts too.
I also don't post things on my blog because I feel like they won't fit with my content theme (this whole paragraph is something I've battled with on Instagram too). Why am I punishing myself? If I like something and want to talk about it, I'm not going to restrict myself! That definitely goes for a lot of lifestyle stuff. Although I still want to keep it quite curated and glossy (ew, I hate that term. Nails are glossy, hair is glossy, my blog? Probably never going to be glossy), I want to post more of the things I like, so there'll be lots of gin, lots of cocktails, a bit of brunch, and some photo diaries from days out. There'll still be a lot of beauty, just a bit more in between. That okay?
Things I'm proud of...
- I put my face on YouTube again and didn't let crappy editing software stop me! I'm really enjoying doing YouTube again and I've got some really fun videos planned. I'd love to reach 500 subscribers so come and join the fun!
- I finally hit 1000 followers on Pinterest. It's a platform that has been stagnant for the past year or so, only gaining around 10 followers a month, until I actually started to utilise it and be consistent with pinning. My faves are my Wardrobe Inspo and boards , so come and pin with me!
- I also reached 10,000 combined followers, which is something that I'm really excited about! It's really motivated me to try and get the best out of each platform and push for the next 10k!
Most loved posts of February
Reflecting on 3 Years of Blogging
10 Things That Bloggers Do That Make Me Roll My Eyes
The Best Bits of January
The Manicure Menu
An Introduction to Estée Lauder Skincare
Goals to smash next month!
- I wasn't as consistent with Instagram this month, despite becoming more comfortable with my theme (bright/white with pops of pink and blue). I'd like to post a lot more next month, and try for 1 a day. I end up not posting for a few days and then doing a few on one day, it's all or nothing with me!
- I didn't post as much on my blog either this month, after a great start to the year. I ended up having a few days out when I had a huge to-do list, and ended up getting a bit behind and struggled to bounce back from that. This month I really want to be consistent with uploading. Ideally, I'd like to be able to post four blog posts a week: one beauty, one skincare, one fragrance and one lifestyle.
- I'd just like to interact more in general, and spend time being positive on social media. I definitely want to do at least one Twitter chat, so hopefully there's one with an interesting topic. I've been really enjoying the monthly Ice Lolly #HolidayChat because it's something totally different. Sometimes blog-oriented chats can be a bit boring when you've seen the same topics 100 times, so this was really refreshing!
What have been your blog highlights of February?
What are your goals for March?
