Lindsay’s Sweet World is Six!

I can hardly believe that this Sunday is my six-year blogging anniversary!  To think that Jacob and Olivia were just three and one when I started this is just mind-blowing.  It feels like just yesterday, yet it also feels like a lifetime ago. 

This past year was probably the hardest one I’ve had as a blogger, and I owe it all to that same wonderful virus that’s wreaked havoc on everything else this past year – Covid.  Living through a pandemic has been tough, and between the toll it’s taken on me mentally + the lifestyle change that’s come along with it (kids home 24/7 for months on end, virtual learning, etc.) I feel like much of this past year was spent doing the bare minimum to get by in blog land.

That said, we made it through this very weird year and the blog is still rolling along!  And this past year, despite my lack of time to blog, I did manage to have a few successes plus I learned a few things along the way as I do every year…

A few things I’ve learned this past year…

It is really, really hard to try to grow a lifestyle blog during a pandemic.

I can, in fact, run a blog on just 15ish hours per week.  When our schedule is normal, I typically devote around 30ish hours to it per week, but when the kids are home 24/7 for months on end, and you only have a two hour window each day to get stuff done, you’re way more productive in those two hours than you would be if you had five. 

That said, 15 hours per week is simply not enough time to allow me to do my best work.  I’m a perfectionist, so it doesn’t ever sit well with me to just “phone it in.”

Being your authentic self will always be more important than trying to please everyone.  No matter how hard you try, you can never be everyone’s cup of tea.  And that’s perfectly okay. 

Mediavine and Amazon are still my very favorite ways to monetize! 

A few accomplishments this year…

I somehow managed to make time for my blog while also juggling having two young kids at home for five straight months, two of which, they were doing virtual learning.

I had another post go viral on Pinterest, and it moved all the way up to my third most-viewed post of all-time.

The two main blog posts that have been driving the majority of my pageviews are still generating traffic after all these years. 

I finally hit 10K on Instagram after years of trying.

I finally refreshed my branding after years of dragging my feet and I did it 100% on my own.

While my income didn’t increase from 2019 to 2020 as I’d originally hoped, I did manage to keep it reeeeally close.  This is definitely a win since pageviews plummeted and ad revenue was down due to companies pulling ads to save money because of the pandemic.

Stats

I know a lot of people don’t like to share their stats, but I like to keep track of them for myself so I can keep track of how I’ve grown throughout the years. 

A couple of notes before we begin… I had steady growth in every category except for pageviews, but I’m certain that the pandemic had everything to do with that.  Second, I stopped tracking Google Friend Connect this year because I don’t think many people use it anymore.  Since I removed the widget from my blog, I can no longer see the stats.  And finally, my third most popular post of all time changed this year.  It used to be How I Grew My Instagram Following by 2K in 2 Months (Without Following & Unfollowing), and while that post is still hanging in there, it was recently surpassed by another post!

Monthly Pageviews: 11,134 24,715 18,054 42,419, 52,159 45,956 (Dec 2020 stats)

Active Subscribers: 18 50 69 93 126 149

Google Friend Connect Followers: 28 42 61 67 74 stopped tracking

Bloglovin’ Followers: 34 218 317 430 529 782

Instagram Followers: 1,005 4,055 5,945 7,236 9,210 11,045

Facebook Followers: 12 138 293 345 395 403

Pinterest Followers: 351 1,248 1,381 4,176 5,862 6,710

Most Popular Post of All Time: How to Organize Your Child’s School Papers in Just One Box with 195,774 261,450 288,707 views

Second Most Popular Post of All Time: Olivia Cate’s Pink & Gold First Birthday with 22,984 111,748 146,997 156,577 166,247 170,873 views

Third Most Popular Post of All Time: How I Organized My Entire Life by Creating a Series of Lists + How I Use My Planner to Easily Maintain Them with 103,617 views

Finally, the same words I reiterate in every blog anniversary post:

The sole purpose for starting this baby of mine was to start keeping a journal again – to have a place where I could jot down my feelings and document the fleeting moments of motherhood.  A place to discuss my fears and my insecurities.  A place to discuss my shortcomings and a place to celebrate my accomplishments.  A place to share the things that I love.  I kept a journal from the ages of 6 to 21 – that’s almost half of my life in old diaries, notebooks, and binders all carefully lining the bookshelves in my office – and I thought that it was high time to come back to what I love after a decade-long hiatus.  I feel like I have found my passion and I feel like I am home.  I feel like I was meant to be a blogger.  My only regret is not starting sooner.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you who visit this little space every day, to those of you who offer kindness and encouraging words, to those of you who purchase through my links, to those of you who engage with my posts on social media and pin my Pinterest images.  I am truly humbled by your support and I’m very grateful that I have the opportunity to stay home with our kiddos while also providing an income for our family.    

Here’s to more years of doing what I love!