Lindsay’s Sweet World is Eight!

Eight years ago today I hit publish on my very first blog post, and 1,725 posts later, I’m still heeeere! 

One thousand seven hundred twenty-five posts, y’all!!!!

So many of the lifestyle bloggers have abandoned their blogs these last few years in favor of Instagram and TikTok, but I have zero desire to give up this baby of mine because it still brings me so much joy to write and photograph and design and share our lives with all of you in this space.  I’ve worked so hard on this little corner of the internet, and there’s no way I’d want to give all of that up!

As I do year after year, today I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned as well as some accomplishments from the past year…

A few things I’ve learned this past year…

I have learned to finally accept Instagram Reels this past year.  Sigh.  Haha.  I still do not love that my entire Instagram feed is Reels, but I have learned to accept the fact that they’re not going anywhere, and I have even started participating a little here and there.  I can promise that my feed will never be 100% Reels, though.

I have learned to be comfortable talking on camera.  I have had so many requests from readers and followers over the years to talk and engage more with y’all on Instagram stories, but I never did because it always made me so uncomfortable.  For whatever reason, I’ve always found it so awkward talking to my phone, seeing myself on camera, hearing my voice play back, etc., but I’ve learned to push myself outside my comfort zone and overcome that discomfort.  It truly doesn’t bother me anymore!

I also learned to be comfortable sharing more outfits and “modeling” (I use that word very lightly) clothes for y’all.  I used to use product photos with the occasional static photo of myself when sharing items with all of you, but in recently months I’ve finally become comfortable with posting videos of myself, too.  

I have completely accepted the fact that I will never be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay.  There will always be people who dislike/don’t agree with/want to criticize things that I say and do, and that’s okay.  I used to contemplate/fret about/worry about so many things before (and sometimes after) I posted them, and any time I would get a nasty DM/email/comment it would stress me out, but I’ve finally reached the point where I’m no longer bothered by them.  I don’t get a lot of bad ones, but when I do, I just delete, block, and let it go.

 

A few accomplishments this year…

I managed to continue to keep blog pageviews consistent this year even though more and more people are ditching blogs for social media instead.

I also continued to bring in consistent income since my pageviews were consistent.  Woo hoo!  Love you forever, Mediavine.

I had a couple of new blog posts start picking up speed on Pinterest, and that has been driving pageviews, which in turn means more ad revenue!

I finally started using Instagram Reels, and I actually enjoy making them.  I still don’t want my feed to be all Reels, but I do enjoy the ones that I do make.

 

Stats

I have pretty much stopped focusing on stats and just enjoyed the process of creating content.  I’d be creating no matter what the numbers looked like, so I really don’t check the numbers very often.  Just for fun, though, here are my top three blog posts of all-time.  Nothing has changed since last year!

 Most Popular Post of All Time: How to Organize Your Child’s School Papers in Just One Box 

Second Most Popular Post of All Time: Olivia Cate’s Pink & Gold First Birthday

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

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.    

Happy eight years!  Long live blogging!