1 Year Blogiversary!!

Hey everyone!! Yesterday (June 23rd) was my 1 year blogiversary.  Thank you guys so much for being on this journey with me. Whether your a new follower or have been with me since I started learning the ropes, you all mean a lot to me. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be here right now. To celebrate, let’s look back on what I’ve learned and achieved through out this past year.

 

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All Time Stats: (As of 6/23/16)

Posts: 263

Views: 4,051

Visitors: 2,076

Best Views Ever: 45 on May 15th, 2016

Followers on WordPress: 195

Followers on email and WordPress: 2oo!

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How Did It All Start?

It was June 23rd, 2015 and I had just finished reading a book called Genie Wishes by Elizabeth Dahl. It’s about a girl who is appointed as the class blogger. She blogs around a theme and what’s going on. It was a great book. For some reason, it really motivated me to start a blog of my own. I had always loved reading, writing and books so that’s what my blog ended up being about. If you were here at the beginning, you probably remember that Random Reads wasn’t the original name. Just like the URL, it was readersandmore. I later realized that that name didn’t suit the blog. It was too simple. That’s how Random Reads got started.

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What Are Five Things I’ve Learned?

I’ve definitely learned more than five things in this last year. These will be the five most important things.

1. Don’t feel like you have to blog everyday.

At first, I felt like I had to blog every single day. If I didn’t my followers wouldn’t like me and then I wouldn’t gain followers. Those were my thoughts at first. Now I know that that’s not true. True followers and fans of your blog will stick around. Whether you have a schedule, randomly post, or rarely post, the true followers will stay. Even if you go on a hiatus for a lengthy amount of time, don’t feel ashamed or worried. Blog as much as you want.

2. Don’t blog if it feels like work.

If blogging ever feels like work to you, take a step back. Do you need a bit of a break? New content or ideas? Is this just not what you want to do? Ask your self those questions. Blogging should be a fun thing. Whether it’s a huge part of your life or not, don’t let blogging become a stressful chore.

3. Communicate with bloggers!

This is a huge thing that has really made my blogging experience. Interact with bloggers around you on WordPress. Find people who have the same interests as you. I have so many amazing book blogging friends who have made me smile and made me inspired. If you don’t communicate, you won’t learn new things and make new friends.

4. Stats Don’t Matter

Yes, I still look at stats pretty frequently. In reality, stats don’t matter. It doesn’t matter how many views you got that day. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you got. All that matters is that you enjoy what your doing. If you can look at the stats and feel motivated to continue and become better, go right ahead.

5. Scheduling is your friend!

Going away on vacation? Busy the next day? The scheduling option will save your life. I’ve learned that this option can seriously save you. All you have to do is sit down and crank out posts. It will save you the stress of wondering when you will have time to blog.

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What’s Next?

Since I’ve reached 1 year of blogging, I’m obviously going to look ahead.

– I’m not quitting anytime soon 🙂

-More book reviews

-I will continue to do memes (ex. Top Ten Tuesday)

-More amazing things!

-Reaching 200 WordPress followers

-Reaching 1,000 followers!!

-2 years of blogging

-So much more!!

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I know I’ve said it so many times but thank you for following me. Your love and support is what really keeps me going. I love you guys 😀 I hope this post wasn’t too long. I wanted to keep it as short and sweet as possible. On a side note, I REACHED 200 FOLLOWERS!! Well, including email followers. WordPress doesn’t seem to count that though. When I officially reach 200 though, I will be doing a Q&A. You can find the post here. Don’t forget to drop me any questions you want me to answer. I don’t have many yet and want a nice big post to celebrate the milestone.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more to come on Random Reads!

~Makayla the Bookworm 😀