My Blogging Year: 2017 in Review

2017 has been a good year. We’ve had a lot of fun and had some wonderful family time. But, it’s been busy. In fact, a little too busy at times.

I’m still seeking that elusive balance!

I’ve blogged even less this year than I did in 2016, for a number of reasons. That busyness; with house projects, school volunteering, kids activities, my youngest starting Kindergarten, my eldest starting Middle School… life, really; it hasn’t left me a lot of time. Or energy.

My priorities have, quite rightly, been different this year.

And, if I’m honest, I fell out of love with blogging for a while.

I’ve been writing this blog for five years now, and I’ve been through all the stages.

The initial enthusiasm: blogging everyday, joining every possible linky, spending every available hour on social media. The slowing down: realizing you can’t do everything, remembering why you started, blogging for yourself not out of obligation, quality over quantity, stopping with all the linkies! The stepping back: taking complete breaks from it all, refocusing and reprioritizing. The losing of the blogging mojo!

Through all of that though, one thing has always remained true. My genuine love of writing and my pride in this little corner of the internet.

So, I’m now looking forward to picking things up again in 2018.

I’ve made a few decisions. There will be change.

My content will be more focused on the things that do well, alongside my usual musings on life and motherhood. I won’t be doing anything that feels like a chore! I will be monetizing, but only in an organic way. I will not be selling my soul.

It’s exciting!

One of the biggest changes that I’ve already made is the end of The Prompt. While I loved writing the prompt each week (for nearly four years!) it took up a lot of time and head space. So, after 160 unique prompts, I made the difficult decision to retire the linky.

I’m still planning to write poetry, but for me, not a linky.

I couldn’t possibly write this post without looking back on my favorite prompts of 2017 though. So, by way of farewell, here are a few that I am most proud of.

My Favourite Prompts of 2017

      
      

My Personal Favourites of 2017

Looking back over 2017, there are a few posts that really stand out for me. And, interestingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), they broadly fall in to the categories that I plan to focus on moving forward.

Musings on life

      

Motherhood and my children

      

Creativity

      

what the Critics Said

So, there you have it, some of my favorite posts of the year. But, no review of a year in blogging would be complete without listing my most read posts of the year!

Pinterest is to be thanked (very much, it is BY FAR my biggest source of traffic) and gives me the following Top Five posts, and perhaps some guidance on what I should be writing more of! In fact, those changes I was talking about? Well, watch this space…

        

1. A new entry at number one is my Princess Poppy Cake, which I made for my daughters fifth birthday back in March. I can’t begin to tell you how amazing the response to this post has been. To blow my own trumpet for just a second, it’s been viewed over 140,000 times, pinned almost 76,000 times and I’ve been emailed countless times. People have shared their Poppys with me, they’ve sent me comments, thanks and photos. It’s been truly amazing.

2. Falling one place to number two is my Minecraft Diamond Sword Cupcake Cake Tutorial. Taking my inspiration from the many images you can find there for Diamond Sword cakes, I couldn’t find a tutorial for actually making one (amounts, dimensions etc.) so I made one for my eldest son’s birthday last year and wrote a quick set of instructions.

3. Falling one place to number three this year, How to tell the truth about Santa and keep the magic alive continues to do well, especially in the run up to Christmas (and it would appear on Christmas Day/Boxing Day, which both saw a spike in traffic again this year!).

4. Moving up one place to number four is my Minecraft TNT Cake Tutorial, the cake I made for my younger son’s seventh birthday last year.

5. Holding strong in the top five is my Skylanders Portal of Power Cake Tutorial. This was one of my first complicated cakes. It’s actually very simple, promise!

So, there it is, 2017 in review. It’s been fun. Fast and busy, but fun.

I look forward to 2018 with hope and a great sense of anticipation. It’s going to be a good one.

I hope you will join me for the journey.
 

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3 thoughts on “My Blogging Year: 2017 in Review”

  1. I’d be curious to know whether you thought those posts would do well when you wrote them and hit ‘publish.’ It seems like I never know what will resonate with people and what will fall flat. I wish I were better at figuring that out!

    1. Sara | mumturnedmom

      My very early cake posts, I had no idea they would do that well, and Poppy blew me away. I get so much traffic from Pinterest though, that I do write ‘for’ Pinterest sometimes and I hope those posts will do well, but I’m never sure they will! And, occasionally something just seems to resonate when I totally don’t expect it! And, somethings don’t at all, when I think they will!! I wish I could predict it :)

  2. Oh my goodness, I could only ever dream of those kind of viewing stats! It’s true that certain styles of posts do well on Pinterest and in particular, tutorials. You’ve done brilliantly Sara and I’ve watched your blog evolve over the 5 years – it’s totally changed with you. Looking forward to seeing how it evolves in 2018. So with you on the whole family thing and how your priorities have to change. xx

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