Monthly Goals and Expense Tracking – September 2016

September was a busy month. With my two big kids back in school I was hoping to find some time to focus on my blog. My toddler had other plans! She loves having me all to herself all day and I am struggling to keep up with everything.

My virtual assistant business has been busier than usual and I have had to focus on getting work done for my clients. It has been great to see that income pick up, but has also taken time away from my blog.

All in all I am feeling behind on my September Goals. It is a marathon not a sprint though and I have only really been blogging for four months.

September’s Goals

1. Increase Pinterest followers to 1000 – So close! I am at 913 followers as of October 1st.
2. Increase newsletter subscribers to 100 – Meera Kothand new course, Email List Simplified was great! I created a new opt-in and re-wrote my welcome series. I’m still short of 100 subscribers though, I ended the month with 55.
3. Increase visitors to 100 day – This was pretty successful. I had a few days under 100 and a high of 256 one day! I am pretty please with having over 3000 pageviews this month.
4. Submit two guest posts – Yeah, this totally didn’t happen. Plus, for the first time I missed one of my own posts days. It is really hard to focus on writing with a toddler bringing me a toy every 30 seconds.
5. Create Content Calendar – I did have a brainstorm session and have a long list of post ideas, but I have not put it in to my CoSchedule content calendar yet.
6. Outline my First Course! – Nope, this didn’t happen either.

So I am trying to decide what to focus on for October. I am realizing that I need to have smaller goals until I can afford childcare a few times a week.

October Goals

1. Focus more on my Facebook Group – I am enjoying interacting with the small group that is forming in my Facebook group. I want to focus on posting regularly and getting some good conversations going. If you are a Mompreneur hope on over and join us!
2. Post twice a week on my blog – I’m going to make this a goal since it was pretty hard this month to focus on content creation.
3. Finish reading Building A Framework – I’ve been slowly working my way through this ebook. I finally got it printed out at Staples cause I kept losing my place and wanted to be able to underline and highlight stuff. If you haven’t checked out Abby’s book it is chock full of information about building a blog from the ground up. I’m taking notes as I go and will be using it to fill in the missing pieces over the next few months.
4. Reach 5000 monthly pageviews – I’m going to focus on promoting my own content on a more regular basis. I saw two pins get popular for a few days this month and hope that I can make it happen again.
5.  Write one guest post – I really want to try and guest post on a regular basis, once a month would be great right now.

Expenses

This month was just recurring expenses:

ConvertKit – $29.00 (Seriously people, this is worth it)

SumoMe – $25.00

BoardBooster – $15.00 (I increased the number of pins per month so it is $5 higher than last month)

Total: $69.00

All in all September was a good month. Still learning a lot and feeling positive on where this blog is going. I’m going to focus on finding more time to create content and productivity over the next month.

One of the ways I can help myself to be more productive is to encourage my 15 month old to take naps in her crib. At the moment she will only sleep if I am touching her and I need to break that habit.

I am also trying to be better about planning dinners for the week so I am not wondering what to make at 4pm. I have started to add this to my weekly spread in my Bullet Journal.  Now if I could just get caught up on laundry…

What are your best productivity tips?