Exactly two years ago today, I started this blog. It was originally named Bri’s Blog 2017, but then I realized that having a specific year in my blog’s name isn’t the best idea, and changed it to Bri’s Book Nook. My blog has grown so much over the past year, in ways that I never thought possible. I also got a beautiful art overhaul, so I don’t have to worry about creating my own headers for posts anymore! I finally feel as if I have my own site identity, and I love that.
First, let’s talk about my goals for 2018 and see which ones I achieved, and which ones I didn’t.
Read 200 books!
I read 303 books this year, so I definitely surpassed this goal by a long shot!
Get up to 1000 comments!
I’ve received exactly 606 comments this year, so I didn’t meet this goal, but I’m also not upset about that. I’ve met quite a few awesome people on this site, and that’s what really matters to me. Quality over quantity 🙂
Either start streaming games on twitch, start a booktube channel, or create an Etsy account for knitting and crocheting. Either way, make money online doing something I like.
I didn’t do this because I never moved out of my parent’s house and commute to college instead of dorming. If I dormed, I might have tried to stream or make videos, but here I decided not to. Maybe in a few years, I will return to this!
Have at least one physical copy of an ARC sent to me by an author.
I had many, many physical ARCs sent to me this year, and it’s hard to remember a time where I was hoping so much to receive one! Now, I just have to figure out how to read all of them quickly so I can start to properly organize my shelf.
Start college off well!
Even though I’m not attending the colleges that I dreamed of, I am attending a good college, and I love my classmates. I am going to be having a lot of fun these next 4 years, in between classes of course, and I definitely started off strong.
Now, onto the 2018 Stats!
Total Visitors for 2018: 8,361 (Definitely wasn’t expecting this much growth from last year, 4 times more unique visitors!)
Total Views for 2018: 18,453 views (That means that each visitor looked at at least 2 pieces of my content, if not more. Again, so happy about that.)
Total Likes for 2018: 8,208 (Thank you all, this is what really makes me want to continue making content, seeing how you guys enjoy it so much!)
Total Followers: 634 followers (Grew so much this year, hi everyone!)
Total All-Time Posts: 950 posts (526 are book reviews and 10 are webcomic reviews, the rest are anything from book blasts to Top Ten Tuesday posts)
Best Performing Post: True Beauty Webtoon Review! Since this post was one of the top results on Google if you searched for the webtoon, I got a lot of views for that. 1,426 to be exact!
Now, onto my goals for next year. I have been in a bit of a slump for these past few months, and I definitely haven’t been interested in reading as much as I wanted to be. I had many tours that I had to read for, but even then, I sometimes didn’t even have the time to finish everything in time. This lead to a lot of stress, as I felt as if I was spending every waking minute reading, and then I still forgot stuff or got things done very late. This is going to change for next year.
This leads to my first goal.
No more than 3 blog tours in a single month
Blog tours were honestly the bane of my existence this past year. I sign up for way too much during an impulsive burst, and then I am stuck trying to read multiple books in a single night to write reviews at midnight. I only want to do 3 blog tours a month, maybe even less, so that I can get back to truly enjoying the novels rather than rushing to get to the end.
No more than 2 book blasts per week
I feel as if book blasts are bloating my post numbers, even though I don’t really do much for them except repost the content I’m given. I want my blog to be full of content that I actually create so I will cut down on those specific posts.
Accept no more than 30 ARCs all year
Unless the book is coming from an author that I already know and love, I am going to be extremely selective. Again, this year was very stressful trying to review books before the release date, and I am still reading books that I forgot about throughout the year and getting those reviews done as soon as I can. I want to be able to catch up on my other favorite series in 2019 so I will be cutting down.
Finish the Outlander Series
This is something that I always wanted to do, and I really think that I could finish it next year. They are huge, but I might have the time to do so.
Spend more time writing reviews
I feel like the quality of my reviews and posts vary all the time. I want to be able to spend more time on each review to make it the best that I can possibly be. I feel bad when rushing reviews, or when I feel that I have writer’s block and can’t write as well as I want. As I am reading fewer books and truly delving into the ones that I read instead of rushing through them, I feel as if the quality of the reviews will improve.
You read 300 books this year! Wow, that is so impressive. It was my two year blogiversary a couple months ago too! WordPress blogging has such a great community of people. Congratulations and I hope you have another two great blogging years!
Thank you! WordPress does have a great community, I appreciate it so much. I hope you have more good blogging years too!
Wow, 303 books in a year is amazing!! I wish I could read that much haha. And I’m glad your college life is going good! Hope you have an amazing 2019!! <3
Thanks, you too! I’m cutting down this year though, I spent a lot of time reading really short books and not enough time reading the longer books that I’ve been waiting for