My 10 Things Jan 2016

 

The 10 Things linky, hosted by the lovely Stevie from A Cornish Mum Blog was one of the first Linkys I took part in when I started blogging and is one of my favourites. When I had a blogging slump earlier in the year Stevie tagged me to do My 10 Photos that Make me Happy, I'd planned to use that for my end of year, My 10 Things post. Time and technology put paid to that.

With my rekindled blogging enthusiasm, and a clear direction and goals for the blog in 2016 I thought I'd do a My Blogging Wishlist/Goals instead.

1. A Laptop - Nothing fancy like an iMac. All I need is a decent sized screen and fairly lightweight, a Chromebook would be awesome.
2. Some lovely bloggers let me loose to write guest posts. Amanda at Ginger Mum let me write a post on Gender Neutral Clothes, I'd love to write some more guest posts this year. The fabulous Absolutely Prabulous is launching a Guest Blogger series #TheOopsFiles, so I've a post in mind.
3. A decent camera phone - I'm currently using a Microsoft Lumia 535 with a measly 5mp camera. I'd love an Android smartphone/phablet with a 20mp lens. Like the Samsung Galaxy S6.
4. Go self hosted. Much as I like blogger, in order to progress with the blog I really need my own domain name and the personalisation the comes from being self hosted.
5. Break into the Tots100 top 500. This may be a slightly unrealistic goal. I'm currently at 935! With regular posting, joining more linkys and using buffer to schedule tweets. This is certainly achievable.
6. A Fancy Header. I read lots of blogs, and if I'm honest, some of their headers have me green with envy. Like these ones that Ellie at Sea  creates. 
7. A Stockpile of Posts. Generally I find myself having to write and publish posts straight away. I'd love to be organised enough to have a few drafts that just need a quick edit before publishing.
8. Earn some money from the blog. I've been lucky to have some fab brands ask me to review their products. Gummee Glove, Baker Days, and Pregna Pillows to name a few. I'd like to be in a position to have paid advertisers / sponsors by the end of the year.
9. Attend a blogging event. Britmums, BloggerconfIRL or one of Irish Blogger Associations events and of course The Dad Networks Day of the Dad event. Everything I've read about them leads to me believing they are fantastic and if nothing else, it would be great to meet some of the other bloggers.
10. Lastly but not least, this one is more of an aspiration than a goal/wishlist item. Have a post featured on one of the big sites.Mumsnet, Huffington Post or similar.

Well there they are. Do you think I'm being realistic or is it too much too soon? 

I'll see you next month and update you on my progress.