Business and Blog Plans for 2018

greetingIt’s been a hot minute since I wrote last, and I mean literally I haven’t written anything aside from emails and facebook posts since November. NaNoWriMo kind of drained me a bit last year, and by the time I had my drive back, I got so sick, got better, then got sick again. It’s been one hell of a year so far but, never the less, happy new year friends.
I could waste your time and chatter on and on about how I spent my holiday, or where I’ve been the past two months, but I don’t really think any of it would make good content, which is a huge focus of mine this year: GOOD CONTENT.

I want to give you positive, meaningful and useful content, cohesive with my brand, among other goals I’ve set for my business and blog in 2018, which we’re going to be talking about today! So let’s just jump into the fun list part of the post that everyone will skip ahead to, shall we!

Business:

  • I want to create a more streamlined schedule for my freelance so that I can make time for more possible clients.
  • I want to zero in on my niche and find clients that fit my style better.
  • I want to pick up more one-off gigs, maybe go back to my roots of editing or paginating jobs.
  • I need to build my portfolio website, and formally list my services.
  • I need to draw up contracts for new clients.
  • I want to register my business.
  • I want my products to be stocked in at least 3 local store fronts.
  • I want to do monthly markets, and to expand my sales online (Etsy, Facebook marketplace, a shop on this site?!)

Blog:

  • I need a steady and reliable blog schedule.
  • I want to monetize, or grow my affiliate programs but only with companies that fit my brand.
  • I want to start a mailing list, with monthly newsletters, exclusive printables and what not.
  • Keep up with the rebrand, make sure all content on Instagram and this site is cohesive.
  • Expand my niche, but also stick to my guns and keep it simple, don’t focus on too many topics.
  • Build a media kit.
  • Be authentic, and make sure that my audience knows the blogger behind the posts. Be true to myself and don’t sacrifice what is in my heart for the brand.

Ultimately, I want my businesses, both freelance and Cozy Bones, and this blog to link up seamlessly, which is proving to be a bit more difficult since both businesses are completely different. I have contemplated with marketing myself as a Creative, and just using this as a blanket site for both projects, which would ultimately save me so much stress, but I run into the issue that maybe my freelance audience doesn’t want to see my crocheted cacti or sushi? I hope that’s not as confusing to read as it was to write, and I hope I can figure out a way to incorporate both into the site at some point, mainly because I don’t feel like building another site!

What are your goals for your business or blog this year?
Do you separate your goals into categories too or am I just insane?
Thanks for reading,
sig

 

 

November: small goals

Oh hey there

I know this post is a little bit late but I have had such a crazy start to the month with NaNoWriMo and everything I haven’t had a chance to write anything other than my novel. I also didn’t anticipate last month getting as busy as it did. Around Mid-October I got completely swamped with custom orders on Instagram, and then somehow managed to plan an entire pop up market for this month on the 19th. I’m still in shock about how fast it happened, but I’m super excited about it and I can’t wait to see how this one goes. We have 10 amazing vendors who are all so unique and talented and the market takes place on the day of the cities Santa Claus parade so foot traffic is going to be off the charts! That being said I have so much market prep to take care of, at the same time as novel writing and keeping this blog updated at least twice a week! So let’s recap my October Goals and how I did….(spoiler it was kind of pitiful last month! I didn’t account for being as busy as I was!)

October Goals:

Inktober and Vlogtober:  I started off so excited about Inktober, and did maybe the first 10 days and then completely fell off the wagon. I couldn’t get back into it at all. Vlogtober I’d like to say I did kind of well with, I never really expected myself to do daily vlogs, I more so just wanted to vlog more often.

Preptober: Though I did have more posts to include in my Preptober series, I think I did a job of posting the big and important ones. I definitely plotted my novel, and completely my preptober checklist in my bullet journal so I definitely think I won on that front!

Affiliates/PR/Sponsorships: I won’t lie, I didn’t even go on to the website that I use for my affiliations this month. I haven’t checked my stats at all. I feel like I was just too busy to keep up with that. I should probably go look at that right now….

Portfolio: Same with this one, I just didn’t have the time, October was a crazy busy month! I have a bunch of posts from some of the adventures I went on last month coming to the blog in the next couple weeks.

 More Quality Time: This one I totally managed to do, and I am so happy that I did. I think that I really needed the time with my partner, I needed to recharge and I feel so much better now that I have. Its kind of magical how different I feel after spending time with him. He has this way of boosting me up in every regard and I love that about him so much.

No-Spend: I was successful on the no spend front! I didn’t buy anything on the no spend list unless it was a Christmas gift. I did get a big chunk of my Christmas purchases done, which I’m pretty excited about!

November Goals:

NaNoWriMo: Anyone who has been reading my blog the past two months will know that I am doing NaNo this month, my main goals are in my last post, but as a little update, I am only a day behind on my personal goal, but super ahead of the actual NaNo goals which is awesome! I’m still hoping to finish my 50k by the 17th or 18th!

Vlog NaNoWriMo: I am also trying to vlog my NaNo this year with short little videos in my Instagram story! I’ll be compiling them all together at the end of the month to make a cool little day in the life of a wrimo video! I can’t wait!

Makers Market: Obviously this market is going to need to take a bit of priority. A lot of planning and organizing goes into running an event like this. I still need to lay out a floor plan and make posters to post up everywhere downtown, never mind just stocking up my shop and getting my table set up finished!

Christmas Projects: I have a pretty big list of Christmas gifts that I need to make and I don’t want to leave them all until December so after market day I’ll be going on a short week-long hiatus to focus on nothing but the novel and my gift projects! Some of them are going to be super time-consuming!

Organize My Office: The past few months have been so completely hectic and I am really in need of some reorganization! I seriously can’t keep up with the amount of yarn that is flying off the fall, and I when I buy new skeins I can’t find the time to rewind them and put them on the wall. Don’t even get me started on my desk or the other craft cubes I have. All of them are so wildly disorganized and it’s giving me a migraine!

Stick to My Blog Schedule: I really want to stick to this goal of writing here twice a week! I added a little NaNoWriMo incentive that I talk about in my accountability post, and hopefully, the blog helps motivate me to get on top of my goals!

I think that’s it for my November goals! I can’t wait to share the next few posts I have scheduled! Going back to relive some of the super exciting things that I did last month so that I can write blog posts about them has put me in such a great mood and I can’t wait for you all to read them!

What are your small goals for November?

mazie bones

october: small goals

Oh hey there
Let me tell you, it has been an absolute ride this month. A strong start, a big loop in the middle and now another amazing start for this month! If you follow me on social media, you may have heard that I got a new job! I haven’t shared much about it publically yet, because I plan on doing a post, but I’m very excited about it, it’s all falling into place and I seriously couldn’t be happier.

So here is how I did in September!

September Goals:

Portfolio: I was offered a pretty awesome job near mid-september and I just completely fell out of portfolio mode. Its definitely being migrated to this month AGAIN.

Prep-tember: I’m going to do a round up post of all my Prep-tember posts but if you liked those posts, you’re going to love all the Preptober posts I have planned for this month!

Outline my NaNo Novel: I started brainstorm more scenes but I didn’t actually write any of the outline down. Which is not very productive. Thats what this month is for though right? RIGHT?!

Print My Zine: I have successfully written and illustrated a whole new zine, but neither of them are printed yet for some reason. I need to sell some during NaNo though since I won’t be working as much, so it’s definitely a priority!

Blog Every Week Day: I was doing really well up until Navi’s vet adventures that I wrote about here. I tried to redeem myself a bit in the last week of September but it wasn’t the best attempt! I got all the important posts I needed to get up though! So that’s a thing!

No Spend: I killed it this month on the no spend! No slip ups, I didn’t forget once, I was super mindful about what I was spending! On October 1st I rewarded myself with a beautiful Luna the Cat Backpack! When it arrives I’ll be writing a post about it!

October Goals:

Inktober and Vlogtober: This month I’m doing the Inktober and Vlogtober challenges over on youtube. At the very least I want to do what ink drawing each day, my expectations are a bit lower for the vlog challenge but I’ve been doing okay so far!

Preptober: As I mentioned before I have a huge Preptober series planned for this month. I’m a NaNoWriMo ML and prepping my novel now is super crucial for my wellbeing in November!

Affiliates/PR/Sponsorships: Last month I became a part of a whole handful of new affiliate programs and I really want to create some kind of routine on getting my links out there on my Pinterest and in posts and whatnot, so I’m going to try to up my game a bit on that front. I also want to find more programs that pay per click instead of sales.

Portfolio: Migrating this task over from September! Kind of rolling my eyes at myself right now!

More Quality Time: I want to focus on spending more quality time with my loved ones. Things have been super hectic since we got back from vacation and the next couple months are going to be absolutely insane so I really want to set aside some time each week before the weekend to get some good quality time in with Drew and our little fam!

No-Spend: This month on the no-spend list are the usual suspects. No books, no MORE bags ( I bought that backpack on the first of the month with the intent of not buying any other ones until I can get rid of a few.), No yarn unless it’s specifically for a Christmas gift!

What are your goals for the month? I’d love to hear some of them in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,
mazie bones

September: Small Goals

Oh hey there

In my last post, I kind of spoke about some of the things that I plan on doing in September but I felt that it might be a bit more beneficial if I post my goals publically, for all that accountability and what not! So Here are the goals I had written down for August and my progress with them!

(Disclaimer: This post will contain affiliate links, which means that I may earn a few cents if you click on a link or make a purchase through a link posted here, with no additional cost to you! I appreciate the support!)

August Goals:

Finish Unpacking:  In July, my partner moved into my apartment, and since then there has been a constant stream of plans, events or just road blocks keeping us from unpacking all of his stuff. So I set a goal to find time to finish getting him all settled in! There is at least one more Ikea trip to go before we’re completely organized but at least everything is out of boxes!

Cozy bones Instagram:  I made a goal to post more on Instagram, and a goal to get to 200 followers! I got to 215! A fair jump from 80 followers in July! My next goal is 35o, but I’m not making that a monthly goal.

Label my part of the office: I got a bunch of craft cubes for our shared office, the ones you can see in my workspace tour. Up until that tour, they were labeled with sticky notes, so I needed to upgrade it a bit! It’s been on my task list for at least 3 months.

Complete the zine: I’ve had my zine planned for about a month now, and I finally sat down and wrote it out! I’m excited to share more about it in the next couple of weeks!

Start Couponing again: Now this is kind of a half and half win for me. I didn’t start hardcore couponing again, like the whole clipping and price matching dealy that I used to back in the day. But I did log back into my PC Plus account, but more importantly, I signed back into my Checkout 51 for the first time in a couple of years! I completely forgot how fun it was to use this app! I’ve already got $15 on the app, and a little bit more processing after my grocery shop from today! I’m a bit too excited about it, to be honest, I keep asking Drew if we can go grocery shopping again. If you haven’t checked out the app yet, you definitely should! It truly is remarkable the savings you can find!

Checkout 51 Home

No Spend: At the beginning of the month I wrote down a list of things that I wasn’t going to allow myself to buy. The list consisted of books, makeup, bullet journal supplies, yarn, and purses. I’m proud to say I spent money on none of these things last month!

September Goals:

Portfolio: I need to set up my portfolio page, it’s currently just sad and empty and it’s something that is super important for my career. Time to put the big girl panties on and just get to work on that.

Prep-tember: I want to write at least one or two Prep-tember posts each week. I also need to get set up for Prep-tober. Let me know if there are any posts you’d like to see from me.

Outline my NaNo Novel: Now that I have an idea for a novel, I need to sit down and write a detailed outline for it, other wise it will never get written. I’ve tried the unplanned route, it just doesn’t work for me.

Print My Zine: Now that my zine is written, I need to lay it out, and print it. That’s really the last step before it gets out into the world. I’m pretty excited about making a couple extra dollars from something written and made by me.

Blog Every Week Day: Writing every week day is a definite goal for this month! I really want to see if I can do it! I know there are a lot of awesome bloggers that write every day so week days are super doable I think!

No Spend: This month I’m cutting back on my rules a little bit! This month it’s just no books, not purses and no stationery. I’m sorry, but all the fall colours just came out in the yarn department and I have n0 will power! I’d just be setting myself up to fail!

That’s it for today’s post! Share your goals, I’d love to hear what you have planned for this month!

As always, thanks for reading,
mazie bones

This post was proofread by Grammarly

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