It’s October now so it’s time for an update on what I’ve been doing with my blog. Yay, right? I’m writing these posts to document my progress as well as give other new bloggers an inside look at how one blogger is progressing. Hopefully, my efforts will provide some insight or inspiration.

**Note: I wrote this post up at the beginning of the month, but I’m just now getting around to posting it, so bear with me! I suppose that makes me really behind on my goals this month!

Theme change

If you’ve been here before, you may have noticed the theme changed. I’m still not 100% sold on it, but it’s good for now. I’ve had a hard time finding something that I liked AND would work well with square images.

I probably should have grabbed a screenshot of the old layout, but I totally forgot. Sorry!

I’ve also reorganized my categories. Everything was such a mess before. I plan on doing a separate post on how I realized this and how you can organize your own blog if you’re feeling cluttered. I think that will be really useful as a lifestyle blogger, especially if you’re just starting out.

Graphics

I spent most of September working on social media and graphics. So far my graphics have evolved through a few styles. I think I’ve finally settled on the 4th style, which you can see on this post and the last few. Only time will tell. I’m just happy I’m finally building an identity for my blog.

Opening up shop

I’ve had so much fun playing with different styles. I have a ton of potential templates and it seems like a waste to let them just sit on my hard drive. As such, I’ve decided to open up a small shop with a few designs.

**Another note: I applied for a Creative Market store last week and I’m in! I’m excited to get set up there.

Free templates just for you

I’m still working on getting the paid templates up, for but now you can grab a FREE pack of themed templates here, just for signing up to my email list.

Templates are easy to use JPGs. Each design includes 4 sizes for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can use them in Photoshop, Illustrator, or Canva. Anything that can open and edit a JPG. All you need to do is add your text!

I’ll be offering up more free templates and PSDs in the future, along with tutorials on how to use them with Photoshop, Canva, Desygner, and possibly some other programs. Just sign up for my email list, and you’ll be all set to receive the template files and updates for other free graphics and tutorials.

I also made this rainbow kit you can grab just by sharing a tweet or Facebook post. Click here to download them!

Social media and blog traffic

Speaking of social shares, I’ve been trying to really hustle it in my social media accounts. I managed to grow my Instagram to 1,000 followers in just two weeks (wow!) and my Twitter is currently over 500.

I’m finding Twitter to be great for blog traffic and meeting other bloggers. I think it’s definitely a good investment for new bloggers. It’s driving most of my blog traffic so far, even if it’s just 10 people. I’ve gotten a few hits from Instagram as well. I find that impressive since you can only have the one link in your profile.

October Goals

My goals for October are pretty simple. I’m not putting numbers to anything yet since I still don’t have much traction. But that’s what I’d like to get; some traction.

I have about 70 drafts that I need to get posted, so that’s going to be my priority along with getting more graphic templates uploaded and up for sale. It’d be great to make some sales too!

I’d like to get back on track with why I created this blog, as mentioned in my previous post. I won’t go into details since I did there, but I want to mention it here so it’s officially on my goal list.

So, basically, here’s the official goal list:

1. Post more
2. Build traffic
3. Build my email list
4. Continue building my social media pages
5. Get my graphics store up and running

September Evaluation

Let’s take a look at my September goals now. Here’s the list from my last goals post:

1. Produce more content
2. Create a free gift for email list subscribers
3. Up my social media game
4. Promote my blog

I’m happy to say I did, in fact, do all these things! Technically, I didn’t really finish a few of them until October, but I started in September so I’m gonna call it a win.

For September, I give myself a B because I’d wanted to join link parties and get my Facebook and Google+ up and running properly, but I didn’t. I joined 1 link party only. I have joined more Facebook groups, though. I’ve even been a little bit active in a couple. NEED TO WORK ON THAT.