Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year? Now that it’s the start of a new year I’m turning my attention to what I want to achieve from my blog. In 3 days time my blog will be 1 year old, and I feel incredibly proud for what I achieved in 2016 with The Pramshed. I never realised that I would love it as much as I do. Nor did I think that it would enjoy writing as much, chatting to bloggers, and promoting my posts on social media. So now it’s time to turn my attention to my 2017 Blog Goals. I started to complete the blog course that Aby from You Baby Me Mummy was running in December. However I’ve had to put this to one side due to our recent holiday and Christmas. Now with the new year upon us I want to complete this course in Q1 which should hopefully help me identify where I can improve and how I can grow my blog. I then hope to take my goals and break them down into more manageable and measurable chunks that can be achieved every quarter rather than having a big rush at the end of the year Here are my goals for 2017 are: Goal 1: To be better organised with my blogging and put more of a structure in place. I found last year when I was behind with writing I would start to feel a little stressed and overwhelmed. In reality I can only post twice a week plus my Linky post, and anything more than that is a bonus. To do this I’m going to try to post on a Sunday and Wednesday, which should set the week off to a good start. I’ll use my commute for #fortheloveofBLOG linky commenting and Friday night for writing the Linky post. Goal 2: To be better with my social media use. This is an area that I can really improve on as I currently spend every bit of free time checking Twitter, Facebook or Instagram which is obviously not the best use of time. Instead what I want to do is dedicate chunks of time to social media use by limiting it to 9pm, and any time after that is spent writing posts or commenting. Goal 3: To set my core blog brand values. After attending the brand course at Blogfest I realised how important it is to set your brand pillars and stick to these, which should help define your brand. I’m going to spend the first quarter of 2017 really thinking about my blog as a brand to help determine its direction and niche. Goal 4: Have a permanent brand partnership set-up. I worked with some really lovely brands in 2016 that I feel are matched well to my blog, these include My Little Piccolo and Fred. In 2017 I would really love to have a permanent brand partnership set-up. Goal 5: To attend at least two blog conferences. I already have my ticket purchased to the Lucky Things Meet Up hosted by Sunita from Lucky Things Blog that I’m attending later this month. I know that this will be a really good event, and I’m already looking forward to meeting up with other bloggers and seeing how I can take my blog further. I would also like to attend Britmums Live again too, as their conference last year was excellent. Goal 6: To continue co-hosting #fortheloveofBLOG. Myself and Fi from A Mum Track Mind had a brilliant year in 2016 with the Linky, and have already formed a community. We have exciting plans for 2017 and have now launched our Facebook page. I would love the Linky to continue being a success, with regular bloggers returning each week to link up, and seeing our community grow. It would be nice if we could have a #fortheloveofBLOG group photo at a future blogging conference. Goal 7: To improve my stats. We all love stats, who doesn’t? I love checking mine as it helps to motivate and drive me. For 2017 I would like to see: Twitter – 10,000 followers Facebook – 250 followers Instagram – 1,000 followers Page views – maintain over 5000 page views a month That’s it, those are my blogging goals for 2017. I feel that they are all achievable with hard work and discipline. I’ve learnt so much from one year of blogging in 2016 that I can apply to 2017, so watch this space to see how I get on. What are you blog goals for 2017? I would love to hear from you. Claire x