This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning, I get a commission if you purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Read the full disclosure here. 2020 Challenges: October Update
October has definitely had it's highs and lows. The major low point has been health related.
I've been ill for a few weeks now. I literally left the house once in weeks but that's all it took. A simple walk in the park. We were outside, wearing masks, and kept our distance. I got ill anyway. The joys of an immune system that struggles.
Anyway, due to the current situation it was more complicated to get in touch with my doctor and unfortunately I tend to downwards spiral quite quickly.
After almost a week I managed to get tested in a drive in. It took a while as for most places you need to book online first but none had spaces available. In the end I found a drive in where you could just show up and wait inline.
We got up at 5:30am and were in line by 6am. The line was already huge by then. Test was done around 11:30am and then just had to wait for the results. All this without getting out of the car. It took them 30 minutes to do the test and give me my results. The good news is that I tested negative for Covid (relieved!). The doctors at the drive in were all super nice and did a great job. These people are amazing!
The bad news is I'm still ill. I'm on some antibiotics and hoping they do some miracle work soon. Unfortunately all these Covid cases make normal healthcare harder to get at the moment. It's all a bit complicated this year.
All this means I've basically been in bed all month with a fever, cough, and other symptoms. I also completely lost my voice. Fingers crossed things start getting better soon.
The Blog Audit Challenge 2020
This is a challenge I created aimed at improving our blogs. You can find full details here in case you missed the introduction post.
I do have some awesome news to share. Last month I told you about how September saw the highest number of views to my site since it's creation. Well, October did even better! I'm thrilled with the results. Over 30K pageviews in just one month. That basically means my monthly traffic has doubled since the start of the year (January had just over 15K). I hope you're noticing an increase in your own traffic too.
Now on to the October goals. The focus was to do with getting social.
The October challenges:
1. Increase traffic to your blog
Task 1 : I've been trying to share my content more on my Twitter and my Pinterest (my main social media profiles). I really need to get better at sharing more often to my Facebook page though. I did make some progress with that in the first week of the month but then all my health problems started.
Task 2: I already have several click and share buttons to multiple social media channels on my blog posts. I do plan on updating them though. G+ still features as one of the main share options.
I personally love Sumo.com and use it on this site as it allows for image sharing as well as plain text. It's free too! The only problem is that recently it stopped working for sharing the image on Twitter. I'm not sure if this is due to a Sumo update or a Twitter update. I'll need to look into this some more in the future.
2. Increase engagement on your blog
Task 1: Comment on other blogs.
Again based on the first week of this month, I was back taking part in comment threads in Facebook groups and on Twitter. This really helped increase the number of comments left on my posts. It was great to be back with my blogging friends in these thread too. It's a nice way to keep in touch with them too.
Task 2: Link to other blogs in your content.
I need to improve on my external linking. Once I'm better I plan on going through my older posts and updating with relevant external links to make them better.
Task 3: Make sure your social media channels are set up and that you're interactive with your audience.
I tend to stick to Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. The latter of which really needs some more work. I don't use my Facebook page as much as I probably should. I've also been thinking about getting my Instagram profile back up and running. I already have an account I just haven't used it in a while.
Task 4: Share your content.
This is something I'm working on. I started making video pins and gifs for sharing on Pinterest. I plan to do more of these for other blog posts too. Alternative graphics and media makes a post more pinnable.
The Audiobook Challenge
This challenge is was created by Eline from Lovely Audiobooks. I'm doing it as a year long challenge.
Zero new audiobooks to add this month.
Audiobooks listened to in October:
The A to Z Reading Challenge
Books read this month:
C- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Armed with a Bingo
Chocolat lets me tick off another square for this challenge too. I'm also making progress with the first book in the Assassin's Creed series, Renaissance, which will get me the 500+ Pages once I'm done. I'm currently at 133/516.
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris (a book with a food included in the title)
How are you doing with your 2020 Challenges? Are you taking part in the Blog Audit Challenge? Have you read any of these books? Join the conversation in the comments section.
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