Year in Review: 5 Tips to Analyze Your Work

2011 marks the end of my first full year of blogging. I decided to sit down and review Little Luck Tree as I would a business, and I thought I'd write down some tips so you can do the same.

I sat down with a notebook and my annual statistics, either from Google Analytics or Blogger. Then, I started to make lists:

1. Identify your most popular posts. This will show you what your readers enjoyed. Then you can begin to look at what made them popular: Was it the topic? The photography? Was it featured somewhere that allowed it to draw new readers? Did it have popular search terms attached to it? 


2. List what worked for you this year. Did you advertise on other sites--and if so, how did your investment pay off? Did you connect with other bloggers in the community, via social networking, commenting on their blogs, exchanging guest posts, or reaching out to them personally? I realized that the best thing for me to do to draw readers is to provide good quality posts consistently--and reach out to other sites to promote my work.

3. Identify areas to improve. This is a very helpful practice. For me, I was able to recognize that I tend to be undisciplined with my blogging and my communication. I realized that it would be helpful for me to have a set time to blog and catch up on e-mail. I also need to accept how much time I can give to blogging so I don't fret when I don't finish a post. Finally, I realized that I should start to develop a style for my brand, something "that's so Luck Tree". Where do you need to improve? Photo quality? Communication? Consistent content?

4. List what you enjoyed. I believe fully that everyone should absolutely love what they do. How you spend your day is how you spend your life, and this includes blogging and business. You probably started because something inspired you, so knowing what you enjoy about what you do will help you focus on that inspiration and help reduce the less-than-ideal parts of the job. For me, I enjoy experimenting with crafts, fashion, recipes, graphic design...but I do not enjoy feeling pressured to make a blog post at the end of a project, so I'm going to work on my mind-set in the future. List what you enjoyed--then make a plan!

5. Create attainable goals for 2012. You should have a series of short-term (monthly) and long-term (annual) goals that you have listed, that you can refer to, and that you can focus your energy on. I tend to want to accomplish a lot or try so many different things that I get lost in my projects, so I am going to be more focused this year. I have very specific goals I want to attain and I am going to keep them handy so I won't get lost. Post your goals somewhere prominent--maybe in your workspace--and then refer to them often.

How do you like to review your work?

♥ Shannon