I’m sure if you’d told me almost 4 years ago that I would actually stick to a hobby and publish 1,000 posts on this lil old blog of mine I wouldn’t have believed you.At the end of the month I will be starting into year four has left me feeling like I should be striving for certain things. But I’m actually really happy with the content I’ve put out last year and how things have grown without goals in place. I know lots of people start of with new year goals to hit a certain number of followers on various platforms – growth is good, but I don’t loose sleep over how many followers I gain or don’t.
The silly goal I have this year is hitting a certain number of page views – I’m not sure if it’s actually going to be achievable as it feels a little unrealistic – but would match my 30% growth year on year for 2017, but if I manage to hit it it would mean that I would hit 100 times the views that I did for my first year of blogging in 2014. It may be achievable as I exceeded my entire 2014 page views in my first few days of the year – won’t be upset if I don’t manage to hit it, but it would be a pretty fun one to exceed.
My real goal this year is to make more of the content I love, and less of what I don’t – I still want to do more posts like baking etc but finding time to fit those in over the past year has been hard with weddings to plan and honeymoons to go on. We’ve got lots of trips planned already this year so expect more travel content and potentially some interiors stuff as we’re looking at putting our house on the market.
I’ve managed to keep up posting Monday-Friday for the majority of last year and I think I’ve found my groove with routine – getting organised is the key and having images prepped before a product has been tried so I have it ready to be written when it’s been tried and I have a bank of images ready to go. I was able to let go and not stress myself out if I needed to take a day or two off and miss a post, and I’ll let that continue into 2018.
I want to continue to be headstrong – saying Yes only to things that interest me to review and No to those that don’t. I think when you start blogging it’s easy to be like “yay, free things” – but in 2017 I learnt to say “thanks, but no thanks” to most of the opportunities that landed in my inbox – I added up in November how many sponsored posts I’d said no to in 2017 and it equated to a very very nice holiday (without Ben, just a nice one if I was forced to bring him along, haha!). I’ve read so many blogs where it’s clear that they’re not passionate about a product and at the end it’s marked as a PR sample or sponsored post – that’s fine for other people but I don’t want that for my blog. I want to properly try products and give a proper review before churning out reviews because something was free. It’s impossible to try everything, finish everything to the point where I donated so much unused stuff at the start of December to a local food bank. I want to talk about products and brands which at the very least intrigue me and where possible love and believe in.
Over the past year I found myself constantly experimenting with new backgrounds and styles of photography – I’m not a girl who is made for a theme and I feel like it crushes my creativity to do so, but I feel like photos are often a reflection of my mood when I took them. I want to continue that – because that’s what feels like me, so whilst it makes for an uncohesive Instagram feed, and not everything looking a certain way that experimentation is part of the fuel that feeds my passion.
So really, apart from my silly – “I wonder whether this is actually achievable” page views goal this year, my goals aren’t particularly measurable. And that makes me much happier – stats and figures force yourself to compare yourself with others – and my one stat goal compares 2014 me to 2018 me, and I’m happy just doing my own thing.
Giveaway
With that I decided I wanted to do a giveaway to say thank you whether you’ve read one or a thousand (lol, I’ve barely read 1,000) posts – there’s been some products I’ve been holding on to for a while for a giveaway and now seemed the perfect time to do it. There is two different prizes and different ways to enter, so no matter how you follow me on which platform there’s a way to enter. You can enter across multiple platforms for extra entries and you can choose different colours for different entries should you wish to hedge your bets – there will be two winners – one for each colour selected at random through the four points of entry. Closes 14/02/17 at 23.59 GMT.
Blue Makeup Bag
(worth over £112.00)
- Zoeva Blanc Fusion Eyeshadow Palette (worth £18.00)
- Bareminerals Blush in The Whisper (worth £22.00)
- The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer (worth £4.00)
- No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara (worth £12.00)
- Sleek Matte Me in Birthday Suit (worth 4.95)
- Makeup Forever Uplight Luminizer Gel (worth £25.00)
- Bareminerals Moxie Plumping Gloss In Diva (worth £20.00)
- Zoella Gelat’eau Body Spritz 15ml (worth £2.66)
- Natural World Moisture Rich hair treatment oil 25ml (worth £3.45)
Pink Makeup Bag
(worth £114.00)
- Coastal Scents Winterberry Palette (worth £12.95)
- BareMinerals Blush in The Close Call (worth £22.00)
- New C-ID Mascara (worth £20.00)
- Sleek Matte Me in Petal (worth £4.95)
- The Ordinary high performance silicone primer (worth £4.00)
- Stila All Over Shimmer Luminizer In Kitten Shimmer (worth £15.00)
- Giorgio Armani Gloss D’Armani In Pink (worth £14.99)
- YSL Waterproof eye pencil in black 0.8g (worth £14)
- Zoella Bake My Day body spritz 15ml (worth £2.66)
- Natural world smoothing therapy hair treatment Oil 25ml (worth £3.45)
Blog/Bloglovin’
To enter via my blog you must be following me via wordpress, email or Bloglovin’.
Make sure it’s clear I know how to contact you if you win (e.g Bloglovin’ – make sure you leave a method of contacting you)
Leave me a comment telling me which which colour makeup bag of goodies you’d like to win.
Follow me on twitter and RT this tweet.
Preferably also leave a comment letting me know which colour makeup bag of goodies you’d like to win.
Like my Facebook Page.
Like this post & leave a comment letting me know which colour makeup bag of goodies you’d like to win.
Follow me on Instagram.
Like this post & leave a comment letting me know which colour makeup bag of goodies you’d like to win.
Thank you for reading whether you’re new or old & Good luck for the giveaway!
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Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com
Happy 1000’s posts …
Congratulations, the pink bag looks pretty.
Im in love with the pink bag!!!
Congratulations of nearly hitting four years and what an exciting year ahead you have with traveling and moving house.
Even though you’ve said you prep, I still admire how you find the time to write 5 blog posts a week – truly an inspiration!
Both of the prizes look amazing – but if I had to choose I’d definitely go for the pink.
Here’s to 1000 more posts! X
Happy fourth birthday lovely! I’m loving the blue 😊 xx
Happy 1000 posts! I’m always impressed by how organised you are💕 I love the pink xx
I would love to see baking posts! The blue bag looks perfect (well both do!) 😉 X
Congratulations on 1000 blog posts! I really enjoy reading your content and your photos are always amazing. Keep up the great work! Both giveaways bags look lovely, however I will go for blue 🙂 xx
Congratulations on 1000 posts that’s crazy! I think I’ll go for blue!
Carla x
Congratulations on 1,000 posts and four years! You work bloody hard and I genuinely believe you are one of the kindest and most honest bloggers.
I’m not commenting because I’d like to be entered in the giveaway. My latest post is about using up what I already have beauty wise and it wouldn’t seem right to amass more when I’m trying to cut down. It’s more deserving for these items to go to bloggers who want to win/try them. They are both fab prizes and whoever wins will love them. Good luck everyone! x
Such an amazing milestone you’ve hit Rach! Congratulations and happy 4th blogging birthday! Xxxx
Congrats on your post milestone it can definitely be hard to keep up with when life is getting in the way. I also like to see you have an actually analysis of your growth and have set page view achievement goals. You’re after my own heart with that one 🙂 thank you so much for the giveaway and the blue bag looks awesome!
Congrats on 1000 posts! Thats a lot of pictures and writing. Also happy 4th year blogging! Another great milestone. I like the blue bag, I have never tried anything from Zoeva!
Congratulations! I love your blog! Your beauty posts are always so varied and interesting – I’d love to win the blue bag 🙂 xx
Congrats on 1000 posts. I would like to enter for the blue bag please. I’ve entered on Twitter, Fb, Ig & Bloglovin too. I’m off to share on my stories on Instagram. Happy Monday.
Congrats for the 1000 posts and for the almost 4th year on blogging!!
I would love to win the blue bag!!
I follow you on Bloglovin’ as Sílvia Ferreira xx
Wow, nearly 4! Amazing! And 1000 posts is really quite spectacular!
I would hope to win the blue bag because of the Zoeva palette.
Congrats! Great prize ideas 🙂 I would love to win the pink bag.
Congrats on this amazing milestone! What an achievement! 😀 I can’t imagine the time and effort you put into your blog with a M-F posting schedule – bravo! <3
I'm not entering the giveaway because everyone knows I don't need more makeup. But I just wanted to leave a comment!
All the best with achieving your goals for 2018! 🙂
Congrats! That’s an awesome milestone to reach! 🙂 I would love to win the blue bag of goodies, but either looks awesome!
Congrats on reaching 1,000 blog posts and for 4 years of blogging! It also looks like you’ve reached 3,000 followers now! 🙂 You put a lot of time and effort into your blog, and it shows!
Thank you! Yes I did hit 3k WordPress yesterday! I didn’t have chance to re-edit this before it went up to also include – thank you that’s really kind xxx
Happy 1,000 posts! I’ll be surprised if I ever get even any where near that! the blue bag looks amazing xx
Congratulations lovely, many more to come! 💕😘
Congrats!
I follow you via Bloglovin (collifornia)
I’d like to win the pink bag.
holliister at gmail dot com
Amazing !! The pink bag looks stunning ! AlSO congrats on being able to say no to things that you arent passionate about !
It’s so crazy how you’ve written 1,000 posts! I really don’t know how you manage two post every day. Congratulations!
I would love to win the pink color!
dmitrijevalena@gmail.com
Love the blue bag! Congratulations on 1000 posts wow!
Pink looks great. Congrats for the achievement ☺️👍🏻🎉
Congratulations on 1000 posts and to sticking to your blog for nearly 4 years 😊 I always enjoy reading your posts, here’s to another 1000 posts! Great giveaway all the products look amazing, if I had to pick one it would be the pink xx
Congrats on 1000 posts! 🎉I would love to win the Pink Makeup Bag 😍 I follow on Bloglovin: Coline T.
thanks a lot 💕 (contact: coco.pink@hotmail.fr)
Congratulations girl!! I would love the blue one if I win!! 💙 Thank you so much for the chance in this amazing giveaway!!! 💙
Bloglovin’: Alexandra Nikolaidou
E-mail you can contact me: alekakizim (at) hotmail (dot) com
Omg pink 💗LOVE Stila much, also have been following you forever and this is one of the first times I’ve read your full blog and I’m hooked! Keep up the good work – love you 😘 xxx
I would love to win the pink bag!
Thanks for the giveaway 🙂
E-mail: dmitrijevalena@gmail.com
Congrats and great advice!! I’ve said no to more products this year and I’m happy I did. I want to post about things I’m passionate about and I feel it shows in my writing when I do.
Completely agree with you, it makes such a huge difference to how someone writes! No point saying yes to something low value just because it’s free! x
Hey, Rachael. Want to congratulate you again on having done 1000 posts. Look at all that content! Your photo op was stunning before and now it is looking totally pro! Well done~~~:D
Thank you! I have some softbox lights on the way for my birthday and I’m looking forward to them coming to play even more! Although mostly I’m just waiting for spring and summer for better light… i hate this time of year I feel like most weekends when I take photos at the weekend it’s raining and it’s making a big impact 😩
O goodie~~ fab birthday idea. You’re really good at Adobe Lightroom, so for now you’ll just have to make do 😛
Ja, I’m feeling your pain. It’s been cloudy almost everyday over here. So depressing.
It’s only a week til my birthday now… they’re on their way!
Pink please