I was so excited for this 30th day. I had big thoughts of a post filled with lots of reflection and grand ideas, but that isn’t going to happen. Nevertheless, I will remain positive! 🙂

On March 22nd, I decided to start something new. I decided to start blogging every work day, which for me is four days a week. After finding inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin, entrepreneur and marketing gurus, I wanted to do ONE thing that might help me stand out just a bit. Seth Godin’s “one thing” is blogging every day. Who the heck blogs every day? No one, right? Or at least very few people. So naturally, a blogging-as-much-as-possible journey might do the trick. It would maybe help with my SEO results and it would keep my current followers more intrigued, so why not give it a try!?

It’s June 13th and I’m just now finishing my 30th day. Ugh. I’m not jazzed that it took me 13 weeks to write 30 blog posts, but considering the lack of consistency in my previous blogging efforts, I’ll take it! This challenge forced me to blog when I really had nothing to blog about. It forced me to take the time to blog, which is actually a great form of marketing for my small business. It forced me to think outside the box when choosing topics to share and it forced me to be okay with a simple post that just included a picture of my kids and a quick rant about matching clothes for Easter, ha! 

The official challenge results: SEO, Happy Readers and Time

While I haven’t checked the analytics, I do believe my more frequent blogging helped with Google results (fresh material keeps you “fresh” in searches, right!?). My inquiries over the past few months were higher than normal, and while that could have just been some natural growth for my business, many of those who inquired said they found me on Google. And being in an area that attracts a lot of destination couples and vacationing families, Google searches are widely relied upon.

I didn’t officially announce that I was starting this blogging challenge, and it’s not because I forgot. I wanted to see how many people were already following the blog and who might mention to me that they read some of my “starting something new” series. I did have a couple of readers share their interest and excitement with me, but there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of response. Maybe I have “quiet” readers? Almost 90% of my site’s visitors since March 22nd were new, and the top 10 most visited pages on my site were blog posts. 

While it seems fairly clear to me that this was in fact beneficial to JFP, the reality is, I just don’t have the time. Sure, I could make the time, but right now, in this busy wedding season, my time is best spent tending to my clients…my couples and my families. Editing their final collections, taking their pictures on a weekday morning, writing out detailed emails regarding their wedding worries, sending them candy and thank you cards, and just freeing my mind of one more thing. I think I’ll stick with those priorities for now. I will still be blogging but I won’t be stressing about doing it every day, which clearly didn’t even happen when I was trying to do it on purpose…goodness! But it’ll be something that I keep in my back pocket when I feel like my business needs a little online kick, or during the off season when I have time and am looking to drum up the inquiries.

I’m glad I took on the “one thing” of blogging every day and give a big HIGH FIVE to anyone that was following along! Even though I didn’t achieve my goal, I still saw positive results from my efforts! 🙂 #keepontruckin

Here’s a big taste of what I’ve been working on lately, friends. Wedding season is in FULL SWING!