So today is the 1st of February and I’m one step closer to my goal of making this blog sustainable. After blogging for yonks , I found that I was getting nowhere and was terribly disheartened and had thought of giving it all up. Newbies who were just one year old bloggers had followers in double digits, comments in 100s, views in 1000s and people clamouring at their keyboards for guest posts, interviews and awards .

Where was I going wrong?

1. My frequency of posting was fairly regular and decent
2. My grammar, syntax and spellings were far above average (without meaning to be too critical, I find some bloggers actually have horrendous spelling, and absolutely no concern for syntax, grammar and other basic language rules)
3. My content was not mere cut, paste or re-blog

So I kept asking myself what was going wrong?

In a renewed effort, last year I spent a pretty packet and redesigned my blog professionally and followed Blogelina’s advice religiously.

• I tried to find my ‘write’ voice. I tried being more engaging. Writing shorter sentences. Actually checking Headlines via CoSchedule’s easy and FREE Headline analyser.
• I activated my Facebook and Twitter accounts and made shameless plugs to my real time friends to follow my blog.
• I tried to vary the content of my blog (and now I am a diehard Piktochart and Picmonkey and Canva fan) and not just use this space to VENT and rave and rant.
• I attended blogger meets and interacted with people younger than my own kids and tried not to be ‘cool and hip’ nor be a ‘nosey grandma’. This is tougher than it sounds……
• I joined blog hops and conscientiously commented and shared their posts on social media

And finally on 31st Jan , I can say YES! I’m One STEP CLOSER to my GOAL.

And just when I was about to preen like a Queen for getting the hang of Piktochart and Grab & Save, I get this tweet from Blogadda.

Now it that is not encouraging what is?

What really helped was constant monitoring of statistics.

Thanks to the Insights I got from WordPress, I figured what it was that my readers would like to read. It sounded a bit obsessive, but I would check my stats every day just to see a difference. And the persistence really paid.

So with February beginning on a great note, I hope to continue my learning journey on the Internet.

I’m linking this post to #MondayMusings  which has now officially shifted over from Write Tribe to Everyday Gyaan.