Every year I set goals for my blog to work towards, whether it be writing skills. followers, brand collaborations or photography. I also evaluate my goals to see whether I've achieved them, and then write a 2017 version based on what I have achieved in the previous year.

Blog
My main aim for 2016 was to work with more amazing brands and I've definitely achieved my goal, even further than I could have ever expected. This year I've worked with Urban Decay, YSL, GlamGlow, Degustabox, Debenhams and many more brands. My goal was to collaborate with more brands mainly in the beauty department to both showcase some new makeup products but also to bring fresh content to my blog. Whilst working with new brands is great, I wanted to continue my previous relationship, especially with brands such as L'Oréal Paris. They're an amazing company to work with an continue to surprise me with their releases. 

I had a goal to create different content, with more beauty and fashion based posts. Pre-2016 my blog was a huge mixture of beauty, fashion and lifestyle but this year it's developed into primarily a beauty blog. Whilst I've not created many fashion posts, I'm okay with that since I find beauty and makeup products more interesting for me, and they're easier to photograph for me. I did create different types of posts this year however, including Halloween and Festival makeup looks which I enjoyed and will definitely make more of next year.

Photography
I think the biggest milestone was crossing over to produce photos that not only would I be proud of but brands would be too. I've had emails to ask me how to take blog photos using my Olympus Pen E-PL7 and brands saying they've found me through Instagram because of my photographs which is a huge compliment. Now I'm not the best at taking blog photos but I've improved so much that I really enjoy taking photos now instead of it being a chore.

I now also own softbox lights which I've only used once so far but as the weather is gloomy and dark at the moment I will be probably bringing them out a bit more. Since getting to know my camera and the lenses I'm taking brighter photos first, without having to edit them after.


Social Media Followers
Like I said at the beginning of this year, your followers aren't everything. They do however influence which brands will work with you since they have to narrow down their search and this is one way they do this. I didn't hit my 2,000 Bloglovin Goal but I've surpassed 1,900 followers which is close enough, as is Twitter where I aimed to hit 8,000 but have passed 7,500.

My Pinterest goal was high but I actually more than doubled my goal and surpassed 15,200 followers which is amazing. I'm thinking about writing a post in the new year about how I did this since I tend to get questions every once in a while. When I wrote the goals post for 2016 I was on 3,500 followers so in the past year I've gained over 11,700 Pinterest followers. I also passed my Instagram goal of 2,000 followers by hitting over 3,200 followers but my 2017 goal will be a fair bit higher! 

Now we're at the end of 2016 I've nearly hit 30,000 combined followers which is amazing and definitely helps my standing when brands are choosing whether to work with me or not. I'll have to have a think about what I'll be aiming for in terms of that. This year I've also passed 200,000 views on Blogger and I wish I had installed Google Analytics when I started my blog as I would love to see what the difference is there since I'm now hitting 10,000-11,000 blog hits per month there (appears as 12,000-16,000 on Blogger).


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