This week I am celebrating three years since my site went live! It has all blown by so fast, however I have learnt so much along the way and want to pass on some of it to you, as well as offering my readers a chance to win something to celebrate during the new year.
Competition
Enter the competition below to be in with a chance of winning £100 of Amazon Vouchers. One lucky person will be chosen in a month’s time and will be sent the online voucher via email.
My Best Moments
While reminiscing of the days when I was staring at the WordPress homepage wondering how the hell I build a blog, it is hard not to think of so many memorable and touching moments I have experienced. I had put in my five best moments so far:
1) Travelling Across South America
A couple of months before jumping on a plane, I was stuck in a job where I was working around 10 hours a day. My stress levels were through the roof and I was hating life. While this can just become our lives, Spaghetti Traveller was my way out, as I told myself I didn’t need to live like this. So I handed in my notice and bought a ticket to Peru that day. I headed out there and had some of the most amazing moments of my life, meeting people I will never forget and still in contact with now.
2) Recognition
I’m sure every blogger goes through these moments (except the huge ones) where you start to question the point of it all. When I spend my weekend writing content, designing and editing images, learning video editing and building my social accounts, I wonder why I’m doing it all for free with no end return. I have always written the content to be helpful to people wanting to travel somewhere, however it can be a very draining experience at times, which is why recognition from firms or award ceremonies are always appreciated. Thomson Holidays just highlighted me as the travel blogger to watch in 2016, Easyjet highlighted me as their blogger of the month a while back, while I’m currently nominated for the UK blog awards.
3) USA Road Trip
Still the best trip of my life, I had a road trip from San Francsico to Miami, stopping everwhere along the way and this all started the travel bug, which I’ve never been able to shake off since. Of the top 10 moments of my life, around 50% were on this trip!
4) Conferences
Following on from reading hundreds of other travel blogs, it is amazing to attend conferences, blogger meetups and events and beginning to recognise the people around you. While most people have grown up to celebrities in magazines and many young kids now have their YouTube heroes, I have looked up to other bloggers which have achieved such great results. Therefore, getting drunk with these people is an amazing experience!
5)Bucket List
My most successful page on my site since its release is my personal bucket list. I found there were a huge amount of people looking for a simple list, however there didn’t seem to be a great resource for this. I therefore made one up and within a short period of time it started ranking on Google all over the world. At its peak, it was number one for all the related terms in the UK, USA and Australia!
Building Your Own Blog
So many people ask me about creating their own blog, however it never becomes anything more than a dream. Everything will remain a dream unless you take the leap and dive straight in. Write down your goals, what you want to achieve and how you are going to get there. You can do all the preparation in the world but if you don’t just jump in then you will always be waiting.
Every day you delay it, you are pushing yourself further away from achieving your dream. I have therefore given my five tips for new starters:
1) Find A Name
Choosing a name for your site is getting harder and harder as so many domain names have been bought. I would recommend loading up a site such as GoDaddy and inputting site name ideas to see if they are available. Don’t EVER consider anything other than the extension for your country or .com. So I have Spaghettitraveller.com and .co.uk bought out. Some people buy stuff like .co, not realising this is for a particular country (Columbia), meaning they might struggle to rank in the UK and will randomly be getting traffic in Columbia.
2) Social Accounts
It isn’t just the domain name, you also need to make sure you can get the social accounts. Once you have this, you need to start building out the social accounts (you might want to consider investing in some bots just to speed the initial process up a bit).
3) Create The Content
There will come a point when you just can’t be bothered to write a blog post and the issue you may face is that as you leave it one weekend, you then leave it the next weekend and then it becomes a task you keep saying “tomorrow I will write something”. To protect against this, I always recommend getting a chunk of content done beforehand, so you can focus on the other tasks, such as coding, creating and editing images and videos, building your social accounts and general work on the site.
4) Google Analytics & Search Console
These are free tools by Google which are absolutely essential. They will help you to recognise where you are gaining traffic from, whether you have any issues with the site, schema markup, HTML improvements, XML sitemap submission, localised & international targeting, demographics data etc.
5) Link Building
Be careful if you read about this topic, as you don’t want to adopt any ‘old school’ methods. Whether guest posting on other blogs in your niche, putting yourself forward as a case study or an expert opinion for large publications or creating a great piece of content which has the potential to go viral, there are many tricks which will work in 2016.
Remember if you ever want to learn more about digital marketing, you can head over to my other blog ‘Hoop Marketing’. I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have if you’re considering setting up your own site.
to try and not worry so much about everything
To learn to kayak
To get fit for my cross channel row in the middle of the year
to get fitter
to stop self neglecting
My New Year’s resolution was not to make any New Year’s resolutions, so avoiding failure early in the year!
to cut down on sugar and to be more patient with my kids
to get fitter.
To exercise more often and start running again
I want to learn to de-stress more x
NOT TO MAKE ANY. STILL HAVE NOT BROKEN IT YET
To not make any resolutions that i know for a fact i wont stick to, lol
My New Years resolution is to lose weight and get fit.
My New Years resolution is to cook more!
to juice more
Make someone smile every day!
To Try & Chill Out More 🙂
I am going to finally get on with my driving lessons, I am now 30 and really must get on with it 🙂 I WILL be driving by this time next year 🙂
To try more new foods
Work hard and pas these bloody exams!
My resolution is to get fit enough to cycle some new mountains in The Swiss Alps on my road bike!
My resolution is to use my meditation room more.
my New Year resolution is to make the most of whatever opportunities come my way
To do more cycling
Mine to grow more of my own veg,and to get on my bike more,to get about x
To get my house decorated and looking how I want it, instead of keep putting it off.
to continue to loose weight my goal is 5 stone i have 24lb to go x
Pass my driving test
mine is to try harder than I’ve ever done in college
My New Years Resolution is to try new things! I’m looking for a new job & taking my driving lessons as the minute but I’m also diong new things like trying new foods, watching films I wouldn’t have otherwise seen and i’m looking for a new house too!
To spend more time in Iceland this year.
To look after my physical and emotional wellbeing take time out for me more xx
To become a little fitter and eat more healthily.
Eat less, walk more!
I want to continue eating healthily, and to do more exercise than I did last year, which shouldn’t be that difficult!
Use the treadmill every other day to maintain mobility. And go to the dentist.
Do more exercise!
My resolution is to say a resounding YES when I get the chance to try something new. So far I’ve agreed to taking part in an archaeological dig, doing a parachute jump and visiting a firing range to shoot a gun for the first time.
My NY resolution is to start yoga classes and to keep them up at least once a week throughout the year x
I have a few resolutions: 1) To love the meddling old bat, Sheila that is my Mother-in-Law and not to insult her every day. 2) To not use the car for small journeys – I’ll bike or walk 3) To make another parachute jump. I raised over £1200 for charity last time (Sheila is growing a moustache for charity ha ha) . (oh well perhaps I’ll succeed in resolution number 1 NEXT year!)
My resolution is to eat more healthily.
to eat more healthier and drink more water
To make more happy memories with my family – spending more quality time together & having fun
Kelly Ellen Hirst
To have a new kitchen!
To use my car less! X
To get fitter
To get in better shape and to learn a language.
\Mine is to get out into the countryside more with the dog
to eat healthier
To stop smoking for the greater good of me and my young family
To travel the world more! xx
To loose my baby weight
to take things more in my stride and to clear the garden of rammel 😀
shape up for my wedding!
To stop procrastinating and also streamline my belongings and have a good clear out.
Exercise more and get fit!
…..mine is to worry less and smile more!
To be a kinder person and to forgive and not hold grudges.
Not to stress about the small things
To exercise every single day of 2016
to be more active and its going ok so far
New Years Resolution(s) 1) Cycle at least a Mile a day for the year 2) Put a Pound coin in the jar so at end of year i am £365 better off !
I am going to walk 10.000 steps each day
To lose weight, same as every year!
Eat less, walk more.
Super giveaway, thank you 🙂 x
To be more health conscious!
To get the family to eat my healthy and to exercise more. Great prize, thank you xxxxxxx
To sort the house out so that we can move to a bigger place 🙂
To improve my fitness
To work out more, make more amazing memories with the kids and just laugh and enjoy life more 🙂
To keep working on overcoming my anxiety
To do more fun outdoor activities as family! x
Quit smoking
To do at least one beyond the call of duty kind/helpful deed everyday for the feel good factor 🙂
I’ve joined a site called borrow my doggy… To get me out and about more
Mine is to get my mum on a plane! She was 60 yesterday and has never been abroad!
I plan to exercise more and get fit!
My New Year Resolution, is to learn to drive, save up for a house deposit and spend more time with loved ones 🙂
to stop worrying about little things and just enjoy life
To eat a healthier diet and get out into the outdoors more often and visit more places. In short to start living instead of vegetating
To eat healthier and lose some weight
To cut down on the sweeties and start going swimming again.
To not be lazy and renovate my house!!
I haven’t got any New Year’s Resolutions I decided not to make any because I never keep them!
Read more.
to spend more quality time as a family, doing things together
Clear the clutter and live a healthier life.
To get fitter not fatter!!!
Become more confident and take some chances
To be healthier
To spend more time with my son
Drink more water – I never get thirsty but know it’s important to keep hydrated. I downloaded an app to my phone as a reminder and it’s working really well so far.
To wear more flat shoes and less heels!
I’d love to quit smoking.
To pass my driving test. Failed 4 times last year
Lose some weight..!
To get fit and healthy
Keep my weight for my daughters wedding this year.
lose some weight for my 50th next year
To tone up for holiday and reach for healthier snacks instead of chocolate the whole time
to raise money for Alzheimer’s research, which my dad is currently battling! i will be holding a fundraiser in March as its his 50th birthday and we did not think he would make it this far 🙂
Sorry to be boring, but my only resolution (again) was to lose weight / get fit. I set myself a target of losing 2 stone this year – which I’m on target with so far!
I said I will start running again and so far so good , am love in it
I am undergoing therapy so I am going to work really hard at that
My New Year’s resolution is no more resolutions. Having said that, I want to start travelling again this year after a bit of a break.
My New years resolutions is to stick to a healthy eating plan in order to lose the two stone that I desperately need to lose!
My New Years resolution is to spend more time with family and eat healthier
My new year’s resolution wa sto spend more quality time with hubby.
New Year’s resolution – eat healthier and walk more!
To get down to my ideal weight
o smile more and be happy. I’m doing well so far 🙂
To be more active
walking at least 7 miles a day 🙂
I didn’t make any resolutions this year!
I didn’t really make an resolutions, but I do aim to spend more quality time with my kids and do more things with them, as they don’t stay little for long.
To go for a walk every day
My resolution for 2016 is to continue to be a non-smoker (I gave up 3 months ago but still have cravings).
I am trying to declutter parts of the house which unfortunately is increasing my stress levels – lowering my stress levels was my other resolution!
Hazel Rea – @beachrambler
To make someone smile every day 🙂
I gave up smoking 33 days!
to get healthier! I gave up smoking at the end of last year but now it’s the fitness journey that’s beginning 🙂
In 2016, I’m going to Minimalise the House, Decorate it top to Bottom and Write a book!
2016 I am going to not worry about what’s been and what might have been and focus on what we have and enjoy it