Well I’ve hit that point again, looking back over the most amazing moments of the past year and seeing whether I hit my new years resolutions. The hard thing about writing them down on the blog is you judge yourself if you failed 12 months later, but I think I’ve actually managed to hit a good few of them, phew!
Below were the resolutions I set last year:
- Weight train 4 days per week – Well, I went the opposite way with this one, managing to give up the gym completely, oops!
- Be featured in over 10 BIG publications – I’ve hit around 400 this year, the greatest year in link building in my life, so hard to complain! Some of the best ones include Forbes, BBC, Mashable, Daily Mail, Metro, The Sun, Timeout, MSN, Vice, Cosmopolitan, Ladbible, Unilad, Telegraph, Radio 1, Daily Star and Loaded.
- Speak at a conference – I definitely backed out of a good few, plus Gerry was offering these to me on a plate, so I did bad here, however I was on a webinar on HTTPS with Gerry and Andy, so not a complete fail.
- Take a press trip somewhere fun – I stayed in the most luxurious villa in the world while in Koh Samui, so definitely hit the spot
- Keep TIO going – Take It Offline has been a huge success and helped me to meet hundreds of people in the industry, as well as learn a huge amount more about all aspects of marketing
- Increase Spaghetti Traveller organic traffic by 20% year on year – I managed to hit this one, although there were definitely quiet patches. I failed during the summer, going 3 months without posting, the longest I’ve ever gone, however I’m completely back on it and have posted once per week for the past few months.
- Increase Suit Your Look traffic – I slipped back a bit here and have been guilty of only writing posts where I got something as a product review, something I feel bad about, but it is hard to write about fashion when it isn’t my forte.
- Visit Asia for 2 weeks for my 30th birthday – I went to Thailand on one of the most amazing holidays of my life. I couldn’t ask for more, while I was joined by my girlfriend and both Kunal and Lee.
- Time to become a vlogger…Who said that? Well, maybe next year! I did knock out a few videos, but I won’t pretend I stuck to it.
- Meet a girl and settle down – I met the most amazing girl in the world, Raquel Mitchell, who is now part of this blog as we have switched to a travelling couple. We’re already deep into planning our trips for 2018.
- Increase Twitter account to 30,000. I had a good start, gaining 3,000 followers in the first three months, but it has been pretty stagnant since then and I’m finishing up with 26,000. Not a bad amount and the account is verified, but I still want to hit the big 30.
So all in all it was a great year for myself, both from a career and a personal perspective. I can’t help but think what could have been with the vlogging, but it’s stupid to look back with regret. I’d rather learn from it and work even harder next year to make the blog a success. Below are my new years resolutions for 2018.
- Build Instagram account to 15,000
- Go to Traverse in Rotterdam for a week of travel events
- Build Twitter account to 30,000
- Visit Sri Lanka
- Build the YouTube channel and get 100 subscribers
- Be featured on TV
- Go on a press trip
- Increase Spaghetti Traveller organic traffic by 15% year-on-year
- Build birthday website
- Build feed-a-sausage campaign
- Take a video editing course
- Save at least £500 per month
- Run the Bubble Football World Cup
- Go to the dentists