What’s Next For A Little Bit Social – Six Month Review

I’ve been at a slight loss lately, I’m extremely motivated and have posted, but I lack the motivation to promote. Mainly due to having promoted like mad in January and February with what felt like a little reward. I know it wasn’t for nothing, but on reflection, it has felt like that. The start of this year was a little stinger, with another UK lockdown, it really hit my mental health hard, and I struggle with the post-Christmas blues as it is, suddenly being thrown into homeschooling again; it was tough with a disabled child who had switched off. I will 100% admit that I wanted to shut off and ignore the world for a while. It also felt like I was writing for the sake of getting more clicks when my blog was concerned. There was no passion really behind them, and that showed. It wasn’t all negative though, it gave me a chance to reflect on my career, my blog, my home and family goals and my own personal health and self-care and what I hope to achieve before my big 40th birthday next year (yes, I’m as shocked as you are that I will be indeed 40 at the end of next year). So what is next for A Little Bit Social?

The Last Six Months

You may remember that I set myself some blogging goals to conquer at the end of last year. I thought, given that we are six months in, it might be a good time to see how it all faired in the hope that it can encourage me for what is next for A Little Bit Social. Lots of ups and downs along the way. It has definitely been six months of learning, trying new things, growing as a person and a blogger or content creator (I prefer the more professional title).

So my plans for 2021 included:

• Affiliate marketing
• Collaborating with brands
• Maybe looking at selling a product or course

Affiliate Marketing

I was all motivated in January to take on the scary task (it is to me) of actually making some affiliate sales, and I did succeed. I made three sales in February through Amazon associates. However, only one transaction was approved, and Amazon decided to again revoke my account due to lack of sales at the end of March. I was a little gutted if I’m honest. However, Amazon isn’t the only way of affiliate marketing, so I took a couple of courses. In all honestly, I’m glad they were under $10 as they didn’t exactly offer me more than a quick google search and told me what I already knew. I was a little disappointed, but I’m glad it wasn’t $$$. If it taught me one thing, it was to look at affiliate schemes and see which ones work.

I’m currently with:

• Skimlinks
• Reuken Advertising

Collaborations

This whole thing still leaves me feeling overwhelmed, but I have managed to work on some amazing collaborations this year through blogger outreach and agencies. I have applied for many collaborations through agencies, but I rarely get approval due to having a low engagement on Instagram. It did stress me out.

Speaking of Instagram, I was putting so much work into my Instagram to find that no one wants to work with an influencer with only a 2-5% engagement rate but actually, in hindsight, it was a revelation because it made me realise that my blog was my main focus, I don’t care much for taking pictures of myself holding a bottle of bleach (I’m kidding) but you get my point. That’s not to say that it might not be my focus in the future but for now, not so much. I want to branch over to travel brands at some point; however, with covid-19, I may leave this until later in the summer or later in the autumn.

Selling a product or service

This has bought a great deal of reflection to the table in the last few months. What can a girl with hospitality, event and administration experience offer? A year ago, before lockdown one and covid-19, I planned to launch my own event planning service, but it was shelved during the lockdown. While I still have plans to bring this to the table, it isn’t my current focus, and with the climate like it is, I looked for alternative solutions only to find that my confidence wasn’t where it needed to be. It’s not dead; it’s just sat on a shelf until I’m ready to embrace it.

On the other side, it gave me time to focus on my career goals, and I want to continue to work from home. It sounds easy in practice but officially going freelance was scary. Suddenly, writing a few bits to actually writing full website content was a major achievement for me. The pay wasn’t brilliant for the effort, but I learnt that I am worth more than $2 an hour. It made me more selective of the projects I accepted. I also know to be very clear from the beginning what I am prepared to do within that project. I felt that after the project was complete, that a thank you would have been nice. I guess I’m very English in that respect.

So, Gemma Cantan Copywriting has now become a thing. There is no official launch date yet, more than likely early June, but I am very excited to finally feel like I can offer a service alongside my blog.

What is Next for A Little Bit Social

I wanted to check in and update you on what’s been going on behind the scenes, as you may have also noticed the blog refresh and the new look. I appreciate a good blog theme, but after struggling for most of the year, I get my blog where I wanted. I decided it was time for a little change around.

Lifestyle & Travel

Travelling is all over the place at the moment. I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t hope that come this year, we would have a little normality. I was hopeful for a Disneyland Paris trip later in the year and desperate to hire a motorhome for a week because I dream of one day owning my own but with covid-19 and travel restrictions, and who knows if we will have to deal with covid-19 passports or not. It doesn’t seem that we will be heading too far this year.

That’s not to say that travel isn’t going to be a focus on the blog. As you can tell, I do sneak posts in from time to time, and I am hoping to do some days out this summer, but I have some exciting content coming in the next few weeks. Some travel, lifestyle, parenting and being told to stay at home meant that the house has got a little more priority and much needed TLC, so more home & garden content too, which I am super excited for.

To Youtube or not to Youtube

Youtube, what a mind boggle that platform is. I have been doing my best to avoid all things in front of the camera. I studied media production at college for a good reason. The camera doesn’t love me, and I get overwhelmed and giggle like a schoolgirl. That doesn’t mean we don’t have 20 years of travel footage! I’m not even kidding! We film all our trips, and I debated for years about finally launching my channel properly. It’s there, but I removed all the videos. I’m just one of those people who I don’t want to start something and then let it die a slow and painful death, and I am opening up my life to a whole new realm of judgement. It is something that will be next for A Little Bit Social. This is exciting, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Still, I also know that I want it to be an extension of my blog, not separate as my first love will always be writing, and I don’t plan on trending or being a famous Youtuber, but it might be nice to share our family journey with others. I am currently working on my strategy now, and I am hoping to start filming content in early June and hopefully not delete all the footage. Watch this space…

Related Posts:

Copywriting and Website Content Creator

I did touch a little on this above. My new business and extension of A Little Bit Social is writing for other businesses. Ideally, I would like to keep it to small businesses and startups, especially in the early days. I am extremely excited about the official launch, how it’s going to feel when everything goes live. I’m also very protective of it, as you can imagine. I suppose in a way it’s not really what’s next for A Little Bit Social but is part of my journey and very much an extension of my writing so its on the list.

So, that is just a little update on what is next for A Little Bit Social. If you are interested to know more, please drop me a comment below or add your email address to my WordPress list and receive new posts directly to your inbox. It’s just to the right, over there.

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