Words of April || Achievements and New Things!

April was a LONG month. March went by pretty quickly so I expected the same from April and was disappointed. So much happened in these 30 days that it felt like an entire year.

I have a ton to catch you up on. Let's go.

words on the blog

One of my goals for this blog is to focus less on the quantity of posts and more on quality. Because of that, I decided to post lesser and stick to a once-a-week schedule. But somehow, I ended up posting twice that number!

April saw me post 8 blog posts and I'm proud of all of them. Go me! No wonder that I felt the month was so long. All of the posts have been getting attention from readers and it makes me really happy to receive any comments and feedback. I did receive a few emails and DMs in April which brought me to tears with gratitude.

The posts that I'm most proud of are:

• How to Start a Bullet Journal: A Step-by-Step Guide + Checklist
• How to Make Your Blog Posts More Readable
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Listen to Audiobooks

If you haven't seen them yet, do check them out! They're very helpful and have cute illustrations.

I achieved a couple of milestones in April. I'm totally going to toot my own horn here. My blog's Domain Authority became 10! If you're not familiar with it, it basically says how the blog does in search engines and how likely the blog is to rank in search results. It's not something that I specifically go after but it is one thing that I take as feedback. If my blog posts are good enough to rank, then the content is good.

Over 120 people reached my blog through engines in April and that is WILD. It's a little weird to celebrate so much on these numbers when I've received way more on my old blog. But it is also very exciting.

Another HUGE milestone was doing my first ever sponsored blog post. I've always struggled to think of how to monetize my blog. Seeing bloggers in the book community go underappreciated also demotivated me. Hence, getting this opportunity within a couple of months of launching this blog means a LOT. I worked pretty hard on it and am happy with how it turned out. If you haven't seen it yet, it is this post. Do give it some attention! Any engagement on sponsored posts really help.

After getting that opportunity sooner than I expected, I realized that I really need a media kit. Hence, after weeks of procrastination, I finally made a media kit. I'm actually chuffed about how it turned out! You can check out my media kit here.

I also set up my resource library on the blog! That was my biggest blog project in April and I'm very happy with how it turned out. If you're new here, the resource library is basically a section with multiple resources in one place. I'm a fan of making helpful content so I'm putting a few extra helpful things over there.

It feels very rewarding to see people use the content I put up and also use my illustrations as their wallpapers. It's kinda surreal, honestly. If you haven't seen my resource library yet, you can click here to check it out.

Along with the resource library, I also launched my newsletter. My first newsletter went out this morning, actually! I had an idea of the flow and the content. While I did have to compromise a little on aesthetics in order for more readable, it still turned out pretty good, if I can say so myself.

Even though it has only been a few hours since it went out, quite a few people got back to me with feedback and I realized that I LOVE being complimented for my work haha. It feels good that people are loving it. I'm excited to see myself improve and send more newsletters.

words on books

Although I was quite lenient with my reading this month, I still managed to read more than I expected. I read 16 books in April! Quite a few of them were romance books, as usual. I managed to read a few paperbacks and ARCs too, so I'm considering it as a really good month.

Totally, I've read 55 books in 2021 so far! I haven't committed to an annual goal this year because I want to be free with my reading. So the fact that I still managed this much is great.

My best reads were You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao (review to come soon!), Destiny's Embrace by Beverly Jenkins, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. None of the books was bad so I'm happy with my reading in April.

words by other bloggers

There were so many great posts by other bloggers this month. I was continuously consuming blog posts and new content. Here are some posts that you should check out as well:

• Breanne wrote a very nice Goodreads vs Storygraph vs Readerly post to help everyone in the book community.
• Avalinah wrote a great discussion-cum-review on The Startup Wife.
• Biance explained why we should read responsibly.
• Jenny wrote on overworking in the blogging industry.

If you’re looking to find new blogs, do check out this blog’s footer anytime! I feature a few different blogs every month that absolutely deserve more love.

words on the future

For the first time since I launched this blog, I don't have specific upcoming plans! Yes, it's only been a couple of months, but still. I don't have anything new to start or launch.

I'm going to concentrate on putting out good content! Keeping up with the blog, resource library, and newsletter will take a lot of time. I'm not sure how I'll manage it all with work, reading, and illustrating. In fact, I've not drawn anything in a while because I've just been blogging. Balancing all the things that I want to do along with regular life things is not easy.

My city has gone into another lockdown recently. We should have gone into lockdown a long time back but oh well. Things are pretty bad and social media makes me very sad because the reality is BAD. I won't rant because if I start, I won't stop. Seeing social media drains me and I feel helpless because all I can do is donate. Hence, I'm focusing on keeping my mental health up.

Another thing I need to focus on is reading my ARCs! I've been mainly mood reading because of which my ARCs are feeling left out. There are some great books waiting for me and I just need to pick! them! up!

So, yeah. I don't have any specific plan for May. I'm just going to take it day-by-day and hope things get better.

join the inner circle

If you somehow skipped the part about my newsletter and ended up here, let me recap. I started a monthly newsletter! They will be going out on the first of every month. Newsletter subscribers also get access to my resource library.

If you haven't subscribed yet, sign up below!

let's chat!

How was your April? Did you reach any milestones? Small ones like reading one book also count!

Do you have any plans for May? Is there anything you're looking forward to? Tell me in the comments!