Last year I revived my year in review post and I’m happy to present a 2017 Year Review. These posts are fun for me to look back at all that has gone on in my life and on the blog and many readers enjoy the highlight of top posts. In 2016, I wrote that I wasn’t sure that I would continue blogging.
2017 Year Review
Blog Updates
I’m happy to say I’m still at it and this year I published 62 posts! Some of these posts were brand new, many were updates to old posts and a few were posts were republished because they remain popular. In 2017, I hosted two giveaways on the blog and served as a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador, which I had also done in 2012.
Behind the scenes, I continued to work through two blog courses I purchased in late 2015. One thing I love about blogging is the constant learning that goes with it! I have been teaching myself more about SEO, learned a ton about Pinterest in the past year, started a Facebook page for my blog.
Related blog posts:
• Working Retail Seasonal Holiday Experience
• The Time I Shot a Gun and What it Was Like
• First Job as a Teenager Working Floral
• I Never Wanted a Dog, Here’s Why
I also renamed my blog Welcoming Simplicity and narrowed down my niche to four main topics: wellness, money, household and garden. I’ve also been working on improving my headline writing and started using a blog editorial calendar.
I’ve also started to slowly shift to more long form blogging with a focus on helping others. I’m also enjoying reviewing and cleaning up old content on my blog. This clean up has taken me from 600 old posts to the roughly 350 posts currently on my blog. Now let’s look at my month by month review!
2017 Year Review
January
As I just mentioned, I kicked off 2017 by announcing I would be serving as a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador and would be running the 8K as my comeback race following having a baby in late 2015. Returning to running was not an easy journey!
I chronicled my progress in a series of training updates on the blog. One of those updates was a look back at my running journey. I also posted about one of my favorite gardening activities – ordering catalogs in January.
February
I finally got around to writing about the truth about having a dog and a baby – which was a topic I had received many questions about after our daughter was born.
I also attended The Great Big Cleveland Home and Garden Show for the first time. I penned a post about the items I refused to cut back on – despite being frugal at heart and on the gardening front I also talked about herb garden ideas.
March
My business is usually slower around the beginning of the year and then picks up in the spring. This was the case in March so I only wrote a few posts on the blog.
One was about how to get rid of deer in the garden – and that post was just shy of my top 10 most read posts all year. Clearly, deer are a problem for many! I also attended my first Barre3 class and wrote a review, which also was well-read.
April
Work stayed busy for me this month. I updated one of my favorite posts about what I’ve learned blogging and celebrated 7 years blogging. I also updated my post about dog-friendly races in Cleveland, which is also very popular. For my role as a Cleveland Marathon Ambassador, I wrote about little-known Cleveland Marathon facts.
May
I don’t remember much for May! I was still really busy with work and juggling a toddler who was finally learning to walk and May is always a busy time in the garden. We took a weekend trip to Geneva-on-the-Lake. I also ran the Rite Aid Cleveland 8K, my first road race since having a baby and first race since 2014.
June
This month we had our biennial neighborhood garage sale – which is one of my favorite weekends of the year! I was so excited about our sale that I decided to write a post about my favorite garage sale hacks to make the most money at your garage sale. The post went viral (for me) and became my most popular post of 2017 with more than 12,000 page views!
July
This month was busy for running with me running the Firecracker 10K in downtown Cleveland and the husband running the Bay Days Race in Bay Village, Ohio. Work remained busy for me so I wrote a post about dealing with feelings of overwhelm.
August
Work finally slowed for me in August and I enjoyed it! I took time for myself including a day at the city pool and a day at the beach and two weekends spent with friends. I also drove to Toledo, Ohio to visit my family.
I was enjoying the time off so much that I barely wrote on my blog. I did make some minor updates to a post that remains one of my post popular – how to make your own sourdough bread starter.
September
My husband ran his last race of 2017 which was Celebrate Westlake, and wrote a recap for the blog. I also wrote a post that was on my to do list for a long time regarding planting garlic in the fall. I also had a new headshot taken for my business and blog. My old one was from 2011!
October
This is the month our little one was born so it’s always a busy time. Plus we made sure to enjoy fall outdoor activities as a family including visiting the Lake Metroparks Farmpark in Kirtland, Ohio and going apple picking for the first time. I also wrote a post about one of my favorite frugal hacks – getting cash for used clothing.
November
I was pretty busy in the garden through November as temperatures were mild in Fall 2017 (something I can’t say for December or early 2018!). I updated and republished two old posts – one about making a filling breakfast – and another about how to budget for road races.
December
In December I was busy with the typical holiday prep and traveling to see family. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I published three gift guides – which were a first in my blogging career. I wrote about organic gardener gifts, extreme couponer gifts and home canning gifts.
2017 Year Review
In Summary
What a great year. 2017 Year Review.
Other Year in Review Posts:
• 2021 Year Review
• 2020 Year Review
• 2019 Year Review
• 2018 Year Review
• 2016 Year Review