Happy New Year’s Eve, CWS fam! It’s hard to believe that 2019 is coming to a close and not only that… another decade is coming to a close. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to say “hello!” to 2020. 🙂
It’s always a wild ride looking back at all the year had in store. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to spending time reflecting on 2019 and blogging. I had set out at the start of 2019 with some highly ambitious goals and while I hit some, I missed the mark on others. But, as I have taken the time over the last week to truly look back and appreciate my blogging journey this year, I can confidently say that I’m proud of all I have accomplished in 2019. Since we’re wrapping up another decade, I’ll be including some CWS highlights from the past 5 years, too!
COFFEE WITH SUMMER’S TOP 5 BLOG POSTS OF 2019:
- 12 Daily Habits To Boost Your Mood
- How To Reduce Stress When Life Is Busy
- How To Wear A Maxi Dress When You’re Short
- 7 Instagram Stories Strategies To Start Using Now
- Moving Through Life’s Milestones With Ford
COFFEE WITH SUMMER’S TOP 10 BLOG POSTS OF THE DECADE:
- How To Whitewash A Stone Fireplace – This post is by far the most-read blog post on CWS to date. It’s been a hit on Pinterest and draws in viewers every day.
- Why Follow/Unfollow Isn’t The Way To Grow – I’m someone who doesn’t mind ruffling some feathers, especially when it comes to authenticity, honesty, and truth. This post definitely was a controversial one in the blogging/social media world but I’m glad to have influence in this debate!
- 5 Reasons Why Friday Weddings Are Better – Mike and I had a Friday wedding in the summer of 2015 and we were so glad we did.
- How I Edit My Blog Photos – While I have a slightly different photo editing process now, this was what worked for me for a long time and there are still some helpful tips in this post!
- Nashville Travel Guide – In July 2018, Mike and I got away to Nashville for a few days on my first ever sponsored trip. My Nashville Travel Guide has gone viral on Pinterest many times over the past year.
- How To Get More Traffic From Instagram – Linktree isn’t the way to go! If you want more traffic to your blog from IG, create your own IG Links page.
- 10 Tips For The Morning Of Your Wedding – My wedding-related posts always do extremely well on Pinterest, making this one of my top read wedding posts!
- Why You Need To Make Self-Care A Priority – While this is one of my oldest and shortest written self-care blog posts, it’s still one of my most read.
- Why You CAN’T Start A Blog In Just Minutes – It’s a huge misconception that you can start a blog in “just 15 minutes” or “just 1 day” because the reality is, it takes TONS of prep work.
- Reasons To Make “Me Time” A Priority & Activities To Do Alone – In order to have “me time” you need to make it a priority in your life. Here are tips on how to!
INSTAGRAM TOP NINE OF 2019:
These are my top 9 best-performing Instagram photos for the year! Some of my personal favorites are here, too. 😉 Can you guess which ones?! Be sure to follow me on Instagram if you aren’t already! @summertelban
TOP 5 BEST-SELLING ITEMS:
Affiliate marketing is one of the smaller ways that I earn an income through my blog (see further disclosure here). As always, I only recommend the best products and they’re 99% of the time ones I already use and love myself. Here are the top 5 best-selling items recommending by me for the year…
The Nora Mattress from Wayfair is absolutely incredible and it’s at such a steal of a price. I wrote my review on it at the end of 2017 and still today, it’s the perfect mattress for our guest room. This “out of office” t-shirt is perfect and comes in sizes: Small to 3XL. This Maybelline liquid eyeliner is the perfect drugstore dupe for Tarte’s Sex Kitten Liquid Eyeliner. The open knit coat I’m wearing in the photo above from Chicwish was a huge hit with you all this fall! This Amazon fashion find is affordable, high-quality, and incredible – you all love it! It comes in sizes: Small to XL.
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE BLOGGING MOMENTS OF 2019:
While my blogging journey looked different than I thought it would this year, mostly due to moving and my pregnancy (both amazing blessings), I am still so happy with how far I’ve come this year. Sure, I didn’t hit every crazy ambitious goal but I did make a lot of personal progress and I’m feeling great about heading into 2020.
- My Favorite Partnerships: Pantene and Ford
- It’s always hard to choose my favorite partnerships because the partnerships I take on are always ones I use and love already. Pantene and Ford have to be my top 2 favorites of 2019 for many different reasons but I loved that for both I was able to have full creative control, which always makes for my content.
- Pantene Blog Post
- Ford Blog Post
- I got into Mediavine: Mediavine is the ad network that I’m with. I decided to take the plunge to join Mediavine to further my blogging income. It’s been one of the best decisions that I’ve made and I’m very proud of what I’m seeing come of it so far.
- I was interviewed for 2 different podcasts! This was outside of my comfort zone for sure but it was a great way to continue to establish my credibility in blogging.
- Mariah Magazine interviewed me on the topic of Influencer Marketing and how it can grow your small business. Catch the interview HERE!
- The Thrive Blogger Podcast had me on to talk about overcoming your fear of self-promotion as a blogger or creative entrepreneur! Catch the episode on Spotify HERE!
END OF THE YEAR READER SURVEY:
If you’re a dedicated reader of CWS and you haven’t taken my reader survey yet, please take 2 minutes to fill it out! 🙂 It is extremely helpful to me. Thank you!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I am so glad and grateful to have you in my blogging corner. Your continued support is part of 1. why I’m able to keep on going with blogging and 2. why my passion for blogging is still fervent! I’m looking forward to the next decade of CWS with you by my side. 🙂
XOXO,