I had been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time before actually having the guts to do so. I loved Pinterest and YouTube (and I knew I was not cutout for YouTube lol) and had always loved photography, so I finally took the plunge once I was living on my own. It took be about 2 weeks to decide on a name for this blog. I went through hundreds of potentials and when I finally had the "YES THIS IS IT" moment, naturally, the name was taken. I originally just wanted "Across the Hudson" but settled on Life Across the Hudson, which I honestly like better at this point!
Over the past two years, I accomplished a lot of exciting things. While there are still a ton of things I wish I had/wanted to accomplish (more on that in a bit), I wanted to quickly reflect on some of my favorite successes thus far :)
- My blog has been viewed over 250,000 times in over 10 countries. My most popular post has over 190k views and the corresponding pin has over 4k repins! A lot of my success in terms of readers/followers stemmed from that post. I remember when I started trying to clear my skin I decided to take a before photo just in case I was actually able to do it, and I'm so happy I did!
- I've gotten to work with numerous brands, some with BrandBacker, but even more excitingly, some that reached out directly to me. My career is all about branding and social media so I deal with this a lot on a professional level, so to have brands that I love want to work with me is pretty cool.
- Lastly, I've improved my photography, writing and designing skills. I'm so happy with how my blog has shaped up over the past 2 years. I am obsessed with my current page layout and I'm starting to create and finalize ~my esthetic~
And now, onto my goals. There are a ton of things I could have achieved the past two years but didn't get to. For example, the past 2 summers I just completely stopped posting, which definitely put a dent in some of my 2016 goals, but this year I'm determined to remain consistent.
- I really want to get more into the beauty/lifestyle community. There are so many amazing people just like me who I'd love to connect with! I'd love to learn from people who have been in my shoes and hear how they continued an upward trend in terms of views, followers etc.
- I also really want to grow my social channels (Instagram, Pinterest.) There is so much potential to help a blog in terms of relationship building, eyes to view content and vitality that I want to tap further into it!
- Probably my biggest goal, is to perfect my photography. I'm still a noob in the DSLR world, so I really want to learn how to use everything my camera has to offer. While I love me a good flatlay (I mean, have you seen my blog? lol) I want to learn how to take more stylized and lifestyle photos of products and beyond. I really want to include more of this type of photography on my blog and Instagram.
Overall, I'm pretty proud of how these past two years went and I'm really looking forward to my 3rd year in the game. I have so much to learn and am excited to dive right in. I have a feeling 2017 will be a great year for Life Across the Hudson ;)
Thanks so much for reading!! <3
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