I am so happy I took advantage of the lovely summer weather over the past few days! I have found that when you live in Minnesota, it is imperative to get out when it’s this gorgeous out…since, you know, winter lasts about 6 months up here!
[ borrowed photo from my last Target shopping excursion ]
This year I’m noticing something else about the summertime..blog traffic tends to decline. It makes sense, right? I mean I can’t be the only one trying to soak up as much of the summer vitamin D as possible!
Weekend Treats:
Friday I got outside for a nice long walk (which of course included some running when a favorite song came on Pandora..am I the only person that does this?). I also managed to scout a super fuzzy caterpillar. I wanted him to be my new pet but he kept scooting away!
Right after the lovely walk, it was time to power clean my apartment since we had a guest stay with us this weekend. We don’t have many friends stay with us (hi, one bedroom apartment) plus this was a friend of Calee’s whom I had never met in person..so I was a little nervous.
Of course Amanda ended up being totally cool (duh, look at the name) and gifted me one of her sweet plates she made!
I wish I could make plates!! She also suggested we all watch Cabin in the Woods…normally I’m not a scary movie person but this one was comically entertaining.
Trying New Things:
Saturday I ran in my first mud run with Alex and her mom.
I was glad to be outdoors and get all of my fitbit steps in before 9am, but man I just don’t like being dirty! Not just dirty…but mud-squishing-in-my-shoes-and-other-unspeakable-partys dirty. Plus we never got our t-shirts…because they decided not to give one out…? Even though the registration clearly states a t-shirt comes with the race.
I did try to think of the experience as something out of my comfort zone though. Outside of the comfort zone is where we grow, right?
(we also ditched our phones so no pictures..for now!)
I have another mud run in two weeks with my bloggy BFF Katie, too! We will see how this second race goes before I give my full review of mud runs. 🙂
Dave didn’t work this past weekend so we had fun being lazy Saturday and then heading out for some froyo and more wine from Trader Joes.
[Tweet “Froyo with crazy amounts of toppings is always a good idea. #summer #love”]
This time we tried the rose counterpart to this bubbly moscato.
[Tweet “Wine is meant to be savored. Unless it’s really good. #winenow”]
Those treats happened after I did a little shopping because…
Sunday I tried something else new! Golfing!
Yep those are pink balls. (#twss)
Mellissa invited Dave and I to golf with her and her hubby this weekend. It sounded like something fun to try outdoors in the beautiful summer weather! Then she texted me I should probably wear a polo (she knew I was a newbie golfer) and I had to admit that I didn’t even have one polo. It’s quite apparent now that I live in gym clothes 24/7.
Thankfully most of the golfing apparel is going on sale now (I almost died when I saw a super plain black skirt that costing $75!) so I left with two new tops, a skirt, some pink balls (giggle), and a new visor. I figured I would just wear my running shoes this time and if I ever get really into golf, then I can invest in some sweet golf shoes.
I am now totally ready for any golf outings or tennis dates for that matter.
Me and Golf:
I’m not very good. Even at putting. Thankfully, Mellissa wasn’t a pro either. But it was super fun playing around, being outside and trying something new! I kind of want to go to a driving range now to practice though…
Name that movie!
Summer Blog Traffic:
Back to the blog traffic in the summer. I received a couple of comments on my post You vs You: Keeping Blogging Stats in Perspective about how traffic is lower now that it’s summer.
Yep. I’ve noticed the same thing. My numbers were crazy big around the end-of-the-year holidays but the blog traffic has slowly dropped over the summer months.
This is normal.
Kudos to you if your traffic is improving over the summer months, but the overall trend is that traffic is higher in the winter and lower in the summer.
I have to remind myself this, too! I was a little discouraged at the small number of links so far on this month’s Did You Know link-up (the link-up will be open another week so feel free to link-up!). I mean I did a lot of work to promote it, we are pinning all of the posts onto a new Did You Know pinterest board and I was really excited to see more posts this month.
[ pin here ]
[Tweet “Chin up buttercup! It’s going to be okay! #positivity #chinup #smile”]
But it’s summer!
Bloggers are taking vacations from blogging and coming back with fun recaps or writing recipes with frozen treats..not necessarily thinking about writing educational posts.
I know I have been busier on the weekends with social engagements and less time to work on blog things…but I am so grateful for that because last summer I was super lonely! If I am writing less posts for a little while and take a hit on blog traffic while I’m making new friends…it’s not the end of the world.
Blogger friends:
Let’s remind ourselves that it’s okay to have a slight decline in blog traffic.
Let’s focus on the bigger picture!
If you need a reminder on how to think about blog traffic and other blogging numbers, read this post!
Then get outside and have some fun in the sun!
[Tweet “Blog traffic lower in the summer? Get outside and enjoy the weather–like your readers are doing!”]
Tell me….
What is one new thing you’ve tried recently?
Do you notice lower blog traffic in the summer?
PS I’m all about Pinterest this year, so I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images!
Pin with me!
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I have actually noticed a lot of growth during the summer, but I think it’s because I have been really investing my time in other ways rather than just posting. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and notice that in the evenings, I have more traffic. So I’ve changed up my morning posts to evening ones. I think people are ready to sit outside, relax with a drink and read posts or go pin crazy! Recently I have tried the new Shocktop Lemon Shandy and it’s out of this world. Hope that is what you meant by trying something new! hahahaha
That’s great you’re noticing growth!! And super interesting about having more traffic at night..I always thought posting in the morning was the best, but I randomly decided to post this tonight and here you are! 😉
I’ve actually tried that Shocktop too!! http://www.semihealthyblog.com/2014/06/shn-eats-minnesota-food.html
That’s one of my favorite sayings! Chin up, buttercup. 🙂
I love it! It’s cheeky and positive!
Blog stats are down but I’m glad people are getting out and enjoying !! now if only they brought me on vacation.
I say we all get out and take a blog vacation, yes?!
I’ve been thinking of doing that! I remember Lindsay Wright did hers for a whole month last year and was curious if I could go that long!! I do take random weeks off though…so those are basically blog vacations HA.
I don’t even care about my blog stats! I blog because it’s fun and I love talking to everyone! 🙂 So did my numbers drop? WHO KNOWS and WHO CARES! ha ha!
you are a saint! I know how much work you put into your blog slash videos…crazy how you can not care about the numbers!! Teach me your waysssss!
This summer has been a good reminder to live outside the blog…so you have something to blog about later 🙂
Exactly, Tara! I’ve had times in my blogging life that I would just lock myself away and blogblogblog but of course the posts would start to get boring because I didn’t have anything particularly fun to talk about!
My blog traffic is lower in the summer too. It always goes up around the holidays!
That’s crazy that they didn’t give you your t-shirt. That race is expensive! I had a really bad experience with it this year, but they just switched management, so hopefully it’s getting better!
Oh man now I’m curious to see what your bad experience was! I think the t-shirt thing had to do with the amount they contribute to charity or something but still!! Why promise a shirt if you’re not going to give one? I want proof I went through that haha
mass amounts of froyo+toppings is also a great idea.
man I want some froyo again! Why did I have to eat ALL of it haha
I think it’s super important not to get too hung up on numbers. They come, they go… there’s really no rhyme or reason. I’ve actually noticed my traffic increasing despite the fact that I’ve been taking it a lot easier over the summer — and I was afraid that easing up would actually have the opposite effect. I think it’s important to focus your efforts in a few different places and see what works and what doesn’t. For me, one of the biggest things have been recipes and using Pinterest. Both require a lot more time and work, but it’s been paying off.
I try not to get too focused on numbers..I do have my bad days/weeks of obsessing though! I do think it’s important to check in every once in awhile so you know what’s working and maybe what isn’t working though, right? I just noticed a lot of comments in one of my posts about summer traffic, so I wanted to address it here. 🙂
Yes I love seeing your recipes so it’s easy to understand why that works so well! And yes, I’ve been working on Pinterest a lot lately, too!
What course did you golf at? I hardly ever wear polos to golf, unless it’s required by the course. Otherwise I golf in tshirts, shorts, and flip flops. Yep, flip flops. 🙂
My blog reading is definitely a bit down, so stats being down makes sense to me!
It was at Stillwater Oaks Golf Course! I was so tempted to wear flip-flops!!
I didn’t have my blog last summer so I haven’t noticed a difference… my blog traffic has actually been picking up lately, which I’m pretty excited about 🙂
That’s great, Cassie! Keep it up!!
One of my new things this summer happened with Mellissa too! CrossFit was so fun! Also, we made a family camping trip out to the Watercross weekend in Grantsburg – that was so fun we will definitely do it next year!
My summer numbers have been down, but they’re already coming back up this past month so that’s fun!
I’m glad you had fun at CrossFit!! So sad I was out of town for that! We MUST try that trampoline class (or gym?). Sounds like one of those things where you don’t even realize it’s a workout because you’re just playing and having fun!