The Cozy Clarks Goals for 2021

After sharing a bit of an update on Monday, I wanted to share our goals for 2021, both for our home and for our blog.

As I mentioned in that post, I find the new year to be somewhat of an arbitrary time for goal setting—you can set goals anytime! That said, after taking some time off for healing and now finally starting to feel like myself, it does actually feel like a bit of a fresh start, so let’s set some goals!

Project To-Do List

As I mentioned on Monday, the plan is to focus on interiors while the weather is still cold, and then spend most of the spring and summer working outside.

This list is 100% subject to change, of course! But I thought it would be fun to share now so we can look at it in 2022 and reflect on how far we’ve come (and likely laugh at how overly ambitious we were).

Interior:

• Complete Primary Suite (Bedroom, Bathroom, Closet)
• Complete Basement Finish
• Paint Living & Dining Rooms (& Probably the Mudroom, Entry and Kitchen as well, once I get going!)
• Phase One Update in Powder Room
• Phase One Update in Guest Bedroom
• Repaint Guest Bathroom (the white is looking too yellow for me)

Exterior:

• New Deck
• Pour Concrete for New Garage (whether or not we do the garage this year depends on budget, permits, timing, etc. but we will at least get the pad done)
• Landscaping for privacy & phase one gardening
• Prep in the Fall for the 2022 vegetable garden
• Update the back steps & grill gazebo area (formerly known as the creepy shed)

Blogging Goals

If you don’t care about this section, I totally understand! But, I personally love peeks behind the scenes—a little “inside baseball,” if you will.

Ultimately, this blog is a passion project, and something designed to keep me writing. As a writer, I’ve really found that the more I write, the more I write!

So I started this to keep me writing and maybe make some money as well. In our first year, we already made a small amount of money from affiliate links, which is promising.

Our goals aren’t exclusively around making more money, but creating a strong and consistent brand (of course, these actions might help us make money in the long term).

Start an Email List

As a copywriter, I tend to push for clients to create an email list, so this is a cobbler’s children situation.

I just want to get it started and get into the habit of creating content for it to (1) put my money where my mouth is and (2) slowly start building that community. Keep your eyes out for a signup soon!

Post Consistently

Ha! As I discussed on Monday, we intentionally took some time off from posting last year, but even before we got sick, I didn’t post very consistently.

This year, I hope to create a schedule that gives me the time to devote to this space and really focus on consistent posts, both here and on Instagram.

Test Content to Define Verticals

I’d love to better define what we cover on this blog (for instance, I’d love to share cocktail recipes and home bar tips—especially during the pandemic). That means I have to do some testing to see what you all are interested in seeing, as well as which content performs well on Instagram and Pinterest.

Increase Traffic

I’d love to see if these combined efforts can increase traffic to our blog, and by how much. Traffic is really the juice when it comes to blogging, of course.

I know a lot of bloggers are more interested in Instagram than their own website lately, but this site is really my focus, and so I concentrate on SEO and Pinterest.

Goals for 2021

So, there you have it—a big list of big goals for a new year. Will we accomplish all of them? Maybe! Will we have fun along the way? 100%. And we’ll bring you along for the ride, which is what counts anyway.

Do you have any big goals for 2021? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!