Reflection and review of 2018
I’d like to say thank you to everyone who visited Alex & Books, I hope you have found this site to be both interesting and educational.
Running a book blog has proven to be quite difficult, it takes a lot more time and money then most people would think: there’s reading the books, reviewing them, writing about them, editing the articles, finding images, the list goes on…
But, it has also been an incredible learning experience!
Just as in life, there will always be ups and downs, however, the journey must go on. Now, let’s reflect and review 2018:
Here’s what’s been achieved This Past Year:
63 articles have been written (100+ articles in total).
Read 38 books & wrote over 30 reviews.
Created a list of book recommendations from famous individuals (Ernest Hemingway, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King).
Created Alex & Books bookmarks and a new freebies page.
Here are The 10 Most popular articles of 2018:
If you want to read the very first article I posted, you can read it here.
Also, my most popular articles from previous years can be found here.
On the site there has been a total of:
36,200+ Visits
42,600+ Unique Visitors
57,100+ Pageviews
A 1,141% increase from last year!
Website stats from Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 2018.
Social Media Stats:
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Quora
A Few Things I Learned From 2018:
As your Website grows, Make changes
Building a website is hard, but the work doesn’t stop there. As Alex & Books has grown and more articles have been written, I needed to reorganize the site. I also experimented with different text sizes, styles and spacing to make reading easier.
I look forward to adding more interesting book-related pages to the site, such as famous book recommendations, and I have a few more things in the pipeline (I’m constantly looking for ways to improve the website so if you have any suggestions, you can message me here.)
What Gets Measured Gets Done
I’ve been tracking my daily habits (reading, exercising and writing aka R.E.W.) for a few months now. I keep a calendar and write out the letters R E W, and before going to sleep, I circle each letter if I completed the task.
It’s a simple, yet very effective method to track important habits.
For instance, I used to think that I was working out 5-6x every week. However, once I started tracking my workouts, I realized it was closer to 3 times a week. Now if I look at my calendar, I can see my weekly progress and make sure I hit my goal of exercising 5 times a week. One thing that helped me hit this goal was making a home gym (for free), read about it here.
Whatever habits you’re trying to achieve, make sure to track it everyday (either on paper, in an app or on your computer).
Blogging will not make you rich (Part 2)
Last year I made less than $10 from the site, I’m happy to say that this year I made much more, but it is still no where near to the point of becoming a full-time job.
Owning a domain name and operating a website costs around $200 a year. The cost of all of the books adds up to several hundreds of dollars as well. But then again, no hobby is free.
Making Reading (And Writing) A Daily Habit
Reading is still very much like going to the gym. There are times when you don’t want to do it and times when it gets boring, but once you do it every day for long enough, it becomes almost effortless to start reading.
That is why it is important to turn it into a habit.
When you make something into a habit, it doesn’t require much energy or motivation. You just do it. For example, I do most of my reading in the morning. I eat breakfast and start reading afterwards. The best time to read is also before bed, it’s a great way to unwind after a long day and it will keep you away from social media or other distractions that may cause stress or anxiety before going to sleep.
Now I just have to focus on making writing into a daily habit.
Brief Lessons Learned from MY favorite Books of 2018:
Humans can survive even the most horrendous conditions.
Tiny actions, done daily, can compound over time and lead to radical results.
Men and women literally think differently and have different core desires.
Who you know is just as important as what you know.
Take extreme ownership of your life and work, avoid blaming others.
About 80% of your results come from 20% of your work, focus on that one thing.
Train the body and the mind, use each hour of the day wisely.
The more discipline you have in life, the more freedom you’ll have.
Habits make up your life, form good habits and you’ll have a good life.
Don’t suffer more than you need to, make yourself as competent as possible.
Thoughts on 2019
My goal for 2019 is to read and write about 52 books (one book every week).
Aiming for 10K+ page views each month.
Experiment with different writing styles and deeper articles.
Create book-related videos.
Reading all of these books, I learn over and over again that I know very little about the world and that I’m not an expert, nor do I have all the answers. However, I will continue to learn and share important lessons from great books and give (hopefully helpful) advice along the way. As always, it is a privilege to write for you.
To every single person that has read this article or any of my work, thank you.
Sincerely,
Alex W.
Read on!
If you’ve found my work helpful, please consider supporting Alex & Books.
Ways to support a&B
As mentioned earlier, running a website costs a lot more than I thought. Add in the cost of books, and the expenses of this site total to roughly $500+ a year.
If you found this site useful and would like it support it, the best way of doing so would be to give a contribution.
Every dollar will go towards this website and even small donations help.
For people who can't donate, the second best way to support is by signing up for the monthly newsletter. People who sign up will get access to exclusive articles and will be entered for book giveaways.
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