A Very Merry Blogiversary to Me!

This month The Bucket List Project is celebrating its one year Blogiversary (is that a thing?) and at the same time, The Bucket List Project’s 50th Blog Post! First of all, I want to say, “THANK YOU” to all my friends, family, and followers of The Bucket List Project. You all are the reason why I have had a remarkable year!

I started this blog with hopes to share once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Also, my dream was to inspire others to go out & chase their own bucket list! Whether that has happened is yet to be seen, but I made a commitment to give it a shot for a year. So here I am writing The Bucket List Project’s 50th Blog Post a little bit wiser with new goals for the next year of blogging.

How and Why I Became a Blogger and Started The Bucket List Project

One year ago, I left my corporate pharmaceutical sales job where I had been for nearly 12 years. I loved pharmaceutical sales. It was a great field that came natural to me and in the beginning it was very fulfilling as I worked with those in the medical field to help patients suffering from a variety of medical issues. However, during the last years, it kind of lost its magic for me for various reasons. But I pushed on until the day my company announced it was going to downsize. Many people scrambled for new opportunities in the pharmaceutical sales field or similar positions, but I didn’t! Instead, I had a revelation and took my leave from the company and the industry.

What was this revelation?

Well, a few years previous, I had been actively pursing my bucket list. It always made me feel good to not only pursue my bucket list items, but also share the ensuing stories with everyone. People would come up to me and ask me all about my adventures. What was even better was when they would find me and tell me how they decided to pursue one of their bucket list items because of my bucket list project! This all led to the revelation that I wanted to more actively pursue The Bucket List Project and share my story with anyone who would listen. I made a commitment to not only tell of my adventures, but also find ways to help others complete theirs. Thus, I started The Bucket List Project Blog and one year later we have The Bucket List Project’s 50th Blog Post!

A Great Year of Blogging with The Bucket List Project

Sharing The Bucket List Project’s stories this year, has been an unbelievable experience on so many levels. Obviously, I love how I have been able to showcase the items I have been able to accomplish on my bucket list. But even more so, I love hearing how this crazy adventure has inspired others to start pursuing their own bucket list items. Below are some highlights of what I have done since starting The Bucket List Project Blog:

• Countries visited: 9
• States in the USA visited: 9
• Books read: 6
• Blog posts published: 50
• Things in my home state of Louisiana I have experienced: 11
• Cool things I have created: 1 (Visit Cuba Coloring Book)
• Weird things I have eaten: 2 (Haggis & Deep Fried Twinkies)
• Greatest accomplishment: Raised $5,680 for Angels’ Place New Orleans & Cool Earth charities!
• Biggest business lesson this year: That blogging is a ton of work in the beginning for small financial return.
• Best personal lesson this year: Despite the small financial return, blogging about The Bucket List Project has been extremely fulfilling and fun.

So what does this year hold for The Bucket List Project – for me personally, as a blog, and as a business?

For me personally, I hope to scratch off more items off of my different bucket list categories. Adventure Travel, Adventure Activities, and Personal Growth items have been fun and quite easy to pursue. However, I would like to focus on my Helping Others list a bit more by helping 2 other people fulfill a bucket list item and perhaps complete the Make A Wish Item. Also, I need to finally attempt to contact at least one person who is part of the hardest list I have, Making Amends.

In terms of The Bucket List Project Blog, I really want to turn this into my full time career. To accomplish this, I need to grow into a more valuable resource for Bucket List items. This will hopefully happen by sharing more fun posts about accomplishing items, but also revealing my struggles and how I overcame them.

From a business aspect, I hope to expand the blog’s reach. Therefore I will need to double monthly views and engage twice as many people on social media. Also, I want to increase my newsletter subscribers. That way I can share better information to more people who want to learn. I also want to create new branded products that will inspire people or help them with their bucket list dreams.

So how can you help?

Blogging is hard! According to statistics, most bloggers quit within their first year due the persistence and effort needed. Sure it may be easy to write one or two posts about an adventure that only your mom reads, but to turn blogging into a viable career, it takes a lot of behind the scenes tedious work! With that said, I am committed to another year of blogging, but honestly I need your help to get there. So how can you help The Bucket List Project get to the next level?

1. Read, Comment, and Share our blog posts!
2. Like The Bucket List Project on Facebook and then comment and share our posts!
3. Follow The Bucket List Project on Twitter and then comment and re-tweet our posts!
4. Join The Bucket List Project on Instagram and then like and comment on our pictures!
5. Check out The Bucket List Project on Google+ and the +1, comment, and share our posts!
6. Follow The Bucket List Project on Pinterest and then re-pin our pins to your own Bucket List Boards!
7. Sign up for The Bucket List Project Newsletter!
8. Recommend to a business that may have products or services that helps people with their bucket list, to check out how to Work With The Bucket List Project.
9. Visit & consider using any of The Bucket List Project’s partners, affiliates, or advertisers listed on the website and in blog posts.
10. Share with me your thoughts on the blog, my latest activities, or some way it may have benefitted you. (This to me is unbelievably valuable and drives me to continue!)

Again, thank you to everyone who has followed our great adventures during this first year of blogging. I hope you enjoy where The Bucket List Project goes this coming year as we accomplish many more bucket list items!

Don’t forget to Pin this to your Bucket List Board!