• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Mitten Girl
  • Cocktails
  • Mocktails
  • Food
  • My Book
  • Work with Me
    • Portfolio
    • About
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Cocktails
  • Mocktails
  • Food
  • My Book
  • Work with Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Cocktails
    • Mocktails
    • Food
    • My Book
    • Work with Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Recent Posts » Life

    Building a Blogging Business: Goal Review - Third Quarter 2021

    Published: Oct 6, 2021 · Updated: Oct 5, 2021 by Katy McAvoy

    I love when you share my recipes!

    • 4

    So much about building my business feels like pushing a snowball up a hill. 

    Third Quarter 2021 Goal Review

    You start off with a small snowball. And as you learn more about creating and running a business, you start pushing the snowball and it grows. As you push that snowball up the hill of time and you learn more and more about how to run your business, it continues to grow bigger and bigger. 

    At some point you’re going to hit the top of the hill. Enough time will have passed and enough work will have been done to create the momentum for the snowball to roll on its own. But there’s no magic formula for this. No X (work) + Y (time) = Z (business success). You have NO idea when the success from all that work will start to happen. 

    Snowball rolling quickly down a hill

    Based on how the third quarter of 2021 has gone, I just might be getting to the point where the snowball is starting to roll on its own. Which means I now have to keep up with it. And while some days I’m walking next to the snowball, other days I’m running as fast as I can. 

    Website Growth

    Website traffic this quarter went through the roof! I had literally 10 times the visitors to this site in Q3 vs Q2, which is a wild uptick. Traffic got a helping hand through the Google Web Stories I’ve been posting for the past few months, which Google’s algorithm was quick to pick up and share in July and August. This trend was slowing a bit at the end of Q3, but my Web Stories keep sending me traffic, so I’m going to keep making them. 

    Kickstarter & A Cocktail Book

    In July I launched my first Kickstarter campaign to support printing my dream cocktail book, Homemade Happy Hour. The campaign ran for 30 days through mid-August and ended at 131% funded! That increased funding has allowed me to increase the physical size of the book, which is super exciting. 

    Check out what press check on a book looks like!

    Homemade Happy Hour is on track to be available for purchase by the end of October. Next up comes setting up ecommerce on my site as well as the work of getting the book into brick-and-mortar stores in the West Michigan area. If you know of a business that should carry my book, help a girl out and connect me with them! 🙂 

    SIP Coffee and Cocktails

    I’m thrilled to be doing the drink menu for SIP Coffee and Cocktails, a new local cafe opening in early 2022. The menu for SIP is nearly complete and I’m having so much fun creating mocktails, cocktails, and coffee drinks. (Cleaning up the kitchen after a round of recipe development is much less fun.) 

    I love collaborating with the team at SIP. In September I was invited to work at an event to help represent SIP alongside the owners and serve my delicious, nonalcoholic apple sangria to 200+ people. The drink was a huge success and I can’t describe how happy it makes me to see someone enjoying something I made. My face hurt from smiling that night. My alcohol-free Apple Sangria will be on the mocktail menu at SIP when the cafe opens. I can’t wait for you to try it!

    Nonalcoholic Apple Sangria
    Nonalcoholic Apple Sangria

    Newsletter Growth 

    Subscribers to my weekly newsletter have doubled this quarter. I know website pop ups are a little annoying, and you probably closed one to read this post. But here’s the reality - I did an experiment and pulled that pop up for 3 months this spring, leaving 2 places - on my header and sidebar - for people to subscribe. And my newsletter sign ups flatlined. I added the pop up back to the site in early July and saw an immediate uptick in sign ups. So it’s staying. #sorrynotsorry 

    Looking Ahead

    If you’ve been following my blogging journey this year, you might remember that I themed each quarter to help give myself some direction. Q1 was about building the foundation of my business, for Q2 I focused on the technology of blogging, and Q3 was all about my cocktail book. 

    As we head into Q4, I’ve purposefully left these last three months simply themed “holidays.” The fourth quarter is traditionally good for website traffic on food and drink sites as people are searching for holiday recipes. I want to be able to focus on delivering the best content possible to my site visitors during this notoriously busy time. 

    I also want to focus on wrapping up projects and working with a few new ones. Putting the final polish on the SIP Coffee and Cocktails drink menu, getting my cocktail book into local stores, hosting cocktail classes, and working with a new recipe development client are all exciting business ventures on the list for finishing out 2021. 

    Strange as it seems, 2022 is very close, so setting my quarterly goal for next year will also happen in Q4. I’m thinking about regularly hosting virtual cocktail classes via Zoom next year. What do you think? Would you be into that? 

    Until the next review, sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you some recipes! 

    xo - Katy

    Life

    • Conversation heart candies falling into a coupe glass.
      Easy Cocktails for Valentine’s Day 
    • Super Bowl Snacks
      10 Easy-to-Make Super Bowl Snacks
    • A hand squeezing a lime over a cherry mocktail.
      10 Delicious Non-Alcoholic Drinks for Dry January 
    • Goal Review: Fourth Quarter and Year End 2022.
      Building A Blogging Business: Fourth Quarter and Year End Goal Review 2022

    I love when you share my recipes!

    • 4

    About Katy McAvoy

    Katy is the author, photographer, home cook, mixologist, and Michigander behind MittenGirl.com. Since 2017, she's been crafting easy-to-make cocktails and delicious meals, along with sharing her love of all things Michigan (a.k.a. The Mitten)!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    1. Noelle

      October 06, 2021 at 6:48 pm

      Hey there!
      What email can I share with some folks who might be interested in having you teach some classes on site and well as have your book in store? Not sure if you have a public one vs. a business dealings one. LMK;)

      Reply
      • Katy McAvoy

        October 06, 2021 at 8:12 pm

        I'm always available at katy {@] mittengirl.com!

        Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Katy McAvoy

    Hi! I’m Katy (she/her). I’m an author, photographer, home cook, mixologist, Michigander, and lover of all things food and drink. I never turn down a good happy hour and believe that a couple hours of meal prep pays off for days. Follow me on Instagram to check out what I’m working on next!

    More about me →

    Search

    Buy Homemade Happy Hour, a Cocktail Book

    Weekly Newsletter

    Join my email list and get my 5 CLASSIC COCKTAILS EBOOK sent to you immediately!

    (function() { window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || { listeners: [], forms: { on: function(evt, cb) { window.mc4wp.listeners.push( { event : evt, callback: cb } ); } } } })();

    Subscribers receive a new and delicious recipe in their inbox each week.

    Most Searched Recipes

    • Tomato Rice and Beans
      Easy Tomato Rice and Beans on the Stove Top
    • Lavender Lemon Drop Martini
      Easy Lavender Lemon Drop Martini with Vodka
    • BBQ Meatballs in a bowl, garnished with parsley.
      Easy 15 Minute Stove Top BBQ Meatballs
    • Glass filled with mocktail drink and garnished with a cherry and orange slice.
      Easy and Delicious Mocktail for Kids (Without Sugary Soda)
    • Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whiskey Cocktail
      Delicious Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whiskey Cocktail
    • DIY Cocktail and Mocktail Bar
      How to Set Up a DIY Cocktail and Mocktail Bar Your Guest Will Love
    • Non Alcoholic Piña Colada Mocktails
      Non Alcoholic Piña Colada Mocktail (Not Blended)
    • Cranberry Mocktail
      Easy and Delicious Mocktail Recipes for Non-Alcoholic Cocktails
    • Non Alcoholic Mojito Mocktails
      Non-Alcoholic Mojito Mocktail is the Perfect Summer Drink
    • A Pineapple Mai Tai in a pineapple shaped glass.
      The Best Pineapple Mai Tai Rum Cocktail

    Footer

    Website

    Privacy Policy

    Disclaimer

    Terms & Conditions

    Newsletter

    Sign Up! for weekly emails

    Contact

    Work with Me

    Contact Me

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2023 Mitten Girl LLC

    5 shares
    • 4