Top 10 Blog Posts From GXO This Year #AYearofFaves2016

Girlxoxo.com changed a lot last year as I deleted all old blog posts and started anew in July. Then things changed again at the beginning of this year with becoming a team of 2 co-bloggers, myself and Kim. It has been a stellar collaboration that resulted in us feeding off each other and coming up with blog posts that reflected our interests in books, organization tools + journaling.

Top 10 Posts from 2016

✺ 1. The Master List of 2017 Reading Challenges

Tanya – This was a spur of the moment idea. Reddit books linked to it and brought the most traffic of the year for any one post … almost blowing up the blog.

2017 Reading Challenges Master List

✺ 2. The Master List of Book Blogging Memes

Tanya – This post gets updated every year and it does well every year. It looks like resource type posts do very well on this blog.

The Master List of Book Blogging Memes

✺ 3. 2017 Monthly Motif Reading Challenges

Kim … This challenge has been so much fun and I can’t wait to get going with it again in 2017. We’ve changed up the monthly themes to freshen things up a bit. Hope you’ll all join in next year!

✺ 4.  #PlannerGirl {My Bullet Journal Based To-Do Based System for Work} + Arc Planner {Q2 Update} and Disc Bound Planner {Q3 Changes}

Tanya – I have seriously found work planner peace and the popularity of this series shows that other people are looking for organizing / productivity solutions too. I’m no expert, but I plan to experiment some more in 2017 with showing the systems that are working for me.

Work Journal

✺ 5. Bookstagram Challenges

Tanya – The last Bookstagram Challenges post was in July – because it was so much work! I captured a large image for each of the 10+ challenge each month – so it was a lot to put the post together. But I’m bringing it back in January and will probably  just link to the challenges instead of using a graphic.

✺ 6. Monthly #BookBlogger Events

Tanya – We did it for the entire year – and it’s not going anywhere (here’s December’s).

✺ 7. 5 Tips to Help You Not Suck at School

Kim – In January I’ll start my last semester of grad school. I’ve learned so much about how to make school work for you over the last ten years (!) I hope to still share some of my tips in 2017.

✺ 8. 5 Awesome Guided Journals

Kim – I am still a big believer in guided journals for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of time to jot down thoughts. I’ve actually got a new guided journal to share with you in 2017 so stay tuned!

guided journals

9. January Reset Challenge Recap

Kim – I can’t even tell you how much this reset challenge helped me to get on track last January. I won’t be joining an official challenge this next year but that’s because I’ve created my own little Reset Challenge in a way that’s catered better to my needs. I’ll be sharing my progress with you as I go along.

✺ 10. 4 Story Ideas to Record {1 Second Everyday App}

Kim – Wow memory keeping took a bit of a back seat in 2016 and I found apps like the 1 Second Everyday app to be really helpful in keeping a little bit of the spirit alive. I’ll be tackling memory keeping in a much different (and more manageable) way from here on out.


What We Learned

  • Our readers like bookish posts and so we need to do more of those – both for book bloggers and for other avid readers. Takeaway – focus on communities.
  • Posts on organization methods are also really popular and I think part of it is that we’re not sharing general “how to”, but how we actually use the apps and methods. The takeaway is to experiment more in 2017 with some other methods, and report on if they worked for us or not.
  • Journaling – folks are interested, so Kim needs to write more posts on this 🙂 Yes!! Don’t worry folks, lots of posts on this subject are in the plans for 2017!

Not so popular

  • Fitness stuff … although it might be because we don’t write a lot about this.
  • #WickedGoodReads Month {October Blog Event} – probably retiring it as a monthly event, and will change to a shorter event with a different kind of theme.

What worked well for you on your blog during 2016? What would you like to do more of in 2017?

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// Comments //

  1. Inge

    Dec 30

    I love the variety in these posts! Really impressive that you decided to delete all your posts and start over fresh, but I’m glad it’s working out your way. Good co-bloggers can make all the difference in the world. Good luck for the new year!

    • Tanya Patrice

      Dec 31

      @Inge it was a rough decision to delete all the posts but I needed a fresh start. I kept and reposted some of the posts though.

  2. This is so interesting! I need to check out Reddit. I don’t use it, but keep hearing about it. And I’ve had the same thing happen the past 2 years – one post kind of blows up the blog. I wish I could predict what these are going to be, but I’ve been surprised both times!

    I’ll be sharing my most popular posts in my end of year reading stats post on 12/31.