With less than 48 hours left in the year, how are you spending the final days of 2020? I’ve been in deep reflection thinking back on all that 2020 has taught me and how I want to move in 2021. Coming into this year, I had so many goals for Your Glass or Mine, but my main focus was to launch the business side of the brand and start making money. While my wine consulting took a backseat, I was able to pass some other milestones. I stepped out from behind the blog to start Wine-Versations, a monthly virtual gathering where we talk about a theme (i.e. relationships, quarantine life, money, etc.) over wine. I ended the year with securing my first partnership with William Chris Vineyards to help co-host the November edtion. Another goal I had was to increase my readership to 1,000 page views a month. Last year, I was averaging around 450-550 views per month. I had a hard time breaking 1,000. In November, I finally met my goal and hit 1,0003 views towards the end of the month. This month, I’ve already surpassed 1,000 and hope to have 1,500 views before the clock strikes midnight on January 1. AND, I have also grown the number of visitors coming to the site. Last year, I was averaging a couple hundred and this month I’ve had over 1,200 people visit. I am beyond thankful and hope to continue to increase the traffic to my site in 2021. That’s what it’s all about…creating content that you guys can use as a resource to make more informed wine decisions with confidence. I thought it would be fun to look at the top five posts of the year (based on views) and give you a little behind-the-scenes look at how these ideas came about.
This was a fun post for me! Self-care was such a huge topic this year. Last Christmas, I got this Bath & Body Works merlot scented lotion as a gift. Not too much longer, I think I found the facial masks with the wine extract. As I started to find these wine-related self-care products, I knew I was on to something. I held onto them because I knew that I wanted to do some type of post with them. The title “Self-Care: The Wine Way” eventually came to me and I started looking for other products with a wine component. The rest is history! I actually wrote this post before the pandemic officially hit, but it has become so necessary as people have been looking to pamper themselves in the comfort and safety of their own homes. I love this topic so much that I’m thinking of doing another post next year. What do you think?
When things shutdown back in March, I knew instantly that I wanted to do about a post about wine to get people through the ‘stay at home’ orders. I really wanted to be the first person to put out a post like this. I remember rushing to pick-up newspapers to capture the photo above. I was a little cautious because I didn’t want people thinking I was making light of the situation, but also wanted to have some fun with it. If I’m honest, it didn’t get the response that I thought it would get. I was hoping that it would go viral…lol. Anyways, it’s still a classic and one of my personal faves from this year.
One of the things that I’m very adamant about with YGOM is creating content that will make selecting wine easier. I know how hard reading a wine menu can be. There have been plenty of times when I’ve given up trying to decipher what’s on the list and end up picking a wine that’s easy to pronounce. I’m sure many of you can relate. That’s why I wanted to offer some tips to help alleviate some of that stress. This is a piece that I knew would be evergreen and helpful anytime.
This is another tips piece that I thought would be helpful for my readers. I know a lot of you drink red wine and so I wanted to put you on game about chilling red wine. I’m not a big red wine drinker, but if I do drink it I prefer it to be natural. There’s just something more palatable about natural red wine to me. I’ll save that explanation for a future post. Anyways, I started learning about chillable red wines and wanted to share those pieces of nuggets with you.
So, I started this series called the “Wine Tasting @ Home Edition” as I started to see a lot of people host virtual tastings. I thought it would be a cool way to chronicle my experience and share the ones worth trying with you. I found out about Onx Wines’ via Instagram and thought it was so cute how they’d put together these tasting kits for participants to have their own private tastings. I decided to set-up a tasting with my family, which was so much fun. I can’t believe that this is my most viewed post of 2020. I hope that my review has helped encouraged others to participate in an at-home tasting with Onx. I know it was worth it!
Honorable Mention (My Personal Faves)
These next two posts are my personal favorites. For those who don’t know me, I work in communications, so a lot of my writing as to be in ‘corporate speak.’ My blog allows me to be more creative and to really share my authentic voice and personality. I really take pride in creating content that is relatable and can be applied to your everyday lives. I’ve been wanting to do this back-to-school since last year. I don’t have kids, but know plenty of people with them. And this year with everything happening with COVID, I knew this post was going to be so perfect. The second post about THC wine had also been on my list for a while. I’d seen several companies producing this type of wine and I knew I wanted to try it at least once. “Puff, Puff, Sip…” is by far my favorite blog title. I love getting to think outside-the-box when bringing these ideas to life.
Puff, Puff, Sip: A Look at Cannabis-Infused Wines
Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane. I’m really proud of the posts I created this year. I think my regulars saw that I was more consistent in 2020 than I was in previous years. The gaps in-between posts were MUCH shorter…lol. I’m looking forward to bringing you more wine tips and recommendations next year. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to write about and how I want to present it. I hope that you will continue to see an evolution in YGOM.
So, what was your favorite post of 2020? What wine advice do you want to see covered on the blog next year? I would love to read your feedback.
I have one more post scheduled for tomorrow to close out the year. Until then…glasses up!
Somebody call Drake and tell him he ain’t got “Views”. You do!
Haha!