When I started The District Nerd(TDN) over a year ago, the mission was to create a place where the voice of building apps and homebrewing was a black woman. Those first fifteen posts were just that. “Vivino vs Delectable”, compared wine cataloging apps. “White Wine Basics” and “Red Wine Basics”, summarized the long and complicated history of wine. Then I decided to do an Android bootcamp, which consumed my life for several months. It wasn’t until the latter half of this year that I was able to return to TDN full-time.  Now, as 2017 comes to an end, I am reflecting on the success and failures of the past year.

Success

Let’s start with the positive. My first win is that The District Nerd is still going. With more conflicting priorities, there are moments where I wonder if blogging is the best use of my time. But then I remember my reasons why to change the stereotype behind the voice of building apps and homebrewing and my love of writing.

Next, I’m happy to say that The District Nerd expanded offerings. From the very beginning, I wanted to create a fan shop. The District Nerd shop, offers clothes and accessories with sayings from technology and homebrewing with a female slant. In addition, TDN added android and homebrewing word searches to the website

Lastly, TDN increased social media followers and page views. Over time, a successful strategy was developed for connecting with people. TDN expanded its network of female homebrewers, beer bloggers, and technology writers.

Failure

On the other hand, we have the failures. The biggest failure has been not publishing four pieces a month. I wish this had a simple explanation, but alas no. Striking the balance between job hunting, managing unemployment stress, researching and writing content often leaves me overwhelmed. I’m working on templates for shorter, less research based pieces. But my goal remains to post four times a month

My second failure was not raising any revenue to support the blog. Despite creating revenue generating options such as the fan shop and signing up for affiliate links, I haven’t raised any money. This, too, requires the right plan, which I haven’t figured out.

Overall, I’m pleased with my success and failures. While it has not been a break-out year, I know that this is part of the process. I’ll continue to set high goals and strive to produce content that I can be proud of.

What were your success and failures from the year?