Hello gang, welcome back from hiatus! As you may or may not have noticed, AL&HL took a break during NaNoWriMo and never recovered. However, I took advantage of the “great conjunction” and made a whole 2021 schedule for the blog to keep content regular, relevant, and oh so gay.
Stats and Progress
2020 outperformed the previous year, as expected! We more than doubled our views and unique visitors from 2019, capping at nearly 50,000 views. Although posts were not as plentiful in the previous year, readers were still excited and reading throughout the year! The blog peaked in August at over 6,500 views is just shy of 400 followers. In addition, I have also earned my very first dollar (and not a cent more) through WordAds.
Top posts of 2020
At nearly 50 posts this year, the crowd had a few clear favorites. I am extremely humbled by the popularity of the post “Am I nonbinary? A gender journey of euphoria and confusion” in which I come out as nonbinary, describe what that journey looked like for me, and offer some advice to others with similar identity navigation. This post also comes with an audio reading!
Secondly, a combination of views on posts from the “How I Met My Girlfriend” series were also very popular. This year, I published pieces on missing Jas when she left the US late this January, a reflection on how external factors cause conflicts in our relationship and how we handle them, and a heartwarming and humorous post about Jasmin’s first Thanksgiving.
Hilariously, the third most viewed post of the year is a satirical, yet still very helpful guide titled “How to Leave Killing Eve Stan Twitter and Get Your Life Back: A guide for leaving toxic fandoms in 4 steps.” All tips are applicable to fandoms other than Killing Eve, I just happened to be stuck there for the last three years. But I know freedom now!
Other notable posts of 2020
As with previous years, AL&HL launched a few guest-post series based in Pride and LGBTQ awareness days. This year for Pride, writers attempted to answer the question “What does Pride mean to you?” in Pride Project 2020. For the first time, I also joined a guest-post series with my own post.
AL&HL continued the tradition of “Lesbians and Their Laptops” and “Bisexuals and Their Laptops” this year with a range of thoughtful and diverse posts. We were also pleased to launch “Trans People and Their Laptops” this year as well. All identity guest posts can be viewed on the LGBTQIA identity posts page.
AL&HL makes money!
Major growth from the blog comes directly from the monetary support of readers via Ko-Fi and Patreon. Regular donations of all amounts have allowed me to focus more time on creating blog content and promoting the posts, turning into more readers, more followers, and even more support. Thank you!!!
This year’s donations helped pay for a renewed Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription (as I managed to keep my student discount). A lot of support in November supported all my book writing efforts and allowed me to actually complete 50,000 words as part of the first draft of my manuscript! That would not have been possible without your support.
AL&HL’s Patreon now has 21 active patrons at just over $60 a month. This consistently pays my phone bill! I am so grateful and cannot stress enough how meaningful a monthly income feels. With freelancing and project-to-project gigs, paychecks are irregular and unreliable, so any amount of steady income is immensely helpful. You can support me on Patreon for just $1/month, which grants access to all locked posts, gives you a monthly post or poem based on the “How I Met My Girlfriend” series, and all updates on my blog-to-book project.
AL&HL goals for 2021
I am once again proud, surprised, and humbled by the growth of A Lesbian And Her Laptop and grateful for every reader, every person who liked, commented, shared, donated, and reached out to me. This is all possible because of YOU.
I have a few things on the docket for 2021, which will unsurprisingly include a renewal of the lesbian, bisexual, and trans guest-post series. I am also planning to incorporate nonbinary and pansexual guest posts series too. For Pride month, I will be running another Pride Project with guest writers and host another spotlight series for LGBTQ creatives and business owners.
For the year, I’ve outlined some important days (like Earth Day) to help inspire queer-based humor listicles and narratives that correlate (like a “10 things we can learn from gardener Jamie Taylor” in honor of Earth Day post) (maybe that is just an excuse to write about Bly Manor, moving on).
Here are the AL&HL goals I have for the next year:
- Reach 500 WordPress followers.
- 4k Twitter followers. (= higher engagement on blog posts)
- At least 2 blogs per month.
- At least 3k views per month.
- 15 patrons.
- Reach another Ko-Fi goal.
- Start a Kickstarter for the blog-to-book project.
- Have a stranger reach out to me to tell me something I wrote helped them, with a message so heartfelt that it makes me cry. (This happens a few times per year.)
Personal updates
This year was tough. Without elaborating, it was the hardest year I’ve had since my first year of college. That being said, I’m hopeful about 2021.
I managed to complete NaNoWriMo, which helped me write three-quarters of my book. I have outlined when I will complete this first draft, aimed to be finishing around spring. At that point, I will use CampNaNo in April to start the first round of editing!
This year, I joined the Sapphic Writers team, helping sapphic writers connect virtually through social media, workshops, sharing work and ideas, and more. I will be writing a featured post this year to tell you more about us and the work we do, but in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and join our Facebook group.
I am also determined to get a more reliable income in the next year and have already spent the last few days applying to five jobs/projects per day, which I am to keep up until something solid sticks. If you know someone in the need of a content writer, editor, or proofreader, pass them my name!
Thanks again for an amazing year, gays. I’m excited to see where 2021 takes us!
a lesbian and her laptop 
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