What are you doing with your blog over the holidays?
As the end of the year draws nearer I’ve been pondering what to do with my blogs over the Christmas/New Years break.
In the past I’ve done a number of things including:
- Blogging on as normal
- Getting a Guest in to cover the blog over a week
- Running a special series of ‘lighter’ posts
- Running a variety of guest posts
This year I’m going to do something I’ve not done before – take a break from blogging for a whole week.
I will be putting up a few posts over the week that are wrap up posts looking back at the year that has been on different topics – but these will be written in advance and set to go off so that I can have a break from blogging between Christmas and New Years. I won’t be having the week off completely though – I have a couple of other writing commitments that I need to finish off so will use the week to tackle those.
What are you doing with your blog over the holidays?
I’m going to set up one of those “Christmas Letters” to go off on Christmas Day with a Photo that I take on that day but otherwise it will be blogging as usual. You don’t take over 1717 photos straight and post them every day and take breaks. :-)
I’m trying to write about the holidays in a way that includes the pain as well as the joy. So no break from blogging!
Doing Blogging Normally. Nothing Special.
hi Darren,
For me, ill write 10 – 15 articles for 1 week holiday and set it by date.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Darren
Regards,
Last year I carried on as usual… this year I decided to do little snippets and concentrate on doing a bit of an upgrade all around our blog – but I know what will happen… I will blog as usual I can’t resist!!!
Given this is the first year of our blog we’re carrying on as usual. Given we post a blog and a vlog every week it has meant getting ahead on the vlogs so that we have a few in the bank ready to go on the appropriate day.
It will be fascinating ot see how we go over the Christmas break given in Australia most of the country goes to the beach for the month of January!!
It is “blogging as usual” for me… but maybe with a nice glass of eggnog at my elbow ;)
Well, during holidays, sometime do some scheduled posts to be published later but most of the time is for friends and family.
I plan to post some holiday-themed posts, continue with a weekly series I have started (it has already been written), and, most importantly, plan out the first half of my blogging year.
I have lots of ideas for 2010, and I’m looking forward to organizing them over the next couple of weeks.
Blogging as usual – maybe some more fluff although work (and I write about my work) is usually very busy at christmas time and I’m working over the whole period anyway.
I will be posting mostly pictures during Christmas. This is more important than writing anything because it’s more fun seeing the cats antics during Christmas than reading about them, of course.
I don’t think I’ll be taking a break from blogging since we’re staying home for the holidays. Besides, if I take a break, it’s too difficult for me to get caught up. I’ve done this before and paid for it.
I am using the extra time off to redesign my blog. I am finally adding some color and a header image. I am also doing some basic maintenance, checking for broken links, etc.
I’m not doing any blogging over the holidays. I won’t have internet access this coming week and decided not to worry about it. I’m also rethinking what I want my blog to do and what to put on it, so that will give me some space to dream and plan.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful information you share with us.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Darren to both you and your family!
Hi Darren,
I’m Blogging as usual, no rest for this old man. I hope you and your family enjoy the Christmas season.
many Blessings,
Owen
I have a feeling that you can afford to take a break Darren! Haha! But no, for me, it’s continuing on, probably a little lighter. I am planning to review a bunch of Linux distros this week.
I’m running away and abandoning mine. Mostly because it IS the Holidays, and I don’t want to think about my Blogs. I JUST want to go on Vacation, and that’s that!
Oh wow, that made me sound like a real blogger. Or not!
Cait Hagar
Queuing up a few posts, writing a 2009 roundup on NYE, and working hard on my mega January content that will hopefully kick off the start of a great 2010!
I’m doing something a little unconventional — that is if everything goes according to plan.
We’ll be relaunching our blog. Yeah, some would say this isn’t the best time to do it. But… We just go ahead when we’re ready and it should be around now.
I’m going to work on the layout, and build off of some content ideas I’ve had to put into place early next year.
I plan on relaxing with family, thinking about my blessings, and working on my photography a bit. Happy Holiday’s all!
Good question – I’ve been mulling that one over. A week for me means a loss in audience, but if my audience is home for the holidays, it’s going to be lighter traffic anyway.
Plus it’s a busy season even without blogging – might end up stockpiling a few, and doing an end-of-the-year post, if I have time.
I think i’ll take a break from blogging too. Spending some time with family will help me to find new topics to write about in 2010.
i am doing the same — taking a break, even though i’d understood it’s not the “norm” and i’m an early-days blogger (only 6 mos). but now that i see you’re doing it, i can feel justified & validated. cheers to you! and enjoy the quiet time,
f
Blogging as normal. But taking two days off.
I have holiday from today – and I am going to work a bit with SEO and marketing, but of course still maintain my writing schedule!
Have an awesome holiday Darren!
I will be counting down best Christmas stories turned into movies.
I am leaving blog/website aside and will focus on developing new version of my newsletter application.
Have developed a library to fetch list of MX servers by querying DNS server. Just now finished the code to send emails directly to MX servers without relaying through an SMTP Server. This will help my newsletter application to overcome the limit imposed by Gmail SMTP Server of a max. of 100 emails that can be delivered in an hour.
I’m posting like there are no holidays. :) Although I’m thinking about doing a wrap-up best of type post on Jan 31.
We will continue to blog over the holidays, but with only one daily post. With two main authors, we usually have two daily posts. We are pre-scheduling some posts, including a video wrap-up on a blog that doesn’t usually have video.
We have holiday episodes scheduled on our video show, but we always shoot those episodes in advance.
Hi Darren,
I’ll try to comply with my own rule – 1 post a day. But I’ll (try to) write them in advance!
Have a nice Christmas and new years eve!
Regards
Antonio
I’m going to keep http://www.alltwitterapps.com going strong every day all through the holidays.
I’ll use the extra time on my hands to blog more than usual. I also will look for more ways to ‘socially network’.
I never stop blogging.
I always work in my blogs even in holidays.
I’m taking a break from the 21st to the 31st. I have family in town, and since I would encourage my readers to take a break and focus on what’s important, I’m going to try to walk the walk :).
Oh, for me it will business as usual. And by “business” I mean “laziness.” I mean, I’ve already done four posts this month. Let’s not overdo it. :)
Our third year of Xmas-themed mayhem, videos and music fun, plus original readings by me of holiday prose. We call it 13 Days of Xmas.
I’ve ran out of steam this past few days and have zero drafts nor zero mindmap created. Guess Monday will tell what exactly I plan to do. Hopefully I can create some pillar content to be posted in Christmas day without my having to write it on that day. Ah the joys of blogging :-)
Blog as normal (Mongolia Monday on, uh, Monday, and my general art blog on Fridays), plus read your book and come up with a Plan for 2010.
I think i will do some improvement for my blog during this holiday.
I think I will try to stay on task. Writing has become easier over the last couple of months, so it doesn’t take too much time for me to sit down and write a post. I usually try and write a couple of articles to go with each post for a little link love.
My blog is new as of November and is starting to pick up a little steam, so I would hate to slack off right now.
Here’s to everyone having a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
I haven’t really considered this to be honest… Lately, I’ve been rethinking my content strategy for my two blogs which are now “Ribeezie Media” (the company blog) and “Ribeezie” (which has now become the personal blog. If I can commit to an outline and content strategy for those two individually, I’ll feel great!
Another thing that I’d like to do that I haven’t really done is write Guest Posts!
Good for you Darren,
Enjoy the time with your family. That is most important and where your support stems.
Personally I will be doing the same however I will have a few light post pre-planned to launch while I am spending time with the family.
I think for me it would be a bit ugly if I spent time at the PC blogging, lol! Our families support us throughout the year when we are blogging, social marketing and you name it. I think giving them the a big thanks by spending the holidays is the least we can do. After family will always be with you.
Enjoy the holidays! :)
I’ll be posting as normal. I post every Tuesday and Thursday and, since neither of those are holidays, I’ll put up normal posts on both days.
Wishing you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2010!
Cheers,
Martin.
I’ll be writing most of my posts ahead of time and scheduling them throughout the holidays. Undoubtedly, I’ll end up writing a few during the holidays as topics strike me, however.
That’s one of the things I most enjoy about blogging, when something pops into my head that I must post.
I’m taking annual leave from my blog!! I think it’s important to put boundaries in place with any kind of work. As a parenting blogger in particular I recognise that my kids deserve some time where my right hand ISN’T on the scratchpad while the left hand is in playdough!
Loyal readers, fans and followers aren’t going to disappear because I take two weeks off. Sure, my stats will plummet, but some things are more important than stats… don’t you think? Happy Christmas everyone.
I usually post about once a week. I’ve just posted a holiday greeting card I designed and will get back to writing and posting the week after Christmas.
Happy Solstice, everyone! ~Nani
Enjoy your holidays, Darren!
Same with everyone else!
Since I am just recently starting up and currently on winter break from school, I will be putting in 16-18 hour days on developing my blog. I love doing it so why not?
Tanner
I think I’ll probably try to prepare some new articles.
I’ll also try to finish my blogs design improvements so I can launch them on the 1st of Jan.
I’m actually putting in some behind-the-scenes work on my blog. I just moved it to a new host, and I’ll be tweaking and optimizing while the audience is distracted.
I’m also working on my first e-book (the optimal time for release is around New Year’s) and starting a second blog.
If I had more family here, I’d probably take time off (after writing some posts for automated release) but as it stands I’ll have lots of time to work undistracted.
I’m more or less putting it on hold, I will probably not be posting anything between Christmas Eve and a couple of days into January. That’s due to a combination of factors – one being that in order to truly enjoy the holidays, I have to actively prevent myself from blogging and being on the internetz.
The other and very large factor is that my niche seems to have dried up quite a bit, with general activity being much lower than usual. All in all, it looks like a good set of reasons to kick back and think about the next step rather than writing away as if it was still October :)
Happy Christmas!
I usually write couple of posts at one week before the holiday, and then set the publish schedule for them along the holiday, so I don’t need to worry if my blog will be empty for a week and I can take rest for while.