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Today I had a good discussion with my Twitter followers about what they were doing with their blogs over the Christmas break later this week.
Most of the answers came down to the strategies that I mention in this old post here at ProBlogger – 7 Things to Do with Your Blog when you take a Vacation.
What are you doing with your blog these holidays?
I have been thinking the same thing,
What I have done is that I have made about 5 blog posts that I have scheduled to be publish on a daily basis so I am all set for celebrating my first blog christmas :)
A Question I have though is does the blog traffic increase or decrease during christmas eve and new year eve?
I am guessing it gets lower?
-Tobias Fransson
The best advice is …relax, don’t stress about your blog, in these days a lot of people forget about the internet because they are to busy, so the traffic will be low. Recharge your batteries !
I am not planning on going away these holidats, but if I were then I would:
a) Create a stockpile of articles and timestamp them to be published while I am away.
b) ask for guest bloggers
I take the vacation as an opportunity to revamp my design (I need it!). Rather than posting content that is hurried and not well thought out, I’d rather improve the aesthetics of my site overall and have a clean, new approach for 2009!
Good luck all!
Happy Holidays.
I was planning on writing a Happy Xmas post to all my readers and spending the quiet time to write a few decent posts. I am halfway through preparing a small series of posts that will tie into a competition I plan to run in the New Year.
Hey Darren, I’m actually in the Bahamas over the holidays. The thing I love about blogging is that you can do it from anywhere. I pretty much keep the same routine going. I try to put one post per weekday. I’m also working on a new design and building a membership site. It’s funny how we can keep busy even over the holidays.
I’m not really doing anything different with the blogs over the holidays than I have all month, which is basically nothing.
In November, I had pre-published daily posts for the entire month so that I could work on regular web pages on one of my sites, so after the holidays, I will have to come back up to speed on regular publication.
Of course, since I early retired, every day is a holiday. ;)
I’m getting a new PC for Christmas, so I can finally put my old gimpy desktop PC with the flaky motherboard out to pasture. That, plus the time away from work for the holidays, I’m hoping will actually afford me a lot more time to work on the site and write blog posts.
Typically, I do nothing to my blog from mid November to the end of the year. This year I plan on using the time to schedule most of my posts for 2009 and work on some special pages.
I only post twice a week anyway so it’s not too difficult to pump out some extra content in the beginning of the week to make up for the rest.
I’m actually between semesters at school too, which means I actually have more time to write during the Christmas season than I normally would otherwise. I’m going to try to spend the extra time working on some design issue… and hopefully (thanks to Darren’s suggestions) get set to start a newsletter.
– Marshall Jones, Jr.
Darren:
Great ideas. I would probably choose to prepare posts in advance at this point and maybe mix in a guest post here and there.
I will pre-post holiday related articles that are relevant to my theme of Productivity @ Home – the days leading up to New Year’s are always a big time for people looking to make improvements in their personal and professional lives – me included! Thanks for a great post!
I’ll be around most of the holidays…plan on keeping up my regular posting schedule, but may not be on Twitter or other social networks as much.
Matt
I have no particular plans in store. Just normal scheduled posts and maybe some holiday twist to the blog entries. :)
I am writing content ahead of time so that I am already prepared. Then I will not have to do anything but I still will have content posted.
I’m taking the time to revise a bunch of my older posts, and running a give-away for my top commentators. As far as content goes, I guess it will continue along like normal. I’ll probably plan a special post for Christmas day.
Other than that, the next two weeks are all about tweaks, goal setting, and relaxation for 2009. I’m ready to make some major changes.
I’m running a Top 10 of [[my niche]] in 2008 series, featuring things like the Top Teacher, Top Blogger, etc, in my niche. For each: links, a mini bio, a mini interview.
It’s a nice way to give people an end of year boost and provide inspiration before getting back to the new content in 2009.
Thanks for the resources. This year I will post as normal, firstly because I will only be gone Christmas day, and secondly because my blog is too new to skip a week of posts. Happy Holidays!
You’ve covered pretty much everything you can do through out these holidays, personally I’m just going to blog-on-the-go!
TeenProBlogger
PS – I just realised this is my first comment under this name, so I’ll make my point short & sweet :)
I’ve started my SEO blog and I was inspired alot by you my Darren Rowes, that I’ve decided to go under the name of TEENProBlogger, a reflection upon my age but not knowledge *whistles* =D
Regards
TeenProBlogger
I’m most inspired on vacation when the phone isn’t ringing and I’m not out and meeting with people. Its quiet and I usually come up with my best posts during this time. I’ll make a list of them and then string them out over the next few months. I’ll keep blogging during the break as well. I think most people will be reading blogs even more during their breaks and taking time to discover new ideas. This is a great time to connect with people and help others!
I don’t really celebrate the holidays, but I’ll still be doing something fun on Christmas day to mark the occassion (I’m not a total grinch)! I also realize readership might be down for the next few days so I’m gonna hold off on my “heavy” content until after the holidays are over.
I will be doing advance posts which will be scheduled into the blog-mainly reviews and if I get around to it- series till I settle in after the new year celebrations.
I am way too addicted to my site (12+ hours a day, 7days a week) and need a good break where I don’t think about writing, answering emails or doing any work on my site. I’ll enjoy this much needed break.
or have a little bit too much eggnog and post. Then take it down the next day because everything is genius and inspirational when you have a few drinks in you ; )
Happy Holidays everyone!
I went the preloaded posts route. I still have access to the blog while I’m away, but I just did a lot work before I left (about three weeks of posts).
I’m not going anywhere in the hols, and these precious days are the only time I get off from school ;)
So, it’s full time, full throttle blogging, i guess! :)
happy holidays everyone! :D
I am going to keep working on my blog during the holidays: typing and clicking with one hand, and stuffing my face with the other.
–Betty
I’m only taking a day off this Christmas. But I will be taking a longer break over the summer next year. For that I plan on creating content before hand and including guest posts. I’ll assign someone to keep up with my weekly roundups and take care of the monthly ones myself.
I’m curious – does blog traffic go down during the holidays or spike up?
Everyone will enjoy there holidays but m not, I’ve here with my blog and i’ll daily update it.
I’m time travelling over various blog’s archives, and blogging for my new blog lol
I only started this blog a few weeks ago, it’s way to young for me to stop regularly posting. Luckily I don’t have much of a vacation planned for these holidays, so I can just keep on trucking…
I’m not planning on going away over Xmas but I think if I was going to be away for any length of time, I’d prepare blog posts, or a series and then pre-publish them.
Hope you and your family have a lovely Christmas, Darren
Take care
Paula
Planning to relax and also re-start blogging (Kinda stopped because of all the school work…)
Because I’m home and not on vacation, I plan on writing at least a short post on Christmas.
I’ve put my last sticky post on my blog for 2008, apart from editing a few pages I will be eagerly looking forward to trying out a new theme. So along with the theme preview plugin I will be spending some time tweaking the whole setup. As for time stamped posts, i normally do at most about 3 but sometimes i just live day by day and grab the moment when it presents itself.
Thanks for all your inspirational articles Darren and all your guest authors.
Best wishes, Bill Masson
I found a great story from a book that related to the topic of my blog. I asked the publisher for permission to reprint it on my blog. Starting tomorrow (Christmas Eve) I’ll introduce the story and publish a portion of it each day, “serial-style”. That’ll take me through the majority of the week during which time I’ll check in and comment and engage with folks.
I think I’ll also write a static note at the top of my blog with holiday blessings.
I am taking a break! My last post of the year will be on Christmas Day and will resume Jan 5th. This gives me time to regroup and write some quality posts. Plus I am off from my part-time job so why not blogging? When I made this decision, I felt relaxed and in control of my blog instead of controlled by my blog. Merry Christmas Darren!
I’m posting fewer articles this week and next – my Thursday designer columns will be on hiatus on Christmas and New Year’s Days – the column will resume, of course, on January 8 (my one year anniversary!!!!!)
I’ve noticed a bit of a drop off on readers since last week, which I’m assuming is because of the holidays
So you’re saying there is no vacation button in wordpress? Weak, someone should create a plugin :-)
Im hanging out here so I will just keep up the posts. In fact, my goal is to have a post a day.
Well, once the ‘Where is Santa’ campaign is over, I’ll be doing nearly the same thing. I’m fortunately family free this year, so I’ll be able to play catch-up on some projects that have been lagging behind my other projects.
Best wishes to you and your family Darren, Merry Christmas!
Interesting question, and one I’ve been pondering myself.
I quickly abandoned the guest post idea because all my friends are going to be in the same boat I am.
I have a lot of “vintage” content that my current audience has never read, because I changed platforms in June and the exposure for my older stuff was never as great as my current audience, so I haven’t ruled that out.
What I’ll probably do, though, is keep on keeping on, but at a reduced clip. My momentum is just starting to roll — I don’t want to kill it. I’ve been doing four posts a day, which I’ll cut to three, maybe two. My kids are 3 and 5, and there are far too few holidays with them to spend it all with my nose glued to a monitor.
I do expect a traffic dip, though. The MSM site I worked at a year ago always saw one during the holidays — part of it due to the loss of the “bored at work network.” Mine’s already dropped slightly, though not dramatically, this week.
If I’m somewhere not at home I just write few posts earlier and post them at holidays.. If I’m at home I try to write one-two posts per day..
I will actually have more time over Christmas to work on my blog, as I am off work. I won’t worry about posting too much over the next week, but I intend to get some good planning underway and some meaty posts scheduled for January.
People here – go on vacation already!
I normally blog 5X/week. For the first three days of this week I’m posting as usual to my blog for freelance writers. I’ve pre-published a “Christmas card” that will run from Dec. 25 through the weekend. On the card, I’m alerting readers to the fact that during the week of Dec. 29 I’ll be rerunning some of the best, most popular posts of the past year – all of which I plan to pre-publish in the next couple days. I did something similar when I went on vacation last summer – published 5 compilation posts on popular topics – and they generated a fair amount of traffic, both to the new posts and to all the old ones I’d linked to.
I’ll use the down time next week to work on a number of little blog fix-it projects. But mainly I’ll be working on some article deadlines and enjoying la familia.
Michelle Rafter
WordCount – Freelancing in the Digital Age
This is really good and practical too. It makes sense to get straight to the point and do what you have to to get the results you want.
http://eznetbusiness.blogspot.com
I did like a lot of people and just prewrote some posts. I love the ability to schedule posts!
That said, they were mostly about taking a break and enjoying the holiday season. Very appropriate, I figured, for prescheduled, holiday posts.
I think for someone trying to build a solid readership it can actually help to be publishing some good stuff during the holidays. A chance to get get read when other more prolific bloggers are having a break!
Well nothing much to do, only to say merry chrismas in my blog and sharing my christmas song, if you interested to see the blogspost, here. Happy Holidays~!
– Plan another
– Redesign/consilidate one
– Gain stability in another
Merry Christmas!!!
Anyone interested in tracking santa can do so at the Norad site