I’m not entirely sure I did the right thing over Christmas. It was fun, ate a lot, drunk more & generally was pretty merry. I got a lot done as well, but one thing that suffered was the blog, as the average daily traffic dropped a fair bit.
I did make a concious decision not to blog, and yes it was a mistake, as it was a little quiet. So next year I’ll do something different. Here’s what a few bloggers did though, that I can learn from:-
Carry On As Normal
A lot of bloggers (such as Not a Pro Blog) carried on as normal. After all, not everybody celebrates Christmas, and not everybody has time off. The Infopreneur boasted that he’d post on Christmas Day. He did too.
One advantage of this is that it keeps you in a rhythm – this post & the post later on this week have been incredibly tricky for me to write, because I’ve had time off, so they’re not the best. The disadvantage is that your posts may not be read, after all everybody’s full up on turkey.
Write A Big Post, Such as Launch a Product
One thing that the last week has been dominated with has been the launch of Beyond Blogging (aff), a blogging e-book written by Mike CJ & Nathan Hangen, a load of bloggers have talked about it, and it was an amazing launch by the look of it.
If it was the plan to launch after Christmas, it could be a masterpiece. For one, I imagine there’s less competition with less posts competing for eyeballs, I can imagine that a lot of the bloggers who posted about it did so because they didn’t want to write pillar content over the holidays.
However, the same problem that exists with carrying on as normal exists with writing big posts. Less people are looking at your site, which can lead to missed sales if you’re selling a product, or less people sharing your big content.
Simple Posts
You can write posts which are short, quick & simple. Carly wrote (okay, designed) a Christmas Post, and wishing your readers Merry Christmas (like in my “Twas The Blogpost Before Christmas” post) can get a lot of comments, but after Christmas they are like Noddy Holder, an unwelcome distraction, which could harm your blog post.
Of course, you can write small posts, and as long as it’s relevant, I think it can be a good way to keep readers interested in the site.
“Best of” Posts
If you want an easy way to keep your site fresh, you can do a set of recap posts. These work well, as it can be a handy reminder. I wrote one – a best of 2009 – Problogger did a shed load of them. They’re easy to write, but you need a lot of content to write them.
So what did you do over the Christmas period? Beside overeating & getting drunk, of course.
I’m not entirely sure I did the right thing over Christmas. It was fun, ate a lot, drunk more & generally was pretty merry. I got a lot done as well, but one thing that suffered was the blog, as the average daily traffic dropped a fair bit.
I did make a concious decision not to blog, and yes it was a mistake, as it was a little quiet. So next year I’ll do something different. Here’s what a few bloggers did though, that I can learn from:-
Carry On As Normal
Write A Big Post, Such as Launcha Product
Simple Posts
Series of Po
- Carry On As Normal (such as The Infopreneur). At the end of the day, the only person who says it’s a holiday is yourself. The Infopreneur boasted he’d blog on Christmas Day (which he did), but by and large most people at least took a few days off over Christmas.
- Simple Posts (such as Carly & Jem)
- Guest Posts (something I was hopefully going to do)
So what did you do over the Christmas period?
Tags: blog, Blogging, christmas, Opinions | Comments: 8 Comments
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay. 
I agree it could be a wasted post, but if you approach it properly you’ll get a great result. Thanks for including mine in this one.
It was interesting to me though, having only been up and running 9 weeks, I didn’t really know what to write about on Christmas day, until the day itself. A great post came out of the day ending up in a seasonal post that could actually be related to all year round.
Hope you are well, happy 2010!
I didn’t renew my domain name & gave up blogging forever. WIN!
I also posted regularly during the holidays, which I think helped keep my traffic not only steady, but growing during the holidays. The book launch helped with that, but I also tried to create really good content during a time when not many others were.
Mr. Blogging Ninja, sir – what is this “Christmas” you speak of? I hadn’t noticed anything different going on other than people I love giving me gifts for no apparent reason… I just thought it was part of the Disqus comment section. You mean, no one else got my gifts?
@TheInfoPreneur – You blog on a daily basis? Or do you blog in advance? Can be easier to do the latter.
@Melissa – You serious? No more Ashes from Stars?
Accidental or on purpose?
@Nathan – Interesting points! Certainly producing rich content in a time when it’s barren can REALLY grow your blog.
@Jordan Cooper – Haha
. Yeah, you must’ve got a few of my gifts, send them here 
CMF Ads launched a new feature on Christmas Eve. A lot of people jumped on board with the idea and it’s really taken off. From our stats I can see that people are spending longer on the site (15 minutes has been common since the launch) and bounce rate has fallen to around 20%.
I’ve kept my blogs fairly up to date – like you, I don’t blog every day – but there is usually one new post every week or so.
@Ben is that the CMF Ads Spike? Worked well then?
I can’t keep upto date every day, it’s not feasable, but 1/2 posts /week is perfectly manageable.
I took a lot of time off over the holidays and as a result the blog did suffer a little. It has come back stronger than before now though, with the influx of new articles which I can attribute to my well rested mind!