If you’ve seen my last post, which listed 57 awesome blogging articles, you may have seen me mention how hard the Christmas period is for bloggers. Because of this, you need to do something extra special to maintain traffic throughout the holiday period.
First things first: Why?
You may be wondering why Christmas is such a tough period for bloggers. Well, it’s purely because of the fact it’s a holiday where time is spent with family, rather than on the computer. That not only means people won’t view your blog, but also you won’t post on your blog, which is, again, detrimental to the wellbeing of your website.
What can you do?!
Undoubtedly, whatever you do you’ll find a decrease in the amount of traffic, although there are certain steps you can take to minimise this. Generally speaking, just doing the normal traffic building exercises you do (but more) will help, but here are some “extra” things:
- Do a seasonal post – If you do a post related to Christmas, then that will undoubtedly help your traffic. People love things that are new and up-to-date, so if you make your post themed to the festivities, you should find you’ll get a fair few retweets. For an example of a seasonal post, check out Sahil Kotak’s list, ‘500+ Icons To Decorate Your Blog For Christmas’
- Do a high quality post before the big day! – If you’re like me, you probably won’t be posting that much over the holiday. I’ll probably only do one post between the 25th and the New Year. Because of this, the articles I post need to be of a really high quality, as they’ll be at the top of my blog for longer. Therefore, if a new reader visits my blog, I don’t want them to come back and see the same mediocre at the top; I want them to see an awesome article!
- Stay active on Twitter – I’ve talked about Twitter quite a lot on Teenius, purely because it’s so good for marketing and, in the case of Christmas, it’s great because it only takes a few minutes at a time. You can still actively promote your blog, but it’ll only take you a little bit of time here and there, rather than having to spend hours writing a post!
- Feature other blogs – This method is a bit cheeky, but is ultra effective. When writing your final, high quality post, make sure to link to other people. The reason for doing this is that they then feel more obliged to promote the post alongside you. Take my list post for example: I featured just under 50 blogs, and that post currently has 30 tweets! This extra promotion should hopefully compensate for the drop you’ll inevitably see.
Ho ho ho!
How do you keep your blog active over Christmas? What will your posting schedule be over the Christmas? As always, I’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to leave a comment, or alternatively tweet this article (I’d really appreciate it)!
 Merry Christmas EveryoneJust a quick note here to say a big ‘merry Christmas’ to all of my readers. It’s been a great year so far, and I would like to thank you all for reading my articles; I hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas and I hope to see you back here soon! |
Great post Simon, and also thanks for mentioning about my post.
Sahil Kotak´s last blog ..4 Simple Ways To More Followers On Twitter
Useful tips. Traffic will keep coming to you blog =)
blinkky´s last blog ..Collection Of Free RSS Feed Icons
Hi Simon,
You have shared very useful information… Christmas is a big movement for every one.. Its a real joy to spend festivals with our friends and family…
In order to get traffic at the holiday time, we can schedule our post, also we can conduct any christmas giveaway, For new year we can write a post that summarize the acheivements of your blog in the past year… We can also schedule post similar to the holiday season
For example:
Now christmas is very nearer, we can write post regarding christmas decoration, icons, themes, gifts for family, stories regarding santa claus….
This will keep a good traffic to the blog.. am i right simon?
… Enjoy your holidays friends..
I wish every one Happy & Merry Christmas
Deepika´s last blog ..7-Sureshot Methods To Increase Your Blog Readership
Deepika, thanks for the great comment.
It’s a good idea to schedule your posts, but if you’re going to do that, I highly recommend popping in every now and again to reply to comments, tweet, and just generally be present.
I too am going to be writing a summary post, but it’s best to do something interesting and different when you do it. Don’t just write ‘this is what happened in 2009…’ – be imaginative! I’m not going to reveal what I’m doing yet though; sorry
Also, I may have misunderstood your ‘for example’ paragraph, but remember that, even if it is Christmas, stick to your niche. For example, if you run a ‘blogging tips’ blog, there’s no point writing a children’s Santa story.
Surprisingly, I’ve found myself able to write and post more often while I’ve been on holiday. Probably just because I’m stuck in the suburbs without a car or access to public transportation.
And there’s only so much family time I can spend in front of the TV or playing cards.
Adam´s last blog ..My Travel Experience with Music
Good point, but in general people spend less time infront of the computer, especially if they have children or something like that.
I suppose this post was more aimed towards them, but at the same time you’ll still need to take a few of the tips on board, as many people will spend less time online then usual.
Yup, Christmas surely a difficult period regarding the traffic and you really help to post this article so i know what i must do in this period.
Dana @ LetUpdate´s last blog ..Re-Brand The Blog
Writing a lot beforehand and just scheduling them to be released during the week is always a feature you can utilize not just for holidays, but when you have to be away too. I have a tendency to do this with my blogs that need to be more regularly updated.
Regardless of whether people don’t have as much time on the computer as they usually do, it still doesn’t take an average user too long to check out your blog, so you really don’t want to skip a beat and go silent in my opinion.
Static | ahnternet´s last blog ..5 Reasons I’m Not Going vBulletin 4.0 For Now
I think a lot of bloggers expect too much over the Christmas period with regards to traffic. Your hardcore readers will probably check in or have a look at your RSS feed but you’ll always struggle to get new readers in.
I like your ideas though for trying to maintain traffic.
I’ve already scheduled my posts to run through till after New Year and have also set up automatic tweets for them. All I’ll need to do is drop in promote the post on places like Facebook and Digg.
Have a great Christmas!
Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out, Ben!
Out of interest, how many posts have you scheduled, and how often?
I’m also only going to put up one post up between Christmas and New Year. However, I’m going to be working hard behind the scenes to get ready for a huge change to my blog. Basically it means my blog in going to hit puberty on January 1st.
If you can keep your traffic near normal levels you’re doing really well. After the holidays please share with us how traffic levels were.
Gordie´s last blog ..On Balancing Realism And Enthusiasm.
I may post more, it depends on how other posts perform. This is my planned posting schedule over the holiday period:
24th = Might post
26th = Will not post
28th = Will post
30th = Might post
1st = Will post (I’ve got something special planned)
3rd = Back to normal (posting every 2 days).
The “might post” days depend purely on how the posts before perform. For example, if the post on the 28th has no views/comments (or very little), then I won’t be posting on the 30th.
Have a nice Christmas, Gordie!
Well, that’s changed.
The schedule is now:
27th = Post
30th = Post
1st = Post
3rd = Post
then every 2 days
Well, obviously christmas time is for family and fun & its very difficult to pull back your readers during these days. Nice and small post.
IMO.. you too can take a break and spend sometime with your family and friends. Come back again fresh after holidays and produce some great content.
Avinash´s last blog ..Hide your Facebook Friends list from Public view
Exactly. Like you say, Christmas is a time for family, so it seems ridiculous that someone should worry themselves over the state of their blog: a couple of missed posts over the holidays isn’t the end of the world, and if you work hard in January you should be able to easily make up for the lost readers!
The last tips is tricky.I’ll try it some time.For me,I will not break my schedual when in Christmas.
Darni´s last blog ..65 Niches You Can Choose for Your Blog
I had a guest post today and I have post already scheduled for Friday.
I’m pretty sure no blogger in their right mind would release a “pillar” post this weekend.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..Factors Contributing to Blog Failure
You say that, but then again it may be quite the opposite. A good article, such as a pillar one, will get extra promotion via tweets, stumbles, diggs (and so on). Therefore, the post will get seen by more people, thus balancing out the dip in traffic you’re bound to see!
Useful yes, although my blog is going to be empty for a while…the next post, hopefully tonight will explain.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The $10 Winner And More Good News…..
I have to agree with this one “Christmas is a time for family”… not a suitable times with your blog. As for me, since I’m going for a little holiday with my wife, but still brought my laptop and off course I’m not going to be too active on my blog, but still I’m going to digging, twitting, stumbling and etc. It’s time for a holiday right!
Merry Christmas and Hapy New Year
steppinout´s last blog ..December – To Do List
A seasonal post attracts attention and pulls traffic. Specially when it’s free, everybody is crazy with free stuff nowadays.
Nice tip Simon!
Jp Manching @ Beginner Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Organize your Twitter!
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by sahilkotak: RT @teenius Keeping Your Blog Busy Over The Holidays http://bit.ly/7hbK3r...
Definitely worth a retweet, I have planned a few different things on the run up to new year prior to Christmas just putting it all together now though, gotta fly, but great post. Thanks.
Mark´s last blog ..3 Great Ways to Help Defeat Bloggers Block
Thanks for the comment and tweet, Mark!
Time to go and Tweet. Useful post. I was thinking of resting.
[...] Last week I had included a note about Simon @teenius blog contest with a total of $800 in prizes….I was delighted to find out that I won First Prize (which is pretty darn cool). He did a great post today about keeping your blog busy over the holidays – check it out. [...]
I have family stuff planned for the next couple of days so my blogs are going to be a little bit scarce the next couple of days, but am hoping to put more effort into my blogs next year than I was able to to this year.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.com´s last blog ..Merry Christmas! (+ Exciting News)
I’m just going to do a regular Christmas post to wish everyone who celebrates the holiday a great one. That way it’s at least something. Plus I have a schedule and don’t have the time to post an amazing article.
What an inspiring post.
Yeah, we’re really busy when it’s special days where it’s time and chance to gather with family and relatives. And I agree with what you’d suggested. Btw, if you can prepare the posts and scheduled it through Wordpress, I guess it gives several benefits to keep you blog up-to-date.
BloggerDaily´s last blog ..Getting Traffic: Write What Readers Want To Read
I’d meant to be more organised, but life got in the way and I didn’t have time to do a post before Christmas! I think I’m just going to catch up later
Ruth – Web Career Girl´s last blog ..Finalising Your eBook Writing Action Plan – My Template
Fair enough! I don’t think anyone could really hold it against a blogger for not posting at Christmas. The article was just to give a few people some ideas really
Belated Merry Christmas everyone.
As I don’t celebrate Christmas exactly and I’m more a Freelancer than a Blogger, I still spent these holidays on Computer. My bad, but all I was able to do was work again !
Hope you guys enjoyed !
Enk.´s last blog ..Show Parent Page Title instead of Subpage
My most popular post over the holidays by far was telling my users how they could create create their own great domain names. Instead of noticing the lack of new available domain names posts on Cogroll, they were out there creating their own while I took a well deserved rest.
James | Cogroll.com´s last blog ..5 Niches to Make Money Selling Your Designs on Theme Forest
thanks for the information… that is really a great help for all….
keep posting such info in near future…
You are so good in blogging even though you are still very young. Keep it on! I wish to learn from you too!:)
Kok Siong Chen´s last blog ..Prader-Willi Syndrome – Genetic Disorder That Cause Obesity