7 Ways To Prepare Your Blog For The Holidays

Before you know it, Thanksgiving will be here, and then Christmas. While many people have several days off during that of year, it’s probably the time of year everyone is the busiest.

I know it is for me. What with all of the holiday gatherings, charity events, and travel I can find myself going for days at a time. 


If you’re a blogger the holiday season can feel even busier. So busy that you end up spending less time blogging. That’s not a bad thing. Even bloggers need some time off.


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Instead of this time away from your blog having a negative effect, it can have a positive one with these seven tips for prepping your blog for a holiday break.


1. Plan your content

This is probably the most important of the seven tips. Hence why I put planning as number one.

Don’t worry though if you haven't done this already, you still have time (unless you’re reading this in the midst of the holiday season, you might not have as much time).

To get your holiday content planned out carve out a few hours to brainstorm and work on your content calendar. Doing this will help you determine what you'd like to write and post about during the holiday season.

This can also help you determine whether you'd like to stick to your typical posting schedule or post less. Or if you'd like to have guest bloggers fill in the gaps.




2. Update your old posts

Spend some time going through your old posts, especially your older holiday posts, to give them a little facelift. These older posts can help draw in readers without you having to do much of anything. Especially if they’re still relevant.

I like to update my old gift guides with current products and sales and then re-post them. That's so much easier than doing brand new gift guide posts every year.

Some things that you can do to update your older posts are to add
  • Add or update keywords and longtail keywords in copy and headlines
  • Refresh the related post links in your holiday content
  • Create and pin new Pinterest ready images



3. Pre-schedule everything

While you may have the best intentions of writing posts and posting on social media, blog posts for the weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year. So making sure your social and blog posts are pre-scheduled can make sure you don’t have to stress about writing and posting when you don’t have the time or just don’t want to.


4. Automate

While you’re enjoying your eggnog and unwrapping presents you can also be promoting your blog via social media and sending emails to your subscribers. All you have to do is automate it.

For your social media posts, you can use social media management tools. That’s what I’ll be using and have been using so I don’t have to spend hours every day manually pinning, tweeting, or posting.

My favorite tools for automating my social media are LaterTailwind, the posting tools in the Facebook Business Suite, and Pinterest platform.

Another way to automate is to use an RSS feed for your emails. I’ll be using MailerLite to automate emails to my subscriber base during the holidays. Depending on your email service, it may be as simple as setting up a template, adding the feed, and scheduling your emails.

How to get your blog ready for the holiday | arelaxedgal.com

5. Set a schedule

Every good business has a holiday schedule for its employees. As a blogger, you should have one too. With a schedule, you can determine what days you will and won’t work as well as for how long each day.

My schedule last year was to take Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year’s Day off, plus a few other days in between. That way I didn’t feel pressured to do any blog work and could put things in place so I still had an online and social presence during those times.


6. Set expectations

If you plan to take time off on the days you tend to post on your blog, upload a new video, or do live streaming to let your subscribers and followers know. They’ll completely understand that you want to enjoy the holidays as well.

When setting expectations with your followers and readers, they will know what to expect during the timeframe you’ll be taking off and when you’ll be back. If you’re an ultra planner, you can even tease what you’ll be posting when you return.


7. Have holiday offers

If you sell products on your blog or site consider offering holiday specials. You can offer them to everyone who visits the blog or have offers exclusively for your email subscribers.

Do you have any other tips for prepping your blog for the holidays?




8 Comments

  1. Holiday offers...great tip! I haven't thought about that. Having a set scedule has been a game changer.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Mary! I was so glad I set a schedule for myself during the holidays last year. It totally helped me not stress out or worry about doing any blogging.

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  2. Love these tips, especially having holiday offers! I'm planning my Christmas posts right now!
    www.jennyrosee.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked them Jenny! Thanks for reading. Planning Christmas posts is so much fun!

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  3. I agree that readers will understand if you step back during the holidays. To be honest, I think readership drops a bit during the holidays because even readers are busy, with less spare time to read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So true. Not only are bloggers busy enjoying the holidays, but so are the readers. I know I tend to frequent some of my favorite blogs a lot less during the holidays.

      Delete

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