Everyone is having a good time; there is Nyama Choma, drinks, outdoor activities, road trips… celebrations everywhere you look and you definitely want to join in on the fun. There’s nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The only problem is that should you try to immerse yourself in the Christmas celebrations your blog might suffer. Blogging over Christmas might be something you have to plan especially if yours is a monetized blog whose revenue depends very critically on page views.
So how do you keep your blog going while on that road trip, or while biting a chunk off the finger-licking piece of Nyama choma?
I can think of a few ideas:
Schedule posts in advance.
Take time and write your heart out before the celebrations begin. Write posts that will cover the duration you will be on holiday and schedule them to publish regularly.
Make use of quiet solitary moments.
Take advantage of the early morning hours or late nights to go through your blog, to share a few posts on social media, to schedule your Facebook updates and tweets for the day. Do all that before the crazy fun-loving holiday fanatics are up and about. Coz who said you cannot have your cake and eat it? Who?
Christmas fun = Content
Traveling to the Mara with the boys? Blog about it. Going boat riding in Naivasha with the girls? Write about that. Taking your children horse-back riding? Interview the tour guide and write about him or her. Take this opportunity to get content for your blog. You will enjoy your holidays, and get fresh content to post on your blog. And it will not feel like you’re working. So, two birds, one stone.
Do Giveaways
Let me break it down to you: you will have to work twice as hard to get people to read your blog during the Christmas season. Think about it; you are competing with bottles of beer, road trips, darling family members and dearly missed BFFs. Why would your readers leave all that to come and read your blog? You stand a chance if you give them an incentive to visit your blog. That ticket to a movie? That lunch for two at that fancy restaurant? If you can get a hold of any freebies (and they tend to be many during this time) grab them and use it as bait.
Have a Guest
It’s Christmas. People are housing guests all over the place so why not have a guest come over to your blog as well? Feature a guest post from another blogger and if you’re lucky, your readers might take this as a Christmas treat. Of sorts.
Write short posts
Honestly, no one has time to read during Christmas. Worst still, no one has time to read long posts. Reducing the word count could be the only way they will give your blog a chance. Be kind and give your readers short posts to read. Will you?
Write on relevant topics
What would most people want to read about online? Let’s see…holiday destinations? Gifts to get loved ones for Christmas? How to travel with children? Why do we celebrate Christmas anyway? Important events in history that happened on Christmas day? Need I spell it out for you?
Take a break
Yes. Really. You can do that. You can grab this opportunity and use it to re-energize. To channel your creativity. To step away from it all. You have been blogging for the whole year, there is nothing wrong with taking a break. Who knows, you might come back so refreshed that you will be posting unstoppably come next year.
Whatever you decide, expect your stats to dip. It is not a secret that traffic is awful during the holidays. In the same way you will be trying to squeeze in time to put up posts, is the same way everyone else will be stealing a few minutes from all the holiday activity to read your posts. This is not the time to obsess about your stats. It is the time to celebrate. Go ahead and do just that.
But before you go, do you have any other ideas you’d like to share perhaps?