38 CommentsBlogging, Traffic,

If you are a person like me who regularly checks the statics of your blog, I am pretty sure that you have seen the decrease of traffic from your blog during the holidays.

Why is this? Why does your blog lose traffic during the holidays?

This doesn’t mean that your blog readers has stopped reading your blog, they are on holidays/vacation. These are the times that most people take a break away from browsing the internet and take the time out to do other activities.

You might also be caught up in the spirit of the holidays that you even forgot to check up on your blog. You find yourself not blogging, not affiliate marketing, ignoring blog comments, not checking your email and the list goes on.

So what can we do to keep our blog up running while enjoying ourself?


What To Do During Holidays

It’s a holiday, who doesn’t want to enjoy his/her self? Everybody does. We don’t want to be on the PC blogging away during the holidays. The holiday is also a great way to to take a break away from blogging to help prevent the syndrome of blogger burnout.

There are a number of things that you can do to keep your blog alive during the holidays, but this is going to take some great effort on your part before the holiday.

What to do BEFORE the holidays

  1. We know that you want to enjoy your holidays, so what you do before the holidays come is to write a couple blog post and schedule them to post during the holiday.
  2. Wish your blog readers a happy holiday, this will let them know that you care about them and make them want to return to your blog after their holiday break.
  3. You can think of new and interesting blog posts while you are on vacation. So be sure to have a note pad to write down your ideas.

What to do AFTER the holidays

  1. Welcome back your blog readers to your blog, make them feel missed. Let them know you care about them. Ask them about their holidays.
  2. Remember I said think of new blog posts and write them down. Well you must have some fresh new contents to great your readers with open arms. Keep them busy on your blog reading after the holidays.

Group Discussion…

These tips are to help you avoid blogger burnout during the holidays and also to help you better as a blogger during the holidays.

You might not go on vacation during the holidays, but you can take a holiday from your blog, visit other blogs and, do some reading and commenting.

What are the things that you do during the holidays to keep your blog vibrant and alive?

38 comments

  1. Kelli

    Reply

    There are actually WordPress plug-ins you can get that “welcome” your readers back after they return to view your blog.

  2. SEO services

    Reply

    Another great writeup, thanks for sharing, it is true a holiday can really disturb your workflow!!..

  5. hilywatson

    Reply

    Holidays is major factor responsible for reducing Traffic on blog…this is coz mostly evryone is busy in out doors activities away from their HOME town and secondly they need to take BREAK for this. But you are right in the matter of DOING planning for the NEXT coming post in future…you can prepare yourself for this in HOLIDAYS also.

  6. Kimi

    Reply

    Kharim,

    Holidays are very nice for everyone, but not for my blog LOL…

    I am usually receiving 1200+ visitors a day but last xmas i received about under 1000, indeed i must understand people celebrating holidays too, including me.

    Everybody needs a break, happy holidays!

    Kimi.

    • Kharim Tomlinson

      Reply

      LOL Well some of your readers seem to have took a break from the pc, as I stated in this post. But make sure you have great new articles for them when they return.

      Thanks for the comment as usual 🙂

  7. Abdirisak Jibril

    Reply

    Hi Kharim, a nice post and a generally great blog. I´ll be looking more at your blog in the future. Here is my blog, I write and give tips about job and career adivce.

  8. Daniel Sharkov

    Reply

    Hey Kharim,

    The holidays can definitely prove problematic to a certain degree for bloggers. After all everyone wants to take a break for a week or two, so keeping up with blog posting and content promotion might be a hard task. Either way in my opinion stepping away for some time is not going to lose you the readership you already gained. It might even be a positive decision, since you will avoid the blogger burnout, which you mentioned. Scheduling articles is an idea I didn’t thought of. Might be a good solution.

    Merry Christmas and happy holidays! 🙂

  9. Brankica

    Reply

    Great ideas and I just want to wish you and your readers Marry Christmas or Happy Holidays and wish you even more of them in the next year 🙂

  10. Praveen

    Reply

    Hey, nice and a very good piece of share. I like the way this has been crafted. Keep up the great work. promoted the post.. Thanks

  11. Kevin

    Reply

    This year was different for me. I’m so focused and determined with my blog that I didn’t even care for this holiday season. I didn’t even realize that my birthday has passed lol. I just want to get things done. That’s why I’m working so hard. I’m working twice as hard for 2011 for sure. Good one Kharim!

  12. Kharim Tomlinson

    Reply

    Yeah thats true. So what I recommend you do is not publish as much as you used to and save those post until your traffic builds up.

    Hey Ryan, where you been? I used to read your blog but you were off for some time. Are you back now?

    • Ryan

      Reply

      Hey Kharim,

      Yea I had a family emergency where I needed to step into my parents business back in July so I had to fly back to Wisconsin from Hawaii and put blogging on the back burner. Just started reposting again since it was something I missed, but didn’t have time for until now. Looking forward to networking and getting back in touch with bloggers like yourself.

      Hope you’re enjoying the holidays.

      Cheers,

      Ryan

  13. Ryan

    Reply

    I still post regularly over the holidays, but don’t really do much in the way of promotion, since there’s hardly anyone out there to promote to! Typically a drop of 30-40% is what I see on my sites over the holidays, then an uptick again after the first of the year.

  14. Murlu

    Reply

    I just keep at it – I know a lot of people are taking the time off but it’s just like when the economy is down – as people step back from their blog, now’s the perfect time to jump ahead, ya know?

    With that being said, I’m using my days off to get some relaxation in but to also work extensively for some really big posts that are coming up; trying to get everything in gear to make 2011 the most amazing yet.

  15. Dave Lucas

    Reply

    In my opinion, it would be good practice to equip yourself and your computer with the ability to “automate” your blog during holiday periods. Use your cellphone to check for comments that might require a response – and USE that phone to upload posts (there are several ways of doing that) – those who use Google’s blogger platform can also turn off comments on individual posts, which could be footnoted “look for an update on this article the first week of January” and maybe you could even add a tease about a poll where readers could vote on the article or some attribute of it!
    Holiday Cheer, Bloggers!

    • Kharim Tomlinson

      Reply

      Thanks for the comment Dave and also the tips you have provided in your comment. I always use my cellphone whenever I’m not on my pc to check up on my blog now and again.

  16. Tom

    Reply

    Scheduling blog posts is something that I always plan to do for my blogs – but never get around too. I usually find my post quantity starts to die off between Christmas and new years, but I have also found that a lot of people are busy spending time with their families (meaning that majority of your readership is not going to read your posts anyway).

    So I just recommend taking a break, and just let readers know what to expect.

  17. Pete Benner

    Reply

    I guess its better to not blog during holidays…..no one reads it and its a waste of time. I normally do not blog during holidays and i think of topics during that time though. Well what you said is true i can use these post holiday tricks. Thanks

  18. Dave

    Reply

    Excellent post Kharim. It’s so true about how traffic falls away during December. I have actually decided to pause posting over Christmas for two reasons:

    1. As people are so busy, they’re likely to miss out on my posts, so I’d rather just wait and let them all enjoy my posts in the new year.

    2. It also provides a great time for me to take a step back, relax, rethink and reposition myself for 2011.

    I don’t plan on doing much online over Christmas, except responding to comments I get. Everyone needs a rest and now is the perfect time.

    • Kharim Tomlinson

      Reply

      Nice move Dave 🙂 I am also gonna see what my traffic is like during the holidays and if I have lots of traffic I will make some posts, if my traffic goes down then I will give my visitors some time off and then have more posts for them when they return.

      I’m also planning on doing some major blogging for 2011 and hopefully take my blog to the next level.

      Thanks for the kind comment Dave 🙂

      • Dave

        Reply

        Yeah, for me it’s less about giving my readers my break and more about giving me a break. It’s really worth it to take step back every once in a while to clear your head and come back at it with a fresh perspective. Since readership tends to slow down over Christmas, to me it makes the most sense to do it then.

        Have a nice Christmas!

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