Clearly, December is a walk in the park. I’m not entirely sure what compelled me to take on this challenge but I successfully did it. We made it. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Blogmas is blog and Christmas fused into one word. Bloggers celebrate the festive season by dedicating to be consistent to their craft for the month of December. Blog posts may be festive-themed or not. The scheduling of posts might be for 12 straight days or 12 alternate days, depending on the bloggers’ schedule. Some might post for for 25 days leading up to Christmas Day. It means that more content than usual will be posted on the blog in December. Blogmas is an enjoyable time for both bloggers and readers alike, however, the stress of creating content to a schedule like Blogmas can cause a few stressful outcomes.
Outcomes of Blogmas
Some people may give up halfway because of the stress and others may choose not to join as they want to rest in December. After participating in Blogmas 2022, I can empathise with bloggers who do not want to participate in it. It is a lot of work. I remember wanting to call it quits after writing Day 8. I had no idea how I was going to make it to the end but I did it. This has been a very rewarding experience and I can see myself doing this again. However, I am not confirming anything at this time.
If you would like to successfully do Blogmas in 2023 and the years to come as a content creator, here are three easy tips to help you plan ahead. These are the exact tips that I used this year while balancing a full 9-5 schedule, powerlifting training, an online course and trying to have a social life.
Pre- Writing Successfully
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” as cliché as that sounds, it is very true. Planning the topics that I wanted to cover during Blogmas and writing ahead of time made the first two weeks easier. By planning a posting schedule and having the option to auto-publish on WordPress.org gave me room to plan the days I wanted to take pictures for the week, edit and add links to each post. The last two weeks were difficult as life became busier and I couldn’t write days ahead. Some days, I was writing the morning of or writing during my lunch break.
If I were to do Blogmas again, I would start planning the topics in September and writing by early October latest. That way, all I would need to do was plan when to take the pictures and do keyword research in November. All the blog posts would be scheduled by the end of November. All the promotional posts for Pinterest would have been created on Canva and scheduled (Pinterest has an auto-publish feature) in time. Although I completed Blogmas 2022 successfully, I would have been more successful if I had made the decision earlier in the year.
Successfully Use Social Media Comments
Either I get my best ideas in the shower or from social media comments. I use my DMs, comments on all platforms and other people’s comment sections to create mostly educational content. There are so many questions that are left unanswered, maybe because a particular creator does not have time to respond or it has been answered in the form of a Q&A. Either way, I use those areas as a source of inspiration to create content for the blog.
Inspiration From Other Bloggers
There are a plethora of blogs on the Internet in 2022. When I was deciding which version of Blogmas I wanted to do this year, I searched “blogmas topics” or “blogmas powerlifting”. A lot of blogs came up on the first couple of pages. I was able to read how they successfully planned blogmas for their blogs and chose their topics. Depending on how you see it, there are not a lot of blogs within the powerlifting and health & wellness space that do blogmas. This was my opportunity to carve a space for myself.
In order to make sure that I wasn’t sharing too much festive-themed content, I planned my posts based on the topics that I usually cover on the blog. Every other day, I was alternating between regular topics and festive topics. Some days, they were infused into one blog post.
Blogmas Topics For You
Here are a list of Blogmas topics that you can use in the future:
- Intro to Blogmas
- Christmas Cocktail Recipes
- Holiday Gift Guide For Him
- Holiday Gift Guide For Her
- Best Holiday Gift Guide For The Powerlifter In Your Life
- Your Top Ten Christmas Movies
- Christmas Activities in Your Local Area
- Your Favourite Christmas Traditions
- Winter Travel Destinations
- How To Decorate Christmas On A Budget
- How To Create A Digital Vision Board on Pinterest
- Best Places To Buy Christmas Decorations In Your Local Area
- Your Winter Skincare Routine
- Your Winter Bodycare Routine
- Affordable Activities For Solo Date Nights
- Your Favourite Christmas Scents
- 3 Top Etiquette Mistakes That People Make In The Gym
- The Best 3 Exercises To Grow Your Shoulders
- Your Top Ten Christmas Songs
- Self Care Tips For Christmas
- The Best Black Girl Haircare Routine For The Gym
- Your Reflections On This Past Year
- Setting goals and Intentions For The New Year
- Best and Worst Trends Of (Insert Year)
- Your Favourite Holiday Scents
And that’s a wrap! This is my final post of Blogmas 2022 and it still feels surreal that it’s over. My next post will be out in January 2023. I’ll be taking a two week break from the blog and from Instagram (starting on Friday 30th). Make sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss out on getting the new post sent to your email. I hope that you have enjoyed all the posts that I have put out as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Have a great festive season and rest of the year!
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Until next time,
Folakemi
