Blogmas Time: Review Of My First Ever Blogmas!
Are you familiar with Blogmas? I wasn’t. I stumbled upon mentions of it amongst other bloggers on social media in November, and it sounded fun.
I learned that Blogmas is a content advent calendar. Bloggers participating in Blogmas will typically either:
- Post a new blog post every day from December 1st to December 25th
- Post a new blog post on the 12 days of Christmas
- Or do a variation of these options
I loved the idea of creating holiday or Christmas-themed posts. So I set myself an ambitious goal of a new blog post every single day. I was also already committed to a 30-day social media challenge so I attempted to continue that too.
So how did I do? Here is a review of my first-ever Blogmas.
Christmas Time
I’m not exactly The Grinch but I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. Personal circumstances including bereavement at Christmas time mean that it is a tough time of year for me.
The beautiful decorations, the music and movies, yummy treats, and fun festive content? I love it all. Yet the holiday season can be tough when you don’t have family around or a partner. It’s made even harder if you have sad memories of the season, bereavement, or are just having a tough time. Depression and other mental health issues rise over the winter time because, for many, like me, it is the hardest time of year.
By creating fun festive content, I was hoping that I could spread some festive cheer, and also get myself in the Christmas spirit.
What Is Blogmas?
Blogmas (or Vlogmas if you are a vlogger) is a countdown to Christmas. Bloggers usually will post a new blog post each day from December 1st to December so it’s like a content advent calendar.
I love the idea of holiday or Christmas-themed posts, or spicing up regular content with some Christmas flair.
As a new blogger, it’s also a fun way to build up content and, hopefully, grow my audience at the same time.
Bloggers approach Blogmas in different ways:
- Some will take the traditional approach and post 25 blog posts daily starting Dec 1st
- Some will just post for the 12 days of Christmas
- Some will just post more frequently
- Some will continue the daily posting until Dec 31st.
Taking Part In The Blogmas Challenge
Setting myself a challenge of a new blog post every day of December was a lofty goal. With limited pre-planning, I found that it was just really hard to do.
I had some content planned and drafted for December already. I also had a skeletal outline for a few other posts. My downfall was that I struggled to batch content before December rolled around. So I was often finishing posts on the day of publishing. I also had several days where I didn’t have content prepared.
Writing, and sharing festive content was really fun. It was too big a challenge alongside my 9 to 5, sickness, and life stuff though.
My Blogmas Posts
So I didn’t manage to do a new post every single day, but by Boxing Day I had managed a new post roughly every other day. As a new blogger, without a ton of preparation, I’m still really proud of what I managed to do.
Here’s a list of all my holiday season-themed content in case you fancy a festive read.
12 Ways to Add Christmas Spirit To Your Content
Christmas Abroad: How to Celebrate Christmas When You’re Overseas
Blogmas Time: This Brits Life Christmas Q & A
Holiday Gift Guide: Great Gifts for Bloggers & Girl Bosses
Blogmas Time: This Brits Life Ultimate Christmas Music Collection
50 Ways To Get Into The Festive Spirit
Simple Ways To Decorate For The Holidays
12 Great Self-Care Tips For The Holidays
Blogmas Time: The Christmas Tag 2020
Blogmas Time: Have Yourself A Very British Christmas!
Christmas Abroad: Great Festive Places Around The World For Christmas
Blogmas Time: Quotes To Get You In The Festive Spirit
Best Festive Entertainment: Great Christmas Movies To Binge Watch
Blogmas Results
Participating in Blogmas has been a really great way to connect with fellow bloggers. I have also seen an uplift in traffic and engagement on most channels.
On The Blog
- 750 Page Views (up 21% month on month)
- 201 Visitors (188 new)
- 39 Comments
- Reach up 21%
- Engagement up 20%
- Followers up 32%
- Reach up 701%
- Engagement is up 35%
- 19 Page Likes (Growth down 51%)
There have been some other contributing factors to my results. Firstly, showing up consistently on my social channels has paid off, and helped.
I also took part in It’s A Lovely Life’s 10k traffic challenge to boost blog traffic and grow my social channels.
The other factor has been the support of other bloggers, who have read and commented on posts, shared content, and included me in round-up posts. Thank you!
Key Learnings
I’m glad that I took part in Blogmas. Overall I consider it a success, as it was worth the hard work. It’s something that I will do again in the future.
There are a few things I would do better next time though. If you are considering doing Blogmas in the future, these are my key learnings.
Planning & Preparation Is Everything
As I mentioned earlier, Blogmas with minimal planning and preparation was hard. To avoid stress and overwhelm, my top recommendation would be to plan your December content well in advance. Some bloggers start planning as early as July or August!
Batch Your Content
Content batching is a great way to create a lot of content efficiently. Once you have your content planned out, it’s easy to batch different tasks. For example, drafting blog posts, editing blog posts, creating social media graphics, and scheduling all your social posts at once.
Limit Time On Social Media
It is REALLY easy to lose hours on social media, especially during Blogmas. Between Facebook groups, Twitter threads, and my Instagram feed, I definitely spent a crazy amount of time on my phone. Being active on social, and supporting other bloggers is important but I’d recommend having allocated times during the day or evening for social media activity.
Overall if you haven’t done Blogmas before, I would encourage you to do it or just create some festive content to spread Christmas cheer!
Did you do Blogmas this year? If so, how has it been for you? I’d love to hear!
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I’m glad to hear your first blogmas was a success! It’s definitely a lot of work, but so worth it in the end ♥
Thank you for putting this recap together! I will be planning Blogmas for 2021!
Thank you! Batching content definitely seems to be the way to go with blogging and social media. Look forward to reading some of your 2021 content 🙂
Thank you!! Yeah it was definitely pretty challenging at time’s alongside my 9-5 and other commitments but is was fun. If you do it this year, definitely prep well in advance.
Awesome post! I also love the thought of blogmas but having a full time job as well I’d find it challenging to do. But it’s great to give it a try at least! Maybe this year I’ll do blogmas or vlogmas on my YouTube channel.
I participated in Blogmas for the first time this year as well! Unfortunately, things got hectic for me, so i had to stop. I decided to focus on content for 2021, and I’m happy that I did. I wasn’t fond of writing Christmassy articles, since they weren’t that enjoyable. (Each to their own though).
Batching content is something I’m going to try in 2021, hopefully it goes well. But congrats on getting more traffic to your blog!