How To Get Your Blog In Shape For Summer

5 Summer Ready Blog Tips

Swimmer-Todd_Quackenbush-650Does your blog have plans for Memorial Day Weekend? 

What I mean is “Is your blog summer ready?” 

Memorial Day Weekend is the official beginning of summer. In New York City, it translates to getting out of town.

Your choices are numerous.

The Jersey Shore and Montauk beaches are just a train ride from the Empire State Building. For the budget conscious, Coney Island and the Rockaways are reachable via subway.

With a car, you can get to the Catskills or the Berkshires in a couple of hours.

And don’t forget the backyard barbecue!

5 Summer ready blog tips

Before you head out for the long weekend, follow these 5 tips to get your blog summer ready.

Swimmer-Todd_Quackenbush-650

1. Get your blog in shape for summer

For many people, Memorial Day Weekend is when they check that their homes are summer ready. This includes checking the air conditioning, washing the patio furniture, cleaning the grill, and filling the pool.

Spiff up your blog’s look to reflect the change in seasons. People are visual. Looks matter.

Just as you change heavy winter clothes, coats and snow gear for bright colored, light weight shorts and swimwear, spruce up your blog. Patagonia has a number of sport specific blogs (including Tumblrs). Here’s an example of their fly fishing blog. (BTW, did you know I used to sell fishing books? Yes it’s true.)

Patagonia Fly Fishing

Actionable Summer Ready Blog Tips:

  • Improve blog search optimization (aka SEO). Make sure every blog post is search-friendly.
  • Check your blog speed. Load times do matter, especially on mobile devices.
  • Assess your blog plug-ins. Make sure that your blog is up-to-date.
  • Change blog photographs. This applies to your blog photographs, your blog header and photographs of your team and blog writers.
  • Use a summer color palette. Keep it consistent with your blog branding. But make it feel summery. (Here are blog design tips.)
  • Consider other content formats. Expand your content offering through the use of other types of content.

Need blogging help? Get the Ultimate Blogging List

 

2. Serve seasonal blog content

Summer’s bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables changes your cooking. Shouldn’t it do the same for your blog content?

Based on cooking, specifically baking, King Arthur Flour’s blog, Flourish, does a great job of this. Bakers use seasonal ingredients. Who doesn’t want strawberry shortcake or ice cream sandwiches?

Summer ready blog content

Ask your employees and customers what type of content they want and need during the summer. Think products and how-to tips.

Even if you don’t have a topic that’s seasonal like technology, you can still incorporate summer into your posts.

Actionable Summer Ready Blog Tips:

  • Use summer content themes. Borrow from blockbuster movies such as super heroes. (Even business-to-business blogs can be fun to read.)
  • Add summer photos to your blog articles. It may be subtle but summer images will signal you’re in tune with the seasonal changes.summer ready blog tips

RECOMMENDED READING:

Need blogging help? Get the Ultimate Blogging List

 

3. Plan blog coverage during bloggers’ vacations

Summer is a popular vacation time. Make sure you make vacation plans for your blog. This means your editorial calendar.

Actionable Summer Ready Blog Tips:

  • Stockpile fresh blog posts. Write additional blog posts in advance.
  • Curate other people’s content on your blog. Understand that this doesn’t mean to copy their content or to violate their intellectual property rights.
  • Ask for guest posts. (Note this doesn’t work for everyone.)
  • Repromote or update your blog posts. This is a good way to get additional exposure.

RECOMMENDED READING:

4. Invite influencers to participate on your blog

Summer is a time to get out and be social. Reflect this on your blog and related social media.

Even better use this time to reach out to influencers. Take the time to determine what they’re doing by following them on social media without being a stalker. If they’ve got a small business, they may use this time to catch up and be more amendable to your outreach.

Recently, Top Rank Blog created an ebook and blog post using an easy-as-pie theme. It was focused on B2B content marketing. (Note: I was a contributor!)

easy as pie guide to content republishing
Actionable Summer Ready Blog Tip:

  • Create a roundup post. This is always crowd pleaser content. Make it easy for people to participate.
  • Do a blog post exchange. Write a post from a different point of view for your blog buddy and your buddy writes one for you. For example, Jen Arnall-Culliford and Kate Davies have been doing this to introduce Kate’s new book. They cross promote the posts on their blogs. Note the same photos.
    Blogging Buddy Articles

    Blogging Buddy Articles

    Blog Buddy Articles - Kate Davies Blog

    Blog Buddy Articles – Kate Davies Blog

RECOMMENDED READING:

Need blogging help? Get the Ultimate Blogging List

 

5. Expand your summer reading

Remember when you had summer reading for school?

Personally, I loved that our village library let us borrow books for the entire summer. No stress to finish them in big chunks of reading.

Reading is a key element of building a writing habit.

Don’t take my word for it. Copyblogger’s Demian Farnworth recently dedicated an entire article to the topic of reading like a writer.

Not sure where to start? Check out the great books reading list from St. John’s College (in Annapolis and Sante Fe).

Alternatively, Ryan Holiday is a massive reader. He shares his recent reading in a monthly summary.

Actionable Summer Ready Blog Tip:

  • Create a reading list. Stretch yourself beyond your usual diet of blogs and social media. Even better join a reading group. (BTW, check out our book interviews!)

Need blogging help? Get the Ultimate Blogging List

 

The bottom line for a summer ready blog is:

Just as you get your home ready for summer, do the same for your blog.

Regardless of the type of blog you have (B2B, B2C, not-for-profit or solopreneur), these summer ready blog tips help you look at your blog from a fresh perspective.

Go on.

Try it.

Have fun.

After all, isn’t that what summer is all about?

Editor’s Note: This is a greatly revised article that was originally published on May 29, 2011.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Heidi CohenHeidi Cohen is the President of Riverside Marketing Strategies.
You can find Heidi on , Facebook and .

Creator Economy Expo
May 5th - 7th in Cleveland, Ohio

Join bloggers, podcasters, authors, newsletter writers, speakers, coaches and consultants, freelancers, and YouTubers at THE learning and networking event for content entrepreneurs.

Read our interview with Joe Pulizzi, Content, Inc. – Revised Edition

Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/AmlkxHrYsio

Tags , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to How To Get Your Blog In Shape For Summer