7 End of Year Blogging Tasks for Mom Bloggers (+ 15 Tips for Instant Blog Success)

December is finally here, and I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to the New Year and growing my blog’s traffic and income!

Are you excited by next year?

If so, one major thing mom bloggers should do before the New Year is cross-off end of the year blogging tasks.

These aren’t exciting tasks for your blog but they can prepare you for the New Year to gain new readers, grow your traffic, email list and income! Phew!

I find that I have time in November to do these end of year tasks for my blog, but know that if I miss some tasks I can do them easily in January.

If you haven’t already started a mom blog, check out my post and video tutorial on how to start a mom blog.

Before we get into this nitty gritty of this post, check out my Youtube video on end of the year blogging tasks!

1. Change the Year of Blog Post Headlines

In November and all the way up to January of the New Year, I make sure to swap any current year in blog post headlines or within posts to the New Year. I also update the pin image if the original date was on the pin.

This also applies to changing the year to the current year in:

Your automated emails
Landing pages to grow your email list
Course lessons (free and paid)

To do this, go in the backend of WordPress and search for the year. This should draw up the headlines with that year.

Since I have multiple sites, this is a lengthly process for me 🙂

One thing to note when doing this, I would caution against changing the dates of your popular posts/high-ranking posts ALL at the same time.

When you update a blog post that already ranks in Google, Google will drop your ranking to adjust for this updated information. For me, since I have several posts that rank in spots 1,2 or 3 on the first page of Google, I have to be careful not to change all of those posts to the New Year.

This will impact my blog traffic substantially. But, for my other blog posts and emails and landing pages, I can update these all at once.

2. Update Your Screenshots

If you create blog posts around tools, services or products you might have to go in and update those screenshots you took of those tools.

For example, the Pinterest platform has changed a lot over the years. If it’s relevant to my posts, I may update certain screenshots of the platform.

3. Add the New Year to Any New Posts

In November and December, I start to add the New Year to some blog posts that I’m creating in the current year. So if it’s 2020, all new blog posts starting in November will have 2021 (if I use the year for that post).

This just makes it easier for when the New Year hits it can help you grow your blog traffic before the New Year.

4. Send e-Thanks to Your Clients

If you offer a service like freelance writing or being a virtual assistant, you can send virtual thank you cards or gift cards to your clients and wishing them a fun holiday.

This is something I like to do for my freelance writing clients and it might be something that makes me stand out, which can help with getting more projects. One thing I typically get are gifts from my affiliate providers!

One of my top tier affiliate providers ended up gifting me an iPad Pro!

5. Think of Your Traffic Goals as a Way to Grow Your Income

When blogging into the New Year I want you to start thinking of generating more traffic because when more people come to your blog, there is more of a chance of making money (i.e. converting).

And the more blog posts you have on your blog, the more established it is which helps keep readers on your site longer. So, create a content marketing plan with some blogging ideas to create blog posts consistently in the New Year.

How do you come up with blog topic ideas for your mom blog?

Base your blog topics off keywords – Here are 1120 Easy Keywords for you!
Use your audience’s challenges to create content
Popular Pinterest topics for instant shareable posts
Create a theme around one or two topics
Use Facebook comments to get ideas

6. Pre-Write Your Emails

With the holidays and all the things moms do for Christmas, your blog and emails might start to lag! Don’t let that happen.

To ensure that you are still nurturing your list and connecting with your core readers of your blog, pre-write several emails and schedule them to go out in December. If I’m traveling or hosting Christmas dinner, I always make time a few days before at night to draft some emails to schedule. It’s a huge time saver for me.

7. Plan to Write “Easy” Posts in December

My December content usually are easy pieces of posts I can write quickly. They are usually short – around 1,000 words – and are definitely in my wheelhouse.

These types of posts might be:

A yearly review of my business
End of year tasks for bloggers (this post!)
December themed content (Like this Elf on the Shelf Ideas post I wrote last year)
Create a theme and write daily
Create short list posts
My blog plan for the New Year

15 Tips for Instant Success When Starting a Mom Blog

To help you get a head start for the New Year, here are my best tips to gain instant success with your mom blog!

Use Bluehost as your hosting company to start a blog (they cater to new bloggers and their reps are very helpful)
Feature other bloggers in your niche
Create resource posts so people have to “bookmark” your post
Create How To posts and use video for a better impact
Start a Pinterest profile
Make 1-3 pins per post
Start a Facebook page
Do Facebook Lives
Guest post on blogs in your niche
Start an email list and send weekly newsletter to build engagement
Create 1-2 blog post a week to grow traffic quickly
Create multiple freebies to grow your list quickly
Create content that solves a problem for your audience
Create high-numbered list posts to get lots o saves on Pinterest
Create infographics