What Bloggers Can Learn from Christmas Lights Displays

Over the weekend my family and I drove to two nearby suburbs to check out the Christmas light displays that people put up around their houses.

There are two streets in particular where nearly every house on the street (probably close to 150 houses) goes all out with the most amazing display of lights and ornaments in a bid to win the annual competitions run by local television and radio stations.

As we slowly drove down each street in the rain I thought about how remarkable these displays were, how much effort goes into making them such a success, and how these lessons apply to bloggers as well.

Having a Goal

Nobody goes to this much effort without some goal in mind.  Whether it is winning a competition, winning the respect of your neighbours, or just doing it purely to entertain the families who come to visit everyone is in it for a reason.

Are you blogging with a goal in mind?  If you aren’t then how do you know when you are successful?

Being Part of a Community

Have you ever lived in a street where nobody even knows the people right next door to them?  It is no coincidence that everyone in these particular streets all put on amazing light displays every year.  Most of them have lived in the street for years, know dozens of their neighbours, and enjoy getting together each year to help build their displays.

The benefits of this community focus are twofold – firstly being part of a happy, thriving community makes life a lot more interesting and fun.  And secondly, these streets attract so many visitors every year because of the collective efforts of everyone.  Far fewer people will drive out of the way to see just one house, no matter how spectacular the display is.

Are you working as part of a community, or are you just blogging alone?  Is a lack of community hindering your blog’s success?

Rewards Are Not All About Money

Obviously not all of these houses can win the Christmas light competition each year.  But that doesn’t mean that the process is not rewarding for them.

As we drove along the streets I could see some of the homeowners sitting or standing out front of their homes talking to visitors about their displays.  The smiles on their faces were easy to spot, these people just loved having thousands of people come down their street every year to look at the results of their hard work.

Are you seeing rewards from your blogging?  Even if you aren’t making any money does it satisfy you to see your traffic increasing every month, or to see a blog post you worked hard on getting linked to and Tweeted by other people?

Conversation Draws a Crowd

As I mentioned before a lot of homeowners were out front of their houses talking to the people who had come to see the lights.  What was interesting was that these houses had a noticeable crowd in front of them.  While some houses with beautiful displays would have visitors look briefly and move on, the houses where the owners were outside would have visitors stop and join in the conversation.

Do you get involved in the conversation on your blog?  Or do you let people just look and move on quietly?

Good Planning Gets Good Results

These light displays don’t get thrown together in one day.  Weeks and months of planning go into them, with owners designing complex layouts, making sure they have enough power in place, buying enough light strings, coordinating colours, etc.

Are you putting enough planning into your blog to make it remarkable?  Or are you just throwing together a few things and hoping it works out?

Being Ready for Lots of Traffic

We stayed in the car because one of the kids was asleep in the back seat, and because it was raining on this particular night.  This meant driving very slowly down narrow suburban streets as part of a long convoy of vehicles.  Sometimes there was only enough room for one direction of traffic to squeeze past parked cars at a time, causing us to stop.

At the entrance to one of the streets was a sign suggesting visitors park their cars in the surrounding blocks and walk instead.  A lot of people did this, and it made that street a lot easier for us to navigate.

Are you ready for a big surge in traffic to your blog?  Even if you only get a few hundred visitors today you might suddenly get a wave of traffic to your latest blog post. Optimizing your blog now for these situations will save you from being knocked offline and missing out on the opportunity to convert new visitors into subscribers.

Worth Getting Wet For

I already mentioned that it was raining on this night.  The rain kept us in the car with our kids but didn’t stop dozens of other people from getting out and walking.  Most of them had no umbrellas or rain jackets on, they were happy to get a bit wet to get a closer look at the Christmas lights.

Is your blog worth getting wet for?  I’ll put up with any number of banner ads and newsletter popups to read the latest post by my favourite bloggers.  And when time is short and my RSS reader has hundreds of unread items it is the best blogs that I will still stop and read.  Can you say the same about your blog?  Will a little bit of rain keep people away from your site?

Worth Talking About

I don’t watch much TV or listen to the radio so I actually have no idea who runs these competitions each year and gives out the prizes.  So if I didn’t hear about these particular streets on the TV or radio how did I end up taking my family to see them?  The simple answer is word of mouth.

Is your blog remarkable enough for people to spread the word all by themselves?

Image Credit: Flickr