May 29, 2012 / Roundups

Summer Bloggin’

Last week’s Photo Challenge got me thinking about how much I love the summertime. For many of us, the summer means extra time outdoors, time with friends and family, and traveling adventures. These summertime experiences are great fodder for seasonal post ideas. If it’s summer where you are, consider these summer-themed posts for your blog.

For parents, summer usually means that the kids are home from school, which makes summer the perfect time to blog about your family adventures. Taking a special trip to a park or zoo? How about a family reunion or get together? Taking pictures of these family outings is a great way to document memories and keep your out-of-state friends and family updated on your lives. Similarly, consider a summertime project for a family blog where your kids can learn about the internet, blogging, and making a website.

Summer for students may mean a special internship, project, or travel plans. If you’re embarking on a new summertime adventure, keep a weekly log of your experiences. This way, you can go back and write a summary piece on what you learned from your latest job or volunteer opportunity. For travelers, you can even share with others how to travel on a student budget or develop a personal travel guide.

As the weather warms up, there are often more outdoor festivals and activities. At the beginning of the summer, plot out which events you’d like to go to so they’re on your radar. When the time comes, try live-blogging any festivals or conferences that you go to. Live-blogging means publishing new blog posts while at an event. For example, if you go to a local WordCamp, you can post reviews and notes from each session you attend throughout the day. Live-blogging is great for connecting with other bloggers and bringing traffic to your site. To make the most of your live-blogging experience, make sure you publicize your posts through Twitter using the relevant hashtags and tag your posts.

If you like to relax and enjoy those lazy summer days instead, why not try to make a summer reading list and review each book on your blog?  Whether you’re a beach bum or a camping addict, bring a book with you, take notes, and let others know if it’s A+ beach reading material or if that novel was better off left at home. You can even do this with movies, local summertime events (such as a music series), and art shows.

Do you have any summer blogging tips? Do you cover different topics seasonally?

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  1. Dear Erica,
    The summer blogging ideas you suggest are wonderful, and not just for anyone who runs out of “what” to write about. As a teacher, I long for summertime to read things for fun, just for myself, and am not ashamed to admit that I always begin with a mystery. (Of course, the selections on the reading list during the academic year are always a mix of those that I have loved and those I expect to love) In fact, now that you mention it, I’ll create a new shelf at goodreads for this category: “Popcorn for the Brain” and start blogging daily while I am away visiting the family matriarch. I traveled with two books – one for me (completed) and one for my Fall classes (in progress). I’ve been blogging for a few years now on several sites yet your post allowed me to entertain the question, “why”. Thanks to you, my answer has generated an immediate list of topics to blog about. We can never overestimate the power of our thoughts shared. Thank you for sharing yours!

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  2. I have worked in the tourist business for many summers, blogging about the various interesting types of people and really wonderful conversations and siutations this has led to. This summer, though, I plan a series on my new workplace, an old church with a myriad of wonderful details and stories.

    Thank you for good tips – it is sometimes easy to forget that blogging is often just for fun, and just for family and friends, as many blogsites seem to be preoccupied with how to reach an ever growing audience. I think most of our main audience is our nearest and dearest – and for them summer blog posts can be just about anything.

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  4. We just returned from a 12 day, 3100 mile motorcycle trip. Once I finally sort thru the photos I will definitely be posting about our adventures 🙂

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  6. Reblogged this on The Lady Expounds and commented:
    I’ve already begun this in a way, what with my post yesterday on the mission trip I’m taking this summer. However, it’s still giving me some interesting ideas, such as posting reviews for books and/or movies, or talking about other trips to look forward to! 😀

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  7. Thanks for the great suggestions! I was just thinking about what I could do this summer to spice up my blog. I’m intrigued by the live-blogging idea. I’ll have to check into it. I’m definitely doing a summer reading list.

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    1. Thanks for moving the books around, Didi. It’s cool that you started a mobile bookstore! I once taught ESL (in France and the US) but now teach composition and literature to college students in Las Vegas.

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    2. PS And I too was intrigued by the live-blogging concept. I just didn’t know what stance I would take while blogging about visiting an aunt whose mental health is declining. Survivor? Witness? I’m certainly not a rescuer…

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  8. Do we need to use a special tag for this project? Would you suggest one? With Weekly photo challenge, we have ‘postaday’; with this great idea, if we have a standard one, it may make searching easier. What do you think?

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  9. I think summer opens the doors to many new opportunities, because summer is freedom and move towards the horizon for the completion of many of our waiting waiting dreams .

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  10. Great ideas…especially the summer reading list. A lot of people like to read different types of books in the summer…

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  11. seems a good idea apart from the fact I am ultra lazy in the summer as to hot to move but if asked to do this in the winter would say to cold good idea I always need a bit of a push

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  12. Different topics seasonally, I like that idea, maybe I’d learn healthy-summer-recipes and blog about it, I love grilled foods, best way to enjoy summer 🙂

    I’m new to cooking and blogging, any suggestions on keeping a food blog??

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