Written on November 1st, 2007 at 01:11 pm by Darren Rowse
What Did You Do for Halloween…. On Your Blog
Did you do anything for Halloween on your blog? I know that Halloween isn’t celebrated in every country – but it is an opportunity for bloggers who want to make the most of seasonal trends in web usage.
So lets showcase what everyone did on their blogs this Halloween. I’m sure there are some creative examples worth highlighting.
I’ll start us off – at DPS I updated my previously posted Halloween Photography Tips post (with new pictures and information) and put it back on the front page of the blog (I did this last week to give it some lead time). The result was pretty good with quite a few new links from different sites and a marked increase in traffic as a result.
This is actually the third year in a row that I’ve updated this post and given it some front page attention. The great thing about reusing it is that it’s grown in it’s search engine rankings each year.
Now it’s your turn – if you did something special (whether it be design wise, adding new specially written content etc) tell us about what you did and what results it had in comments below.
82 Responses to “What Did You Do for Halloween…. On Your Blog” - Add Yours
Gary Jones :: BlueFur.com
November 1st, 2007 1:41 pm
We put up a Happy Halloween picture…
http://blog.bluefur.com/2007/10/31/happy-halloween/
JP Davidson
November 1st, 2007 1:44 pm
I posted the first holiday gift guide of the season! Christmas advertising season starts right after Halloween so I thought I would be a good idea to post something that’s likely to get hits for the next 2 months. (I also posted a vampire pic to cover all my bases).
Nancy
November 1st, 2007 1:44 pm
I wrote a post (a few days before Halloween) called “Halloween Baby Names, Hollywood-Style – Freddy, Jason, Carrie, Regan.” No results to speak of so far, but I hope my readers appreciated it. :)
Guillermo
November 1st, 2007 1:48 pm
We posted how we carved our pumpkin with videos and pictures (Perforando la calabaza) and today we posted some photos on how the kids went dressed to school. Posts were really welcomed, readers enjoyed them, they commented and linked back. I’ve also noticed they fired some similar ideas at other blogs.
Lori
November 1st, 2007 1:52 pm
I said I would give $9 via paypal to a random commentor that left a comment naming one thing that scares them. Unfortunately, I only a couple of comments:(
Scam
November 1st, 2007 1:58 pm
Being an anti-scam site, I wrote a post which outlined the history of Halloween and then asked if the modern equivalent is nothing more than a retail scam?
Michelle at Scribbit
November 1st, 2007 1:59 pm
For Halloween I’ve started a Winter Bazaar where other bloggers can post seasonal activities, games, crafts and ideas related to the holidays. So far a lot of great ideas for Halloween have come in. Here’s the first week’s edition:
http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2007/10/ghost-cake-with-flaming-eyes.html
Brian Purkiss
November 1st, 2007 2:05 pm
Uh…
nothing.
Emon
November 1st, 2007 2:12 pm
I posted a radio drama version of The Raven by E A Poe I’d produced and directed two years ago.
http://emonome.com/archives/832
Carol
November 1st, 2007 3:24 pm
I posted several weeks about “You might be a gardening geek if” and listed signs and symptoms of those of us who are obsessed with gardening. For Halloween, I posted a special Halloween edition of more signs and symptoms of being a gardening geek. These ‘gardening geek’ posts result in some nice comments from like-minded gardeners.
Rhodester
November 1st, 2007 3:25 pm
Shamefully, I admit I didn’t get a post up in time for it. I was up in the East turret, about to write one, but the villagers showed up with those darned torches and by the time I got rid of them, Halloween was already over in most parts of the world.
But earlier in the week I DID throw on a holiday banner, using my limited Photoshop skills. It’s really scary, if you’re two years old – otherwise it’s just lame.
Robert Tatum
November 1st, 2007 3:28 pm
I published four posts – three of them on the Top 10 adult, pet, and children’s costumes that are likely to be purchased and one post on other Halloween facts that I wasn’t aware of previously – 10 Halloween Facts That May Scare You.
Domtan
November 1st, 2007 3:38 pm
We were a little late to apply any designs to the blog in time for Halloween. So we didn’t.
But we did publish a Halloween flavored sarcastic article.
http://www.domtan.com/ways-to-scare-visitors-on-halloween
Kelvin Kao
November 1st, 2007 3:43 pm
My WordPress thing was already very Halloween-ish to begin with, with all the orange and dark gray (although not exactly black) so I didn’t really work on the graphics much. My video podcast this week is entitled The Truth Behind Halloween though. If ghosts wanting candy doesn’t make any sense to you, you should watch to find out who’s really behind trick or treating!
sbpoet
November 1st, 2007 3:47 pm
I hadn’t planned a Halloween post, but then a friend brought me a cat-o-lantern: http://www.sbpoet.com/2007/10/seasonal-scary-.html
So I posted that, with links to previous cat-o-ween posts.
Nothing ‘pro’ about any of it.
sbpoet
November 1st, 2007 3:48 pm
I hadn’t planned a Halloween post, but then a friend brought me a cat-o-lantern: http://www.sbpoet.com/2007/10/cat-o-lantern.html
So I posted that, with links to previous cat-o-ween posts.
Nothing ‘pro’ about any of it.
sbpoet
November 1st, 2007 3:50 pm
Ooops, sorry — wrong link (though related) in first comment, which I thought I had caught in time.
Brad Jasper
November 1st, 2007 4:02 pm
I made an Apple pumpkin: http://www.mactips.org/archives/2007/10/31/happy-halloween-from-mactips/
I didn’t get any comments on the site, but Trick-or-Treaters loved it. I wasn’t getting comments by little kids left and right.
I had no idea that many kids knew about Apple, I guess we can thank the iPod for that.
Mike Durrett
November 1st, 2007 4:16 pm
I’ve been posting Halloween material for a few days and have a couple of other items coming up. The main piece is “100 Things About Me #118: Candy Camera,” about my first store-bought trick-or-treat costume at age 3 with snapshots.
http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2007/10/100-things-about-me-118.html
Also, several Separated at Birth sight gags.
http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2007/10/separated-at-birth-wolf-man-and.html
http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2007/10/separated-at-birth-nosferatu-and.html
http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2007/10/separated-at-birth-frankensteins.html
http://mikedurrett.blogspot.com/2007/11/separated-at-birth-frankensteins.html
Tea Party Girl
November 1st, 2007 4:22 pm
I explained why I now think every adult should dress up for this festive day and related it to why I blog. With a really cool picture to go with it.
http://www.teapartygirl.com/did-you-dress-up
Sue
November 1st, 2007 4:31 pm
Although I have one site devoted to haunted lighthouses (it’s been busy this week), my lighthouse news one doesn’t usually talk about haunted beacons, so I posted “The Ghost of Seguin Island” for Halloween. Complete with photo.
http://lighthouse-news.com/index.php/2007/10/31/the-ghost-of-seguin-island/
Jamin
November 1st, 2007 4:42 pm
I held a contest to promote “Memory Month” on my blog. For the month of November I’ll be writing a series of articles on memory training techniques. The winner was announced on Halloween:
http://wondr.net/2007/10/31/memory-month-contest-winner/
I found the contest approach to be pretty successful at bringing some additional readers to my new blog.
Ryan
November 1st, 2007 5:54 pm
I have a wine blog, so I posted a halloween party wine suggestion. Vampire Merlot!
Graham Jones - Internet Psychologist
November 1st, 2007 6:07 pm
I wrote a piece on how to bring “ghost” email addresses back from the dead. In other words, how to get people re-interested in what you send them.
Killer Tommy
November 1st, 2007 6:07 pm
I opened a new blog :)
chris Pinchen
November 1st, 2007 6:29 pm
One of my sites uses blogging technology to maintain a resource site for English language learners and I put up a cool video called “Zombies in Plain English” by commoncraft.
Check it out – it’s brilliant
http://cataspanglish.blogspot.com/2007/10/cautionary-tale-for-halloween.html
Rhys
November 1st, 2007 6:29 pm
Not a damn thing!
Yehuda Berlinger
November 1st, 2007 6:38 pm
Games for Halloween
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2007/10/games-for-halloween.html
Yehuda
Coen Jacobs
November 1st, 2007 6:46 pm
I added some pumpkins to my header, since Halloween isn’t such a big item here in the Netherlands, I didn’t make a posting about it.
You can see my header, for the rest of this morning, after that I will remove it; http://www.coenjacobs.net .
Max Powers at http://ConsumerFight.com
November 1st, 2007 8:35 pm
If figures that I just took down all the Halloween stuff right before I read this post. I didn’t even think of taking a snapshot of the pages for prosperity.
David Bradley
November 1st, 2007 9:33 pm
I added a devilish pumpkin photo from flickr to the sidebar…it’s still there. Very good it is too!
db
Lily
November 1st, 2007 10:03 pm
I posted an article on the history of Halloween and All Saints (the latter being celebrated in Portugal) plus offered 13 spooky words in Portuguese :-)
Jacqueline T Lynch
November 1st, 2007 11:11 pm
On Halloween, I posted an essay about the 1941 film “The Wolf Man.” The day before it was “Frankenstein” (1931) and the day before that, it was “Dracula” (1931). Now it’s November 1st, and all the monsters have been killed with a stake in the heart, clubbed with a silver cane, or torched by a mob of angry villagers. Maybe we can have a little peace and quiet now.
Mike Maddaloni
November 1st, 2007 11:19 pm
Yesterday I put up pictures of the front and back of the little Halloween pumpkin that I carved:
http://www.thehotiron.com/index.php/site/comments/front_and_back_photos_of_my_halloween_pumpkin/
It timed well with Wordless Wednesday, which I participate in every week.
mp/m
Fred McKinnon
November 1st, 2007 11:22 pm
I actually did two posts … one was “two things I love best about Halloween”, encouraging comment discussion.
The second was an un-planned, spontaneous post of a hilarious (some would say untasteful) picture I’d seen floating around the emails of a scarecrow shooting a “moon”.
See the posts at:
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2007/10/31/beautiful-halloween-moon-you-gotta-see/
http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2007/10/31/my-favorite-halloween-things/
Leanne
November 1st, 2007 11:46 pm
I hosted my Third Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest (being an artist and all, it sparks much creativity!) – and announced the winner at 9pm CST on Halloween.
The entries:
http://intricateart.com/blog/2007-pumpkin-carving-submissions/#entries
The blog interaction:
http://intricateart.com/blog/category/pumpkin-carving-contest/
The winner receives a $25 Amazon gift certificate and an autographed copy of WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson. :)
Sandra
November 1st, 2007 11:52 pm
I posted on having a green Halloween on Suite101’s Environmentalism blog, which included links out to where to buy recycled products and non-candy item ideas. A few article links for creative Halloween costumes were thrown in for good measure.http://environmentalism.suite101.com/blog.cfm/green_halloween
Then on Globally Green Living I did a similar post but also mentioned making your own makeup and buying an organic pumpkin and using soy or beeswax candles for them instead of paraffin. http://www.globallygreenliving.com/go-green-this-halloween/
On Parenting Under the Stars I just blogged about my kids and how they didn’t want me around, how we weren’t giving out candy this year etc. http://www.parentingunderthestars.com/halloween-frenzy/
As for the results, lots of traffic on Suite101 but not so much on the other two blogs since I just started them.
Jen (mom to quadruplets)
November 1st, 2007 11:54 pm
I posted our family’s first Halloween adventure complete with pictures of our “Halloweiners”. Trick or Treating with quadruplets is a memory we will not soon forget. I was pleased with our post and the humor involved….check it out!
david
November 1st, 2007 11:56 pm
Rachel did this awesome halloween illustration for the blog.
Shama Hyder
November 2nd, 2007 12:44 am
I wrote a post comparing entrepreneurs with children at Halloween!
http://www.AfterTheLaunch.com/
ZRC Erik
November 2nd, 2007 12:44 am
We did a whole month of Halloween-themed posts. You can view all of them here:
http://www.zombiereportingcenter.com/category/zrc/halloween/
We did two How-To video posts on making some Halloween treats, Zombie movie reviews every friday, Halloween Candy reviews… It was a lot of fun but fizzled out towards the last week of October as we had just run out of steam and it was a LOT of work. Next year we’ll try again and make sure that we have a jump on it by preparing posts ahead of time in August/September.
the Grit
November 2nd, 2007 12:46 am
Hi Darren,
I continued my series mocking Islamic Rage Boy by placing him in several scenes from horror movies:
http://britandgrit.com/?p=1709
the Grit
Jacqueline T Lynch
November 2nd, 2007 12:49 am
Also, on my other blog, New England Travels, I posted a photo and article on the Samantha statue from the TV show “Bewitched,” located in Salem, Massachusetts: http://newenglandtravels.blogspot.com/2007/10/salems-samantha-statue.html.
Bonnie
November 2nd, 2007 1:03 am
I wrote a post that combines my love of scary movies with blogging:
http://www.best-earning-strategies.com/fun-stuff/turning-scary-movies-into-scary-blogs
Alison
November 2nd, 2007 1:05 am
I wrote about How to have an allergy-free Halloween
Jason
November 2nd, 2007 1:13 am
I launched the dang thing.
http://www.executedtoday.com/2007/10/31/1589-peter-stubbe-sybil-stubbe-and-katharina-trump/
Grisly, but seasonally appropriate, content. For a daily chronicle of executions, it’s hard to do better than a werewolf on Halloween.
Wendy Piersall
November 2nd, 2007 1:30 am
One of the main reasons I added such a variety of channels to my site was to balance traffic when I knew my own traffic would be down – like during late summer and the holidays.
October proved it was a smart move because my kids activities channel went gangbusters, especially with the search engines. As an example, in all of 2007 I had gotten less than 1500 visits from Yahoo search. In the last two days of October we had 164 visits from Yahoo, nearly all of them to the kids channel! Woo Hoo! :)
stephanerd
November 2nd, 2007 1:59 am
I actually posted something a couple of weeks ago, detailing my Halloween costuming plans. I talked of how much fun costuming is, as it lets us try on alternate personae, and used that as a segue into a review of the Sweet Potato Queens books, in which a group of women have basically adopted permanent queenly personae.
As a bonus, I posted a photo of me dressed up in my own queenly garb as a young’un:
http://selfhelpme.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/how-to-be-queenfor-a-lifetime/
Joel Libava
November 2nd, 2007 3:00 am
I did a couple of short posts relating to Halloween on mine.
Go to The Franchise King Blog!
Char
November 2nd, 2007 3:00 am
I brought back a post from this time last year about the Wayback Machine and updated it a bit –
Does Your Domain Have Skeletons in its Closet?
Chris Jacobson
November 2nd, 2007 3:13 am
I didn’t do anything, but I will during Christmas.
Chad
November 2nd, 2007 3:29 am
All month we had a list of Halloween events posted. It was by far the most viewed page of the month (nearly 10 times more views than any other non-home page).
http://www.livingorlando.com/halloween-in-orlando/
We waited until today, though, to post our Thankful for the Holidays contest … hopefully the readers will return …
http://www.livingorlando.com/2007/11/01/thankful-for-the-holidays/
Jim Jones
November 2nd, 2007 3:32 am
I added fallish leaves – http://www.PersonalBudgetTraining.com
Not really just about Halloween, but the fall season in general. I don’t think that it has drawn more users, but it has kept the whole site changing… giving it a fresh look – something one can do easily several times a year w/ very little effort.
der5er
November 2nd, 2007 3:35 am
I wrote a whole post on power tools for pumpkin carving. Though, admittedly, I should have run this about a week before Halloween!
http://www.der5er.com/2007/10/31/for-the-love-of-tools-2/
Moviecat
November 2nd, 2007 4:05 am
I had a whole series through the month of October (”October Scares”) of Catshopped movie posters. On Halloween I had a new post and a best of from the whole month. I also had a few Halloween E-cards (The nice thing about a image blog).
http://www.movie-cat.com
I also have a few Thanksgiving and Christmas plans.
Jason
November 2nd, 2007 4:06 am
Make Up a Gross and Spooky Halloween Band Name:
http://atomicguitarist.com/?q=gross-halloween-band-names
=)
Sara East
November 2nd, 2007 4:27 am
Halloween? I thought it was still months away. Oh, wait. I’m months behind. lol
I suppose I should start working on that for next year now. Need to do something for Christmas though. Chinese New Year is right around the corner too. Can’t forget that holiday. In 2008, Chinese New Year falls on February 7th. It is year 4706, the year of the Rat according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
claudia Snell
November 2nd, 2007 4:34 am
I posted a audio/slideshow thing:
http://cmsnell.blogspot.com/2007/10/happy-halloween.html
Happy Halloween!
Dave Tabler
November 2nd, 2007 4:40 am
In Appalachia the tradition is tell ‘haint tales’ at Halloween, so I posted a classic one about a preacher who sees a mysterious woman floating above a swamp.
Amanda
November 2nd, 2007 5:37 am
I forgot that it was Halloween until it was almost too late! Luckily a reader reminded me, and I was able to whip up a couple of spooky Blogger templates for readers to download!
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/10/another-spooky-template-for-halloween.html
Next year, I’ll plan ahead though!
Chris @ Martial Development
November 2nd, 2007 6:21 am
I wrote an article about people who dress up as Star Wars Jedi and play with lightsabers.
http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/lightsaber-techniques-of-the-new-york-jedi/
Fred
November 2nd, 2007 6:21 am
Guess I’m a little slow on the comment draw here but my blog and show was heavily weighted towards Halloween, seeing as All Hallow’s Eve is about the only time people give the audio art form a try. Prepared to get scared?
Check out:
http://www.radiodramarevival.com/radio-drama-revival-halloween-horror-extravaganza/
Erin Moore
November 2nd, 2007 7:07 am
We did a doggie Halloween costume contest throughout the month of October and announced the winner on Halloween:
http://www.luvmutt.com/blog/halloween_costume_contest/index.html
Cute, huh? :)
Forrest
November 2nd, 2007 7:23 am
Living in Salem MA one of the major tourist destinations for Halloween I posted some advise about what to avoid and how to get into the down town area.
http://www.thesaleminsider.com/2007/10/31/halloween-and-carnies/
Michael Hampton
November 2nd, 2007 7:38 am
One of my guest bloggers posted a Halloween nightmare-cum-book review.
Linda Bustos
November 2nd, 2007 7:54 am
We did a roundup of the top 10 ecommerce Halloween costume parodies and an artist’s rendition of Larry and Sergey dressed as “Ghoul-gle”
http://www.getelastic.com/ecommerce-halloween-costumes/
http://www.getelastic.com/google-guys-halloween-costume/
Deb
November 2nd, 2007 8:28 am
I posted an archive photo from when my kids dressed up for Halloween. I had to scan it because it was from the film era.
Then I explained how we did Halloween costumes to encourage creative and artistic thinking. Several commented that they liked the approach and might try it in the future.
http://gscottage.blogspot.com/2007/10/trick-or-treat-1983-version.html
Serge
November 2nd, 2007 8:46 am
I didn’t do anything because in my country Halloween is only ‘celebrated’ the last few years and secondly, and to me that’s the most important reason, is that most people over here don’t know it’s origin and meaning. In my opinion Halloween is just seen as a commercial opportunity to squeeze some more money from uninformed customers…
Karen (Karooch from Scraps of Mind)
November 2nd, 2007 8:48 am
I received a boost in the Google ranks (hey, someone had to) and found myself on the Top 50 Australian Women Blogs list so i celebrated with a Halloween flavoured post about it.
Hubble Bubble I’m Page Rank 4
After all, who doesn’t believe that Google Page Ranking is a Dark Art?
Jason
November 2nd, 2007 1:37 pm
I wrote a post entitled Happy Halloween – Blogging Trick or Treat. http://www.successforyourblog.com/happy-halloween-blogging-trick-or-treat
Talks about the use of holiday titles to attract attention and an SEO boost.
WereBear
November 2nd, 2007 2:05 pm
Since my blog is about cats, a post about Cats & Halloween was a natural:
http://wayofcats.blogspot.com/2007/10/halloween-and-cats.html
And I added a bonus “Mad Scientist” post:
http://wayofcats.blogspot.com/2006/10/know-types-alpha.html
And I’m preparing a early Christmas post encouraging cat related charitable ways of giving.
Angela M.
November 2nd, 2007 3:00 pm
I had a 3-part series on different pumpkin-themed polymer clay crafts, with a wrap-up post giving additional ideas.
http://blog.craftygoat.com/2007/10/the_great_pumpkin_wrapup.html
I had some increased traffic & a nice link, but I think the series would’ve done better if I’d started earlier. Thinking & posting ahead is always my big struggle!
Tina Kubala
November 2nd, 2007 4:47 pm
My Halloween offering is a personal reflection:
http://tinakubala.com/2007/10/31/linus-and-me.aspx
FIRE Finance
November 2nd, 2007 5:23 pm
We are conducting a special giveaway to celebrate Halloween. To be specific we are giving away Jason Zweig’s book “Your Money & Your Brain.”Your Money & Your Brain! The contest is open till Sunday, Nov 4th.
We provided some nice examples from the book which shows the relation of our brain and money through the concepts of neuroscience.
Here is our presentation:
http://firefinance.blogspot.com/2007/10/halloween-giveaway-your-money-your.html
Veron
November 2nd, 2007 5:34 pm
I transformed my usual blog layout to a Halloween-themed one. Usually it’s purple and features the famous Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. For Halloween I turned it all black and added effects to make the castle look spooky and haunted!
Check it out:
http://sparklette.net/archives/sparklettenet-halloween-edition/
Brooke
November 3rd, 2007 12:35 am
I have a budding, but initially successful Tori Amos fan blog. For my Halloween post, I reviewed a concert she did in PIttsburgh on 10-30 in which everyone in the audience was encouraged to dress up. Tori Amos, her band, her opening act, and even her daughter came on stage in costume and it sounded like a great show.
Thanks for the tip, ProBlogger. I’ll remember to do seasonal posts more often…
Brooke :)
http://www.youforawhile.com/tour/happy-halloween-from-tori-amos
Sarah @ Real Life
November 3rd, 2007 1:57 am
I posted a devotion that you can do with kids while carving a pumpkin. This ended up being the most popular post of all time on my blog! It got picked up by Digg, and StumbleUpon, and it got many Google searches per day.
How Is Carving a Pumpkin Like Being a Christian?
Sarah
November 3rd, 2007 2:04 am
I wrote a post called Top 10 Halloween Etailer Goodies, featuring spooky Halloween themed items on October 1.
I figured that would give people enough time to receive their items if they ordered, and I got lots of traffic to that post all month.
I also posted a Happy Halloween message and a picture, in addition to my regular daily post.
Christine
November 3rd, 2007 4:08 am
As a writer on a movie site, Halloween is always a big thing for us – reviews of new horror movies need to go up (Saw IV and 30 Days of Night, specifically), plus there was a huge Halloween promotion on the official site for the new Batman movie that we were following really closely.
Sky
November 3rd, 2007 9:25 am
On my baseball analysis blog I posted a list of the top thirteen scariest things in baseball. The title was Nightmare on Lansdowne Street.
Deb
November 5th, 2007 1:27 am
At She Plays Music I ‘live blogged” Halloween. All day I featured great videos from great women singing Halloween appropriate songs. It worked out very well.
Glenn -- DVD Spin Doctor
January 15th, 2008 5:19 pm
On my DVD blog I did a series on the top horror movies released during the scare season.
In the DVD world, Halloween is No. 1 in terms of seasonal titles. In other words, all the catalog horror films come out in September and October.
Here’s the scary part: I did atop 7 Halloween DVD releases and ran out of time and energy. So it’s a top 8! The Shining would have been No. 1 and I’ll add it … soon.
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